3 Ways Relics And Artifacts Can Help Us 'Find Jesus'

[hrmjustin]

POSTED IN INTERFAITH


Religion News Service
By David Gibson and Michael McKinley

An exact copy of the Shroud of Turin is displayed at the chapel of the Armenian Catholic Patriarchate of Cilicia's residence in an east Beirut neighbourhood on September 30, 2010.
(RNS) Why are we so fascinated with any historical artifact — relics, as some call them — associated with Jesus?

Even the most suspect claim of a “lost” gospel or an “explosive” archaeological find that purports to shed light on the man from Galilee can generate a media frenzy, and gives believers — or skeptics — fresh evidence to try to finally win their argument while leaving their foes on the defensive.

Think of the recent “gospel” that seemed to show Jesus had a wife — and she was, of all people, the scandalous Mary Magdalene. Or the discovery a few years ago of an ancient papyrus that depicted Judas as the hero of the gospel story, not the great betrayer. Or, a few years before that, the revelation of a bone box with “brother of Jesus” inscribed on the top.

The argument in these purported blockbuster discoveries is that everything we’ve ever known about Christianity is probably false and that there has been a massive, millennia-long cover-up to hide the real truth. Remember “The Da Vinci Code”? There’s a reason that fiction sounded like fact to a lot of people.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/28/finding-jesus-cnn-relics-artifacts_n_6775274.html?utm_hp_ref=religion

[okasha]

1. I think the measure of this book and series

is going to be how they treat the James ossuary. The trial of Oded Golan backfired big time on the Israel Antiquities Authority and firmly established that the inscription "James son of Joseph brother of Jesus" is ancient, not a modern forgery. There's no conspiracy or cover-up here, though. Just a physical link, that, if it refers to the Jesus son of Joseph brother of James, unquestionably puts paid to the mythecists and hucksters like "S. Acharya."