Jerusalem bishop: Film on Jesus tomb 'should just be ignored'

By Dennis O'Connor

http://www.the-tidings.com/2007/030907/tomb.htm

Auxiliary Bishop Giacinto-Boulous Marcuzzo of Jerusalem called James Cameron's Discovery Channel documentary, "The Lost Tomb of Jesus," nothing more than "a question of business."
Bishop Marcuzzo said that the film, which aired March 4 in the United States and March 6 in Canada, was just an attempt by the Oscar-winning director of Hollywood films "Titanic" and "The Terminator," to make a profit.
In a March 1 interview in Nazareth, the bishop said the documentary has the potential for creating confusion among the faithful by purporting that a tomb discovered nearly 30 years ago in Jerusalem's East Tlpiyot neighborhood contained the bones of Jesus, Mary Magdalene and their "son," Judah.
"People of faith, everyone, really, should dismiss this as nothing but nonsense," he said. "It should just be ignored."
At a press conference in New York City Feb. 26, Cameron, who is Canadian, and his partner, Israeli-born filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici of Toronto, announced that by using new technology and DNA studies they determined that among 10 ossuaries -- burial boxes used in biblical times to house the bones of the dead -- found in the cave by Israeli archaeologist Amos Kloner in 1980 are those of Jesus, his brothers, Mary, another Mary whom they believe is Mary Magdalene, and "Judah, son of Jesus."
Kloner wrote the original excavation report on the site for what is now called the Israel Antiquities Authority. He has called the fimmakers' claim "nonsense."
Bishop Marcuzzo told a visiting U.S. Catholic journalist that the filmmakers have not only distorted the facts to make their case, they have ignored hundreds of years of scholarship and the plethora of archaeological materials that continue to emerge in the Holy Land.
"We are accustomed to finding" artifacts such as these throughout Israel, he said. "This is occurring all the time here. And (the filmmakers) have ignored what Jewish scholars say about the names contained" on the ossuaries, "that they were names very common during that period."
Most important, he said, Cameron, Jacobovici and their consultants failed to account for the archaeological value of oral tradition in determining historical site locations, such as the tomb of Jesus that has always been recognized by the church.
Situated in Jerusalem's Old City at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, an ancient church was built at the tomb initially in the fourth century by the Roman emperor Constantine after his mother, Helen, identified its location based on local traditions maintained by Christians since the time of Christ's death and resurrection.
"We know where the sepulcher of Jesus is located in Jerusalem," Bishop Marcuzzo said. "This is based on long traditions from both Christian and Jewish sources. I would tell people of faith that they should treat this (film) as nothing but a way to make money."
In the United States, the husband-and-wife team that runs the Turin Shroud Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., said in an interview after watching the program that they saw many inconsistencies that make them skeptical.
"The most reasonable explanation is that they're dealing with some other tomb that has no connection with Christianity," said John Jackson, who with wife Rebecca runs the center, which is dedicated to studying and educating the public on what many believe is the burial cloth of Jesus.
The film "did not have any substance to it, but it is not going to go away very easily," John Jackson, a Catholic, told The Colorado Catholic Herald, newspaper of the Colorado Springs Diocese. "I think the church is going to have to weather the storm."
If the theory put forth by the Discovery Channel program were to prove true, it would be contrary to all the Jacksons have gathered about the cloth.
"I think the Shroud of Turin and this archaeological site cannot both be correct," said John Jackson, a physicist who started studying the shroud in 1974. "The shroud points to resurrection. This site does not. It nullifies the Resurrection and therefore nullifies all of Christianity."
Rebecca Jackson, a convert to Catholicism from Orthodox Judaism and an expert on ethnology and early Judaism, noted inconsistencies with how the ossuaries were named and also doubts the inscriptions would have been made so hastily and sloppily on the side of boxes.
Jewish tradition called for people to be buried in a shroud for one year before having their remains transferred to an ossuary.
"They had a year to work on it. It would have been neat," she said, also noting that floral patterns on the ossuaries are Hellenic and not in line with Jewish custom. "They would have been as traditional and Semitic as possible."