The Lost Tomb?

If you haven't already heard...The Discovery Channel aired a TV special last night called "The Lost Tomb of Jesus," a documentary made by Jewish film maker Simcha Jacobovici and Titanic director James Cameron.

The Facts:
In 1980 a tomb was discovered in Talpiot inside of modern Jerusalem that contained 10 ossuaries or bone boxes. Six ossuaries had names carved on them with the following names:

1. Jesus Son of Joseph
2. Mary-written in Aramaic
3. Mary-written in Greek as Mariamne
4. Jose- a 'rare' nickname for Joseph
5. Matthew
6. Judah son of Jesus

The filmmakers claim that this tomb is the resting place of Jesus of Nazareth and contained Jesus' remains, his DNA, the remains of his wife Mary Magdalene and his son Judah.

Theological Implications:
To be honest here...if these findings proved to be true then we might as well drop the faith and start over because Christianity as we know it would be over. The whole measure of Christianity hinges on the belief that Jesus Christ died and was resurrected from the dead. If his remains are in a tomb somewhere then he was not the Messiah and was not raised from the dead.


Thoughts and more reading:
I find this type of research and archeology very interesting and feel that as Christians we should engage ourself into the academic and archaeological studies on the person of Jesus. I believe that as more research and studies are completed, more evidence will actually point to the truth of Jesus Christ and not lead us away from it. That is the case with this film if we look at all of the facts and not just the skewed bias of a Jewish filmmaker with a personal agenda (but what filmmaker doesn't have a bias or personal agenda). The documentary is very well made and well worth watching. Much like the Da Vinci Code, it makes for great entertainment but is historically wrong, with as much evidence in opposition to the claim as there is presented in the film. Below I'll list a few links to sources I've found that seem to have credible info on the topic.

Links:
Discovery Channel Site on Tomb

The Lost Tomb Documentary Official Site

Extreme Theology Article (Critique of Documentary)

Podcast Rebuttal to Documentary

PowerPoint Presentation to Accompany Podcast



What are you thoughts on the documentary? Feel free to share.