Lost Tomb of Jesus

Lots to talk about. Had a great week at the Westar Spring Meeting. More on that later. Of course we need to talk about the "bone box" of Jesus and his family. Tonight at 9 p.m. on the Discovery Channel, you will want to see The Lost Tomb of Jesus. At 11 p.m. Ted Koppel provides a critical review. James Tabor, whom I blogged about earlier, is featured in this documentary. You can read a response by James Tabor to one of his critics on his blog today.

The Westar Fellows are not impressed with the ossuary and the implications that it can be traced to Jesus or the family of Jesus. It isn't because they think that Jesus didn't die and decay like everyone else, but the chances of these particular names going back to an historical person is highly unlikely. However, in the spirit of open-mindedness check out the show tonight, and make your own determination if the archeological methods and conclusions that have been used meet the rigors of scholarship. In other words, do the conclusions give the most historically probable explanation of the evidence?

For the sake of argument, what if we found the body (or bones, DNA, whatever) of Jesus? What would that do for Christianity? I started that discussion on my first post, What if We Found the Body of Jesus? on this blog. We will continue that discussion.

Tomorrow I will offer more thoughts on the bone box and summarize the Westar Spring meeting. While I was away, Bono and his faithful human, Brewster arrived in Johnson City! Here are the strips from Thursday and Friday. Click to enlarge.



Be sure to check out Walking Across Tennessee (America) all week!