“Jesus’ Tomb”

I have been following this story, but I have not been blogging since I do not yet have anything to say. Jim has a number of good links below and like him I will wait until I can review all the evidence before commenting in any detail.

The Talpiot Tomb News Conference

This morning at 11 James Cameron and others involved in the soon to be aired “The Tomb of Jesus” held a news conference in which Cameron defended the production against the rising tide of scholarly distrust. CTV reports

Oscar-winning director James Cameron defended on Monday his controversial new documentary, which claims that Jesus may have been buried with a wife and son, against charges the film was trying to undermine Christianity. Instead, the documentary that claims the discovery of the tomb of Jesus Christ and his family celebrates their existence, Cameron said at a press conference announcing the documentary “The Lost Tomb of Jesus.”

The problem, from a scholarly point of view, is that the discovery of this tomb, known at least 10 years now, proves nothing of the sort. In fact, the evidence proferred so far in defense of the suggestion that this is Jesus’ family tomb falls far short of such “proof” and, having seen the work of Cameron and Jacobovici on the “Exodus”, I am not inclined to trust them without awfully substantive evidence.

I’ll watch the program simply because folk will be asking me about it. And, rest assured, I’ll say what I think based not on some “knee jerk” reaction but on a measured examination of their evidence.

Other news outlets covering the story are The Houston Chronicle (and many other Associated Press outlets), and Cinematical. CNN has a video link and also advises that Cameron will appear on Larry King tonight at 9 pm.

UPDATE: ABC News has a fine summary of the discovery of the tomb, along with a well worded critique by Joe Zias concerning the suggestions made in Cameron’s press conference. Do give it a read here.

(Via Dr Jim West.)