Jesus Tomb Film Scholars: "Well, um...that's not what I meant..."
From yesterday's Jerusalem Post:
Several prominent scholars who were interviewed in a bitterly contested documentary that suggests that Jesus and his family members were buried in a nondescript ancient Jerusalem burial cave have now revised their conclusions, including the statistician who claimed that the odds were 600:1 in favor of the tomb being the family burial cave of Jesus of Nazareth, a new study on the fallout from the popular documentary shows.
The dramatic clarifications, compiled by epigrapher Stephen Pfann of the University of the Holy Land in Jerusalem in a paper titled "Cracks in the Foundation: How the Lost Tomb of Jesus story is losing its scholarly support," come two months after the screening of The Lost Tomb of Christ that attracted widespread public interest, despite the concomitant scholarly ridicule.
Read the full post, "Jesus Tomb Film Scholars Backtrack."
Although I initially thought the Jesus tomb "scandal" would have become a much bigger deal than it turned out, it looks like it may not even garner a footnote in the events of 2007. This is primarily because of the immediate dismissals and rebuttals that came from just about every spectrum of the academic community.
Is anyone surprised? James Cameron and Simcha Jacobovici should immediately donate the money they made from this project (and I'm sure there was money to be made) to the church of their choice as penance.