I have been much distracted of late, concerning dark and heavy issues of personal and professional import. But then I saw this article in The New York Times and matters such as my life and its purpose beat an immediate retreat.
The much better parts of me shut out that futile crap for a bit and had a hoot and a deeply satisfying toot over a story more important than any other in our world at this moment; some two-thousand western-civilization years, tears, jeers, cheers, jillions of prayers, and more than a few genocides--some ongoing--after its archeologically proffered provenance.
Whatever the non-partisan consensus of biblical\archeological scholars and diggers in the end is, which we will not know any time soon, it is one hell of a good story about the climax and ending of "The Greatest Story Ever Told." I do not believe in the divinity of Jesus, but I most definitely believe that the historical Jesus--whom we recently know so much more about--this reformist Rabbi from the countryside of Israel, was the world's supreme moral philosopher.
That is why the armchair archeological devotee in me, and the big-picture contemporary social historian sleuth that is me, loves this article and envies all of you whom have access to The Discovery Channel, which my building at the university doesn't, damn it!
I will wait for the DVD; pirated most likely.
Crypt Held Bodies of Jesus and Family, Film Says
A documentary by the Discovery Channel claims to provide evidence that a crypt unearthed 27 years ago in Jerusalem contained the bones of Jesus of Nazareth.
Moreover, it asserts that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene, that the couple had a son, named Judah, and that all three were buried together.
The claims were met with skepticism by several archaeologists and New Testament scholars, as well as outrage by some Christian leaders. The contention that Jesus was married, had a child and left behind his bones -- suggesting he was not bodily resurrected -- contradicts core Christian doctrine.
Two limestone boxes said to contain residue from the remains of Jesus and Mary Magdalene were unveiled yesterday at a news conference at the New York Public Library by the documentary's producer, James Cameron, who made "Titanic" and "The Terminator." His collaborators onstage included a journalist, a self-taught antiquities investigator, New Testament scholars, a statistician and an archaeologist. Several of them said they were excited by the findings but uncertain.
"I would like more information. I remain skeptical," said the archaeologist, Shimon Gibson, a senior fellow at the W. F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem, in an interview after the news conference.
In recent years, audiences have demonstrated a voracious appetite for books, movies and magazines that reassess the life and times of Jesus, and there is already a book timed to coincide with this documentary, which will be on the air next Sunday.
"This is exploiting the whole trend that caught on with 'The Da Vinci Code,' " said Lawrence E. Stager, the Dorot professor of archaeology of Israel at Harvard, in a telephone interview. "One of the problems is there are so many biblically illiterate people around the world that they don't know what is real judicious assessment and what is what some of us in the field call 'fantastic archaeology.' "
Professor Stager said he had not seen the film but was skeptical.
Mr. Cameron said he had been "trepidatious" about becoming involved in the project but got engaged out of "great passion for a good detective story," not to offend and not to cash in.
"I think this is the biggest archaeological story of the century," he said. "It's absolutely not a publicity stunt. It's part of a very well-considered plan to reveal this information to the world in a way that makes sense, with proper documentation."
