Limelight: 'Lost tomb' or found treasure By Lubna Abdel-Aziz At best, it is a cunning, clever, commercial enterprise. At worst, it is yet another ruse to discredit the central tenets of Christianity, by a very aggressive secular movement. The bedrock of the Christian faith is the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the cross; three days after his crucifixion. Easter, the feast of the resurrection, is the most important day of the Christian religion. Now, here comes a much-hyped documentary, two years in the making, by James Cameron and Simcha Jacobivici, which aired Sunday, 4 March on the prestigious Discovery Channel, claiming the identity of The Lost Tomb of Jesus. Not only did Jesus not rise from the dead and ascend to heaven, but died a human death, was buried in a casket, and his bones were discovered at a site beneath an apartment complex in Talpiot, outside Jerusalem. If that is not human enough, he also had a wife and a son. In The Lost Tomb of Jesus the producers base their claims on the unearthing in 1980 of 10 ossuaries by Israeli construction workers, dating back to the first century. The inscriptions on the casket reads "Yeshua bar Yusuf" Jesus, son of Joseph, "Yehuda bar Yeshua" Judah, son of Jesus; another ossuary read Mariamne e Mara, Greek for Mary the teacher, or Mary Magdalene. What a find? Treasures beyond belief! They can conceive of a success equal to, or surpassing Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code, they even give Jesus a son, Judah, instead of Brown's daughter, Sarah. Why then was such a sensational discovery shelved for 27 years? Because it meant nothing? In 1990, the inscriptions were deciphered by Amos Kloner, renowned Israeli archaeologist, professor at Bar Ilan University without much fanfare. Professor Kloner himself, vehemently disagrees with the claims of the documentary: "The names on the caskets are the most common names found among Jews at the time." He adds, "it makes a great story for a TV film, but it's impossible. Jesus and his family were a Galilee family, with no ties in Jerusalem. It's nonsense!" Did that deter the producers or the Discovery Channel? Never! The promise of millions of dollars was more alluring than the truth. Even British archaeologist Shimon Gibson, who worked on the project, and was one of the first people to examine the caskets, admitted scepticism; "they are typical caskets from the first century." A book on the subject by Simcha Jacobivici and Charles Pellegrino, entitled The Jesus Family Tomb: The Discovery, the Investigation, and the Evidence that Could Change History, was released last week, and is fast becoming one of the most popular books on Amazon.com. Jacobivici, a Canadian Emmy winning director, claims they have DNA tests as well as archaeological, Biblical, statistical and scientific evidence, but historians and scientists refute such claims. Biblical professor Stephen Pfann of the University of the Holy Land in Jerusalem said the film's hypothesis holds little weight, and is not even certain that the name "Jesus" on the casket was read correctly: "because ancient Semitic is notoriously difficult to decipher; the name is most likely 'Hanun' not 'Jesus'". Following DNA analysis, Carney Matheson of the Palo -- DNA Laboratory at Lakehead University, Ontario, Canada -- concluded that the "Jesus ossuary and the person linked to Mary Magdalene ossuary are not related. Atallah Hanna, a Greek Orthodox clergyman in Jerusalem stated: "the historical, religious, and archaeological evidence show that the place where Christ was buried is the Church of the Resurrection," in Jerusalem's Old City. The lost tomb is in a Southern Jerusalem suburb, nowhere near the church. There is little doubt that religion pays in the movies. While in the not too distant past, we were deeply moved by such films as The King of Kings, The Ten Commandments, The Robe, Quo Vadis, now we are served with the Da Vinci Code, The Body, The Passover Plot, all denigrating the divinity of Jesus and the Christian faith. The outcry in the Holy Land is thunderous. The reverend Bob Schenck, president of the National Clergy Council remarked: "over the years Hollywood has attacked and mocked Christianity," even though 88 per cent of Americans are Christian. Is greed the only motive that drives such so-called artists to resort to ignoble methods to denigrate one of the world's greatest religions, or is it a lofty endeavour to serve science, religion, and history? A surprising element was the participation of Canadian filmmaker James Cameron who made the most profitable film of all time Titanic (1997) which grossed an unprecedented $1.8 billion and won 11 Oscars. The three-time Academy Award winning writer/producer/ director, known for his action/ science fiction blockbusters like Terminator, Rambo, and Aliens, joined forces with Emmy- winning fellow Canadian Simcha Jacobivici to bring us this sensational pseudo-scientific scheme. Once self proclaimed "king of the world", after winning his Titanic Oscars, Cameron is now scorned by all Christians as "king of lies", "bringing God to Manhattan in a box and DNA testing him like a dinosaur femur". Another surprising ally to the project is the Discovery Channel, which boasts of being the number one non-fiction media company, reaching over 1.5 billion viewers over 170 countries." It has been subjected to fierce attacks from the Media Research Company, and its president Brent Bozell III: "They should be embarrassed by this plunge into sensational speculation, masquerading as science." Robert Knight, Culture & Media Institute director also joined the attack against the Discovery Channel for giving credibility to "bigoted documentary, which is pure fiction. To slander Christianity at the start of the Easter Season is unconscionable." Greece's Orthodox Church believes "the film's claim is unfounded, and attempts to discredit all the scientific and established facts that constitute our faith" writes Harry Papachristo. James Poniewozik confirms: "Hollywood is aggressively secular and materialistic, and Hollywood blasphemers are out to get Christians." Who can forget Mel Gibson's plight with The Passion of the Christ, the only positive religious film about Christianity in decades. Christianity has survived many savage attacks by Gnosticism, Liberalism, and Marxism, not to mention Hollywood's rendition of the Da Vinci Code. With the advent of Lent and the holy Easter Season, the false claims of this and other nay-sayers will vanish, and "greed and impiousness won't disturb our flock's course to Easter no matter how many stories they invent." Despite the onslaught of godless humans, God prevails. Oh what a tangled web we weave, When first we practice to deceive. -- Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832)
