By Nick Norlen, Staff Writer
Taking the lead from Princeton Theological Seminary Professor James Charlesworth, a group of international scholars have joined a rebuttal of what they say are inaccurate press accounts of a January symposium in Jerusalem on a topic likely to cause controversy: a claim that the tomb of Jesus has been discovered.
The claim was originally the focus of a documentary by noted Hollywood director James Cameron which was aired by the Discovery Channel last year.
The program was met with both excitement and criticism for its suggestion that the family tomb of Jesus — Christianity’s central figure — had been discovered in the town of Talpiot in southeast Jerusalem in 1980.
The claim was supported by a statistical analysis asserting that the probability of the common names Mary, Joseph, and Jesus, son of Joseph, to all appear in the same tomb — as some say they do in Talpiot — is very low.
Just weeks ago, Professor Charlesworth was among the organizers of a symposium that evaluated the claim as part of a broader discussion of Jewish burial rituals.
During the conference, the possibility that the tomb was that of Jesus was disputed in a number of ways by various teams of experts, according to the letters signed by numerous scholars at the seminary Web site.
But according to those same scholars, some press accounts that followed the symposium — including reports widely aired on cable news networks — inaccurately portrayed the event as having lent credence to the conclusions reached in the Discovery Channel documentary.
In a signed posting on the seminary Web site at www.ptsem.edu, the symposium’s steering committee says that such reports couldn’t be further from the truth.
A recent article in Time magazine seemed to offer evidence of their charge, stating that “after three days of fierce debate, the experts remained deeply divided. Opinion among a panel of five experts was described as having ranged from ‘no way’ to ‘very possible.’”
”There was broad consensus among the vast majority of scholars in attendance, as Professor Charlesworth, the chairperson and chief organizer of the symposium, pointedly observes: ‘Most archaeologists, epigraphers, and other scientists argued persuasively that there is no reason to conclude that the Talpiot Tomb was Jesus’ tomb,’” the letter states. “Unfortunately, many of the initial reports in the press following the symposium gave almost the exact opposite impression.”
Seminary President Iain Torrance said Wednesday that the seminary’s posting of the letters was an attempt to clear up the issue.
”We are trying to bring calmness and clarity to an excited situation,” he said. “Comments on the Web site are definitive and my belief is that this will calm things down.”
The controversy is highly charged for Christians because claims that the Talpiot Tomb could have contained the bones of Jesus are an apparent challenge to Gospel accounts, which tell of Christ rising from the dead following his crucifixion and ascending to heaven in bodily form.
Dr. Torrance said he believes the inaccurate press accounts of the Jerusalem symposium were a product of “miscommunication.” Nevertheless, he pointed to a statement by Geza Vermes, a professor emeritus of Jewish studies at Oxford University, that he said makes the situation eminently clear.
”In my judgment, the arguments advanced in favor of the Talpiot burial chamber being the family tomb of Jesus of Nazareth are not just unconvincing but insignificant,” Mr. Vermes wrote. “Scholars being scholars, they were bound to ask for further research. However, as things are, the matter is and, short of substantial new discoveries, must remain closed.”
”Of course people are interested by what they see on the Discovery Channel,” Dr. Torrance said. “This is to present a different perspective.”
And it’s an informed one, he said.
”The people who have written on our Web site most definitely know what they’re talking about,” he added.
Professor Charlesworth, a Methodist minister, is in Jerusalem on sabbatical until April and was unavailable for comment. In the Time magazine story, he is quoted as saying that there would be a “mixed reaction” among Christians if the discovery of Christ’s tomb were ever validated.
”I don’t think it will undermine belief in the resurrection, only that Jesus rose as a spiritual body, not in the flesh,” he said, according to Time. “Christianity is a strong religion, based on faith and experience, and I don’t think that any discovery by archeologists will change that.”
