Debating the Resurrection, Jesus, Magdalene on Easter Sunday

I posted “Did the Resurrection Actually Happen?” by Dinesh D’Souza to several of the various YahooGroups forums I moderate. D’Souza is a mainstream Christian whose arguments, I think, are very good and very useful to esoteric and alternative Christians who believe in the historicity of Jesus and yes, in the resurrection.

Dr. James Gardner responded with the Jesus Police.com website’s intellectual tear-down of the resurrection – it was “just literary”, it didn’t really happen, Mark made it up, t’was added later, etc. etc. Boring, dry argument designed to make us all exclaim, “Aha! We were lied to!” And then go forth as miserably depressed myth-bashers and atheists like the Jesus Police author(s).

Such nay-sayers poo-poohing all our myths and making our spiritual stories nothing but dry historical events, lifeless “legends” that despite a total “lack of value” nevertheless caused supposedly deluded people to faithfully record them. Even though the Jesus story is completely lacking in any spiritual value according to the JesusPolice intellectuals, lacking in any luminosity, our ancestors recorded and repeated these myths over and over for centuries. Nothing supernatural — “above and beyond nature” — nothing greater than our chemical selves has ever really happened, dontcha know. Blah blah blah, delusion and ignorance of the masses, and pooo pooo pooh, is what they do on Jesus Police.com. The Adversary is probably very pleased with them. But then I am an ignorant, deluded, naïve so-and-so for even believing in the Adversary.

The only page of theirs I like is their Magdalene page because I agree with their factual analysis of her. But the Jesus Police, like countless other “scholars” fall short and refuse to give Magdalene her Feminine Divine aspect. At least they agree she was a real historical person (while seeming to doubt Jesus was!), but they make her dry, unluminous, just another literary figure….

Still they’ve got the Magdalene facts right (in my opinion) even to the point of quoting “our” Margaret Starbird and Bishop Spong.

Lore and I had an exchange regarding the “Did the Resurrection Actually Happen” article as follows:

lkemsley at verizon.net writes:

Oh, boy, I’m having a hard time deciding: do I blow his assertions
out of the water (so easy to do), or do I just be quiet because most
people need the belief in the physical resurrection? It isn’t that
belief that bothers me, but his inaccuracies, like the statement that
there is so much proof for his historicity. There is none.

Hi Lore: The writer of the article is Dinesh D’Souza. He is the author of What’s So Great About Christianity, a new and useful book.

Yes he’s a mainstream Christian, altho he’s a bit unique in that he was born and raised in India where Christianity is somewhat esoteric. Dinesh D’Souza gives all kinds of Christians, including us underground streamers aka esoterics, many useful tools to use when we debate with atheists, Satanists (I occasionally encounter such via our website and the online Mystery School), with those who think Jesus never existed, was just a fable. As D’Souza points out in the article, there is more proof of Jesus’ historicity than there is for Aristotle and Pythagoras and countless other figures — yet nobody doubts they existed.

And ” Arriving three days after his death, the women brought spices
to his tomb to anoint and preserve his body. Only then did they
observe that the stone had been rolled away and the tomb was empty.”
ignores MM’s importance completely.

True, he is not Margaret Starbird (hee hee, wish he was), nor is he an alternative or esoteric Christian, and so he does not share our reverence for and belief in Magdalene’s prominence.

And “The apostles were deeply skeptical about reports of a
resurrection, and Christ had to appear to them several times before
these doubts were dispelled.” does the same.

Much of history ignored Magdalene’s importance, she was cloistered away, secreted away, protected from Paul the persecutor-turned-Christian whose writings are a large part of early Christianity. The mainstream Christians like Dinesh D’Souza are still getting used to our revolutionary revelation of Magdalene’s role in Jesus’ life and the heart of Christianity. Just because they haven’t got the new message yet, the feminine divine message, we can still find use for such mainstream arguments in any place our beliefs overlap or intersect.

Ever notice how dry the “just the facts, ma’am” approach is? How
lacking in passion? There is not one word of the intensity of that
week in his argument. I use that approach too, quite often, but it is
hard to do on this [Easter] morning. None of his [D’Souza’s] inaccuracies make the
stunning events of this week any less important. I long ago came to
the conclusion that even if not one word of it is literally true, the
mythological truth of it is astounding and deeply needed.

Dinesh D’Souza is a mainstream but not fundamentalist Christian — and very left brained. Reminds me of Thomas Aquinas in some ways. His style is that of debate, using logic and all that male left-brain mode of argument which is actually helpful to have in one’s communication toolbag, I think. He is scheduled to debate Christopher Hitchens in Las Vegas about the existence of God. Hitchens you recall wrote the book God is Not Great and is convinced there is no god, no supernatural, no luminous myth, nothing but chemical reactions and psychosis in our brains. His debate with D’Souza is going to be a big event. D’Souza has debated other atheists (he debates one per year at this venue) and now he’s gonna face Christopher Hitchens who no longer believes in the Judaism of his childhood, thinks Christianity and Islam are proof of the evil of religion because of all the wars they “caused”. D’Souza points out, and will no doubt do so during their debate, that atheist states like the Soviet Union and China, and the 3rd Reich which was what — occult pagan? with a secretly Catholic leader? — killed way more people, and did so recently compared to Christianity.

We are all Children of Divine Love. We’ll all be “resurrected” with
or without our physical bodies, although why we’d want physical
bodies in an ethereal world is beyond me. There was no evil in Eve or
her seeking Wisdom, no original sin to atone for, no reason for a
petty, jealous god to demand his only begotten son to die in agony to
atone for a single one of us. We live eternally, with or without his
death and resurrection.

I agree with you on all of the above, and discuss on our Mystery School’s Easter Cycle page my belief that God-the-Father was not the petty jealous god we have been taught who demanded human sacrifice. Human sacrifice was anathema to the Old Testament God as we see in the account of Abraham being stopped by God from sacrificing his boy, Isaac. Hebrew scholars have pointed out this story was the Old Testament God’s way of communicating his strong desire for people to STOP the prevalent ancient Middle East practice of sacrificing babies, children and virgins to all those supposedly hungry “gods”.

I also agree we live eternally with our without his death and resurrection, but I don’t think we should just throw the resurrection onto the dust-heap of history and call it “mere myth.” It’s the lynchpin story-myth that connects Jesus to Tammuz and Osiris and the glorious annual return of vegetation with its hope of food (no grocery stores in the ancient world). As Lord of the Rings author JRR Tolkein said to his buddy CS Lewis, “The Christian story is a myth that just also happens to be historically true.” It is both myth and the physical fulfilment of myth. Very cool. The Jesus myth is like an onion with layers, like a dream symbol that means several things all at once.

But the image of his love, the love of Magdalene, the pain of separation and
the need to know we (even more for those we love than ourselves)
survive after death — all of that each and every one of us needs,
not just on Easter but every day of our lives.

For sure. And on Easter we think of it even more and can help reenact it in our lives.  We can use the holiday as a teaching moment for the little ones coming up who need to learn the power and healing of humanity’s myths.

I’m a dawn person. I love the sounds and smells of dawn. The birds
waking up all atwitter, then breaking into song. My four-legged
friends calling to me just as I first begin to stir. The sun sliding
out from behind the hills, kissing the flowers with gold. This is my
daily resurrection, my new birth, my eternal reminder that all is
well and I am loved.

Yes so true! I wish I was a dawn person…. somehow I got stuck being an after midnight to about 3 o’clock in the morning person!

Mary Magdalene went to his tomb at dawn, to care for the man she
loved more than earthly life itself. She was The Woman Who Knew The
All, yet her grief left her dazed and confused. Her grief made her
barely in this world. It appeared as little more than an annoying
haze when he spoke to her. Why was this man bothering her? Why did
she need to pay attention to him? Why couldn’t she be alone while her
heart burst?

And then all was healed. He Was There. He could be seen and felt and
touched and heard. Can we not imagine the joy of knowing that, for
sure, for all time, without mistake?

That is the knowledge and the love this morning brings back to us,
resurrected every year just as Spring arrives filled with new life,
promise and hope, just as Spring tells us we survived the ravages of
winter and abundance is now ours, once again.

* * * * * *
I hear ya. So true. I like the way you put it….
* * * * * *

It matters little to me if his physical body survived because his
soul did and his love did and mine does and eternal life is something
we share.

I like to think his physical body didn’t survive the crucifixion but died and was buried — but then Goddess and God (perhaps thru Magdalene’s mouth) said, “arise my Love.”  Arise and LIVE the myth of regeneration, the spring vegetation life-giving song mankind’s health and very existence depends upon.

I wonder if Goddess and God were teaching us you can’t kill divinity. Jesus represented the soul of the world, and each of our immortal souls. We can’t be killed, is the message. We rise again. Presumably his physical body would have later decayed or been transmuted into something spiritual.  That part esotericists disagree on. I think Blavatsky and her School (Theosophical Society) believe in a spiritual transmutation of his physical body so that it didn’t have to die again. Some Gnostics and Rosicrucians think he then aged and died like Magdalene and Mary.  Speaking of Mother Mary and Mary Magdalene, both these holy women embodied the sacred feminine just as Jesus embodied the sacred masculine.  We are fine with them dying “normally” and leaving their physical bodies at death, why not Jesus, too? One Gnostic text, Pistis Sophia, I think, teaches that he stayed after the resurrection for 11 years to continue teaching his pupils.

I think the resurrection was needed to get their message — the wisdom teachings — recorded and written down.  If the resurrection story hadn’t happened, we might all be classical pagans, members of either the Isis or Mithras cults depending on our gender (as was the rule in the Greco-Roman world).  Or we would be northern European heathens, or Muslims, or who knows what, if the resurrection story hadn’t shook up enough people to make them write it down for all time, and spread the story like wildfire.

Goddess and God knew that some of us (such as yourself, Lore!) wouldn’t need Jesus’ physical body to rise again in order to help you spiritually evolve, help you realize the inner luminosity of the myth symbols.  But they also knew (I think) that humanity as a whole needed that significant event to start the myths rolling again, to provide the catalyst to get the Great Lesson out to everyone. (okay, “Great Lesson” is a rather lame term, but you get the idea. )

Sincerely,

Katia
P.S. If you find yourself debating these issues, be sure to check out Dinesh D’Souza’s book What’s So Great About Christianity from which the article, “Did the Resurrection Actually Happen?” was adapted from.

Attended Margaret Starbird Workshop Today

Husband and I went down to The Villages, Florida this morning to attend a Margaret Starbird workshop. We first met Margaret back in Spring of 1999 in Dallas and have seen her at least once a year since then. This all-day seminar with her was awesome. She had so many new slides, new tidbits, and new anecdotes. Tomorrow she will be in Tampa, then Oklahoma, back home to Washington State, Eugene Oregon (to speak at my friend musician Katherine Conrad’s Unity Church!) followed by her trip to North Carolina in April. Margaret’s full 2008 schedule is on her webpage. She’s got some eclectic items on her page, everything from intriguing artwork with mysterious symbols and their esoteric interpretations to suggested movies with the Magdalene / Yeshua Sacred Union theme.

Nice to hang out with likeminded folk today, many of them senior citizens(!) and see the growing awareness of Her, Our Divine Lady of Christianity. I got some cool new ideas for my popular God Has a Wife! presentation, too… I will be presenting it in Gainesville, Florida in March at our new Christian Goddess live study / devotion group; or come check out our nine year old GoddessChristians forum with 1400 members [Update: Now 1900 members] — all part of the work of restoring the Sacred Feminine to Judeo Christianity from which She was violently removed centuries ago.

Hope to encounter you laboring in this vineyard, too…!

-Katia

Kazantzakis & Last Temptation of Christ

My Gnostic calendar says this for today: Birthday of Nikos Kazantzakis, Writer & Mystic 1883-1957, “My entire soul is a cry, and all my work is a commentary on that cry.”

He’s the guy, you may recall, who wrote the oh-so-controversial Last Temptation of Christ.

Found this online:

Magdalene jumped up and paced back and forth between the fire and the door.

Her mind had grown furious.God is the great enemy, she was thinking; yes, God. He never fails to intrude; he is evil, jealous; he won’t let a person be happy. She stopped behind the door and cocked her ear. The heavens were bellowing. A whirlwind had arisen and the pomegranates in the yard knocked against one another and were ready to break.

–from The Last Temptation of Christ

The Greek novelist, poet, and thinker Nikos Kazantzakis, b. Crete, 1883, d. Oct. 26, 1957, spent half his life living in Germany, the USSR, and France. He also traveled widely throughout Europe, Japan, and Communist China. Influenced early by Nietzsche and Bergson, he owed a debt to Marxism and Buddhism as well as to Christianity and attempted to synthesize these apparently disparate worldviews. His career started out more philosophical and pedagogical than literary. He came to the fore as a poet only in 1938 with his vast philosophical epic The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel (Eng. trans., 1958), which takes up the hero’s story where Homer leaves off.

Even more successful were his novels, which he did not begin writing until after his 60th year. His first, Zorba the Greek (1946; Eng. trans., 1952; film, 1965), is the most popular. In it Kazantzakis embodies Bergsonian ideas of the elan vital in the exuberant figure of Zorba.

His other novels are perhaps deeper, if less exuberant. Freedom and Death (1953; Eng. trans., 1956) deals with the concept of liberty, told through the story of a dour resistance fighter in the Cretan struggle for independence from the Turks. The Greek Passion (1954; Eng. trans., 1954) is a reenactment of Christ’s passion, set in a Greek village. Kazantzakis also wrote the novels The Last Temptation of Christ (1955; Eng. trans. 1960; film 1988) and God’s Pauper: Saint Francis of Assisi (1956; Eng. trans., 1962); a large number of plays; and an autobiography, Report to Greco (1961; Eng. trans., 1965).

P. A. Mackridge

Text Copyright © 1993 Grolier Incorporated
Retrieved from http://www.levity.com/corduroy/kazantza.htm

* * * * * * * * * * *
So the fella who wrote Last Temptation of Christ (LTOC) was born on Crete, he is literally a Cretan, not figuratively, hee hee. He lived as a subject of the old Ottomon Empire until he was 35 or so and never wrote a novel until he was 60! Wow. Influenced by Marxism. Yikes. And Nietzsche…

Understandable that modern Gnostics revere him as a one of their own.

All the furor over LTOC when the movie came out was understandable, but you gotta admit it was deep, and it was thought provoking. I was in my young 20s when I saw it and though disappointed when he didn’t stay with Magdalene and ended up sleeping with other women in the New Testament (seemingly every woman mentioned therein!), I still found the entire concept of a last temptation while hanging on the cross as plausible, meaningful, and yes, fascinating. That such battles, such inner jihads, can take place in our minds / dreams / altered states, is pretty awesome. I was a bit deflated when the movie ended with Jesus’ fatherhood and loverhood relegated to “just a tempation,” a “bad decision,” but still I get the point. I was glad for the ride. Titillating as the subject matter of Jesus having sex is, the point of a god/dess-sent Messenger having free will until the very end, grappling with the mundane life vs. divine mission choice gives much to think about. Too bad N.K. didn’t somehow show Jesus gloriously managing to both embrace the body and the mundane life and deliver his all-awakening message. Now that would’ve been something to sink one’s teeth into. LTOC was published in 1955, so take that all you critics who say the idea of Jesus’ marriage and co-parenting with Magdalene didn’t come about until the 1980 non-fiction book, Holy Blood, Holy Grail.

Magdalene’s thoughts in the book excerpt above, “God is evil,” speak to the Gnostic suspicion / conviction that the True God isn’t ruling this planet, rather a Usurper is. He (call him Demiurgos or Ialdobaoth or Satan) interfered at the very beginning, messed up the Petrie dishes during our Creation, and this place is flawed, flawed, FLAWED. Time to repair the world, tikkun olam in Kabbalah, and wake up to the stark reality just like Neo has to in the first Matrix movie. Evil overlords are at work here. The Gnostic myth of Creation explains a lot, especially the Problem of Evil, as we have been discussing at length over on the GoddessChristians forum.
—Katia

A Gnostic Martyr’s Day, Giordano Bruno

This is the 2nd Sunday of Lent in both the mainstream and alternative (Gnostic) churches. But according to this awesome new Gnostic calendar I am enjoying, Feb. 17 is also a Martyr’s day and also a modern esotericist’s birthday.

Birthday of Charles Leadbeater (1854-1934), Bishop and Institutor of the Liberal Catholic Church.

Giordano Bruno, Gnostic MartyrDay of Martyrdom of Giordan Bruno, Priest & Martyr. 1548 – Feb 17, 1600 “Perchance you who pronounce my sentence are in greater fear than I who receive it.”

The statue of Giordano Bruno pictured right stands in Mexico City. He seems to be looking into our eyes, we in the future, saying, Listen, listen, if you have an ear. Think, think, if you are drawn. Wake, awake. (I was thinking Giordan or Giordano Bruno’s first name means “Jordan”, as in the sacred river of Judeo-Christianity.)

A hermeticist, esotericist and Gnostic — very much loved by the people for his charismatic street-corner talks –, he was burned at the stake by the church. Jerks. Here’s a cool article, a different picture of him, and a bunch of inspiring quotes of his, over at Jennifer Emick’s exhaustive Alternative Religions archive.

Hail Holy Giordano, Saint in our Hearts, Teacher in the Darkness, baptised in the fire…

–Katia

SeventhDay Adventists similar to Cathars aka Waldensians, Albigensians

I went to Seventh Day Adventist schools and boarding schools during all my childhood and teen years. They teach a love for the Cathars big time. Our elementary school teachers made us read stories and color pictures of Waldensian and Albigensian children walking perilous mountain cliffs, hiding from the Inquisition on pain of death, carefully writing out copies of the Bible.

I left the Adventist church as a young adult because they don’t acknowledge the Divine Feminine, but I still have a friendly attitude toward some of their doctrine. I have been studying the Gnostic Cathars more in depth than usual lately and found some old notes I made last year. I realized the Adventists have a lot in common with the Cathars — who were called Waldensians and Albigensians in their day, only the Roman Catholic Church called them Cathars, originally a derogatory term meaning “purists” or “pure ones.”

Here is what I jotted down last year when I realized the uncanny similarity between the SDA’s and Cathars / Waldensians / Albigensians. The SDA founder, Ellen G. White, visited the Cathar / Waldensian valleys area in Europe (Italy and France border area) twice in 1885 to 1887 while she was in Europe. Chapter 4 of her famous book, The Great Controversy, is about these cool heretics. Adventists really really honor heretics!, good for them.

Similarites between Cathars & Adventists. Both Cathars and SDA’s practiced the following things:

Vegetarianism

Distrust of the Roman Catholic Church to the point of calling it and the Pope, Anti-christ & “the Beast”

Sabbath-keeping. See pic of SDA kids at Waldensian stone table room http://npucnewsletter.wordpress.com/2007/08/21/why-not-try-this-learn-lessons-from-the-waldenses/
Proof they were Sabbath keepers see: http://www.sabbathtruth.com/history/sabbath_history12.asp

Bible carrying

“Run to the hills!” teaching

Ascetisism: No adornments of any kind: no steeples, no stained-glass, no crosses, no rituals, no jewelry not even wedding rings. No christenings, no priests. These are all SDA no-no’s.

No swearing of oaths, no killing or soldiering (SDA’s are conscientious objectors in war-time)

* * * *
Adventists teach Waldensians and Albigensians are heretic heroes whom children should revere, study about, and use as role models. The word Cathar was originally an insult of the RCC, so true descendants of the Cathars actually call themselves Waldensians or Albigensians – just like the SDA’s who never used the word Cathars.

The fact that Adventists instill in their children from an early age love of (and affinity to) Cathars and love of Judaism (sabbath keeping) makes you wonder…

References: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathar

http://www.ellenwhite.org/gc1.htm

Lots of groups, evangelicals, especially Baptists, use the Waldensians aka Waldenses to provide themselves with pedigree stretching back to the Apostles. It’s called Baptist successionism. EG White has a chapter in GC about the Waldensians, but she doesn’t claim pedigree thru them, just that they kept the Sabbathkeeping torch alive thru the dark ages. They may not have even kept the Sabbath, but EG White’s limited research concluded they did. She probably read 17th century English author Sir Samuel Morland’s book about the Vaudois, another name for the Waldensians which said they kept the Sabbath.

Those who attempt to establish a pedigree for the Waldenses anterior to Waldo himself often refer to the work of Sir Samuel Morland, a 17th-century English author and diplomat who claimed to have found evidence that verifies the great antiquity of the sect. [4] Morland reproduced documents supposedly from the year 1120, which, he said, show that the Waldenses (French, -Vaudois-) had the scriptures for about forty years prior to the translation that Waldo obtained.

The documents in question, however, show the Bible divided into chapters, and such divisions did not appear before about 1250 or later. [5] The confession of faith produced by Morland makes it appear that the Waldenses held to a strongly Protestant-evangelical theology centuries before Luther. It is now known that this document originated in the 16th century. It contains teachings of Martin Bucer, reformer of Strasbourg, copied almost verbatim. [6]

Despite their usual aversion to Roman Catholic sources, successionists have not hesitated to cite a remark by Reinerius Saccho that the Waldenses movement is ancient,

“for some SAY that it has existed from the time of Sylvester, some from the time of the apostles.” http://www.bringyou.to/apologetics/num3.htm

Knights Templar Remembrance Day – 700 Years Ago, a new age began

700 years ago today the Templars were rounded up and arrested, accused of heresy and crimes against God. Many modern practitioners of “Templarism” — a kind of esoteric occult Christianity — are remembering them today, including our New Knights Templar Order members. Usually we fast on Oct. 13, and wear black — but for some reason this year felt the urge to also celebrate the Templars of the past. Some (me included) are wearing a red Templar cross today and getting out that ceremonial sword for a procession to the altar. One modern Templar group produced a cool video for this “holiday” which can be viewed online (see link below). What are you doing to remember those almost mythical Knights of yore? Feasting or Fasting or a little bit of both?

Here are some observances happening around the world today:

Chris Dalrymple, KTO writes:
At the www.templarfellowship.org website we have posted a memorial
presentation and called for remembrances. We have an article posting
the various news and other stories relating to the Templars that I can
come across. One posted just today notes that the Univ. of Penn. will
be hosting a day long events of lectures, displays and events on the
Templars specifically, chivalry and monasticism, and medieval
lifestyle in general. It sounds wonderful. These are all that I came
across. As I find more they will be posted to the
www.templarfellowship.org website.

* * * * * * * * * *

On Templar Globe: http://templars.wordpress.com/category/united-states/

* * * * * * * * * *

Linda Berthelsen, Commander of Templar Fellowship of America writes:

As the Commander of the Templar Fellowship of America, I would like
to share some exciting news concerning upcoming events. The 700th
anniversary of the arrest of the Knights Templar is RAPIDLY
approaching on October 13th, 2007. Modern Templars around the world
will commemorate the 700th anniversary of this unfortunate event with
remembrances and signs of recognition.

To commemorate that fateful Friday the 13th, the TFA has planned
special activities in which everyone may participate, regardless of
geographic location or schedule.

We have created and posted to our web site a powerpoint presentation
which you may view by clicking on the link from our
www.templarfellowship.org web site. We will also post a text only
version. These presentations are designed to raise awareness of
Templar History.

We also encourage you to take a few moments on Saturday, October
13th, 2007, to remember what happened 700 years ago, and to wear a
Templar or Maltese cross throughout the day. Please forward this e-
mail to others and call the attention of friends and relatives to the
links to these presentations at www.templarfellowship.org.

Why should Templars commemorate this date? October 13th, 2007, marks
the 700th year of the infamous day in Templar history when the King
of France, Phillip le Belle, ordered the mass arrests of all Templars
across Europe. History attributes much of his success with this
astounding ruse to his ability to manipulate the Papacy.

In some respects the events on this date might be compared to the
9/11 attack or the bombing of Pearl Harbor, because the massive
arrest destroyed countless lives and sent economic shock waves
throughout the western world. Although sources differ as to the
actual number, approximately 4,000 Knights Templar were arrested
within a short time. The magnitude of the arrest was stunningly
sudden, and widespread. There was little resistance because most of
the Templar fighting forces were widely dispersed. Most of those who
were arrested were older and not able to resist such a massive
surprise attack.

King Phillip then ordered that these Knights be charged with heresy
under the Papal Inquisition. Thousands were imprisoned and tortured
with the purpose of extracting false confessions of heresy. A number
of them endured horrific executions such as being burned at the
stake. Those who escaped were forced into hiding and exile. They
changed their identities and blended into society.

On the evening of Friday, October 12th, 2007, the Grand Priory of
Austria will sponsor a public lecture at the University of Klagenfurt
on the Templar Legacy. Dr. Erhard Zauner, Grand Commander Templar
Order of Austria, will present a seminar on the arrest of the
Templars 700 years ago. Dr. Zauner is a powerful, engaging and
popular speaker and draws sizable audiences from the surrounding
area. The Austrian Order will also hold a special members only
gathering on October 13th to observe this special day.

In addition to our commemorations of wearing Templar crosses and
setting aside a few moments of contemplation to remember the trials
of Templars past, please also join in a short meditation with our
Austrian colleagues at 1 pm US Central Time (8 pm Austrian time!) to
connect as fellow Templars with our sister Order and share in their
observance. We send them our best wishes!

On Saturday, October 13th, 2007:
• Watch the 700 Tribute presentation at
www.templarfellowship.org.
• Wear your Templar or Maltese Cross.
• Remember the sacrifices made by Templars 700 years ago!
• Keep our Austrian friends, and other Templar
presentations, in your thoughts.

Linda Berthelsen
Commander, Templar Fellowship of America

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Hope you find something to help with your own personal observance. If you can’t think of anything else, just light three candles for past, present and future Templars, preferably a red candle of remembrance for the past. But if that is impossible, close your eyes a moment and mentally “light” those candles. We will meet many of you on the mental and spiritual planes as we honor these special Knights, Ladies, Dames and Clerics of Tsion’s Temple tomorrow.

“See” you there.

700 years ago today, a new age began… Watch this awesome online slideshow: http://www.fixback.com/page24.html

Sincerely,

Katia R., Prioress
Order of the New Knights Templar
http://northernway.org/school/templars.html

3 Eras, Man, Woman & Union

We’re in the era of Woman. It’s Her turn now to design her own rituals, her own religion, interpret scriptures her way. “Feminist religion” they call it. Man controlled religion alone, cruelly excluded Woman from religion and ritual for thousands of years. That was the era of Man. We are just now at the beginning of the era of Woman. Perhaps 90 percent of earth is still in Man’s grip. Woman’s voice is finally being heard, myths and rituals are being revised, reinterpreted, even new ones created by Woman. But what about a time of Union? Wouldn’t it be lovely to reach the final stage of our evolution as a spiritual species? We’ve got to get thru this newly born era of Woman before we reach the era of Union, the 3rd and hopefully final era. So here we are, you, me, all of us, living when Woman has just barely gotten her Voice. It’s a great time to be alive, we are picking up momentum, the Sacred Feminine is taking off her veils.

But. Sigh. We’ve got a long way to go, “baby,” until we end up inventing and creating TOGETHER with our male teammates in the era of Union. Another thousand years?

It feels like the Dark Ages right before the Renaissance, yet it also feels like the beginning of the new Renaissance, the Woman Renaissance.

I have been reading the Flame Bearers by Kim Chernin (thank you Siobhan Houston for sending me this book!) and it’s triggered these kinds of ruminations and ponderings. I read this paragraph in an article about Jewish feminine spirituality:

“It is in the voices of women in the past three decades that we are discovering new disclosures of Torah in newly heard ways. Feminists are adding women’s points of view to the cornucopia of male-centered interpretations. Not only are they doing so in the area of exegesis, but also in the area of allegory and story-telling. E. M. Broner’s A Weave of Women, Kim Chernin’s The Flame Bearers, and Anita Diamont’s The Red Tent are examples of novels whose themes reflect revisioned fictional tales of Jewish women in the past, present, and future. These feminist stories empower contemporary Jewish [and Christian, in my opinion] women through their fictional rendering of Jewish heroines and their creative visions of meaningful Jewish women’s ceremonies and ritual all within the context of Jewish tradition and Torah narrative.” http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/summary_0199-5713388_ITM

After reading the above I was struck with the idea that we’ve got a three era situation, but it isn’t Father, Son and Holy Spirit, like that Catholic mystic (what’s his name?) predicted. Rather it’s Man, Woman and Both; the latter of which I later thought would be better titled Union. [Added in: the Catholic mystic is Joachim of Fiore, just remembered!]

How long O Lord, O Lady, How long before we reach Union? We can’t heal the wasteland, can’t heal the nations, the earth, until we get both halves of the human race as equal participators in spirituality. At least we’re getting the world literate. Although I’ve read on the UN’s website we’ve got a long way to go there, too. Some of ’em gotta go thru the masculine era for how many centuries I wonder, before they can even accept the Sacred Feminine. Then it’s on to Union….

I’m hangin’ in there. How about you? (No sighing allowed).

Starbird on Defamation of the Feminine

Margaret posted this to our Goddess Christians list the other day as we were discussing how the Divine Feminine in all her forms seems to be demonized and defamed.

Whenever I encounter defamation of the “Feminine,” I think of the
amazing “Unicorn” tapestries called “La Dame a la Licorne”–
located in the Museum of the Middle Ages in Paris. The panels
extolthe five senses of our human bodies and the “ecstasy”
of union (the final panel) that is “only a shadow” of our union
with the Divine. Human bodies are NOT corrupt evil prisions of
the Divine Spark (as aescetic “gnostic” teachings would have us
believe). Rather, human bodies are “earthen vessels”–sacred
containers of consciousness, gradually evolving into the “new
creation” thorugh enlightenment. Unfortunately, dogmas condemning
the flesh (the earth, our bodies, our body-wisdom, the “Sophia”
and the realm of the unconscious) have distorted our perceptions
of reality! Which is why, in my work, I insist on the “sacred
union” of Jesus and Mary Magdalene as incarnations of the Archetypal
Bride/Bridegroom syzygy–the Logos and Sophia–at the heart of the
Christian mythology/story. As above, so below. There is only one
viable pattern for life– “union.” The “ultimate” marriage is
that of “flesh” and “divinity” –or even, “wave and particle”–
which better illustrates the “oneness”/wholeness of all creation…

peace and well-being,
Margaret
http://www.margaretstarbird.net
“Mary Magdalene, Bride in Exile”

Esoteric Meaning of Easter

http://www.northernway.org/school/way/eastercycle.html

Don’t forget to follow along with our Mystery School’s esoteric Easter cycle observances!

This is the greatest mystery in all Christianity.  Initiations (baptisms, etc.) used to all be scheduled for Easter.  A powerful spiritual energy is released upon the world, be sure to download your share of it!

Our observances start the Thursday before Palm Sunday when Jesus, Magdalene and their group of friends, relatives and students would’ve set off on foot for Jerusalem for Passover.  The anointing with oil from the alabaster jar is covered, and the teaching on the Temple steps, overturning the tables, the passover dinner held in Mary of Jerusalem’s house (upper room).  We try to interpret the whole “why does God demand a blood sacrifice?” conundrum from an esoteric view.

Check it out here:  http://www.northernway.org/school/way/eastercycle.html

Katia

Jesus’ Bones found in family tomb?

JESUS: TALES FROM THE CRYPT
By Tim McGirk/Jerusalem, Time
February 23, 2007

http://time-blog.com/middle_east/

Brace yourself. James Cameron, the man who brought you ‘The Titanic’ is back with another blockbuster. This time, the ship he’s sinking is Christianity.

In a new documentary, Producer Cameron and his director, Simcha Jacobovici, make the starting claim that Jesus wasn’t resurrected — the cornerstone of Christian faith — and that his burial cave was discovered near Jerusalem.
And, get this, Jesus sired a son with Mary Magdelene.

No, it’s not a re-make of “The Da Vinci Codes’. It’s supposed to be true.

Let’s go back 27 years, when Israeli construction workers were gouging out the foundations for a new building in the industrial park in the Talpiyot, a Jerusalem suburb of Jerusalem. The earth gave way, revealing a 2,000 year old cave with 10 stone caskets. Archologists were summoned, and the stone caskets carted away for examination. It took 20 years for experts to decipher the names on the ten tombs. They were: Jesua, son of Joseph, Mary,
Mary, Mathew, Jofa and Judah, son of Jesua.
* * END OF EXCERPT (entire article below)* *

Katia writes:

I don’t buy it.  Just like the James ossurary inscriptions were said to be forgeries, I bet this one is forged too.  It’s just too convenient to find such a tomb 2000 years later during this climate of Christianity-is-a-fraud.  So does this at least prove Jesus was not a myth, but came in the flesh and so did Mary and the others listed in the crypt?  Probably they won’t even admit that.  He is somehow both a myth AND a fraud, to the Jesus debunkers.  As for me, I think he was an historical character, lived and died.  AND resurrected.  So there.  — Katia

JESUS: TALES FROM THE CRYPT
By Tim McGirk/Jerusalem
Time
February 23, 2007

http://time-blog.com/middle_east/

Brace yourself. James Cameron, the man who brought you ‘The Titanic’ is back
with another blockbuster. This time, the ship he’s sinking is Christianity.

In a new documentary, Producer Cameron and his director, Simcha Jacobovici,
make the starting claim that Jesus wasn’t resurrected — the cornerstone of
Christian faith — and that his burial cave was discovered near Jerusalem.
And, get this, Jesus sired a son with Mary Magdelene.

No, it’s not a re-make of “The Da Vinci Codes’. It’s supposed to be true.

Let’s go back 27 years, when Israeli construction workers were gouging out
the foundations for a new building in the industrial park in the Talpiyot, a
Jerusalem suburb of Jerusalem. The earth gave way, revealing a 2,000 year
old cave with 10 stone caskets. Archologists were summoned, and the stone
caskets carted away for examination. It took 20 years for experts to
decipher the names on the ten tombs. They were: Jesua, son of Joseph, Mary,
Mary, Mathew, Jofa and Judah, son of Jesua.

Israel’s prominent archeologist Professor Amos Kloner didn’t associate the
crypt with the New Testament Jesus. His father, after all, was a humble
carpenter who couldn’t afford a luxury crypt for his family. And all were
common Jewish names.

There was also this little inconvenience that a few miles away, in the old
city of Jerusalem, Christians for centuries had been worshipping the empty
tomb of Christ at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Christ’s resurrection,
after all, is the main foundation of the faith, proof that a boy born to a
carpenter’s wife in a manger is the Son of God.

But film-makers Cameron and Jacobovici claim to have amassed evidence
through DNA tests, archeological evidence and Biblical studies, that the 10
coffins belong to Jesus and his family.

Ever the showman, (Why does this remind me of the impresario in another
movie,”King Kong”, whose hubris blinds him to the dangers of an angry and
very large ape?) Cameron is holding a New York press conference on Monday at
which he will reveal three coffins, supposedly those of Jesus of Nazareth,
his mother Mary and Mary Magdalene. News about the film, which will be shown
soon on Discovery Channel, Britain’s Channel 4, Canada’s Vision, and
Israel’s Channel 8, has been a hot blog topic in the Middle East (check out
a personal favorite: Israelity Bites http://israelitybites.blogspot.com/
Here in the Holy Land, Biblical Archeology is a dangerous profession. This
90-minute documentary is bound to outrage Christians and stir up a titanic
debate between believers and skeptics. Stay tuned.

————

JESUS¹ BURIAL SITE FOUND – FILM CLAIMS
By Ariella Ringel-Hoffman
ynetnews.com
February 23, 2007

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3368731,00.html

The cave in which Jesus Christ was buried has been found in Jerusalem, claim
the makers of a new documentary film.

If it proves true, the discovery, which will be revealed at a press
conference in New York Monday, could shake up the Christian world as one of
the most significant archeological finds in history.

The coffins which, according to the filmmakers held the remains of Jesus of
Nazareth, his mother Mary and Mary Magdalene will be displayed for the first
time on Monday in New York.

Jointly produced by Emmy award-winning documentary filmmaker Simcha
Jacobovici and Oscar winning director James Cameron, the film tells the
exciting and tortuous story of the archeological discovery.

The story starts in 1980 in Jerusalem¹s Talpiyot neighborhood, with the
discovery of a 2,000 year old cave containing ten coffins. Six of the ten
coffins were carved with inscriptions reading the names: Jesua son of
Joseph, Mary, Mary, Matthew, Jofa (Joseph, identified as Jesus¹ brother),
Judah son of Jesua (Jesus¹ son – the filmmakers claim).

Decades of research

The findings in the cave, including the decipherment of the inscriptions,
were first revealed about ten years ago by internationally renowned Israeli
archeologist Professor Amos Kloner.

Since their discovery, the caskets were kept in the Israeli Antiquities
Authority archive in Beit Shemesh, but now two have been sent to New York
for their first public exhibition.

Although the cave was discovered nearly 30 years ago and the casket
inscriptions decoded ten years ago, the filmmakers are the first to
establish that the cave was in fact the burial site of Jesus and his family.

The film, which documents the stages of the discovery, is the result of
three years labor and research. It will be broadcast on the international
Discovery Channel, Britain’s Channel 4, Canada¹s Vision and Israel¹s Channel
8, which also took part in the film’s production.

According to the filmmakers, the film¹s claim is based on close work with
world-famous scientists, archeologists, statisticians, DNA specialists and
antiquities experts.

* * * * * * *

CHRIST’S TOMB FOUND?
By Stuart Laidlaw
The Toronto Star
February 25, 2007

http://www.thestar.com/Unassigned/article/185534

A Canadian documentary filmmaker will reveal at a news conference Monday
that he has strong evidence a group of burial boxes unearthed in Jerusalem
belonged to Jesus Christ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus and his
family.

The discovery could have profound implications 2,000 years after the boxes
were placed in the ground, shaking the foundations of modern faith and
raising Da-Vinci-Code-like speculation that Jesus had a child with Mary
Magdalene.

“It’s mind boggling. It’s an altered reality,” Toronto documentary director
Simcha Jacobovici http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simcha_Jacobovici told the
Star last week.

The location of the press conference is being kept secret until Monday to
prevent a stampede of people wanting to see the artefacts on display.

The documentary is called The Lost Tomb of Jesus and its claim that that the
burial box of Jesus has been found along with his DNA, are sure to be met
with scepticism, if not outright hostility, by church leaders.

In an interview, Jacobovici said that while nothing in archaeology can ever
be proven beyond doubt, there is “compelling evidence” that the tomb he
explores under a Jerusalem apartment building is that of the holy family.

“You have to kind of pinch yourself,” said Jacobovici, known as the Naked
Archaeologist after a Vision TV series. “Are we really saying what we are
saying?”

James Tabor, chair of religious studies at the University of North Carolina
and an expert featured extensively in The Lost Tomb, said that as an
academic he has seen enough to convince him of the evidence, but admits to
some trepidation about claiming that the tomb of Jesus has been found.

“There’s a part of you that says, it’s too amazing. How can this be true?”
Tabor told the Star. “It’s an archaeological dream.”

Critics are already dismissing the documentary’s claims.

“It’s a beautiful story but without any proof whatsoever,” Bar Ilan
University professor Amos Kloner, who researched the tomb for the Israeli
periodical Atiqot in 1996, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur on Friday.

Jacobovici says there is nothing in the documentary that should offend
devout Christians, since he does not argue that Jesus did not ascend to
heaven, at least spiritually, as told in the Bible.

“People who believe in a physical ascension — that he took his body to
heaven — those people obviously will say, wait a minute,” he said, adding
he hopes the film sparks more scientific study of the tomb and the ossuaries
found inside.

The tomb was unearthed in 1980 during construction of an apartment building
and was first connected to the Jesus family in a 1996 BBC documentary.
Jacobovici’s documentary uses scientific methods, including DNA testing,
statistical analysis and forensic examination, not available to the BBC 11
years ago.

It airs on Discovery in the U.S. and on Channel 4 in the U.K. on Sunday, and
March 6 in Canada on Vision TV. A book, The Jesus Family Tomb by Jacobovici
and Charles Pellegrino, comes out this week
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0061192023/newheavenneweart>.
Titanic director James Cameron <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_cameron>,
executive producer of the documentary, wrote the introduction.

The film and book follow years of growing interest in the private life of
Jesus, fuelled by the 2003 Dan Brown novel The Da Vinci Code, made into a
movie last year, in which Jesus is said to have married Mary Magdalene and
had a daughter, sparking a centuries-long cover-up.

The novel, denounced by church groups around the world, spawned a
mini-industry speculating about the historical Jesus, his relationship to
Mary and his family life. Church leaders, including the Pope, dismissed the
book and movie as pure fiction.

Tabor, whose book The Jesus Dynasty last year raised many of the same
questions as the documentary, says the film cannot be as easily dismissed as
Brown’s novel, even though it too suggests that Jesus had a child with Mary
Magdalene.

“This is archaeology. We got the casket. We’ve got the bones,” he told the
Star. “I think we can say, in all probability, Jesus had this son, Jude,
presumably through Mary Magdalene.”

DNA tests conducted for the documentary at Lakehead University on two
ossuaries — one inscribed Jesus son of Joseph and the other Mariamne, or
Mary — confirm that the two were not related by blood, so were probably
married.

“Perhaps Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married as the DNA results from the
Talpiot ossuaries suggest and perhaps their union was kept secret to protect
a potential dynasty — a secret hidden through the ages,” narrator Ron White
says over re-enacted scenes of a happy Jesus and Mary home life.

“A secret we just may be able to uncover in the holy family tomb.”

The tomb was found in the Talpiot neighbourhood of Jerusalem during the
construction of an apartment building in 1980. Archaeologists were given
three days to document the tomb and excavate it for treasures.

Inside, they found 10 ossuaries and three skulls. Six ossuaries had names
etched into them — Jesus son of Joseph, Judah son of Jesus, Maria,
Mariamne, Joseph and Matthew — all Jesus family names.

At the time, however, the inscriptions raised few alarms. These were, after
all, very common names at the time of Jesus. Besides, with all the
construction around Jerusalem at the time, it was a boom time for uncovering
tombs, and the Israeli Antiquities Authority could barely keep up.

Any connection to the holy family was not made until 15 years later, when a
BBC crew researching and Easter special stumbled across the collection in an
IAA storage room. They immediately began work on a new program, based on the
tomb, which aired a year later.

That show, aired as part of the BBC’s acclaimed Heart of the Matter
newsmagazine, was dismissed by Biblical scholars as “laughable” for
suggesting, as Jacobovici does, that the tomb was that of Jesus Christ’s
family.

Today, Kloner and others still argue that the names were so common that
there is no significance to them being found in a tomb.

“The names that are found on the tombs are names that are similar to the
names of the family of Jesus,” he conceded. “But those were the most common
names found among Jews in the first centuries.”

In The Lost Tomb, however, University of Toronto statistician Andre
Feuerverger calculates that while the names are common, the chances of them
being found together are 600 to one.

His conclusion is based on a few assumptions: that the Maria on one of the
ossuaries is the mother of the Jesus found on another box, that Mariamne is
his wife and that Joseph (inscribed as the nickname Jose) is his brother.

As the documentary tells us, there is reason to make these assumptions.

Maria is the Latin form of Mary, and is how Jesus’s mother was known after
his death as more Romans became followers. Mariamne is the Greek form of
Mary. Mary Magdelene is believed to have spoken and preached in Greek. Jose
was the nickname used for Jesus’ little brother.

As well, the Talpiot Tomb is the only place where ossuaries have ever been
found with the names Mariamne and Jose, even though the root forms of the
name were very popular and thousands of ossuaries have been unearthed.

This is not, however, the first time a Jesus ossuary has been found. The
first was in 1926.

Another famous ossuary, inscribed James son of Joseph brother of Jesus, is
also featured in the documentary.

Forensic testing of the patina on the Jesus ossuary and that of James
conclude that they came from the same tomb — seemingly proving the
authenticity of the often-questioned James ossuary and further increasing
the likelihood that it is the tomb of the holy family.

Feuerverger calculates for Jacobovici that if James is added to the
equation, there is a 30,000 to one chance that the Talpiot Tomb belonged to
the holiest families in Christendom.

The documentary speculates that the James ossuary was stolen shortly after
the tomb was found. The archaeologists examining the tomb 26 years ago found
10 ossuaries, but only nine are in storage at the IAA. In The Lost Tomb, it
is alleged that the James ossuary is that missing box.

But there is one wrinkle that is not examined in the documentary, one that
emerged in a Jerusalem courtroom just weeks ago at the fraud trial of James
ossuary owner Oded Golan, charged with forging part of the inscription on
the box.

Former FBI agent Gerald Richard testified that a photo of the James ossuary,
showing it in Golan’s home, was taken in the 1970s, based on tests done by
the FBI photo lab.

Jacobovici concedes in an interview that if the ossuary was photographed in
the 1970s, it could not then have been found in a tomb in 1980. But while he
does not address the conundrum in the documentary, he said in an interview
that it’s possible Golan’s photo was printed on old paper in the 1980s.

————

HAS THE DNA OF JESUS CHRIST BEEN FOUND?
By Michael Posner
The Globe and Mail
February 24, 2007

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070224.wlosttomb0224/BN
Story/Front/home

Has the DNA of Jesus Christ been found?

That tantalizing question underpins The Lost Tomb of Jesus — a new book and
feature documentary film with potentially profound implications for
Christianity.

The two provocative works suggest that ossuaries once containing the bones
of Jesus of Nazareth and his family are now stored in a warehouse belonging
to the Israel Antiquity Authority in Bet Shemesh, outside Jerusalem.

Although the evidence contained in the film and book is hardly definitive,
it is compelling. Inscribed in Hebrew, Latin or Greek, six boxes — taken
from a 2,000-year-old cave discovered in March, 1980, during excavation for
a housing project in Talpiyot, south of Jerusalem — bear the names: Yeshua
(Jesus) bar Yosef (son of Joseph); Maria (the Latin version of Miriam, which
is the English Mary); Matia (the Hebrew equivalent of Matthew, a name common
in the lineage of both Mary and Joseph); Yose; (the Gospel of Mark refers to
Yose as a brother of Jesus); Yehuda bar Yeshua, or Judah, son of Jesus; and
in Greek, Mariamne e mara — meaning ‘Mariamne, known as the master.’
According to Harvard professor Francois Bovon, interviewed in the film,
Mariamne was Mary Magdalene’s real name.

The bones once contained in the boxes have long since been reburied,
according to Jewish custom — in unmarked graves in Israel.

If the evidence adduced is correct, the bone boxes — and microscopic
remains of DNA still contained inside — would constitute the first
archaeological evidence of the existence of the Christian saviour and his
family.

Tests on mitochondrial DNA obtained from the Jesus and Mariamne boxes and
conducted at Lakehead University’s Paleo-DNA laboratory, in Thunder Bay,
Ont., show conclusively that the two individuals were not maternally
related. According to Dr. Carney Matheson, the lab’s head, this likely means
they were related by marriage.

Thus, the book and film raise seminal questions, not only about the early
movement of Judeo-Christians that Jesus led, but about whether, as some
scholars believe, he might have been married to Mary Magdalene and fathered
a family.

Nothing in the film or book challenges traditional Christian dogma regarding
the resurrection. But it could pose a problem for those that believe Jesus’
ascension, 40 days after the resurrection, was both physical and spiritual.
And, if further DNA testing were to link Jesus and Yose with Mary, it would
call into question the entire doctrine of the Virgin Birth.

The $4-million documentary is the work two Canadians — Emmy-award winner
director Simcha Jacobovici and his executive producer, Oscar-award winning
filmmaker James Cameron. It will air on Canada’s Vision TV on March 6th and
later next month on Discovery US and Britain’s Channel 4. A companion book,
The Jesus Family Tomb, by Mr. Jacobovici and Dr. Charles Pellegrino, has
just been released (Harper Collins).

Mr. Jacobovici and Mr. Cameron are scheduled to hold a press conference
Monday morning at the New York Public Library, with the Jesus and Mary
Magdelene ossuaries, flown in from Israel, on display.

Meanwhile, security agents have been hired to stand guard outside the
Talpiyot apartments beneath which the tomb lies, covered by a large cement
plate.

“I don’t think this changes the fundamentals of faith,” Mr. Cameron said in
an interview this week. “But the evidence is pretty darn compelling and it
definitely bears further study.”

Not everyone agrees. “It’s a beautiful story, but without any proof
whatsoever,” archaeologist Dr. Amos Kloner, who wrote the original report on
the Talpiyot cave findings, told an Israeli reporter last week. “The
names…found on the tombs are names that are similar to the names of the
family of Jesus. But those were the most common names found among Jews in
the first centuries BCE and CE.”

Yet if the individual names were common, the film and book ask: what is the
likelihood that this particular group of names, so resonant of the Jesus
story, would appear together, contained in the same family tomb?

“There are really only two possibilities,” says director Jacobovici. “Either
this cluster of names represents the tomb of Jesus of Nazareth and his
family. Or some other family, with this very same constellation of names,
existed at precisely the same time in history in Jerusalem.”

To calculate the odds, Mr. Jacobovici took the data to University of Toronto
mathematician Dr. Andrey Feuerverger. Factoring in the commonality of these
names in first-Century Israel, Dr. Feuerverger puts the odds of this tomb
not belonging to Jesus and his family at one in 600.

Another estimate, commissioned by Dr. James Tabor, chair of the department
of religion studies at the University of North Carolina, puts the odds at
one in 42 million. “If you took the entire population of Jerusalem at the
time,” says Dr. Taber, “and put it in a stadium, and asked everyone named
Jesus to stand up, you’d have about 2,700 men. Then you’d ask only those
with a father named Joseph and a mother named Mary to remain standing. And
then those with a brother named Yose and a brother named James.
Statistically, you end up with one person.”

The James reference is significant because of the 10 ossuaries found at
Talpiyot, one later disappeared. Many experts believe that coffin is the now
infamous ‘James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus’ ossuary that turned up a
few years ago and was put on public display at the Royal Ontario Museum.

Although many scholars have called the inscription ‘brother of Jesus’ a
modern-day forgery, at least as many academics continue to believe in its
authenticity.

Moreover, tests conducted for The Lost Tomb of Jesus show that the patina
encrusted on the James ossuary bears precisely the same chemical thumbprint
as the other ossuaries found at Talpiyot.

Neither the provenance nor the age of the ossuaries is not in dispute. The
boxes, never out of the control of professional archaeologists, are
effectively self-dating, since the practice of re-interring the bones of the
dead in limestone boxes a year after death was conducted by Jews in the Holy
Land for a period of only 100 years. Prominent families stored the boxes in
family tombs.

Moreover, all the inscriptions have been corroborated by some of the world’s
leading epigraphers, including Harvard’s Frank Moore Cross.

The ‘Jesus, son of Joseph’ marking is considered rare; of thousands of
inscriptions so far catalogued, only one other bone coffin contained the
same construction.

No Christian tradition suggests that Jesus had a son, but the Gospel of John
does refer to “the beloved disciple” who rests on Jesus’ lap at the last
supper.

And perhaps, says Mr. Jacobovici, “although this is pure speculation, when
Jesus on the cross says ‘mother, behold thy son,’ he’s not referring to
himself or to his mother, but to his son, who is there with Mary Magdalene”.

The book of Mark, he adds, also contains a passage that might allude to a
son — a reference to a young man, wearing nothing but linen who follows
Jesus after his arrest and, when guards try to apprehend him, slips out of
his clothes and escapes naked.

“That’s a very odd story,” says Mr. Jacobovici. “There’s no name is given
for the young lad, but the gospel writer obviously thought it was important
to tell it.”

“None of us,” maintains Dr. Tabor, “are gleefully presenting this as though
we’ve trumped Christianity. If anything, it might help clarify and refine it
a bit. Some people will immediately say this is sensationalism. I don’t
agree with that. I know enough about it to say this is a subject that
deserves serious and continued investigation.”

Indeed, it’s likely that there will be sequel to The Lost Tomb of Jesus.
While searching for the original Talpiyot cave, the filmmakers stumbled upon
a second crypt, only 20 meters away that has never been explored by
archaeologists. A miniature camera inserted into the tomb revealed three
ossuaries.

————

THE JESUS FAMILY TOMB:
THE DISCOVERY, THE INVESTIGATION, AND THE EVIDENCE
THAT COULD CHANGE HISTORY
By Simcha Jacobovici (Author), Charles Pellegrino (Author)
Hardcover: 240 pages
Publisher: HarperSanFrancisco (February 27, 2007)
Language: English
Amazon.com Sales Rank: #349 in Books

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0061192023/newheavenneweart

————

THE JESUS TOMB OFFICIAL SITE:
http://www.jesusfamilytomb.com/

* * * * * * * *

JESUS FAMILY TOMB BELIEVED FOUND
By Jennifer Viegas
Discovery News
February 25, 2007

New scientific evidence, including DNA analysis conducted at one of the
world’s foremost molecular genetics laboratories, as well as studies by
leading scholars, suggests a 2,000-year-old Jerusalem tomb could have once
held the remains of Jesus of Nazareth and his family.

The findings also suggest that Jesus and Mary Magdalene might have produced
a son named Judah.

The DNA findings, alongside statistical conclusions made about the artifacts
— originally excavated in 1980 — open a potentially significant chapter in
Biblical archaeological history.

A documentary presenting the evidence, “The Lost Tomb of Jesus,” will
premiere on the Discovery Channel on March 4 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. The
documentary comes from executive producer James Cameron
and director Simcha Jacobovici
.

The Talpiot Tomb

On March 28, 1980, a construction crew developing an apartment complex in
Talpiot, Jerusalem, uncovered a tomb, which archaeologists from the Israeli
Antiquities Authority excavated shortly thereafter. Archaeologist Shimon
Gibson surveyed the site and drew a layout plan. Scholar L.Y. Rahmani later
published “A Catalogue of Jewish Ossuaries” that described 10 ossuaries, or
limestone bone boxes, found in the tomb.

Scholars know that from 30 B.C. to 70 A.D., many people in Jerusalem would
first wrap bodies in shrouds after death. The bodies were then placed in
carved rock tombs, where they decomposed for a year before the bones were
placed in an ossuary.

Five of the 10 discovered boxes in the Talpiot tomb were inscribed with
names believed to be associated with key figures in the New Testament:
Jesus, Mary, Matthew, Joseph and Mary Magdalene. A sixth inscription,
written in Aramaic, translates to “Judah Son of Jesus.”

“Such tombs are very typical for that region,” Aaron Brody, associate
professor of Bible and archaeology at the Pacific School of Religion and
director of California’s Bade Museum told Discovery News.

Ossuary Inscriptions

At least four leading epigraphers have corroborated the ossuary inscriptions
for the documentary, according to the Discovery Channel.

Frank Moore Cross, a professor emeritus in the Department of Near Eastern
Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University, told Discovery News, “The
inscriptions are from the Herodian Period (which occurred from around 1 B.C.
to 1 A.D.). The use of limestone ossuaries and the varied script styles are
characteristic of that time.”

Jodi Magness, associate department chair of religious studies at the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, told Discovery News that, based
on the New Testament writings, “Jesus likely lived during the first century
A.D.”

In addition to the “Judah son of Jesus” inscription, which is written in
Aramaic on one of the ossuaries, another limestone burial box is labeled in
Aramaic with “Jesus Son of Joseph.” Another bears the Hebrew inscription
“Maria,” a Latin version of “Miriam,” or, in English, “Mary.” Yet another
ossuary inscription, written in Hebrew, reads “Matia,” the original Hebrew
word for “Matthew.” Only one of the inscriptions is written in Greek. It
reads, “Mariamene e Mara,” which can be translated as, “Mary known as the
master.”

Francois Bovon, professor of the history of religion at Harvard University,
told Discovery News, “Mariamene, or Mariamne, probably was the actual name
given to Mary Magdalene.”

Bovon explained that he and a colleague discovered a fourteenth century copy
in Greek of a fourth century text that contains the most complete version of
the “Acts of Philip” ever found. Although not included in the Bible, the
“Acts of Philip” mentions the apostles and Mariamne, sister of the apostle
Philip.

“When Philip is weak, she is strong,” Bovon said. “She likely was a great
teacher who even inspired her own sect of followers, called Mariamnists, who
existed from around the 2nd to the 3rd century.”

DNA Analysis

Jacobovici, director, producer and writer of “The Lost Tomb of Jesus,” and
his team obtained two sets of samples from the ossuaries for DNA and
chemical analysis. The first set consisted of bits of matter taken from the
“Jesus Son of Joseph” and “Mariamene e Mara” ossuaries. The second set
consisted of patina — a chemical film encrustation on one of the limestone
boxes.

The human remains were analyzed by Carney Matheson, a scientist at the
Paleo-DNA Laboratory at Lakehead University in Ontario, Canada.
Mitochondrial DNA examination determined the individual in the Jesus ossuary
and the person in the ossuary linked to Mary Magdalene were not related.

Since tombs normally contain either blood relations or spouses, Jacobovici
and his team suggest it is possible Jesus and Mary Magdalene were a couple.
“Judah,” whom they indicate may have been their son, could have been the
“lad” described in the Gospel of John as sleeping in Jesus’ lap at the Last
Supper.

Robert Genna, director of the Suffolk County Crime Laboratory in New York,
analyzed both the patina taken from the Talpiot Tomb and chemical residue
obtained from the “James” ossuary, which was also found around 1980, but
subsequently disappeared and resurfaced in the antiquities market. Although
controversy surrounds this burial box, Genna found that the two patinas
matched.

“The samples were consistent with each other,” Genna told Discovery News.

Upon examining the tomb, the filmmakers determined a space exists that would
have fit the “James” ossuary. Given the patina match and this observation,
Jacobovici theorizes the lost burial box could, in fact, be the “James”
ossuary.

Statistical Data

A possible argument against the Talpiot Tomb being the Jesus Family Tomb is
that the collection of names on the ossuary inscriptions could be
coincidental.

But Andrey Feuerverger, professor of statistics and mathematics at the
University of Toronto, recently conducted a study addressing the
probabilities that will soon be published in a leading statistical journal.

Feuerverger multiplied the instances that each name appeared during the
tomb’s time period with the instances of every other name. He initially
found “Jesus Son of Joseph” appeared once out of 190 times, Mariamne
appeared once out of 160 times and so on.

To be conservative, he next divided the resulting numbers by 25 percent, a
statistical standard, and further divided the results by 1,000 to attempt to
account for all tombs — even those that have not been uncovered — that
could have existed in first century Jerusalem.

The study concludes that the odds are at least 600 to 1 in favor of the
Talpiot Tomb being the Jesus Family Tomb. In other words, the conclusion
works 599 times out of 600.

Another Tomb?

The researchers discovered a second, as-yet unexplored tomb about 65 1/2
feet from the Talpiot Tomb. During the documentary, they introduced a
robotic camera into this second tomb, which captured the first-ever recorded
footage of an undisturbed burial cave from Jesus’ time. The team speculates
that this other tomb could contain the remains of additional family members,
or even disciples, though further examination and analysis are needed.

In the meantime, Discovery has set up a special Web site,
http://www.discovery.com/tomb , to provide related in-depth information and
to allow viewers to come to their own conclusions about the entire matter.

As Academy Award-winner Cameron said in a press release, “It doesn’t get
bigger than this. We’ve done our homework; we’ve made the case; and now it’s
time for the debate to begin.”

————

THE LOST TOMB OF JESUS DISCOVERY CHANNEL WEBSITE:
http://www.discovery.com/tomb/

ABOUT THE DOCUMENTARY:
http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/tomb/about/about.html

EXPLORE THE TOMB:
(Includes diagram of tomb, tomb discovery outline, photos of ossuaries and
engravings, a downloadable pdf that describes and illustrates evidence, and
an outline of supporting evidence)
http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/tomb/explore/explore.html

LAND OF JESUS:
http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/tomb/land/land.html

FILMMAKERS AND EXPERTS:
http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/tomb/bios/bios.html

THEOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS:
http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/tomb/theology/theology.html

DISCUSSION FORUM:
http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/tomb/forum/forum.html