Seeking the Living Among the Dead

Last year, as you may remember, filmmaker James Cameron and journalist Simcha Jacobovici produced a "documentary" on "The Lost Tomb of Jesus," making the extraordinary claim "that archaeologists had found the family tomb of Jesus Christ in Jerusalem, challenging most Christians’ belief in the bodily resurrection of Jesus from the dead." Despite huge publicity from a sycophant secular press, the claims made in the film were rebuffed by reputable scholars and the "Lost Tomb" quickly took its place in the pantheon of pseudo-scholarly challenges to the historical validity of the Christian faith.

But some people simply refuse to allow the facts to stand in the way of a good archaeological hoax. Last week in Jerusalem, a panel of five "scholars" revisited the claims made in the Cameron/Jacobovici film.

In an attempt to lay the controversy to rest, James Charlesworth, professor of New Testament language and literature at Princeton Theological Seminary, had organized the Jan. 13-16 conference, bringing together over 50 archaeologists, statisticians and experts in DNA, ceramics and ancient languages.

Charlesworth sided with two panelists who rejected the idea that Jesus had been buried in the tomb but didn't rule out the possibility.

"I have reservations, but I can't dismiss the possibility that this tomb was related to the Jesus clan," Charlesworth said, according to Time.

He said that the evidence suggests that the tomb belonged to a Jewish family from the time of Jesus and the names on the ossuaries are expressed the correct way as “Jesus, son of Joseph."

But like many scholars who had examined the ossuary, the professor had his doubts.

"The name on Jesus' ossuary was scrawled on, like graffiti. There was no ornamentation. And there should have been. After all, his followers believed he was the Son of God," Charlesworth noted.

Of course, most of us thought the controversy had already been laid to rest. But the panelists seem intent on perpetuating this comical farce.

Despite strong arguments against the “Lost Tomb of Jesus” claims, conference attendees decided that the tomb should be reopened and examined more carefully. The tomb site is currently sealed over with concrete in the garden of a suburban apartment building.

Sealed over with concrete? That's not the way I remember it.

But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they [the women] went to the tomb, taking spices they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, "Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen." (Luke 24:1-6a)

This is the tragedy of so much contemporary biblical "scholarship." It is a depressing and ultimately pointless quest to seek the living among the dead.