-Caveat Lector-
Begin forwarded message:
HAS FILM CREW FOUND THE DNA OF JESUS?
Michael Posner
Globe and Mail, February 26, 2007
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070226.TOMB26/
TPStory/Entertainment
It's an improbable story worthy of a Hollywood film.
In what is expected to be a wild and woolly news conference, the
makers of a new documentary film claiming to have discovered the
tomb of Jesus Christ and his family -- and his DNA -- will face the
media this morning at New York's Public Library.
If their evidence is verified, the film, The Lost Tomb of Jesus,
and a companion book, would raise profound questions for Christians
and their faith.
The filmmakers -- Emmy-award winning director Simcha Jacobovici and
his executive producer, Oscar-winner James Cameron -- suggest
ossuaries once containing the bones of Jesus and his family are now
stored in a warehouse belonging to the Israel Antiquities Authority
in Bet Shemesh, outside Jerusalem.
Although the evidence contained in the film and book is hardly
definitive, it is compelling.
Inscribed in Hebrew, Latin or Greek, six boxes -- taken from a
2,000-year-old cave discovered in 1980 during excavation for a
housing project in Talpiyot, south of Jerusalem -- bear the names:
Yeshua [Jesus] bar Yosef [son of Joseph]; Maria [the Latin version
of Miriam, which is the English Mary]; Matia [the Hebrew equivalent
of Matthew, a name common in the lineage of both Mary and Joseph];
Yose [the Gospel of Mark refers to Yose as a brother of Jesus];
Yehuda bar Yeshua, or Judah, son of Jesus; and in Greek, Mariamne e
mara, meaning 'Mariamne, known as the master.' According to Harvard
professor François Bovon, interviewed in the film, Mariamne was
Mary Magdalene's real name.
The bones contained in the boxes have long since been reburied,
according to Jewish custom, in unmarked graves in Israel.
If the evidence adduced is correct, the bone boxes, and microscopic
remains of DNA still contained inside, would constitute the first
archeological evidence of the existence of the Christian saviour
and his family.
Tests on mitochondrial DNA obtained from the Jesus and Mariamne
boxes and conducted at Lakehead University's Paleo-DNA laboratory
in Thunder Bay, show conclusively that the two individuals were not
maternally related. According to Carney Matheson, head of the lab,
this likely means they were related by marriage.
Thus, the book and film raise seminal questions, not only about the
early movement of Judeo-Christians that Jesus led, but about
whether, as some scholars believe, he might have been married to
Mary Magdalene and fathered a family.
Nothing in the film or book directly challenges traditional
Christian dogma regarding the resurrection. But it could pose a
problem for those who believe the ascension of Jesus, 40 days after
the resurrection, was both physical and spiritual. And, if further
DNA testing were to link Jesus and 'his brother' Yose with Mary, it
would call into question the entire doctrine of the virgin birth --
a foundation stone of Christianity.
The $4-million documentary will air on Canada's Vision TV on March
6 and two days earlier on Discovery U.S. The companion book, The
Jesus Family Tomb, by Mr. Jacobovici and Dr. Charles Pellegrino,
has just been released (HarperCollins).
For this morning's news conference, the Jesus and Mary Magdalene
ossuaries, which were flown in from Israel, will be on display.
Meanwhile, security agents have been hired to stand guard outside
the Talpiyot apartments beneath which the controversial tomb lies,
covered by a large concrete plate.
"I don't think this changes the fundamentals of faith," Mr. Cameron
said in an interview last week. "But the evidence is pretty darn
compelling and it definitely bears further study."
Not everyone agrees. "It's a beautiful story, but without any proof
whatsoever," archeologist Amos Kloner, who wrote the original
report on the Talpiyot cave findings, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur
last week. "The names . . . found on the tombs are names that are
similar to the names of the family of Jesus. But those were the
most common names found among Jews in the first centuries BCE
[before the common era] and CE [common era]."
Yet if the individual names were common, the film and book ask:
What is the likelihood that this particular group of names, so
resonant of the Jesus story, would appear together, contained in
the same family tomb?
"There are really only two possibilities," Mr. Jacobovici said.
"Either this cluster of names represents the tomb of Jesus of
Nazareth and his family. Or some other family, with this very same
constellation of names, existed at precisely the same time in
history in Jerusalem."
To calculate the odds, Mr. Jacobovici took the data to University
of Toronto mathematician Andrey Feuerverger.
Factoring in the commonality of these names in first-century
Israel, Prof. Feuerverger puts the odds of this tomb not belonging
to Jesus and his family at one in 600.
Another estimate, commissioned by James Tabor, chair of the
department of religion studies at the University of North Carolina,
puts the odds at one in 42 million. "If you took the entire
population of Jerusalem at the time," Prof. Tabor said, "and put it
in a stadium, and asked everyone named Jesus to stand up, you'd
have about 2,700 men. Then you'd ask only those with a father named
Joseph and a mother named Mary to remain standing. And then those
with a brother named Yose and a brother named James. Statistically,
you end up with one person."
The James reference is significant because of the 10 ossuaries
found at Talpiyot, one later disappeared. Many experts believe that
coffin is the now infamous 'James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus'
ossuary that turned up a few years ago and was put on public
display at the Royal Ontario Museum.
Although many scholars have called the inscription 'brother of
Jesus' a modern-day forgery, at least as many academics continue to
believe in its authenticity.
Moreover, tests conducted for The Lost Tomb of Jesus show that the
patina encrusted on the James ossuary bears precisely the same
chemical thumbprint as the other ossuaries found at Talpiyot.
Neither the provenance nor the age of the ossuaries is in dispute.
The boxes, never out of the control of professional archeologists,
are effectively self-dating, since the practice of re-interring the
bones of the dead in limestone boxes a year after death was
conducted by Jews in the Holy Land for a period of only 100 years.
Prominent families stored the boxes in family tombs.
Moreover, all the inscriptions have been corroborated by some of
the world's leading epigraphers, including Harvard's Frank Moore
Cross.
The 'Jesus, son of Joseph' marking is considered rare; of thousands
of inscriptions so far catalogued, only one other bone coffin
contained the same construction.
No Christian tradition suggests that Jesus had a son, but the
Gospel of John does refer to "the beloved disciple" who rests on
Jesus's lap at the Last Supper.
And perhaps, says Mr. Jacobovici, "although this is pure
speculation, when Jesus on the cross says, 'Mother, behold thy
son,' he's not referring to himself or to his mother, but to his
son, who is there with Mary Magdalene." The Book of Mark, he adds,
also contains a passage that might allude to a son -- a reference
to a young man, wearing nothing but linen who follows Jesus after
his arrest and, when guards try to apprehend him, slips out of his
clothes and escapes naked.
"That's a very odd story," Mr. Jacobovici said. "There's no name
given for the young lad, but the gospel writer obviously thought it
was important to tell it."
"None of us are gleefully presenting this as though we've trumped
Christianity," maintains Dr. Tabor, whose 2006 book, The Jesus
Dynasty, brought news of the Talpiyot cave to the masses. "If
anything, it might help clarify and refine it a bit. Some people
will immediately say this is sensationalism. I don't agree with
that. I know enough about it to say this is a subject that deserves
serious and continued investigation."
Indeed, it's likely that there will be a sequel to The Lost Tomb of
Jesus. While searching for the original Talpiyot cave, the
filmmakers stumbled upon a second crypt, only 20 meters away, that
has never been explored by archeologists. A miniature camera
inserted into the tomb revealed three ossuaries.
______________________________________________________________________
__
Check out the new AOL. Most comprehensive set of free safety and
security tools, free access to millions of high-quality videos from
across the web, free AOL Mail and more.
----------MB_8C92804DBF3D5C6_1954_83F2_WEBMAIL-MA17.sysops.aol.com
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
Content-Type: text/html; charset="utf-8"
<HTML><BODY>
<div><SPAN contentEditable=false style="DISPLAY: inline-
block"><STRONG><FONT size=4></FONT></STRONG></SPAN><STRONG><FONT
size=4>HAS FILM CREW FOUND THE DNA OF JESUS?</FONT></STRONG></div>
<div><br>
Michael Posner <br>
Globe and Mail, February 26, 2007<br>
<A href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.
20070226.TOMB26/TPStory/Entertainment">http://
www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070226.TOMB26/TPStory/
Entertainment</A></div>
<div><br>
It's an improbable story worthy of a Hollywood film.</div>
<div>In what is expected to be a wild and woolly news conference,
the makers of a new documentary film claiming to have discovered
the tomb of Jesus Christ and his family -- and his DNA -- will face
the media this morning at New York's Public Library.</div>
<div>If their evidence is verified, the film, The Lost Tomb of
Jesus, and a companion book, would raise profound questions for
Christians and their faith.</div>
<div>The filmmakers -- Emmy-award winning director Simcha
Jacobovici and his executive producer, Oscar-winner James Cameron
-- suggest ossuaries once containing the bones of Jesus and his
family are now stored in a warehouse belonging to the Israel
Antiquities Authority in Bet Shemesh, outside Jerusalem.</div>
<div>Although the evidence contained in the film and book is hardly
definitive, it is compelling.</div>
<div>Inscribed in Hebrew, Latin or Greek, six boxes -- taken from a
2,000-year-old cave discovered in 1980 during excavation for a
housing project in Talpiyot, south of Jerusalem -- bear the names:
Yeshua [Jesus] bar Yosef [son of Joseph]; Maria [the Latin version
of Miriam, which is the English Mary]; Matia [the Hebrew equivalent
of Matthew, a name common in the lineage of both Mary and Joseph];
Yose [the Gospel of Mark refers to Yose as a brother of Jesus];
Yehuda bar Yeshua, or Judah, son of Jesus; and in Greek, Mariamne e
mara, meaning 'Mariamne, known as the master.' According to Harvard
professor François Bovon, interviewed in the film, Mariamne was
Mary Magdalene's real name.</div>
<div>The bones contained in the boxes have long since been
reburied, according to Jewish custom, in unmarked graves in
Israel.</div>
<div>If the evidence adduced is correct, the bone boxes, and
microscopic remains of DNA still contained inside, would constitute
the first archeological evidence of the existence of the Christian
saviour and his family.</div>
<div>Tests on mitochondrial DNA obtained from the Jesus and
Mariamne boxes and conducted at Lakehead University's Paleo-DNA
laboratory in Thunder Bay, show conclusively that the two
individuals were not maternally related. According to Carney
Matheson, head of the lab, this likely means they were related by
marriage.</div>
<div>Thus, the book and film raise seminal questions, not only
about the early movement of Judeo-Christians that Jesus led, but
about whether, as some scholars believe, he might have been married
to Mary Magdalene and fathered a family.</div>
<div>Nothing in the film or book directly challenges traditional
Christian dogma regarding the resurrection. But it could pose a
problem for those who believe the ascension of Jesus, 40 days after
the resurrection, was both physical and spiritual. And, if further
DNA testing were to link Jesus and 'his brother' Yose with Mary, it
would call into question the entire doctrine of the virgin birth --
a foundation stone of Christianity.</div>
<div>The $4-million documentary will air on Canada's Vision TV on
March 6 and two days earlier on Discovery U.S. The companion book,
The Jesus Family Tomb, by Mr. Jacobovici and Dr. Charles
Pellegrino, has just been released (HarperCollins).</div>
<div>For this morning's news conference, the Jesus and Mary
Magdalene ossuaries, which were flown in from Israel, will be on
display.</div>
<div>Meanwhile, security agents have been hired to stand guard
outside the Talpiyot apartments beneath which the controversial
tomb lies, covered by a large concrete plate.</div>
<div>"I don't think this changes the fundamentals of faith," Mr.
Cameron said in an interview last week. "But the evidence is pretty
darn compelling and it definitely bears further study."</div>
<div>Not everyone agrees. "It's a beautiful story, but without any
proof whatsoever," archeologist Amos Kloner, who wrote the original
report on the Talpiyot cave findings, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur
last week. "The names . . . found on the tombs are names that are
similar to the names of the family of Jesus. But those were the
most common names found among Jews in the first centuries BCE
[before the common era] and CE [common era]."</div>
<div>Yet if the individual names were common, the film and book
ask: What is the likelihood that this particular group of names, so
resonant of the Jesus story, would appear together, contained in
the same family tomb?</div>
<div>"There are really only two possibilities," Mr. Jacobovici
said. </div>
<div>"Either this cluster of names represents the tomb of Jesus of
Nazareth and his family. Or some other family, with this very same
constellation of names, existed at precisely the same time in
history in Jerusalem."</div>
<div>To calculate the odds, Mr. Jacobovici took the data to
University of Toronto mathematician Andrey Feuerverger. </div>
<div>Factoring in the commonality of these names in first-century
Israel, Prof. Feuerverger puts the odds of this tomb not belonging
to Jesus and his family at one in 600. </div>
<div>Another estimate, commissioned by James Tabor, chair of the
department of religion studies at the University of North Carolina,
puts the odds at one in 42 million. "If you took the entire
population of Jerusalem at the time," Prof. Tabor said, "and put it
in a stadium, and asked everyone named Jesus to stand up, you'd
have about 2,700 men. Then you'd ask only those with a father named
Joseph and a mother named Mary to remain standing. And then those
with a brother named Yose and a brother named James. Statistically,
you end up with one person."</div>
<div>The James reference is significant because of the 10 ossuaries
found at Talpiyot, one later disappeared. Many experts believe that
coffin is the now infamous 'James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus'
ossuary that turned up a few years ago and was put on public
display at the Royal Ontario Museum.</div>
<div>Although many scholars have called the inscription 'brother of
Jesus' a modern-day forgery, at least as many academics continue to
believe in its authenticity.</div>
<div>Moreover, tests conducted for The Lost Tomb of Jesus show that
the patina encrusted on the James ossuary bears precisely the same
chemical thumbprint as the other ossuaries found at Talpiyot.</div>
<div>Neither the provenance nor the age of the ossuaries is in
dispute. The boxes, never out of the control of professional
archeologists, are effectively self-dating, since the practice of
re-interring the bones of the dead in limestone boxes a year after
death was conducted by Jews in the Holy Land for a period of only
100 years. Prominent families stored the boxes in family tombs.</div>
<div>Moreover, all the inscriptions have been corroborated by some
of the world's leading epigraphers, including Harvard's Frank Moore
Cross.</div>
<div>The 'Jesus, son of Joseph' marking is considered rare; of
thousands of inscriptions so far catalogued, only one other bone
coffin contained the same construction.</div>
<div>No Christian tradition suggests that Jesus had a son, but the
Gospel of John does refer to "the beloved disciple" who rests on
Jesus's lap at the Last Supper.</div>
<div>And perhaps, says Mr. Jacobovici, "although this is pure
speculation, when Jesus on the cross says, 'Mother, behold thy
son,' he's not referring to himself or to his mother, but to his
son, who is there with Mary Magdalene." The Book of Mark, he adds,
also contains a passage that might allude to a son -- a reference
to a young man, wearing nothing but linen who follows Jesus after
his arrest and, when guards try to apprehend him, slips out of his
clothes and escapes naked.</div>
<div>"That's a very odd story," Mr. Jacobovici said. "There's no
name given for the young lad, but the gospel writer obviously
thought it was important to tell it."</div>
<div>"None of us are gleefully presenting this as though we've
trumped Christianity," maintains Dr. Tabor, whose 2006 book, The
Jesus Dynasty, brought news of the Talpiyot cave to the masses. "If
anything, it might help clarify and refine it a bit. Some people
will immediately say this is sensationalism. I don't agree with
that. I know enough about it to say this is a subject that deserves
serious and continued investigation."</div>
<div>Indeed, it's likely that there will be a sequel to The Lost
Tomb of Jesus. While searching for the original Talpiyot cave, the
filmmakers stumbled upon a second crypt, only 20 meters away, that
has never been explored by archeologists. A miniature camera
inserted into the tomb revealed three ossuaries.<br>
</div>
<div class="AOLPromoFooter">
<hr style="margin-top:10px;" />
<a href="http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/
1615326657x4311227241x4298082137/aol?redir=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Eaol%
2Ecom%2Fnewaol" target="_blank"><b>Check out the new AOL</b></a>.
Most comprehensive set of free safety and security tools, free
access to millions of high-quality videos from across the web, free
AOL Mail and more.<br />
</div>
</BODY></HTML>
----------MB_8C92804DBF3D5C6_1954_83F2_WEBMAIL-MA17.sysops.aol.com--
www.ctrl.org
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substanceânot soap-boxingâplease! These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'âwith its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright fraudsâis used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/
<A HREF="http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/";>ctrl</A>
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
