Jesus' bones?
By now, you have probably already heard about this, but, on Monday morning, Mr. Incredible was watching The Today Show when one segment talked about an archaeological discovery made in 1980 in Talpiot, Israel. Apparently, a tomb was discovered that some are now claiming to be Jesus’ family tomb. Inside were ossuaries bearing the following inscriptions: Yeshu Ben Yossef (Jesus son of Joseph), Yehuda Bar Yeshu (Judah son of Jesus), Martha, Mariamene (purported to mean Mary Magdalene), and Myriam (Mary).
James Cameron, director of the movie Titanic, has produced a documentary and co-authored a book about this discovery. Both movie and book are titled The Jesus Family Tomb. While claims are being made that this is actually the family tomb containing the bones of Jesus, interviews with other archaeologists and scholars revealed that the names found in the ossuaries were common Jewish names during those times and that the assumption that this is Jesus’ family tomb is both highly unlikely and coincidental. (Interestingly enough, a previously discovered ossuary called the James Ossuary was touted as the resting place of James, one of Jesus' half-brothers. The artifact itself was genuine, but the inscription on the box has since been determined to be a fake.)
While I am confident that further research will prove that this is, in fact, neither Jesus’ tomb nor His bones (for He rose from the dead and now lives in Heaven), I can see how this would make a great movie. Picture it – a movie about the “real” life of Jesus in which He is in love with Mary Magdalene and has a son by her. I even have a title for this movie: The Da Vinci Code. Oh, wait! That movie has already been made!