by Joe Wrighter

Created on: March 04, 2007   Last Updated: May 09, 2007

Hollywood director/producer James Cameron's documentary on the discovery of a tomb that may have contained Jesus and his family must be evaluated with skepticism. For those unfamiliar with the documentary, it aired on the Discovery Channel on March, 4, 2007, is hosted by Simcha Jacobovici, and asserts that the bone boxes contained not only the body of Jesus and his family, but also Mary Magdalene. The claims are very controversial, since most christians believe that Jesus rose from the dead and ascended into heaven as the Bible says. Additionally, the idea that Jesus possibly married Mary Magdalene, as the tomb discovery would indicate, is very upsetting to church leaders and considered unbiblical.

"The Jesus Family Tomb" was made primarily by documentarian Jacobovici. Many critics have accused Jacobovici of being a sensationalist, Indiana Jones-wannabe, and not a legitimate investigative reporter. When he made the presentation of two of the stone caskets to the media, Jacobovici said, "For millions of readers, the Da Vinci Code was a fantasy, a fiction. Here is a Judah, the son of Jesus, next to Jesus and a Mariamme". Indeed, the timing of the film's release has to raise some suspician, as it comes out less than a year after the mega-hit "The Da Vinci Code" was in theaters. "The Da Vinci Code" also made claims that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married and probably had children together.

This is one of the reasons that some have accused the makers of "The Jesus Family Tomb" of creating the film as a profitable publicity stunt. Many scholars and archeologists have questioned the validity of the claims made by the film, and some have gone so far as to denounce them altogether. The fact that the tomb was actually unearthed in 1980 and is just now receiving large amount of publicity has many skeptics raising their eyebrows.

Though the names on the tombs were very common in Jesus' day, Jacobovici and Cameron argue that oddsmakers show the probability of all of them being found together and being a different family from that mentioned in the Bible is very low. However, some scholars point out that the ancient semitic script is very hard to interpret and there are multiple variations of the names. Thus, the evidence presented in the documentary is not likely to be conclusive by any means.

For most christians, this film probably will not affect their faith. And for those who oppose christianity, the film will continue to poke holes in a religion they would like to see fail. In other words, it's totally open to interpretation, and how one interprets it will probably be determined before they actually view it.

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