Tomb of Jesus Discovered?

[Jnyusa]

inconsistent lab results

Kushana, do you mean between the two different research teams?

It seemed to me that each team obtained internally consistent results, but that their results differed from one another. Of course, I'm not familiar with the field at all, and have to take this article totally at face value.

Jn

[Kushana]

You can follow the chemistry ping-pong match in these links:

http://www.bib-arch.org/bswbOOossuary_06reports.asp

http://www.bib-arch.org/bswbOOossuary_H ... stoJAS.pdf

http://www.bib-arch.org/bswbOOossuary_Cleansers.pdf

(I'm using BAS because they've kept an archive of the matter. )

My wobbly brain wants to say there was another lab report at the time of the Canadian report, but I can't track it down -- so it may just be my brain.

(The thing that annoys me are the claims that the forgery was easy to pull off -- yet no one has shown how it was done (or shown the epigraphic sources used) -- and I run across claims that looters, middle-men, and dealers (and perhaps collectors) would never manhandle an artifact by, say, cleaning it with powder cleanser or re-gouging the inscription with some sort of common, pointy implement. )

(Hm, the should watch Antiques Roadshow... the story of the woman who cleaned the Conqustador helmet with some kind of common lemon cleaner comes to mind. )

-Kushana

[Jnyusa]

That was an interesting read, Kushana. Biblical scholars are more ... blunt ... in their criticisms than economists are.

I had to chuckle at the collector who allowed his mother to clean the inscription. If my mother had done it, she would have used clorox.

It's rather amazing to me that anything is left of the inscription. Limestone is generally quite soft, isn't it?

Jn

[Crucifer]

Hmmm...
Seeing as christ was raised up into heaven, body and all, there cannot possibly any bones belonging to him in a tomb...

[Kushana]

Biblical scholars are more ... blunt ... in their criticisms than economists are.

I'm persuaded one can't enter the field without learning the art of the veiled personal insult, i.e.: "My esteemed co-presenter resembles the back end of a horse in his failure to notice x basic fact that undermines his entire talk, this evening."

It's rather amazing to me that anything is left of the inscription. Limestone is generally quite soft, isn't it?

I believe so: it 's a 3 on the Mohs scale.

-Kushana

[Kushana]

I've been reading too much Gospel of Mark, lately, Crucifer. Help me remember which passage this is from.

(Remember that historians must keep all possibilities in mind, even potentially blasphemous ones...)

-Kushana

[Crucifer]

I've been reading too much Gospel of Mark, lately, Crucifer. Help me remember which passage this is from.

Which passage what is from?

[Primula Baggins]

The ascension of Christ isn't mentioned in Matthew or John.

It's noted in Mark 16:19:

So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into Heaven and sat down at the right hand of God.

And in Luke 24:51:

While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven.

Crucifer, historians have to study sacred texts like other ancient writings. They can't afford to rule out a theory simply because the Bible disagrees with it (whatever their personal religious beliefs may be). It still needs objective testing.

John's got one of my very favorite verses right at the end (21:25):

But there are also many other things that Jesus did; if every one of them were written down, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.

Sounds like a tired writer on deadline to me. "I could say so much more! But I won't. The End."

[solicitr]

I'm sorry, but I automatically redflagged this whole thing as soon as it became clear that Cameron and TDC (which has also produced a lot of rubbish on the Templars and whatnot) pretty much bulldozed aside every accepted practice and standard of legitimate scholarship. "Just another bloody Roswell-crash piece" was my initial reaction. The use of chemists and statisticians and geneticists to give the thing a 'scientific' sheen to me is just eyewash, especially since their findings really prove nothing at all unless you start by feeding in some whopping assumptions.

My goodness, are there any names in 1stC Judaea *less* uncommon than Joseph, Mary, and Joshua?

If you really like puzzling over odd scientific findings, puzzle over the fact that the pollen on the Shroud of Túrin (firmly carbon-dated to the Middle Ages) belongs to spring-blooming flowers from northern Judaea.

[axordil]

If you really like puzzling over odd scientific findings, puzzle over the fact that the pollen on the Shroud of Túrin (firmly carbon-dated to the Middle Ages) belongs to spring-blooming flowers from northern Judaea.

Kingdom of Acre, perhaps? That gives you up to 1291.

[Crucifer]

I personally love John 1, 1-14. But this should really be in the bible translations, I suppose. I'm too lazy to move it now.

[Kushana]

Thank you, Primula Baggins, that's what I was trying to ask.

It's noted in Mark 16:19

Our earliest manuscripts of Mark end in the middle of a sentence at 16:8 ... this verse belongs to one of the three (if memory serves) different endings to Mark that have come down from antiquity.

This fact complicates what Mark wanted and meant to no end.

And in Luke 24:51

I knew I could rely Luke for that sort of thing -- he's very fond of the heavenly and miraculous.

Crucifer, historians have to study sacred texts like other ancient writings.

I couldn't have said it better, myself. (In fact, I probably would have droned on and on about it. )

John's got one of my very favorite verses right at the end (21:25) .... Sounds like a tired writer on deadline to me. "I could say so much more! But I won't. The End."

You're exactly right: most scholars think John 21 was added later by another hand (in part for just the reason you say.)

-Kushana

[Kushana]

I personally love John 1, 1-14. But this should really be in the bible translations, I suppose. I'm too lazy to move it now.

I often read it to check translations: ones that turn it into mush have fallen down on the job.

If you really like puzzling over odd scientific findings, puzzle over the fact that the pollen on the Shroud of Túrin (firmly carbon-dated to the Middle Ages) belongs to spring-blooming flowers from northern Judaea.

Scroll down in link:
http://www.freeinquiry.com/skeptic/shro ... loney.html

-Kushana