Wednesday, March 07, 2007

“Jesus’ Family Tomb” Online Resources

A number of folks have asked what I think about the "Jesus Family Tomb" controversy that broke in the media last week.

The internet is full of good information de-bunking the claims of the Discovery Channel’s recent “docu-drama.”

Listed below are some of what I consider to be some of the best resources that cover the evidence well. We're going to hand out the last two articles in church on Sunday.

Don’t forget to read everything with discernment!

Denny Burk
Bible Professor with more links to more information than you'll ever need.

Andreas Kostenberger
Top Evangelical Biblical Scholar from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary

Stand to Reason Apologetics Ministry
Lots of articles covering the whole thing.

Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry
“Has the Tomb of Jesus Been Found?"

Ben Witherington
Top Evangelical Biblical Scholar at Asbury Seminary
"The Jesus Tomb? 'Titanic Talpiot Tomb Theory Sunk from Start'"

Darrel Bock
Top Evangelical Biblical Scholar at Dallas Theological Seminary
"Hollywood Hype: The Oscars and Jesus' Family Tomb, What Do They Share?"

Craig Blomberg
Top Evangelical Biblical Scholar at Denver Seminary
“Did They Really Find Jesus' Bones?"

1 comments:

The latest dispatch (3/7/07) from Witherington, from his meditation on "Bitterness":

"It would be easy for me to get bitter about the nonsense propagated in the Jesus tomb theory. To become bitter that the other side of the story has not adequately been told. That there is an unfairness in all of this, especially since I spent years of my life dealing with the James ossuary and the remarkable implications of that, which is still a genuine relic from the family of Jesus."

From his own words, it's even more obvious now that the ONLY dog that BW had in this Jesus Tomb fight was the one that he hoped would free his James ossuary from its association with the ossuaries from the "Family Tomb."

He succeeded in part. Most people agree that his J-o was not one of the ten, but he only dragged his credibility down further since he was forced to rely on the word of Oded Golan to establish a sort-of provenance for his ossuary and almost every mention of the J-o in the press was surrounded by variations on the words “fraud,” "forged" or "fake."

RE: "...the other side of the story has not been adequately told"

I have to agree with him here. Even though there were archaeologists, scientists and even Biblical scholars aplenty to refute the claims of the JFT-crowd, Witherington just had to jump in with the ridiculous baggage of his own ossuary claims. The case against the JFT would have been even more adequate without his input. He was an unneeded distraction.

Re: "I spent years of my life dealing with the James ossuary and the remarkable implications of that, which is still a genuine relic from the family of Jesus."

"Still?!"