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The Writings of Pastor James Sanders
Used By Permission |
"For I am afflicted and needy, and my heart is wounded within me." (Psalm 109:22)
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The Writings of Pastor James Sanders
Used By Permission |
"For I am afflicted and needy, and my heart is wounded within me." (Psalm 109:22)
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Once More
Secular Television Attempts to Discredit Christianity Archeologist Simcha Jacobovici, host of the History Channel’s “Naked Archeologist”, is the star of the film. He has studied the remains of a first century tomb discovered in 1980 in which was found 11 ossuaries or “bone boxes” which have names inscribed on them similar to the names of people identified with Jesus in the New Testament. The name “Yeshua, Son of Yoseph” appears on one of the bone boxes. “Yeshua,” the Aramaic name for “Jesus,” would have been the name used for Jesus among first century Jews who spoke Aramaic. Additionally, a box was found for “Yoseph” (Joseph), for “Maria” (Mary), and another box for “Mariamne.” Jacobovici maintains that Mariamne could very well refer to Mary Magdalene, because of information contained in a fourth century manuscript called the “Acts of Philip” which ascribes that name to the same Mary Magdalene who was known to be a follower of Jesus. Jacobovici’s team found a box with one more inscription “Judah the Son of Yeshua.” The archeologist insists that Jesus could very well have been married to Mary Magdalene, and they could have had a son named Judah. There were no bones left in any of the boxes. However, Jacobovici extracted minute fragments of DNA from some of the boxes. He has discovered that the DNA from the “Jesus” box and that from the “Mariamne” box show that the two individuals were not blood related. Therefore, he believes the two of them were probably husband and wife. The occurrence of these names on ossuaries all found in one single tomb are strong evidence, he believes, that they refer to the same Jesus of the New Testament. Also a box containing the name “Matia” or “Matthew” was also in the tomb. Once again, a grand attempt is being made to besmirch the truth of Christianity, simply for the purpose of making money. The information described in the previous paragraph will sound quite convincing as presented in the Discovery Channel documentary. However, few people will realize just how full of holes the entire theory is, separate and aside from the fact that it completely contradicts the Bible. First of all, the names “Yeshua,” “Yoseph,” “Maria,” and “Judah” were extremely common names in first century Palestine. The names are so common, in fact, that 7 different ossuaries have already been discovered with the same inscription “Yeshua, the Son of Yoseph.” If any one of them were meant to contain the bones of Jesus of Nazareth, antiquities experts have insisted that it would never have contained simply the words “Jesus, Son of Joseph,” but would have said much more, given the notoriety of Jesus Christ. Dr. Paul Maier, professor of Ancient History, has estimated that as many as 25% of first century Jewish women had the name “Mary.” All of these names have been found on many different ossuaries or bone boxes by archeologists for centuries. Several historical scholars have run statistical analyses on the occurrence of the names on the ossuaries, all in one tomb, and they have amply demonstrated that there is an extremely low probability that the names must match with the names mentioned in the gospel accounts. The fact that the DNA in the “Yeshua” box and that in the “Maria” box don’t come from the same family in no way proves that the two of them were married. The bottom line is: there is no way that the Jacobovici’s “Lost Tomb of Jesus” could truly relate to Jesus Christ. It is firmly substantiated that the names were all so common they could have referred to perhaps many other families. The precise combination of the names as mentioned in the Bible does not make sense regarding the grave site described here. For example, why would Matthew be buried in a grave with Jesus? Besides that, the grave site of James the brother of Jesus, has been traditionally known and ascribed for centuries. Why would Jesus and His brother James be buried in different tombs? The entire discussion is nonsense, even when you leave out the element of Christian faith. One cannot dare dismiss the truth of the gospel accounts with a spurious archeological oddity. The fact remains: Jesus Christ rose from the dead. He would have never had a bone box (?!), because His flesh never completely decayed from His bones, and He rose again without leaving any bones behind! So called scholars such as these would dare try to insinuate that the resurrection was merely a “resuscitation”, that Jesus never really died on the cross, and that He lived to be much older and died in late life. These are lies of Satan, of course, and the tremendous archeological, historical, circumstantial, and documentary evidence of the accuracy of New Testament history is overwhelming. Let us never be deceived by such hucksters! “But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.” (Galatians 1:8) James Sanders Pastor, sandersjc@yahoo.com
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