From an Archaeological and Jewish viewpoint, David Dolan nails this one.
Text of forwarded message follows:
>Shalom from Jerusalem,
>
>Local residents and visiting tourists (of which
>there are many at present) are eagerly waiting
>to see if snow descends on the capital city in
>the coming hours, with forecasters warning of
>that possibility as temperatures dip to freezing
>overnight. Meanwhile, I am sending you a copy
>of my latest commentary for the World Net Daily
>web site. It concerns the recent claim that the
>ancient family tomb of Jesus of Nazareth has
>been discovered in my old Jerusalem
>neighborhood, East Talpiot. In fact, I note
>that I lived virtually next door to the supposed
>site for some 15 years before moving to central
>Jerusalem in 2001. The commentary features some
>news released just today concerning the
>controversy, emanating from a local Christian
>scholar who is a longtime acquaintance of mine. Read and enjoy!
>
>I recently learned that a US media interview I
>did via satellite from my apartment roof for the
>Harvest TV program, broadcast near the end of
>last summer’s Lebanon war, had been posted on
>the popular YouTube web site. It was sparked by
>the discovery last year of an ancient book of
>Psalms in an Irish bog, found open to Psalm 83.
>I note that I’ve written a chapter on that
>prophetic psalm in my 2001 book ISRAEL IN
>CRISIS: WHAT LIES AHEAD? If you would like to
>look at the posted video, which is still quite
>timely, click on this link:
><http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZ-vmsXgmVA>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZ-vmsXgmVA
>Just ignore the long summertime shadows around
>my eyes! The book itself is available from my
>web site, <http://www.ddolan.com/>www.ddolan.com
>
>Speaking of Ireland (and that’s also timely
>since this Saturday is St. Patrick’s Day), it
>appears that a recent intervention by some
>prominent Irish Christian and Jewish friends has
>prompted a solution to my journalist visa and
>Israeli press card situation, which I mentioned
>for prayer last July. I will not go into the
>details here, but I do want to thank those
>directly involved in this welcome intervention,
>and also to all of you around the world who prayed for a positive outcome.
>
>With the prospects of another war with Hizbullah
>forces in Lebanon again looming large before us
>this year, if not also with their Syrian and
>Iranian masters, Israel’s top governmental
>leaders, including Prime Minister Olmert and
>Defense Minister Peretz, have just been warned
>that they will be named in an official
>commission investigation into last summer’s war,
>apparently in a negative manner. The report is
>scheduled to be released next month. Analysts
>say this could lead to the collapse of the
>Olmert government. I will report on that and
>other important developments in Israel in this
>month’s Israel News update, to be sent out to you in less than two weeks time.
>
>+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>
>JESUS: DEAD OR ALIVE?
>By David Dolan
>
>Media circuses are hardly rare occurrences here in Jerusalem.
>
>In fact, as I write this column, workers with
>CNN International are setting up a big blue tent
>(I kid you not) just across the street from my
>apartment building, preparing to broadcast a
>report by correspondent Ben Weideman from
>underneath the protective canopy on a stormy March afternoon.
>
>I should mention that the view from my central
>Jerusalem street is usually worth filming
>whatever the weather, especially facing north
>toward Mount Zion and the biblical Temple Mount.
>
>That was not the case with my former home in the
>East Talpiot neighborhood. While the view from
>my top floor flat was not all that bad, it was
>hardly noteworthy. I mainly looked out at
>dozens of other tall apartment buildings that
>dominate the southeast Jerusalem suburb.
>
>But something allegedly quite historic was
>lurking in the shadows of the stone-faced
>apartment building located just next to mine:
>The burial tomb of Jesus, his wife Mary
>Magdalene and their son Judah, not to mention
>his Jewish mother and other family members!
>
>Ben Weideman was among hundreds of Israeli and
>international journalists that recently filmed
>stirring reports near an innocuous cement slab
>located in East Talpiot. The unpretentious slab
>lies in the corner of a small fenced in rose
>patch planted along a narrow foot path just
>below the apartment building that I lived next to for 15 years.
>
>The media was reporting on the “historic
>discovery,” announced in New York by Titanic
>film producer James Cameroon and Israeli
>born-Canadian documentary maker Simcha
>Jacobovici, that the slab probably covered the
>entrance to the Jesus Family Tomb! The stunning
>late February proclamation was intentionally
>timed to promote their television program on
>that riveting theme, broadcast one week later on
>the US Discovery Channel, and also in Great Britain and here in Israel.
>
>I first got wind of the contention that the
>bones of Jesus and family were unearthed in my
>humble neighborhood when the BBC broadcast that
>momentous claim in a1996 television
>documentary. As I walked past the site in the
>months and years after the screening, usually on
>my way to the nearby East Talpiot supermarket
>and post office, I often recalled the relatively
>short controversy that the British documentary sparked off.
>
>But this time, the dustup seems destined to
>linger much longer in the air, coming as it does
>in the titanic wake of Dan Brown’s best selling
>Da Vinci Code and producer Ron Howard’s subsequent blockbuster film.
>
>There is just one tiny problem with the
>super-hyped Jesus Tomb claim: Nearly all
>archeological experts dismiss it out of hand, or
>at least note it is both highly improbable and
>entirely unprovable, and therefore hardly worth mentioning.
>
>By now, most everyone has heard the main reason
>why. The Hebrew names Yeshua (Jesus), Miriam
>(Mary), Judah, and Yoseph—all found inscribed on
>stone burial ossuaries situated inside the
>ancient tomb when it was discovered by Israeli
>construction workers in 1980—were extremely
>common monikers in the time of Jesus. To allege
>that they point to the family tomb of
>Christianity’s revered redeemer is a giant stretch, to say the least.
>
>But Cameroon and Jacobovici claim another name
>was found inside the tomb that nearly seals
>their case—Mary Magdalene! It is almost
>statistically impossible that her unique second
>name would be found with the others if we were
>not talking about the tomb of the world renowned
>Jesus of Nazareth and his relatives, they maintain.
>
>American scholar Stephen Pfann, who serves as a
>locally trained textual scholar and paleographer
>at Jerusalem’s Holy Land University, has just
>conducted an intensive examination of the
>ossuary that supposedly held the bones of the
>Messiah’s alleged bride. He insists that the
>burial box is inscribed with two apparently
>unrelated names, the second of them Mara, the
>Greek version of Martha, not Magdalene. He
>discerned that the two names were etched in
>distinctive styles on the stone ossuary by
>clearly different hands. Scholars have long
>known that such burial receptacles often housed
>the bones of more than one person, mainly for economic reasons.
>
>Professor Pfann, who I’ve known for many years,
>along with his scholarly wife Claire, noted that
>neither Cameroon nor Jacobovici are even
>remotely qualified to put forth such gargantuan
>contentions, especially given the far reaching
>implications for the historic Christian
>faith. The Israeli filmmaker, who starred in
>the ratings-rich TV program, shot back that
>scholars and archeologists are simply upset that
>he and other modern journalists and documentary
>makers are “breaking their monopoly” on deciphering ancient artifacts.
>
>Although a professional journalist myself, I am
>quite happy to have trained electricians fix my
>broken power lines in my stead, experienced
>plumbers determine what is wrong with my kitchen
>pipes, skilled physicians operate on my body,
>certified dentists fill cavities in my teeth,
>knowledgeable mechanics work on my car, etc.
>
>As for my personal spiritual beliefs, I don’t
>expect them to be determined by colorful
>filmmakers working out of Hollywood or Toronto,
>no matter how much mammon they procure from their sensational claims.
>
>
>----------
>DAVID DOLAN is a Jerusalem-based author and
>journalist who has lived and worked in Israel since 1980.
> *
> <https://secure.arksupplies.com/cgi-bin/shopper.cgi?search=action&category=BOOK&keywords=all>HOLY
> WAR FOR THE PROMISED LAND (Broadman & Holman),
> his latest book, is an overview of the history
> of the Israel and of the bitter Arab-Israeli
> conflict that rages there, plus some
> autobiographical details about the author’s
> experiences living in the land since 1980. It
> especially examines the important role that
> militant Islam plays in the conflict.
> *
> <https://secure.arksupplies.com/cgi-bin/shopper.cgi?search=action&category=BOOK&keywords=all>ISRAEL
> IN CRISIS: WHAT LIES AHEAD? (Baker/Revell),
> which examines the political and biblical
> prospects for a regional attack upon Israel,
> settlement in the disputed territories, and
> related topics, is also available for purchase,
> along with an updated edition of his popular
> end-time novel, THE END OF DAYS (21st Century Press).
>
>You may order these books at a special discount
>price by visiting his web site at
><http://www.ddolan.com>www.ddolan.com, or by
>phoning toll free 888-890-6938 in North America,
>or by e mail at:
><mailto:[log in to unmask]>[log in to unmask]
>
>DOLAN'S NEW DVD, "FOR ZION'S SAKE" is now
>available for purchase. Click the title under "BOOKSTORE" for more details.
>
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>[]
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>
>2004
>
>
>--
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>- Release Date: 3/13/2007 4:51 PM
End of forwarded message text:
John
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