[back]
The following article is from the Secular Humanist Bulletin, Volume 23, Number 1 (Spring 2007).
Happily coinciding with Lenten observances, CNN and the Discovery Channel this spring colluded to bring us startling news, just ahead of the feast of the Resurrection: namely, that Jesus lay for two thousand years in a family tomb next to his beloved bride, Mary (or Murray) Magdalene, and their little son, Judah, also known as Timmy. “The Lost Tomb of Christ” aired on March 4. The miracle of the millennia has become the love story that could not be told.
“The Lost Tomb of Christ” aired on that paragon of scientific rectitude The Discovery Channel, home of such mind-benders as “The Miracles of Jesus,” “Da Vinci’s Code,” and “Mysteries of the Bible.” Essentially the hoopla is all about a “discovery” made twenty-seven years ago as Israeli construction workers were gouging out foundations for a new office building in Talpyiot, outside Jerusalem. When the earth gave way, workers discovered a cave and summoned archeologists, including a certain Dr. Shimon Gibbon, who removed the stone caskets, called “ossuaries” (literally, bone boxes) for examination. Following twenty years of work, the names on the caskets, written in a crude graffiti, are reported as “Jesua bar Iusef,” “Mary,” “Mary?,” “Matthew,” “Jofa,” and “Judah, son of Jesua.” The whereabouts of Peter, Paul, other disciples, Doc, and Grumpy are still unknown. But the Discovery team is on the case.
R. Joseph Hoffmann chairs the Center for Inquiry’s Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion and is the editor of its publication, the CSER Review, which will publish a more serious, detailed analysis of the Discovery Channel’s claims about this tomb in its Winter/Spring 2007 issue.
CFI SUMMIT
OCTOBER 24-27 2013
TACOMA, WASHINGTON
Joint Conference of the Council for Secular Humanism, Center for Inquiry, and Committee for Skeptical Inquiry
The transnational secular humanist magazine
Renew your FREE INQUIRY subscription