Tomb could be of Jesus, wife and son: directors

[RedHorse]

NEW YORK - A new documentary by "Titanic" director James Cameron claims Jesus had a wife and a son, citing evidence from his alleged burial site that contradicts the Bible's account that the Christian son of God was single.

Cameron and his co-filmmaker Israel-born Simcha Jacobovici said Monday their research suggested Jesus married Mary Magdalene and had a son, Judah, who were buried with him in the Israel cemetery.

The claims in the documentary "The Lost Tomb of Christ," to be shown Sunday on US cable television, inject new controversy into the concept of Jesus's resurrection after he was crucified, a central tenet of Christian belief.

If they hold substance, they could reignite questions about Jesus' earthy family life popularized in the hit book and movie "The Da Vinci Code."

But representatives of the Catholic and Protestant churches in the United States quickly denounced the claims made by Cameron and Jacobovici.

"It's good hype," David O'Connell, the president of Catholic University told CNN television.

Cameron and Jacobovici, an award-winning documentary director, based their film on a tomb called Jesus's unearthed in Talpiot, Jerusalem, in 1980 by a construction crew developing an apartment complex.

They cite evidence of names etched on ossuaries, or limestone bone boxes, dug up at the site, DNA evidence they hold, and other technical analysis.

"I am not an archeologist or a Bible scholar," Cameron told a press conference Monday.

But "as a documentary filmmaker I should not be afraid of pursuing the truth," he said.

"I know they will say that we try to undermine Christianity. That is far from the case. This investigation celebrates the real existence of these people."

Five of the 10 boxes discovered in the Talpiot tomb were inscribed with names believed referring to key figures in the New Testament: Jesus, Mary, Matthew, Joseph and Mary Magdalene. A sixth inscription, written in Aramaic, translates to "Judah son of Jesus."

"Such tombs are very typical for that region," Aaron Brody, associate professor of Bible and archaeology at the Pacific School of Religion and director of California's Bade Museum, told Discovery News, which will carry the documentary on its cable channel.

In addition to the "Judah son of Jesus" inscription, another limestone burial box is labeled in Aramaic with "Jesus son of Joseph." Another bears the Hebrew inscription "Maria," a Latin version of "Miriam," or, in English, "Mary."

Yet another ossuary inscription, written in Hebrew, reads "Matia," the original Hebrew word for "Matthew." Only one of the inscriptions is written in Greek. It reads, "Mariamene e Mara," which can be translated as, "Mary known as the master," the television network said.

Jacobovici, director, producer and writer of the film, argued that a statistical analysis of the names being found together makes it extremely unlikely that it would be anyone else but the biblical family of Jesus.

He and his team also obtained two sets of samples from the ossuaries for DNA and chemical analysis. The first set consisted of bits of matter taken from the "Jesus Son of Joseph" and "Mariamene e Mara" ossuaries. The second set consisted of patina, a chemical film encrustation on one of the limestone boxes.

The human remains were analyzed by Carney Matheson, a scientist at the Paleo-DNA Laboratory at Lakehead University in Ontario, Canada. Mitochondrial DNA examination determined the individual in the Jesus ossuary and the person in the ossuary linked to Mary Magdalene were not related.

Since tombs normally contain either blood relations or spouses, Jacobovici and his team say the DNA results suggest Jesus and Mary Magdalene could have been a couple.

"Judah," the alleged son of Jesus and Mary Magdalene, the filmmakers meanwhile argue could have been the "lad" described in the Gospel of John as sleeping in Jesus' lap at the Last Supper.

US religious leaders ridiculed the claims, comparing them to those of "The Da Vinci Code."

R. Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, branded the film a "farcical documentary" full of "really far-fetched claims."

"The DNA testing is to me the most laughable aspect of this," he told CNN.

"You have to have the basis of a DNA sample that would make any sense," he said. "No one has the DNA of Mary."

Israeli archaeologist and professor Amos Kloner, who documented the tomb as the Jewish burial cave of a well-off family more than 10 years ago, is adamant there is no evidence to support claims that it was the burial site of Jesus.

"I'm a scholar. I do scholarly work which has nothing to do with documentary film-making. There's no way to take a religious story and to turn it into something scientific," he told AFP in a telephone interview.

"I still insist that it is a regular burial chamber from the first century BC," Kloner said, adding that the names were a coincidence.

"Who says that 'Maria' is Magdalena and 'Judah' is the son of Jesus? It cannot be proved. These are very popular and common names from the first century BC," said the academic at Israel's Bar Ilan University. AFP

[Helios]

He better do a pretty good job of making this film a blockbuster adventure movie like the DaVinci and the Passion. it would be better if he repackage this as a sequel to one of the two for marketing purposes.

[Zeus]

OT: Science and Religion(religious belief) always contradict e Yung plagues sa Egypt during Moses time, inexplain sa Discovery channel e

[niky]

It will be interesting. Strange, I've never though of Cameron as a conspiracist (not like Stone).

[yebo]

mali siya! dun sa bayan namin nakalibing si jesus saka parents nya. meron dun nitso, ang name sa stone e jose maria jesus xxx.

dun naman sa bayan ng tatay ko nakalibing ang 11 apostles. sa isang family plot andun sila pedro, jaime 1, juan, mateo, lukas, marko, felipe, bartolome, tomas, jimmy, simon ... si judas lang ang wala.

[Asus700]

obviously riding on the da vinci platform.

piece of crap. why not make a film on buddha or mohammed, their tombs are certainly occupied. Only Jesus' tomb is empty! He's the only one who rose from the dead

[onat_1]

more:popcorn: and :soda: please :grin2:

[pup2]

OT: Science and Religion(religious belief) always contradict e Yung plagues sa Egypt during Moses time, inexplain sa Discovery channel e

I believe it is theologically correct to also interpret miracles as unusual events happening at just the right moment(s). Jesuits are one of the main proponents of science NOT necessarily contradicting religion.

[GasJunkie]

mali siya! dun sa bayan namin nakalibing si jesus saka parents nya. meron dun nitso, ang name sa stone e jose maria jesus xxx.

dun naman sa bayan ng tatay ko nakalibing ang 11 apostles. sa isang family plot andun sila pedro, jaime 1, juan, mateo, lukas, marko, felipe, bartolome, tomas, jimmy, simon ... si judas lang ang wala.

do they charge entrance fee???







:hysterical:

[GasJunkie]

more:popcorn: and :soda: please :grin2:

X11111111111111111





:rofl01:

[pup2]

My theology teacher once said gnosticism is, has been (for a looong time), and will remain to be, the greatest threat to christianity. Succintly, he said it was because it sounded reasonable -- and who doesn't like earthly pleasures and a self-serving interpretation of everything??

[GasJunkie]

so is a virus, no???





:fly:

[empy]

maukhang nasobrahan ng basa ng movie scripts itong si Jimmy ah :screwloose:

mali siya! dun sa bayan namin nakalibing si jesus saka parents nya. meron dun nitso, ang name sa stone e jose maria jesus xxx.

dun naman sa bayan ng tatay ko nakalibing ang 11 apostles. sa isang family plot andun sila pedro, jaime 1, juan, mateo, lukas, marko, felipe, bartolome, tomas, jimmy, simon ... si judas lang ang wala.

:bwahaha: meron pa kayang tao na may pangalang judas?

[GasJunkie]

^^^^^^^^^


I hear lots of people still follow it down low though. :evil:





:rofl01:

[peklat]

sa tingin ko sinusukat lang kung hanggang saan ang faith natin sa mga panahon naito.

[oldblue]

this is old news already. wala na ba sila maisip sa hollywood

[silverbx986]

maukhang nasobrahan ng basa ng movie scripts itong si Jimmy ah :screwloose:


:bwahaha: meron pa kayang tao na may pangalang judas?

meron.......yung biyenan ko. :aray:

[Horsepower]

Anti-christ zionist jews...

[city]

similar to shroud of turin hoax...trying to establish jesus existence who never existed outside the bible.

[oldblue]

nowadays, kikita ka ng multi-million dollar$ just to attack a religion.

wala ng dilihensya si Cameron, hindi naman puwede gumawa ng Titanic 2 and certainly, ayaw na ni Arnold ng Terminator 4 hehehe

True Lies 2 baka puwede, pero si Arnold din hahaha