The Jesus Family Tomb

It recently has been said that the Jesus and his "family" have been found in a tomb in Jerusalem. The tomb supposedly contains the remains of Mary Magdalene, Joseph, Judah (who is supposed to be the son of Jesus and Mary Magdalene), and Matthew.

It is interesting how every year at about this time the Discovery channel and liberal media try and lob stones at Christianity. To do this, they think they have to go after Jesus.

I am just curious - why is Jesus always the the cause of controversy? Why not Mohamed? His followers have run a plane into the World Trade Center, and are currently committing suicide while murdering thousands of innocent people. Maybe it's because Islam is a religion of "peace?" One thing Mohamed and the liberals have in common is that they discredit the bodily resurrection of the Savior of the world, Jesus Christ.

On the other hand, if you want to be believe that Jesus was buried and did not rise, why would Jesus be in a tomb with all these others? Jesus really was crucified. Jesus' disciples, the Romans, the Jews, and Josephus (a 1st century Jewish historian) admit this. So lets say Jesus was buried in Jerusalem. It's kind of funny to think that Joseph, Mary Magdalene, Matthew (the tax collector) and Judah (whoever he is) were all buried in the same place! And now in the year 2007 we've discovered this! What's funny is that the liberals try and take something out of Scripture to support that Jesus had a son named Judah. Why don't they believe what the Scriptures say about the resurrection! Jesus Christ has risen! He appeared to Peter, to all the disciples, to more then 500 people, to James, and then to Paul. And these disciples who once were direction less and scattered, began to preach the gospel fearlessly. Paul used to persecute Christians and approved the stoning of Stephen. What caused him to go plant churches in eastern and western Europe and to write the Bible? The testimony to Jesus' resurrection is strong. History would not have progressed the way it has if Jesus did not rise from the dead. Christianity would not have even begun if Christ did not rise from the dead. We, as spiritually reborn Christians, would not be who God has made us today if Christ did not rise from the dead. And further, God would be a liar if Jesus was not raised from the dead.

In conclusion, there is no separate DNA sample to test the remains in the tomb. Jesus, or anyone related to him are not present today for us to do scientific analysis. The fact that there is remains with questionable inscriptions proves nothing. The most DNA evidence can do for this tomb is show that some of these people are related. Ben Witherington, Bible scholar has also noted, "In addition mitacondrial DNA does not reveal genetic coding or XY chromosome make up anyway. They would need nuclear DNA for that in any case. So the DNA stuff is probably thrown in to make this look more like a real scientific fact. Not so much."

Further, just because there are questionable inscriptions with the names of Joshua and (Jesus) Joseph does not prove anything, since those were some of the most common names of that time. Witherington says, "This is the modern equivalent of finding adjacent tombs with the names Smith and Jones."

For a more detailed analysis, Dr. Jeffrey Kloha, Professor of Exegetical Theology at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri has a very insightful response here:

http://www.csl.edu/NewsDetail.aspx?newsId=75