Jesus Family Tomb In the News

Opinions on Jesus Tomb Linked to Views of Resurrection
03/31/2007

A recent study found that individuals’ attitudes on the Jesus family tomb are connected to their interpretation on the resurrection of Jesus.

While individuals who believe that the resurrection was both physical and spiritual reject the tomb finding for obvious reasons, others believe that the first-century tomb rediscovered by Simcha Jacobovici and his team does not contradict their faith because they believe that Jesus’ resurrection was spiritual and therefore the rediscovery of the tomb holding Jesus’ remains is of no consequence to their religious beliefs.

In an informal survey conducted by the Kansas City Star, 79% of participants stated that they believed Jesus’ resurrection was physical; 73% believed that the Jesus tomb had not been found. Moreover, seventy-three percent of the study’s participants stated that their faith would not be affected if it was definitively proven that the tomb contains the remains of Jesus.

Marcus Borg, religion and culture professor at Oregon State University, believes that the claims made in the Lost Tomb of Jesus documentary hold more weight than the stories found in the Bible, which he feels leave room for interpretation.

“In the New Testament itself, it is clear that the resurrected Jesus is not a body of flesh and blood,” Borg states. “Even if one takes the stories literally, the risen Christ can pass through walls and appear and then vanish and can be walked with without being recognized. So whatever the risen body is like, it is not a flesh-and-blood body.”

The story found in the Bible of the empty tomb might well be a parable of the resurrection, Borg states. The parable of this story is that Jesus has risen “[I]ts point is, you won’t find Jesus in the land of the dead. This is basically what the angel says to the women, ‘Why do you seek the living among the dead?’”

John Dominic Crossan, professor emeritus of religion studies at DePaul University, believes that finding the bones of Jesus is inconsequential. “Finding the bones of Jesus would not disturb my faith, but finding they bore no wounds, ah, that would be another matter.”

At the end of the Lost Tomb of Jesus documentary, Britt Minshall, theologian and Baltimore pastor, said, “Each person has to ask, ‘What is important for me?’ For me, it goes back to the hill of Calvary, where he died on the cross for me. Nothing else matters.”
Source: Kansas City Star

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