Bruce Feiler - Where God Was Born, Abraham, Walking The Bible

The Jesus Controversy: Readers Talk Back
Friday, March 2, 2007

I’ve received many comments about my media appearances this week on the topic of "The Jesus Tomb." This was one of the more polite and thoughtful, and I thought I would respond.

Hi Bruce,

I just watched a couple of the clips where you spoke out vehemently against the Jesus tomb documentary as being correct or factual.

A couple of points from an outside perspective:

1. You really don't know whether these tombs are of Jesus's family or not. Nobody can prove it one way or the other. It is, however, much more likely that Jesus was not raised from the dead as opposed to him being raised from the dead. It is more likely that he was not because that's what happened to 100% of the people we have ever known about.

2. Since there is absolutely no corroborating contemporary evidence from the time I find that anyone taking a position on whether this tomb is Jesus of Nazareth or not is making a fool of him or herself. The honest answer is: we don't know.

I wish pundits like yourself would exercise some intellectual honesty and just state the obvious which is: I don't know, let's take a closer look and we can choose to believe it or not.

But to dismiss some physical evidence while believing in supernatural events without any physical evidence strikes me as self delusional and ultimately dishonest.

One theme of all of my work in this area (and something I say on an interview I taped for CNN that will be airing at 11 pm on Friday night) is that struggling with questions of faith is a wonderful part of being human. In fact, it may be the ultimate aim of being human. I am thinking of when Jacob is coming back from Mesopotamia and wrestles with God in Genesis. At the end, God leaves a mark on Jacob’s leg, suggesting that we experience God not by talking with him, seeing him, smelling him, or hearing him. But by walking with him. Then God changes Jacob’s name to Israel, which means, literally, “One who strives with God.” Considering that Israel becomes the destination for the Five Books at least, the destination becomes the place where we struggle.

So, to answer the first point, I welcome an inquiry that ends with “I don’t know.” Many of the conversations with archaeologists that appear in my books end with similar notions. I’m thinking of one with Hanan Eschel in ABRAHAM that ends with his talking about having humility in matters of faith.

That’s precisely what’s not going on with Simcha Jacobovichi and James Cameron. They call their show “The Lost Tomb of Jesus.” Not maybe. Not possibly. But, “The Lost Tomb of Jesus.” They declare these boxes “The Greatest Archaeological Discovery of All Time.” There is not a single archaeologist who agrees with them. NOT A SINGLE ONE. Even

the archaeologist who did the dig, who should have a vested interest in having his name attached to such a discovery, disagrees.

In criticizing this project, I am not passing judgment on whether there was a resurrection or not. Having not walked this part of the Bible, I’ve not really grappled with this question. And I don’t believe I’ve been asked in any of the dozen interviews I’ve done on this topic this week whether I believe Jesus experienced a physical resurrection. I’ve been asked about their claim that their evidence PROVES he was buried in this tomb, PROVES he was married to Mary Magdalene, and PROVES they sired a son together. Their research hardly proves the first (it just comes up with the odds, 600-1, that it might be him); it doesn't even attempt to prove the second claim (it says only that the bones of “Jesus” and the bones of the one of the “Marys” don’t share a mother; they have no proof they ever met, no proof they are the same age, no proof they had a relationship, and no proof they ever had children); and their research doesn't even address the question of whether they had a child (they didn't even test the DNA of the supposed son, they claim). In other words, THEY HAVE NO PROOF. They just have statistical equations. I simply don’t agree that pointing out that they have no proof of their claims is dishonest. I’m not saying I know. I’m just saying that they haven’t proved that they know.

And remember, they didn't even do this research to begin with. Someone else did – 27 years ago. Those images of them carrying burial boxes from caves are all a setup. Simcha is just a journalist who reinterpreted someone else’s work. Fair enough, but then to make these grand claims is odd. Unless you look at their history, which is what’s interesting and little discussed here. Simcha writes in his book about his work on the James ossuary a few years ago, in which he and his colleagues claimed they had made “the greatest archaeological discovery in history.” (The same words they're using now.) The Israel Antiquities Authority now says that's a forgery. The man who discovered it is now on trial.

It’s beginning to sound familiar now isn't it.

And that’s the point. You have to remember that dozens of tombs have been found in this one neighborhood that have burial boxes with the name of Jesus on them. I, and the others who are criticizing this charade, are not passing judgment on whether they are the Jesus of Nazareth described in the Bible. You want it; you got it: We don’t know. And we don’t know about this claim one either. But for two people – one of whom is an investigative reporter, the other of whom is a film director – to claim that they of all the people in the world know is, as I said to Simcha the other day, irresponsible at best and tawdry at worst. Sorry, but I don’t believe that calling this exercise for what it is rises to the level of what you call “self-delusional and dishonest.” If anything, I think the events of the last week have shown the power of the Internet to insert honesty back into the conversation.

Labels: Biblical Archaeology

Posted by B Feiler at 7:06 AM
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