The Lost Tomb of Jesus

On Sunday, I started a new series at UPC on Reasons Not To Believe. My first message was on the controversial Discovery Channel documentary The Lost Tomb of Jesus (Executive Producer is James Cameron, who won an Oscar for his movie, Titanic. The Director is Emmy Award winning director, Simcha Jacobovici) and its companion book, The Jesus Family Tomb (by Simcha Jacobovici and Charles Pelligrino). While the book was poorly written, the documentary was produced very well. The filmmakers leave you with the impression that they have indeed found Jesus’ tomb and his remains.

When I first planned to do this message several weeks ago, the book was on the bestseller list and the documentary (which had not even been shown, yet) was causing quite a stir. It has been enjoyable to watch as this “controversial” project disintegrated so quickly. The debate ended before it started, primarily because most of the scholars who are quoted in the project have tried to distance themselves from it.

I have a couple of challenges in delivering a message like this one. First, it is difficult to make it a sermon rather than merely a lecture. The second challenge is that I have no way to footnote. So, below are some of the sources I used for this message. If you listened to my sermon and want to see the information for yourself, these would be good places to start.

• Article in the Jerusalem Post, Jesus tomb film scholars backtrack
• Cracks in the Foundation paper by Dr Pfann of the University of the Holy Land
• MARY MAGDALENE IS NOW MISSING by Dr Pfann
• Has the Tomb of Jesus Been Discovered? by Dr. Jodi Magness, Professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
• Dr. Andrey Feuerverger explanation of his use of statistics - note the assumptions he used in making his calculations
• "Together at Last?" by Joseph A. Fitzmyer, S.J., emeritus professor of biblical studies at Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C

Hope this helps those who have questions.