Fish Piper

[NB: 'Spotlight' here refers to a segment we run at church, and has nothing to do with a certain Apple search technology.]

Last year’s Easter Furphy was all about the Talpiot Tomb.

Discovered in 1980, not far from Jerusalem, this tomb contained a number of ossuaries (coffins, basically).

Some of them had writing on them, and some looked like they might be Jesus’ family. Mariamene was the inscription on one ossuary, which some speculated could be a rendering of Mary Magdalene. One disputed epigraph arguably reads “Jesus, son of Joseph”.

All of this was old news this time last year, except for the fact that James Cameron (of Titanic fame) and Simcha Jacobovici made a documentary titled The Lost Tomb of Jesus, and released it shortly before Easter. In media reports at the conclusion of a conference of archaeological and epigraphical experts, views put forward in this documentary seemed to have precedence over those of scholars.

Why is all of this important? The historicity of Jesus’ death and resurrection is critical for Christianity:

“And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.”

- Paul, 1 Corinthians 15:14

In a letter signed by some 17 experts from the conference, certain claims made in the media concerning this tomb are refuted:

“… we wish to protest the misrepresentation of the conference proceedings in the media, and make it clear that the majority of scholars in attendance – including all of the archaeologists and epigraphers who presented papers relating to the tomb - either reject the identification of the Talpiot tomb as belonging to Jesus’ family or find this claim highly speculative.”

So why bring this old news up again, after basically all of the ‘facts’ have been repudiated? Because it happens each Easter and Christmas, that a story comes out throwing doubt on Christianity in some way. It’s not surprising - stories like this, in order to be newsworthy, have to have an edge. It’s not interesting if someone says that they believe in and agree with historic Christian belief. It’s newsworthy if someone finds an expert, or a bishop, who is willing to say that they have grave reservations about something or other.

John Dickson’s The Christ Files (screening Good Friday, 12pm, channel 7) may take the spot of that story this Easter, but I’ll not be surprised if I see another story like the Talpiot tomb this week.