The Tomb of Jesus

Several years ago I had the wonderful opportunity to go to Israel and tour areas prominent in Scriptures. My favorite was Calvary and the Garden Tomb. Whether this really is or isn't the actual tomb where Jesus was laid doesn't really matter to me, but it fits the description. Made for one size person, then carved out for a much taller person, adjacent to a hill that had the appearance of a skull (Golgotha), outside the city gates, and more. The most wonderful part of it is that the tomb is empty. No one is buried there now. The body of Jesus lay in there for 3 days, then He arose, spent 40 days with His followers, then ascended into Heaven.

The reason for mentioning this, aside from the celebration of Easter this weekend, was from a TV interview I watched while in Toronto a couple of weeks ago. Have you heard about the "new" tomb of Jesus recently discovered? The one with the ossuaries in it? The ossuaries had names carved on them -- Joseph, Jesus, Maria and a smaller one, presumably for a child named Judah. The story (carried as a movie on the Discovery channel) was that a new tomb had been discovered and that it appeared that Jesus, his Dad Joseph, his wife Mary and their son Judah had been buried there.

They even did DNA tests on the "dust" found in the ossuaries and found that the DNA of Jesus was similar to that of Joseph, but not similar to Maria. And the DNA of Judah was similar to Mary's, but not the others.

The theory of this is that due to the names involved, found someplace in Israel, is that Jesus really was married to Mary and they had a little boy, all of whom died or were killed, then buried in this tomb.

Isn't it interesting that nearly every year around Easter someone comes out with another theory about how the Bible can't be believed? Last year it was the Da Vinci Code, a poorly made movie based on a pretty good novel. (Does anyone know the definition of "novel"? It's a made up story, not based on true events). That one died out pretty fast. The current one will die out even faster.

Here's the interesting part. The man making the claims is not an archeologist. He is not a scientist. And he certainly isn't a theologian. He claims none of these titles. He is a Statistician. That's someone who studies the statistics of the circumstance and makes conclusions. Of course he is well into his presentation before he acknowledges his role. He says he has "no axe to grind concerning religion, but only wants to establish facts.

His claim is that the odds of having one family with those names make it highly likely that this really is the tomb and burial place of Jesus. And after reading much of his material, this comes down to being the basis of his claim.

Sorry but I have to disagree with his conclusion. I too work with statistics. And I know that it requires knowing more about your subject. The name Mary, or Maria, is one of the most common (popular) names among followers of Jesus, especially in the Middle East and in Spanish areas.

I had an employee in Minneapolis named Mohammed. Many muslim men carry that name. In fact, this employee had 5 brothers and all of them and their dad were named Mohammed. I asked him how they communicated in at home, noting that someone better respond when Mama called "Hey, Mohammed"! He said they went by their middle names, but that all men in his family were named Mohammed.

Yeshua was a very popular name in ancient times. It was correctly translated "Jesus", but also correctly translated "Joshua", the deliverer. And of course, Judah was also a very popular name. So the matter of having those 3 names in one family was not unique at all.

One more note and then I'll end this long note: As noted above, there was no archeology, no science, no theology --- and no bones in the ossuaries. Just empty boxes with a small amount of dust. So don't get too concerned about the "facts" that come out in the media each year.

Trust the Word of God. And let's celebrate. Because the tomb really is empty!