"These filmmakers, who have an obvious bias against Christianity, say the evidence in this case rests on the names inscribed on the coffins and DNA testing. First, the names Jesus, Mary, Joseph and the others they will site, were some of the most common for that region at that time. Second, there are no known descendants of Mary alive today, so what does DNA have to do with it?

Didn't they manage to get DNA from the Shroud of Turin?

Not that the Shroud is without controversy, but whatever.

This thread should warm up the Northerners.

Unright: Didn't they manage to get DNA from the Shroud of Turin?

I'm pretty sure that the Shroud has been shown to be from Turkey in the 11th century. Also, even if it was Jesus's shroud, any DNA on the item could've come from some priest with a recently popped blister 1000 years later.

There is no way this can be proved. Common names, DNA is worthless without something to compare it to, etc.

/not christian, but i'm sure a "OMG WE CHRISTIANS ARE SO PERSECUTED" flamewar is incoming.

Some of these comments are scary.

"This saddens me, but at the same time brings a little smirk to my face....because all of you non-believers are going to be SOOOOOO......sorry when the end comes! Because it will be all who believe in Jesus Christ that will no doubt be having the last laugh. So go ahead and make your blasphemous movies and garbage and make some money off of it but let me say this....you can't spend any of that money in HELL!"

"Most liberals are angry, unhappy and depressed. They will find out when they die and are Judged by the one true GOD, JESUS CHRIST, that Jesus is alive and well."

"Anyone who has done the study with an open mind can see the evidence for the Resurrection. While not airtight, it is sufficient for any court of law in this nation. (With the exception of the 9th Circuit...:-)"

"Memo to Cameron: Seriously recommend you consider repenting before it is too late. Oscars will be a poor shield against Divine Judgment and hell-fire."

"What do you expect from a 33rd Degree Mason like Cameron?

http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/33rd.htm"

"I've already advised the Discovery Channel that if they air this I will cancel my subscription....they should be lucky that I don't strap explosives around my waste."

-----

This one post is interesting, if true:

"1. The earliest known copy of the New Testament archaelogists have discoverd is dated around 130 AD...shortly after we had approximately 25,000 copies in existence that archaelogists have found.

2. Caesar's Wars written between 100-44 BC - the earliest copy we can date is 900AD and we only have 10 copies.

3. Tacitus' Annals written in 100AD - with an earliest known copy found in 1,100 AD and we have 20 copies

4. Plato's Tetrologies written between 427 - 347 BC - earliest known copy 900AD and we have 7 copies.

5. Aristotle - any one work written between 384-322BC. Earliest known copy 1,000AD and we only have 5."

that banner at the top of the page really needs a jackalope.

maybe next to the hovering cross.

elchip: This one post is interesting, if true

As far as I know, that's true.

Homer's Iliad is our second most populous set of surviving manuscripts, most from the Renaissance period.

I'll bet Jesus could find Sara Conner

"Thinking people should take this announcement with a grain of salt."

I am dubious about the dates on the headstone: 6 B.C. to 33 A.D.

Something about that doesn't quite sound right.

Di Caprio should be capable to play as dead Jesus in the follow up movie.

elchip

Actually, I'll correct it before somebody else does: There was nothing called "the New Testament" until a few hundred years later. However, instances of people citing texts later compiled into the New Testament show up about that early in the writings of church leaders whose dates of death are fairly accurately known. I believe Matthew has the earliest citation of any of the Gospel books and that Paul's writings also had a following by that point.

130 AD is about the latest date most scholars are willing to ascribe to the Gospel of John, as well.

First, the names Jesus, Mary, Joseph and the others they will site, were some of the most common for that region at that time.

Yeah, but how many families had the last name 'Christ' ?

There's a better article here:

http://web.israelinsider.com/Articles/Culture/10764.htm

It says that the DNA tests show that the remains were all family members, that's it.

What the film makers are trying to proove is that the 10 coffins of a single family from the time of Herod are the ones everyone have been looking for.

We'll have to see what the documentery / book says to see the evidence for ourselves.

D'oh. I referenced a forum because I confused this with a different article on the same subject. The forum in question:

http://time-blog.com/middle_east/2007/02/jesus_tales_from_the_crypt.html

Reactron: Yeah, but how many families had the last name 'Christ' ?

Zero.

goeniegoegoe: Di Caprio should be capable to play as dead Jesus in the follow up movie.

He's certainly pale enough.

Trelane: What the film makers are trying to proove is that the 10 coffins of a single family from the time of Herod are the ones everyone have been looking for.

The "time of Herod" is about 40-50 years long.

oldebayer: I am dubious about the dates on the headstone: 6 B.C. to 33 A.D.

It would mean that both ancient and modern historians have been suspiciously accurate in estimating the length of Jesus's life.

Trelane: It says that the DNA tests show that the remains were all family members, that's it.

Well, that kind of screws the theory that "Mary" is the wife of "Jesus", doesn't it?

oldebayer, Reactron:

Thank you for the laughs.

ThatDevGuy:

Jesus and Mary Magdelene could be proven to be related through a son, if there is one. I think that's what they're saying.

Reactron: Yeah, but how many families had the last name 'Christ' ?

ok, that made me chortle.

Trelane: Jesus and Mary Magdelene could be proven to be related through a son, if there is one.

That makes more sense.

I'm curious why James Cameron feels that, of the millions of people who lived in that area during the time in question, one family of ten with common names, buried in their family tomb, is obviously the family of Jesus of Nazareth. I'm also suspicious about the number of women buried in the tomb. Generally, marriagable women were married off almost as soon as they were able to bear children.

I'm also curious why it took archaeologists almost 20 years to translate the writing on the coffins, as it says in the article that elchip cites. I remember a similar set of coffins (or perhaps the same ones?) mentioned several years ago. Authors wrote then that any Hebrew elementary school student could read the text.

I don't need some bullsh*t media hoax to convince me that Jesus isn't real, Christianity itself does a fine job of making that case.

Making controversial claims about a religion? Well, there's certainly no profit in that.

lemme guess: they'll take a can-opener to jeebus' coffin and find nothing but alfredo sauce residue.

ThatDevGuy - Millions, really? All in Jerusalem? I'd be curious what the statistics are for the 50 year span apparently in question. How many people were alive during that time, and how common were the names in question?

Seems unlikely there'd be many families with that set of names during that time in that city. How many groups would you estimate exist?

I know what they're thinking. Marilyn Monroe, Camelot, Knights of the Round Table, "All for one and one for all."

Amanda Ziller is not impressed.

<img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0553349481.01._SS500_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jp g" alt="ec1.images-amazon.com" width="500" height="500">

Mel Gibson is going to be pissed.

How long before I can bid for them on ebay? I need a new coffee table.

cameron is NOT a 33rd Degree Mason

Just pray that it's true.

It's him alright.

By the way, for all you doubters Jesus was very real. Not sure about that whole son of God thing, but he's well documented as having lived.

Why do the Jews have to ruin it for the Christians? The Jews are like the guy at the David Copperfield show who has to ruin it for everyone by yelling out how the trick was performed.

Anyway, I'm no Bible scholar but do they really contend that Jebus' actual body was re-animated as opposed to his soul rising to the heavens? Because if it was the former then they have a word for that (see the collected works of George Romero).

In closing, if we do get Christ DNA, clone that biatch, Kahless style.

I thought James Cameron was in Hawaii filming his new SCI-FI epic AVATAR... did they get this story off the internets? Say from the Onion site maybe... guess we will find out on Monday lol.

mfaby: "cameron is NOT a 33rd Degree Mason"

Some conspiracy nut on the Web said it, so it must be true.

uhhhhh, the nail holes is what Scraggy would call a "clue"

oldebayer: I am dubious about the dates on the headstone: 6 B.C. to 33 A.D.

It would mean that both ancient and modern historians have been suspiciously accurate in estimating the length of Jesus's life.

That's not quite what it would mean.

Think about it.

Irregardless: By the way, for all you doubters Jesus was very real. Not sure about that whole son of God thing, but he's well documented as having lived.

Wow, do you want a cookie? I can drive down to the county lock-up and produce a dozen Jesii. If I have time to get to the rich neighborhoods I could round up another half dozen mowing lawns. They might not be able to rise form the dead but they can drop the ass on an El Camino.

Ever wonder what the H stood for in Jesus H. Christ? Hallmark, because God cared enough to send the very best.

/Sorry, had to.

FTA:

Second, there are no known descendants of Mary alive today, so what does DNA have to do with it?

Alot, really, if it's a family tomb. Let's say you have a coffin that says "Jesus" (I don't know how to spell it, but it'd be YAY-SHU-AH in Arameic, the language of that region at the time), and you test it against the contents of coffins labled "Mary" and "Joseph." Son, Mother, Father. DNA CAN prove that much. It's how all the idiot teenage moms on Maury find out who the father is.

Either it's an astounding coincidence that another Mary and Joseph had a son they named Jesus, or we have our proof that Joseph was, indeed the father, and not some fairty tale deity.

I hope this works out for Cameron and crew, because there's nothing I'd like to see happen more than the entire Christian establishment come crashing down after it's exposed for the BS lie that it is...

I work for the son of God, so I'm really getting a kick out of most of these replies...

/actually I temp for the Holy Ghost, but it's basically the same gig

Mugato: They might not be able to rise form the dead but they can drop the ass on an El Camino.

And they make a mean pizza, too. We've got a Jesus down at Brother's Pizza on Front Street in Philipsburg, PA, and let me tell you this: that crazy Mexican can make a damn fine Sicillian pizza...

This is the same guy, Professor Amos Kloner, who said he found the burial box with the inscription "James, Brother of Jesus". Turned out to be a fraud. He said that the dates were wrong because his mother cleaned the inscription with some sort of chemical cleaner. Why is Cameron working with this guy, when Amos is a proven fraud?

It's a sign of the End Times. Be strong, keep the faith.

Mugato

Irregardless: By the way, for all you doubters Jesus was very real. Not sure about that whole son of God thing, but he's well documented as having lived.

Wow, do you want a cookie? I can drive down to the county lock-up and produce a dozen Jesii. If I have time to get to the rich neighborhoods I could round up another half dozen mowing lawns. They might not be able to rise form the dead but they can drop the ass on an El Camino.

I'm talking about the guy that changed the course of history ass_hat. Again, not saying he was anything more than a man but he sure shook the world.

Looks like they found the box for the apocalypse, If that is him and his ma. Think god might be a weee bit pissed that there gonna open those boxes.
/not that I care
//being jewish and all

Irregardless: By the way, for all you doubters Jesus was very real. Not sure about that whole son of God thing, but he's well documented as having lived.

If by well documented you mean texts written a hundred years after his supposed death and later inserts into Roman texts that were obviously not written by the original author.

"...they should be lucky that I don't strap explosives around my waste."

Yes, we're lucky, but for a completely different reason than the original poster intended...