Bones Of Jesus Uncovered In Jerusalem?

[Richard]

This story should shake up Christianity for awhile. icon_anmachen

from Time blog

 Brace yourself. James Cameron, the man who brought you 'The Titanic' is back with another blockbuster. This time, the ship he's sinking is Christianity.  

In a new documentary, Producer Cameron and his director, Simcha Jacobovici, make the starting claim that Jesus wasn't resurrected --the cornerstone of Christian faith-- and that his burial cave was discovered near Jerusalem. And, get this, Jesus sired a son with Mary Magdelene.  

No, it's not a re-make of "The Da Vinci Codes'. It's supposed to be true.  

Let's go back 27 years, when Israeli construction workers were gouging out the foundations for a new building in the industrial park in the Talpiyot, a Jerusalem suburb. of Jerusalem. The earth gave way, revealing a 2,000 year old cave with 10 stone caskets. Archologists were summoned, and the stone caskets carted away for examination. It took 20 years for experts to decipher the names on the ten tombs. They were: Jesua, son of Joseph, Mary, Mary, Mathew, Jofa and Judah, son of Jesua.

Israel's prominent archeologist Professor Amos Kloner didn't associate the crypt with the New Testament Jesus. His father, after all, was a humble carpenter who couldn't afford a luxury crypt for his family. And all were common Jewish names.  

There was also this little inconvenience that a few miles away, in the old city of Jerusalem, Christians for centuries had been worshipping the empty tomb of Christ at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Christ's resurrection, after all, is the main fou ndation of the faith, proof that a boy born to a carpenter's wife in a manger is the Son of God.  

But film-makers Cameron and Jacobovici claim to have amassed evidence through DNA tests, archeological evidence and Biblical studies, that the 10 coffins belong to Jesus and his family.  

Ever the showman, (Why does this remind me of the impresario in another movie,"King Kong", whose hubris blinds him to the dangers of an angry and very large ape?) Cameron is holding a New York press conference on Monday at which he will reveal three coffins, supposedly those of Jesus of Nazareth, his mother Mary and Mary Magdalene. News about the film, which will be shown soon on Discovery Channel, Britain's Channel 4, Canada's Vision, and Israel's Channel 8, has been a hot blog topic in the Middle East (check out a personal favorite: http://israelitybites.blogspot.com Here in the Holy Land, Biblical Archeology is a dangerous profession. This 90-minute documentary is bound to outrage Christians and stir up a titanic debate between believers and skeptics. Stay tuned.  

More stories below.

The Big Lie Unfolds - Jesus Never Resurrected?

Bones Of Jesus Uncovered In Jerusalem?

Easter is canceled!

Jesus Family Tomb Believed Found

The Lost Tomb of Jesus Premieres Sun, March 4, at 9 p.m. ET/PT

[Richard]

We also have an Antichrist making news.

By Judi McLeod

George W. Bush and Prince Charles have some stiff competition as the Antichrist. Bush and the prince are fingered as the Antichrist by conspiracy theorists. The self-proclaimed Antichrist is a Latino, known as de Jesus or "Daddy" to thousands of followers, and you can bet the family farm that it was CNN.com that dragged him out of obscurity.

"The minister has the number 666 tattooed on his arm. But Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda is not your typical minister." ( http://www.CNN.com, February 21, 2007).

"The spirit that is in me is the same spirit that was in Jesus of Nazareth," de Jesus says.

Not surprisingly, de Jesus' claims of divinity have angered Christian leaders, who say he is a fake. Religious experts do not have to delve into theology to worry that he may be something much more dangerous, perhaps even a cult leader whose divinity is founded in delusions of grandeur.

But for those who would assume that "Daddy" leans too heavily on macho for some of his boasts, his church claims thousands of members in 30 countries.

"He's in their heads. He's inside the heads of those people," says Prof. Daniel Alvarez, a religion expert at Florida International University who has debated some of de Jesus' followers.

And if de Jesus really does go to the noggins of his followers the way champagne goes to other people's heads, they should give their noggins a shake and understand anybody can claim the number 666 as their own.

Indeed, the secular European Union and Javier Solana seem to have got their first.

Absurdly, the EU has seat number 666 on reserve in its massive crystal palace tower, officially known as the Tower Building.

According to Rev. Ian Paisley, "It is certainly a building of the space age. "The seats of its massive hemicycle are designed like the crew seats in the Star Trek space machines. There are 670 of them--but wait for it! While these seats are allocated to members, one seat remains unoccupied. The number of that seat is 666."

The number 666 seems to be a favourite with the EU. In 2000, with help from France, Solana created a military command structure in the EU, purportedly to compete with the U.S. for global dominance and the Mediterranean by implementing Recommendation 666.

Prof. Alvarez sees the shades of a cult leader in de Jesus. "De Jesus speaks with a kind of conviction that makes me consider him more like David Koresh or Jim Jones," he says.

"Is de Jesus really a cult leader like David Koresh, who died with more than 70 of his Branch Davidian followers in a fiery end to a standoff with federal authorities, or Jim Jones, the founder of the Peoples Temple who committed mass suicide with 900 followers in 1978?" asks CNN.com.

De Jesus and followers say their church is thoroughly "Creciendo en Gracia", Spanish for "Growing in grace".

De Jesus, 61, who hails from Puerto Rico has a checkered past, having served prison terms for petty theft and was once a heroin addict.

That was before he became the reincarnation of Jesus, something he discovered when he was visited in a dream by angels.

"The prophets, they spoke about me. It took me time to learn that, but I am what they were expecting and what they have been expecting for 2,000 years," de Jesus explains.

The same prophets would roll in their graves if they knew that his followers have protested churches in Miami, hometown of their own church, as well as churches in Latin America where they have disrupted services and smashed crosses and statues of Jesus.

But since in the teachings of de Jesus there is no devil and no sin, his followers can do no wrong.

No ordinary church named after a saint, the de Jesus church calls itself the "Government of God on Earth and identifies with a seal patterned on that of the United States of America.

And just as humility is not part of church doctrine, neither is poverty.

De Jesus tools around town in armored Lexuses and BMWs and sports one of three diamond-encrusted Rolexes.

"Daddy" has a lot to say about the Antichrist being a good guy.

"Antichrist is the best person in the world," he says. "Antichrist means don't put your eyes on Jesus because Jesus of Nazareth wasn't a Christian. Antichrist means do not put your eyes on Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Put it on Jesus after the cross."

Jesus after the cross is, of course, the man wearing the diamond-encrusted Rolex.

To show how devoted they are to the Antichrist, 30 members of his congregation recently went to a tattoo parlor to have 666 tattoos matching the one on the arm of their pastor.

Move over Rev. Sun Myung Moon, Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda is here.

http://www.canadafreepress.com/2007/cover022307.htm

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0%2C2933%2C...%2C00.html

[Get Boldened]

Raiders of the Lost Tomb

A book and movie allege the final resting place of Mary, Joseph and the King of Kings has been found. Controversy to follow

By Lisa Miller and Joanna Chen
Newsweek MSNBC.com

March 5, 2007 issue - In Jerusalem, that ancient and holy city, people's houses are built on bones. For thousands of years, hundreds of generations of Jews, Muslims and Christians have been laid to rest in its rocky soil. Tova Bracha has always known that the tiny, rose-bordered concrete plot next to her apartment building covers an ancient Jewish burial tomb, but she never thought much about it. "It just didn't seem important when there are so many tombs anyway that have been found around Jerusalem," she says. Rushing home for the Sabbath, her arms full of groceries, Bracha laughs at the suggestion that the tomb might be of considerable religious interest. Maybe she can make a fortune selling trinkets to tourists, she jokes. Maybe the value of her home will soar.

This week the Discovery Channel, together with HarperSanFrancisco, announces the release of "The Jesus Family Tomb," a television documentary and a book that aim to show that the tomb next door to Tova Bracha's apartment, located in a nondescript suburb called East Talpiot, is, well, the family plot of Jesus Christ. Spearheaded by a well-known TV director named Simcha Jacobovici, and produced by "Titanic" director James Cameron, "The Jesus Family Tomb" is—both in book and movie form—a slick and suspenseful narrative about the 1980 discovery of a first-century Jewish burial cave and the 10 bone boxes, or ossuaries, found therein.

With the help of statisticians, archeologists, historians, DNA experts, robot-camera technicians, epigraphers and a CSI expert from New York's Long Island, Jacobovici puts together a case in which he argues that the bones of Jesus, Mary and Mary Magdalene, along with some of their lesser-known relatives, were once entombed in this cave. James Charlesworth of the Princeton Theological Seminary consulted with Jacobovici on the project and is intrigued: "A very good claim could be made that this was Jesus' clan." Faced with the controversial theological and historical implications of what he calls his "rediscovery," Jacobovici is sanguine. "People will have to believe what they want to believe," he says.

His critics are arming themselves for battle. "Simcha has no credibility whatsoever," says Joe Zias, who was the curator for anthropology and archeology at the Rockefeller Museum in Jerusalem from 1972 to 1997 and personally numbered the Talpiot ossuaries. "He's pimping off the Bible … He got this guy Cameron, who made 'Titanic' or something like that—what does this guy know about archeology? I am an archeologist, but if I were to write a book about brain surgery, you would say, 'Who is this guy?' People want signs and wonders. Projects like these make a mockery of the archeological profession." Cameron's reply: "I don't profess to be an archeologist or a Biblical scholar. I'm a film producer. I found it compelling. I think we're on firm ground to say that much."


Continue:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17328478/sit...ek/page/2/

[Richard]

GB, I merged your thread with this one since the topics are the same. I have to admit that I love watching the Christian world get all frazzled over this story. ;)

[Richard]

I was checking out the news on the Jesus tomb and ran across this bit of interesting info. :)

First off, the entrance is not simply a rectangle but a Tau shape. For significance of this, see my article. http://www.redicecreations.com/article.php?id=65

What really arrested me, however, was the upwardly pointing triangle (chevron) over a circle. Look familiar? A circle within a pyramid? Is this the Masonic "All-Seeing Eye of Providence"?

Did the Knights Templar visit the grave of Jesus in the 12th century AD and record this iconography, later to be passed on through the traditions of Freemasonry? Speculation, perhaps, but intriguing nonetheless.

You can read more about it at this link.
http://theorionzone.blogspot.com/2007/03...-tomb.html

[Richard]

Well, it sounds like they need to cancel Easter and close the churches. I watched the Discovery special on Jesus’s tomb and they made a pretty convincing case that they did find the bones of Jesus.

[Rebel]

Doubt that will happen, Richard. Christianity has been around 2,000 years and will undoubtedly survive many more years.

Voltaire predicted that Christianity would be extinct within 100 years of his death. Obviously he was wrong. Ironically, his estate became a Bible Society headquarters.

[Richard]

I was just joking; I know Christianity will probably be still around long after I’m dead. I watched the debate after the show and the Christians said the bible teaches them to believe by faith and not by sight. It’s hard to debate faith, so the devoted Christians will keep believing no matter what.