Last year on nearly this same date I wrote a blog post titled “Look Out, It’s Be Kind to God Week!” The following are the opening sentences to that piece:

"Well, batten down the hatches and get your survival gear out because it is 'Be Kind to God Week'--the annual media full-court-press to discourage Christians is in full swing. You see, every Easter and Christmas the national media takes it upon itself to present what appears to be exciting new revelations about Christianity or Jesus, usually presented using classic Christian art, which is slyly designed to propagate a faith-deflating message. The typical headline goes something like this: 'The Real Jesus Finally Uncovered.' Then the message goes something like this: 'Jesus wasn’t what Christians have always believed him to be.'"

Last year’s Easter offering was the Gospel of Judas and the year before that was the Gospel of Thomas. The mass media and secular culture are seemingly always looking for the “magic bullet” that will kill its horrible enemy—Christianity. This year’s offering is the almost 40 year old discovery in Jerusalem of a tomb containing the remains of a family with people named Joseph, Mary and Jesus (among others). Okay, what I have done is assemble a bunch of reasons as to why this is another media-hyped-up pile of nonsense intended to grab headlines, make a fast buck and discourage Christians. I gathered much of this from a lively post and debate on Ben Witherington’s blog: http://benwitherington.blogspot.com/2007/02/jesus-tomb-titanic-talpiot-tomb-theory.html

1. Joseph died before Jesus came into his time of ministry. Jesus and his family lived in Nazareth as all gospels attest. Joseph would have been buried in Nazareth or Bethleham. He would have had to be exhumed and moved to Jerusalem to be in the Talpiot tomb. Jerusalem is where those who crucified Jesus lived. Does such a thing make any sense?
2. The names Joseph and Jesus (in their Hebrew form) were two of the most popular Jewish names in the first century. Others have calculated that at a minimum 225 men lived in Jerusalem as contemporaries of Jesus with the same name who had fathers named Joseph.
3. The typical way that one reasons regarding these things is that since we don’t have any evidence from any source that Jesus was married or that he had a son (claimed by this theory) we would, therefore, assume that the common names on the ossuaries refer to another family. Essentially, Cameron and Discovery are saying, we believe Jesus was not resurrected so this must be his tomb.
4. Reputable archeologists that have worked on the tomb including respected Israeli archaeologist Amos Kloner who first examined the tomb strongly disagree with the Cameron interpretation (“without any proof whatsoever”). Kloner flatly states that, “The documentary filmmakers are using it to sell their film.”
5. The name “Matthew” appears on one of the ossuaries. There was no known close relative of Jesus named Matthew.
6. The name “Martha” appears on one of the ossuaries. There was no known close relative of Jesus named Martha.
7. To accept the Cameron interpretation one must believe that the gospel writers were frauds and that Mary and James who lived on after Jesus’ death participated in the fraud.
8. We know from Eusebius that James was buried near the temple where he was martyred (thrown from the temple) and a stone monument was erected in his memory. The monument was a destination for Christian pilgrims. The place of the monument and the location of the ossuary tomb (Talpiot) are nowhere near each other.
9. Why would Christians be making a pilgrimage to the tomb of James (which held his remains) if there was a tomb holding Jesus’ remains?
10. If the bones of Jesus were also in James’ tomb (along with James) or in another tomb in Jerusalem, why would Christians be making a pilgrimage to visit the remains of the one whom they believed was their risen savior? This would violate their faith.
11. Christian tradition supported by some physical evidence notes that Mary was taken by the Beloved Apostle John with him to Ephesus where she died. Today, there is stone house from the first century with restorations from 7th century on the top of a hill five miles away from Ephesus, where it is believed that Mary spent her final years. Also, Ephesus has the earliest church in the world dedicated to Mary.
12. In the first century, the Talpiot tomb site was a sheep field well outside the city walls of Jerusalem. What would possess the family of Jesus to bury themselves there while James was buried in Jerusalem?
13. The Roman and the Jewish leadership would have loved nothing more than to have produced Christ’s ossuary, which--according to this theory--was right there in the Jerusalem area for everyone to see. Does this make any sense?
14. The Talpiot tomb has people who should not be there (Joseph, Matthew, Martha and a second Mary) but who are there, and people who should be there but who are not there (the brothers Simon and Judas and the sisters of Jesus).

Don’t be dismayed, with this year’s “Be Kind to God” offering, the archeology is on the side of the Christian faith.