"The Lost Tomb of Christ"

            We are presenting the evidence we have now concerning the documentary being released on Sunday on the Discovery Channel titled "The Lost Tomb of Christ".  Here, we will post rebuttals to the public points and statements made by the author and producers of the book and documentary. 

The Basics

The Talpiot Tomb
            The tomb featured in the documentary "The Lost Tomb of Jesus" is now sealed beneath a plain and inconspicuous concrete slab in a residential neighborhood called East Talpiot, which was developed in the 1970s on, what was once barren land just 4 kilometers, or about 2 1/2 miles, south of the Old City of Jerusalem. It was uncovered during construction of an apartment building in this neighborhood in 1980. There were 10 ossuaries in the tomb, which have either been stored or displayed for the last 27 years.
            The tomb goes unnoticed in the neighborhood, as do all of the many sealed tombs in this area, and it is given no particular recognition by the local residents, even though the focus on this tomb, as Jesus-related, is nothing new to them.
The film's main conclusion is that archaeologists might have unearthed the tomb of Jesus, his mother Mary, his brother James, Mary Magdalene, and a son of his alleged marriage to Mary Magdalene.

The Film
            The narrator of the documentary, Ron White, states in the film: quote "Perhaps Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married as the DNA results from the Talpiot ossuaries suggest and perhaps their union was kept secret to protect a potential dynasty, a secret hidden through the ages A secret we just may be able to uncover in the holy family tomb." closed quotes. The narrator speaks these words over re-enacted scenes of Jesus and Mary involved in a happy home life. The concept of what dynasty he is referring to is never made clear in the film.
            But the filmmakers insist that they were not out to "disprove" Christianity or even to create a sensation. Instead, they say, they hoped to bring together the findings of archaeologists and other researchers, who have been analyzing a particularly provocative body of evidence. In a recent press conference the film maker Simcha Jacobovici, simply stated "We connect the dots to see what picture emerges,"

Misleading Statements
            Oscar-winning director James Cameron, of Titanic fame, joined up with Jacobovici and Charles Pellegrino coauthor with Jacobovici of the companion book, "The Jesus Family Tomb" to produce this documentary. Cameron has stated "We don't have any physical record of Jesus' existence, so what this film shows, is for the first time tangible, physical, archaeological and in some cases forensic evidence"
            The statement that the physical record of Jesus' existence" did not exist before this film is not accurate, as will be revealed further in this presentation, and to claim there is any "forensic evidence" to connect Jesus, the Christ to this tomb is completely without foundation.
On the 'Jesus Tomb' Official Movie Site we find this very misleading statement: "An incredible archaeological discovery in Israel changes history and shocks the world. Tombs with the names The Virgin Mary, Jesus of Nazareth, Mary Magdalene and Judah, their son, are found and an investigation begins."
            We wish to point out that each and every aspect of this statement is completely false. The words Virgin, Nazareth, and Magdalene, never appear anywhere in the tomb, or inscribed on the ossuaries and there is absolutely no proof that Judah is the son of Jesus, the Christ. It is not "incredible", nor will it change history, and the only shocking thing about it is that virtually nobody considers it an authentic "archaeological discovery" except those directly connected with the documentary, who, of course, stand to make a great deal of profit if it successful.

Old News

            The film attempts to imply that this is a new and historic find, but, as previously stated, the tomb in question was actually discovered 27 years ago in 1980.  Any connection to the holy family was not made until 15 years later, in 1995, when a BBC crew, researching an Easter special, stumbled across the collection in a storage room belonging to the Israeli Antiquities Authority. The discovery was accompanied by a London Sunday Times feature entitled "The Tomb that Dare Not Speak Its Name" They immediately began work on a new program, based on the tomb.
            That show aired, as part of a 1996 Easter Sunday edition of the BBC's acclaimed "Heart of the Matter News Magazine, titled "The Body in Question". It was dismissed by Biblical scholars as "laughable" for suggesting, as Jacobovici does, that the tomb was that of Jesus, the Christ's family.
            The research on this current documentary was begun in 2003, when Dan Brown published the novel The Da Vinci Code, a fictional work based on the same premise of Jesus as a fake Messiah and happily married family man. It was made into a movie last year, which did not do well with the critics or at the box office.
            In the last few years a pattern of Jesus-related sensationalism, being released around the Easter season, has developed, including a book an Judas Iscariot, and another Jesus-related ossuary discovery by Jacobovici, which was made into another film and since that time, has been legally declared as a fraud, which we will discuss later.
            A spokeswoman for the Israel Antiquities Authority said some of the ossuaries have been on display for many years at Jerusalem's Israel Museum. This is not the first time a "Jesus" ossuary has been found. The first was discovered in 1926 and since that time several ossuaries with the name Jesus have been discovered.

The Basics
Part 2

The Experts
The Pros and Cons

The Names
The Number Crunching

The DNA Evidence
Misrepresented Results

The Location of the Tomb
Ignoring Reality

Jesus the "Husband and Father"
The Unsupported Myth

Part 3
"The Smoking Ossuary"
The Credibility of the Researcher

Part 4
Historical Evidence for the Crucifixion
Did He Die?

Part 5
The Resurrection Reality

Talking Points and Links

A List of Quotes on the Documentary