Bryan prof refutes claim of Jesus’ tomb

By: Jim Ashley Source: The Herald-News 02-28-2007

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Claims this week in a Canadian documentary that a tomb located in a Jerusalem cave belonged to Jesus Christ are totally unfounded, says Dr. Doug Kennard, head of the Biblical Studies Department at Bryan College.
The claim was made on Monday morning by Israeli-born Canadian documentary film maker Simcha Jacobovici and three-time, Oscar-winning Canadian film director James Cameron (Titanic, The Terminator).
The film, titled “The Burial Cave of Jesus,” is based on years of research by “world-renowned archaeologists, statisticians, experts in ancient scripts and in DNA,” said Jacobovici and Cameron.
The 2000-year-old cave, according to the film, had already been discovered in 1980 in Jerusalem’s Talpiyot neighborhood and included 10 coffins, six of which bore inscriptions, which — translated into English — included the names “Jesus son of Joseph,” twice “Maria,” and “Judah son of Jesus.”
The second Maria is hypothesized to be Mary Magdalene, while the tomb bearing the name Judah could indicate Jesus had a son, the documentary claims.
“I don’t know any archaeologists supporting the claim,” Kennard said of the documentary, adding that “we know of something like 72 or 75 ossuaries (bone boxes) from the first century, so why is this one the definitive Jesus?”
The name Jesus was “very common” in Israel at the time of Christ, he said, pointing out that it would be as familiar as the names “Bill or Tom” in today’s society.
“It would be like coming to a tomb and saying, Tom is buried here, so it must be Thomas Edison,” Kennard said.
Of the ossuaries in question, he commented, “The particular bone box they are claiming is the definitive Jesus may not even be a Jesus at all.”
The name is written Aramaic may be Josea, he noted.
Kennard also noted that there have been a few people who stated that “there’s not been any historical evidence prior to this and now here’s definitive evidence.”
But that statement, he said, “is clearly not right.”
Bible scholar John P. Meier, he pointed out, “has done a three-volume work on the historical Jesus, “A Marginal Jew,” and he claims he is working with 85 historical citations of Jesus.”
Concerning the documentary’s claim that Jesus and Mary Magdalene had a marital relationship, Kennard noted that the Bible says she calls Him rabboni (teacher) when she sees Him after the resurrection.
“If they had a marriage relationship, that would probably not be how she would greet Him,” especially after he had come back from the dead, he said.
Regarding the DNA findings that the film claims, Kennard said, “I guess they have some material from inside a bone box tested with some other material inside another bone box.
“And they’re saying there’s some relationship between the two. … The fact they found these bone boxes in the same tomb would argue that as well.”
However, said Kennard, “The wealthy family is going to have a tomb, and they’ll bury the whole family in that tomb. So, I’m not surprised that the DNA evidence is saying some of them are related.
“But that is no way indicating that it’s the definitive Jesus or that the definitive Jesus is part of this definitive family.”