“The Lost Tomb of Jesus” is a documentary that will be coming out March 4th on the Discovery Channel. It has been discussed of late on the blogosphere in noteworthy places such as Scot McKnight’s Blog, Jesus Creed. He notes that Ben Witherington also posted on the documentary here. And the iMonk also joined the fracas. All of these have a great discussion going in their comment sections and citations to other bits of information.
In a News article critical of the documentary I read tonight I felt like these words summed up some of my initial thoughts, admittedly coming without much information about the whole brouhaha:
In 1996, when the British Broadcasting Corp. aired a short documentary on the same subject, archaeologists challenged the claims. Amos Kloner, the first archaeologist to examine the site, said the idea fails to hold up by archaeological standards but makes for profitable television.
“They just want to get money for it,” Kloner said.
William Dever, an expert on near eastern archaeology and anthropology, who has worked with Israeli archeologists for five decades, said specialists have known about the ossuaries for years.
“The fact that it’s been ignored tells you something,” said Dever, professor emeritus at the University of Arizona. “It would be amusing if it didn’t mislead so many people.”
UPDATE: Wade Burleson posted early this morning/late last night on this as well here and Kevin Sanders, a missionary in the Philippines, posted a number of links with scientific and logical questions regarding the claims here.