“Jesus Tomb” Debate Gets Ugly Fast

Is there a BAR Crowd?

By Steven Feldman

March 16, 2007

You didn’t have to be a genius to know that the television program The Lost Tomb of Jesus would generate boatloads of debate and criticism. The show claims to have identified the ossuary (or bone box) of Jesus and his family; according to the program, the Jesus family tomb was discovered in 1980 in south Jerusalem and then ignored because the archaeologists who discovered it were oblivious to its significance. The show further suggests that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and that they had a son together named Yehuda (Judah or, ironically, Judas); joining Jesus in the tomb, the show continues, are the remains of Mary, the mother of Jesus, and Jose, a brother of Jesus according to the Gospel of Mark. As if those claims were not enough, the program also suggests that a controversial ossuary inscribed “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus,” was a tenth ossuary originally discovered in the tomb but then went missing, only to turn up in the possession of an antiquities collector (the inscription has been branded by some as either a complete or partial modern forgery).

With such dramatic claims—which many saw as a challenge to the very heart of Christian belief—the reaction was bound to be fierce. And it has been. Unfortunately, some of the reaction has also been nasty and threatening. The program was directed by Simcha Jacobovici, a Toronto-based filmmaker, and produced by James Cameron, famous for having directed Titanic. Also closely associated with the program is James Tabor, chairman of the religious studies department at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte; I have known Tabor for many years and consider him a friend. I have strong doubts about the program’s assertions, but I have no doubt that ugly personal attacks have no place in the discussion. No sooner had the program aired than I saw references to “Jews in Hollywood” once again trying to destroy Christian values. Cameron is a part of the film industry, of course, but he’s not Jewish (neither is Tabor), and the last time I looked at a map, Toronto and Charlotte were not in southern California.

Less ugly, though still barbed and personal, was the reaction by Joe Zias, a physical anthropologist who used to work for the Israel Antiquities Authority. In a posting on his web site, Zias strongly condemns the program and the people involved with it, including what he calls the “BAR crowd,” referring to Biblical Archaeology Review, which is published by the same organization that sponsors this Web site. In Zias’ words, this “crowd” “is a collection of individuals who have been deeply involved with BAR, mainly textual scholars who pose from time to time, when convenient, as archaeologists.”

Zias is thinking primarily of Jacobovici, Tabor and Shimon Gibson, all of whom were involved with the television program and who have had in the past a connection to BAR. Jacobovici directed a documentary about the James ossuary shortly after it was first described in the pages of BAR, and Tabor and Gibson have written for the magazine. But if Zias thinks that makes them a part of the “BAR crowd” or that we agree with their claims, he’s quite wrong.
BAR was very critical of an earlier program directed by Jacobovici called The Exodus Decoded. It claimed that a volcanic eruption of the Mediterranean island of Thera was the impetus for the Biblical Ten Plagues. BAR published a critical article about the show’s claims that was written by Manfred Bietak, who excavates in Egypt and who was interviewed for the program by Jacobovici. We also published a strongly negatively review, by Bible professor Ronald Hendel, on our Web site.

Tabor and Gibson appeared in BAR most recently to lay out their case that a cave they have excavated had been used by John the Baptist. But BAR had already reported, when Tabor and Gibson first announced their claim, that many archaeologists in Israel scoffed at the idea. Nor did Gibson fare any better in our review of his book on the subject. For that matter, Tabor’s book, The Jesus Dynasty, also received a critical review in BAR (going over this history, I’m impressed that Tabor has stayed friends with me!).

So there’s no “BAR crowd,” just scholars who have written for us in the past (such as Zias!), which includes many of the world’s leading archaeologists and Bible scholars. And, for Zias’ information, we had no involvement with The Lost Tomb of Jesus. The program can be challenged on many grounds (and it already has been), but keep the personal attacks and the misinformation out of the debate.