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Brother of Jesus - Nutters
Posted by Jeff (Saturday January 01 2005 @ 08:35PM EST)
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Christianity Today cited the artifact as "stunning new evidence that Jesus lived." Apologetics Press was more cautious. While the artifact remains unathenticated, they could "state dogmatically that the name of Jesus Christ refuses to vanish into obscurity." Christian Steps called it "possible archaelogical proof of the existence of Jesus." World Peace contemplated DNA extraction. If genetic material could be pulled from the object, then the racial identity of Jesus could be determined. Beakesm3 cited it as independent verification of Christ the Lord.
So what's all the hub-bub, bub? A burial box surfaced from the hands of an Isreali collector. It surfaced without a known history; nobody knows where it spent the last two thousand years. Much ado was caused by an arameic inscription on the side of the box. "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus." Never mind that "brother of Jesus" appears in slightly different script. Forget that scholars had not been granted adequate access to the artifact. Many Christians were prepared to cite this box as evidence, independent of the Bible, that Jesus was not the product of an overactive imagination. Personally I have heard more than one Christian cite this artifict as "proof."
Here's the thing. Last week the Israeli government issued indictments based on accusations of fraud. Four collectors face charges related to bilking museums with faked antiquities. The bone box was among the items listed as forgeries. Gullible people are worse than Cardinals' fans. They're wrong time and time again but they keep coming back for more. Listen, if Jesus is your Savior, then you don't need archeological evidence. You don't need "proof." Enjoy your personal relationship and stop diving face first into the shallow end. Frankly it's painful to watch.
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Enlighten me, Marge
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The most formidable weapon against errors of any kind is reason.
-- Thomas Paine
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We Did Our Job!
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