Old bones equal proof the bible is true!

At least, as far as Fox News is concerned. Here’s their headline: Mysterious bones may belong to John the Baptist

There’s no way to be sure, of course, as there are no confirmed pieces of John the Baptist to compare to the fragments of bone. But the sarcophagus holding the bones was found near a second box bearing the name of St. John and his feast date (also called a holy day) of June 24. Now, new radiocarbon dating of the collagen in one of the bones pegs its age to the early first century, consistent with the New Testament and Jewish histories of John the Baptist’s life.

What if the box was just owned or built by the dead guy and some family member thought it’d be nice to put it in with him? Isn’t that a more likely scenario than claiming we “just happened” to find John the Baptist? What a miracle! I’m thinking not.

“We got some dates that are very interesting indeed,” study researcher Thomas Higham of the University of Oxford told LiveScience. “They suggest that the human bone is all from the same person, it’s from a male, and it has a very high likelihood of an origin in the Near East,” or Middle East where John the Baptist would have lived.

Him, and how many thousands of other people?

Historical research by Oxford professor Georges Kazan suggests that relics supposedly from John the Baptist were on the move out of Jerusalem by the fourth century. Many of these artifacts were shuttled through the ancient city of Constantinople and may well have been gifted to the Sveti Ivan monastery from there.

None of this proves that the bones belonged to a historical figure named John the Baptist, but researchers haven’t been able to rule out the possibility, Higham said. Their study has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal, but a program detailing the research will be aired on the United Kingdom National Geographic Channel on Sunday (June 17). National Geographic funded the research.

So this is not Fox’s fault? I thought National Geographic put more emphasis on facts over sensationalism but maybe I’ve been living under a rock or something. I’m already aware that The History Channel offers up Pawn Stars and American Pickers. And it looks like the Learning Channel long since gave up on teaching people anything useful. Toddlers and Tiaras? Say Yes to the Dress? 19 Kids and Counting? Give me a break. And I see NatGeo offers up its own share of WTF TV, too. It’s all a ratings game, I guess.

“New” Mayan art contradicts 2012 deadline

Good news for those who might have been worried: archeologists in Guatemala have announced the discovery of a mural there that suggests the earth’s inhabitants still have another 7000 years to prosper.

Working with epigrapher David Stuart and archaeologist and artist Heather Hurst, the researchers noticed several barely visible hieroglyphic texts, painted and etched along the east and north walls of the room.

One is a lunar table, and the other is a “ring number”—something previously known only from much later Maya books, where it was used as part of a backward calculation in establishing a base date for planetary cycles. Nearby is a sequence of numbered intervals corresponding to key calendrical and planetary cycles.

The calculations include dates some 7,000 years in the future, adding to evidence against the idea that the Maya thought the world would end in 2012—a modern myth inspired by an ancient calendar that depicts time starting over this year.

“We keep looking for endings,” expedition leader Saturno said in a statement. “The Maya were looking for a guarantee that nothing would change. It’s an entirely different mindset.”

Bad news for “the usually picturesque and tranquil Pyrenean village of Bugarach.” Their village had been picked as the potential Noah’s Ark for scared hippies the world over. Back in March, the Independent reported that

Upwards of 100,000 people are thought to be planning a trip to the mountain, 30 miles west of Perpignan, in time for 21 December, and opportunistic entrepreneurs are shamelessly cashing in on the phenomenon. While American travel agents have been offering special, one-way deals to witness the end of the world, a neighbouring village, Saint-Paul de Fenouillet, has produced a wine to celebrate the occasion.

Jean-Pierre Delord, the perplexed mayor of Bugarach, has flagged up the situation to the French authorities, requesting they scramble the army to the tiny village for fear of a mass suicide. It has also caught the attention of France’s sect watchdog, Miviludes.

It’s believed by these people that aliens have a spacecraft inside Pic de Bugarach and that they have the capability to “beam away” anyone in the vicinity on that day. No wonder there’s some worry. Nobody wants to see another Heaven’s Gate happen. (Their website is still up and running, by the way.)

Another final resting place for Jesus found

I say another because I experienced something akin to deja vu. There was a news report in 2007 about the same thing around the same time of year as now. James Cameron’s “Lost of of Jesus” aired near Easter. You’d hardly announce this kind of thing in June, obviously. It simply must be mentioned while people have Lent to follow and Easter candy in the aisles to tempt them while shopping.

Archeologists think they’ve found a likely tomb. The one Cameron’s film focused on was found in Jerusalem in 1980 and this doesn’t seem to be the same one. The article says it was found in 1981 but was left mostly undisturbed at the time on account of Othodox Jews being opposed to the work the archeologists wanted to do. James Tabor and his team applied for permission to reopen it a couple years ago and

stumbled upon a coffin bearing engravings inside a first-century Christian tomb in Jerusalem which they believe could prove that the site is the final resting place of Jesus. The burial chamber located below a modern condominium building has been dated to before AD 70, so if its engravings are indeed early Christian, they were most likely made by some of Jesus’ earliest followers, the excavators said.

Using a remote-controlled camera connected to a robotic arm, the excavators found that one of the limestone boxes, also known as ossuaries, bears an inscription in Greek that refers to “Divine Jehovah”, raising someone up.

Another box featured an image thought to be a representation of Jonah and the whale. This was apparently a common decoration on early Christian tombs. Both Jonah and Jesus were in their predicament for 3 days.

Researchers expect their findings to “become controversial.” Well, duh. They aren’t the first to claim they’ve found it and I doubt they’ll be the last, either. I expect there will always be people who seek physical proof of biblical tales to legitimize continued faith in those old stories and allegories. It’s one thing to believe you’re right. It’s another to know you are. Historical proof would go a long way toward bolstering a faith under what seems like constant fire from the dedicated atheist camp. Here it is! Here He was! Stop telling us we’re delusional! I don’t know if they’ve found the tomb Christ’s body would have laid in. It’s interesting to find a tomb anyone from that era would have been in. It’s interesting to learn about how people’s remains were honoured, whether they were actual sons of god or not.

Old news: it’s official. Real Ark found… again

It’s in Turkey. Seriously. I mean it. Totally there. If you can believe the researchers, that is. Chinese researchers planted evidence on Mount Ararat when they went hunting for a documentary (wrote about that here) but the Pravda piece takes readers back through the history of the Noah’s Ark story and why people have concluded the ark really did land up there. It takes a special kind of person to want real proof that God’s mass genocide of every species on earth. I think these people must also love to think that they’re descendents of God’s chosen few. Never mind just how inbred humans would have been after several generations of nothing but close relatives to mate with; all that would have resulted was a race of people as bad off as Charles II of Spain. Yes? But anyway, on with quoting Pravda’s piece:

In 1960, Lihan Durupinar, a captain of the Turkish army, made several aerial photos. On one of those photos, Durupinar saw a strange object staying at the height of 6,350 feet in Ararat Mountains. The object was shaped as a ship and was nearly 500 feet long. A mission of US and Turkish scientists set off on a mission to the mountains soon after the photo had been published.

At the height of nearly 7,000 feet above the sea level, they saw a flat plot of land covered with grass. The plot looked like a ship indeed. The size of the plot of land was very close to that mentioned in the Bible. The scientists did not conduct a detailed examination of the site. They simply concluded that the strange formation was nothing else but a natural phenomenon.

And it’s a pity things didn’t just end there. Too bad a detailed examination wasn’t done to prove it truly was a naturally occurring plot of land that was vaguely ship shaped. An American doctor and amateur archeologist by the name of Ron Wyatt saw the picture and became obsessed with proving the Ark had landed up there. He managed a trek to the mountain in the ’70s and found rocks there that he believed had been used as anchors for it.

Ron had seen the photos of those rocks in archeology books before. The rocks with holes drilled in them served as anchors for ancient vessels. It turned out that there were crosses engraved on all local rocks.

Which makes me ask what difference the crosses make. Were these actually Noah’s rocks, the crosses wouldn’t have been on them when he used them since the cross as a symbol of God was something of a late addition. And let’s be honest — those holes could have been drilled in those rocks any time after 1960 once locals realized there were people gullible enough to think the ark had actually been there. None of those sensible ideas came to Wyatt at the time, though, and more treks to the site happened over the years, each excursion revealing more “proof” he was on the right track.

In December 1986, Turkish officials representing interior and foreign ministries, as well as a group of researchers from the city of Ataturk approved the official solution saying that the formation discovered by Ron Wyatt and his colleagues contained the remains of Noah’s Ark indeed.

Many discussions have taken place since the “official” discovery of Noah’s Ark. Some scientists say that Wyatt indeed discovered the Biblical vessel, whereas others deny this theory. The search for the Ark still continues.

And it beats me why people bother. As a story it’s kind of a grim one. The rainbow connection (sorry) is just plain daft and again I bring up the fact that two – or even seven – pairs of each type of animal is not going to work to repopulate a world. “But it was a miracle!” Blah blah. It was a story, probably the spawn of several different stories told by cultures at the time attempting to explain why the world was how it was. I don’t think any of them should have been taken as real answers to whatever the questions may have been. It’s a waste of time, energy and resources to work on proving it all to be true.

I think bible archeologists walk a fine line

Obviously it’s worthwhile to hunt for artifacts that can provide a more rounded image of earlier days but I hope the never-ending drive to prove the bible is true isn’t the only reason people go digging in Israel and area. There were other people in the world besides Jesus, after all. Shouldn’t proof of their existence be just as fascinating?

The Daily Mail is reporting on the research results of a burial box that was confiscated from looters a few years ago.

The ancient limestone box – or ossuary – is believed to reveal the location of the family of Caiaphas, the high priest involved in Christ’s crucifixion.

Researchers in Israel say it could reveal the biblical figure’s family home before their exodus to Galilee.

They’ve since deciphered and authenticated the inscription on the box.

‘The inscription on this one is extraordinary,’ says Yuval Goren who was called on to authenticate it.

The carved words not only detail the deceased, but it also names three other generations and a potential location for the family.

The full inscription reads: ‘Miriam daughter of Yeshua son of Caiaphus, priest of Maaziah from Beth Imri.’

Beit Imri could refer to another priestly order, say researchers, or possibly a geographical location, likely that of Caiaphus’ family.

The Daily Mail titled their article, Clue to the crucifixion? 2,000-year-old biblical burial box is new ‘link to the death of Jesus Christ’

After reading the actual article, I fail to see how. Were Miriam’s remains in the box? She was a relative of Caiaphus, yes? What does that have to do with Christ? The Mail article isn’t good enough to make things clear for the reader. They’re much more invested in linking the box to Christ even if there’s no valid reason to do so — beyond getting readers interested.

They’re also behind on the news. Pious Fabrications posted a lengthy report with far more information back on July 4th. I presume it was copied from somewhere else originally, but links don’t lead to a source.

In the conclusion of their study Dr. Boaz Zissu and Professor Yuval Goren write, “the prime importance of the inscription lies in the reference to the ancestry of the deceased – Miriam daughter of Yeshua – to the Caiaphas family, indicating the connection to the family of the Ma’aziah course of priests of Beth ‟Imri”. Caiaphas is the name of Yeshua’s father, and Miriam’s grandfather. From the wording of the inscription we learn that he belonged to a famous family of priests that was active in the first century CE. One family member, the high priest Yehosef Bar Caiaphas, is especially famous for his involvement in the trial and crucifixion of Jesus.

A famous family of priests. So, no real reason to go ahead and directly assume the box belongs to the granddaughter of the very man who was named in the Bible. But, even it is, Jesus’ life or death still has nothing to do with this story. The only reason to mention him is to make people read about archeology.

It’s underhanded, but it’s a tactic that works. It’s too bad people feel the need to lie about historical significance in order to get people to read about something actually historically significant. To certain circles, at least:

Ma’aziah /Ma’aziahu is the last of the twenty four priestly courses that served in the Temple in Jerusalem. The list of courses, which was formulated during King David’s reign, appears in theBible in I Chronicles (I Chronicles 24:18). The signatories to the pledge in the days of Nehemiah include among others, “Maʽaziah, Bilgai, Shem’aiah; these are the priests” (Nehemiah 10: 9). This is the first reference to the Maʽaziah course in an epigraphic find from the Second Temple period. For the first time we learn from an inscription that the Caiaphas family was related to the Ma’aziah course.

For those who’ve made it their livelihood to study that kind of thing, that’s interesting news. Perhaps it’s resolved some arguments, won some bets, and allowed black sheep to return to the archeological fold. So, congratulations to those who worked on solving the riddles. Good luck with the next one.

Is bible archeology the only archeology?

Hardly, but it seems like it’s the only kind of archeology that generates clickable headlines. Like this one: Jesus’ apostle’s tomb unearthed in Turkey. OMIGOD! Proof the bible is true! Quick! Go look! Your argument’s invalid! CHrisTians Win 4evaR!

An Italian professor has announced the apparent discovery of the tomb of St. Philip, one of Jesus Christ’s apostles, at the ancient city of Hierapolis in the Aegean province of Denizli.

The discovery of the grave of the biblical saint, who was killed by the Romans 2,000 years ago, will attract immense attention around the world, said Francesco D’Andria. St. Philip, one of the 12 apostles, came to Hierapolis 2,000 years ago to spread the Christianity before being killed by the Romans, the professor said.

The article goes into a few details about how this became the conclusion. As of the writing of the article, the tomb hadn’t been opened yet but right or wrong it looks like they’re sure this will boost Christian tourism.

I doubt tourism will get such a boost in Saskatchewan but there were a couple interesting finds in this province recently, too. In two separate incidents, old remains were pretty much stumbled over. No tombs, no churches, just found.

Archeologists have determined the bones found by a couple of canoeists Wednesday on the shore of Moosoomin Lake in Moosoomin Regional Park are those of an adult aboriginal male who died about 500 to 1,000 years ago.

The remains are to be turned over to the Heritage Conservation Branch with Saskatchewan Tourism, Parks, Culture and Sport for proper reburial.

The other remains were uncovered by a construction company in Oxbow and estimated to be around 200 years old. They’ll be given to the HCB, too.

No word on whether the owners of either body would have known or even cared who Jesus Christ was.

But they lived and they loved; they believed whatever they wanted to believe and then they died. Just like Phillip. No tombs, no churches, just life and death.

Christ’s crucifixion nails have been found (again)

I know, I know. Just in time for Easter, right? Must be true then.

an Israeli television journalist has produced a pair of nails he says may have been used to crucify Jesus Christ. “We’re not saying these are the nails,” says Simcha Jacobovici, holding aloft a pair of smallish iron spikes with the tips hammered to one side. “We’re saying these could be the nails.”

This could also be conjecture in action and the nails could have been used for just about anything at one point or another.

When a tomb was discovered in 1990, bones were found in a box and it’s been assumed it marked the final resting place Caiaphas, the priest and juror who helped seal Christ’s fate.

Researchers from the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) listed everything found in the cave, including two Roman nails. But unlike everything else in the grave, the nails were otherwise unaccounted for. They were not measured, sketched or photographed, and nowhere to be found in the IAA’s vast collection.

It’s being assumed the nails were snuck out of the tomb at some point because a pair wound up at the Tel Aviv University laboratory for analysis later. Interestingly, Professor Israel Hershkowitz already had a nail from a different tomb on the premises. Maybe it’s the one the Telegraph reported on the year before, in an article headlined — you’ve probably already guessed this — “Nail from Christ’s crucifixion found?”

Bryn Walters, an archaeologist, said the iron nail’s remarkable condition suggested it had been handed with extreme care, as if it was a relic.

“It dates from the first to second centuries,” he told the Daily Mirror.

While one would expect the surface to be “pitted and rough” he said on this nail the surface was smooth.

That suggested that many people had handled it over the centuries, with the acid on their hands giving it a “peculiar finish”.

Christopher Macklin of the Knights Templar of Britannia said the discovery was “momentous”.

He said the original Knights Templar may have thought it was one of the nails used in Christ’s crucifixion.

Doesn’t mean the knights were right, obviously. At some point I’m going to really have to research this relic business. I’m forever fascinated by it. I’m guessing forgeries (or at least mistaken identities) must have be a constant threat to those who wanted to believe they possessed originals. And today it seems every find from that area of the world is assumed to be a direct link to biblical history, as if no other people beyond those actually named in the bible would have been living there at the time. Always the search for physical proof that their religions aren’t a made up lie.

On the topic of lies and forgery, I’ve started reading a different book now, Forged: writing in the name of God–why the Bible’s authors are not who we think they are by Bart D. Ehrman. I think it’s going to be enlightening and quite enjoyable. It’ll definitely generate a blog post or two once I’m further into it.

Back to the Time article:

the case arrives with no shortage of loose ends. The IAA’s inventory states that one nail was found on the floor of the tomb, or cave, and another was found inside an ossuary. But there were 12 ossuaries in the tomb, and there is no record of which one it was in.

Nor is it clear which box most likely contained the bones of the priest the Gospels say pushed Jesus toward death. Caiaphas is an unusual name, not found in any of the other 2,000 ossuaries recovered so far around Jerusalem from roughly the time of Christ. But in this tomb, the name shows up twice. Scholars have focused on an ornate box labeled “Joseph, son of Caiaphas,” but Jacobovici suggests the priest’s bones were gathered in a simpler one labeled only “Caiaphas.”

Last names really were a terrific invention. What country gets credit for coming up with that way to keep families sorted? The following has nothing to do with this but I’m reminded of something I read (forget where, sorry) that “son” wouldn’t have necessarily meant direct descendant at this point in history, but any boy child from that genetic lineage, no matter how distantly related. I also wonder if this habit of calling everyone a son is what led people to call their priests Father. End of digression.

Gaby Barkay, a professor at Bar Ilan University and probably the most prominent archeologist in Israel, offers another explanation. Jews at the time of Christ “were impurity freaks,” Barkay says. Anything in the vicinity of a corpse was thought to be contaminated by death, even a nail stuck in a nearby wall. “Therefore it would probably be removed and put into the grave,” he says.

Documentaries of the kind Jacobovici has produced exist for entertainment. Barkay admits that they’re interesting to people but says, “This is not the way to draw conclusions in science,” and he’s right. You can’t just jump to a conclusion and ignore due process if you want to be taken seriously. But the media likes a conclusion to jump on, the sooner the better, so researchers oblige and share amazing results of discovery a lot earlier than some of them should. Especially when said results are soon falsified or challenged by other research in those fields. Fewer people are likely to see those headlines, though.

Jesus.. if you can’t trust mysterious little books, what can you trust?

So I see it’s suspected (for days and a year) already that the miraculous find in Jordan is a forgery after all. I found a quoted letter by Peter Thonemann:

The text was incised by someone who did not know the Greek language, since he does not distinguish between the letters lambda and alpha: both are simply represented, in each of the texts, by the shape Λ.

The text literally means ‘without grief, farewell! Abgar also known as Eision’. This text, in isolation, is meaningless.

More suspicions:

The longer text from which it derives is a perfectly ordinary tombstone from Madaba in Jordan which happens to have been on display in the Amman museum for the past fifty years or so. The text on your bronze tablet is repeated, in part, in three different places, meaningless in each case.

Didn’t take much to make news out of it though, eh?

It’s a good thing the lead Jesus books were discovered before April Fools Day

It’s been announced that 70 little lead books were discovered in Jordan a few years ago, found in a cave by a Bedouin. The area, the Daily Mail reports, was a popular stop for Christians on the run around 70AD so it’s at least possible someone left them there for a reason.

The Christian Science Monitor explains to its readers (thank you) how the books were “sealed” from easy reading through the use of secret codes. The Mail reports that some are jumping to the conclusion now that this set of codices may be the very ones mentioned in Revelation as the ones only the Messiah can read.

Already there are divisions about authenticity, not just of the books (CS Monitor has more about that), but of the story of where they’re from. Via the Montreal Gazette I learn that the archeologist team taking credit for this find is telling the Bedouin story and the guy hanging onto the books for dear life is saying they’ve been in his family for generations. Either way, the Jordanian government wants the books returned to their country. Right now they’re believing the Elkingtons over Hassan Saeda, the Bedouin farmer currently in possession of them.

I predict scandals, lawsuits and headaches over this whole discovery. It’ll be interesting to see what else comes of this.

God’s wife written out of the bible?

What an idea. Who came up with that one? Francesca Stavrakopoulou is a theologian who’s been looking back earlier writings that suggest ancient Israelites had two gods they were worshiping: Yahweh and his wife, Asherah.

Stavrakopoulou bases her theory on ancient texts, amulets and figurines unearthed primarily in the ancient Canaanite coastal city called Ugarit, now modern-day Syria. All of these artifacts reveal that Asherah was a powerful fertility goddess.

Asherah’s connection to Yahweh, according to Stavrakopoulou, is spelled out in both the Bible and an 8th century B.C. inscription on pottery found in the Sinai desert at a site called Kuntillet Ajrud.

“The inscription is a petition for a blessing,” she shares. “Crucially, the inscription asks for a blessing from ‘Yahweh and his Asherah.’ Here was evidence that presented Yahweh and Asherah as a divine pair. And now a handful of similar inscriptions have since been found, all of which help to strengthen the case that the God of the Bible once had a wife.”

I wonder how well that idea’s going over. Rob Bell has been under a lot of flak on account of his new book suggesting hell doesn’t exist, and now there are people saying God not only had a wife but that men tried to erase her influence from history? States Stavrakopoulou,

In the Book of Kings, we’re told that a statue of Asherah was housed in the temple and that female temple personnel wove ritual textiles for her.

Later versions hide the goddess aspect of her by changing verses that name Asherah to call her a “Sacred Tree” instead.

“Mentions of the goddess Asherah in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) are rare and have been heavily edited by the ancient authors who gathered the texts together,” Aaron Brody, director of the Bade Museum and an associate professor of Bible and archaeology at the Pacific School of Religion, said.

Asherah as a tree symbol was even said to have been “chopped down and burned outside the Temple in acts of certain rulers who were trying to ‘purify’ the cult, and focus on the worship of a single male god, Yahweh,” he added.

Bastards. Who knows how radically different our world beliefs could have been had that pair of gods been allowed to continue as a faith system. Was monotheism really a better option? Did jealousy or superstition drive this alteration? Will bringing this up now change the way people think about their religion? Will it lead to anyone starting up Asherah cults? Will it be ignored?

Information presented in Stavrakopoulou’s books, lectures and journal papers has become the basis of a three-part documentary series, now airing in Europe, where she discusses the Yahweh-Asherah connection.

It sounds like something I’d like to watch at some point. Hopefully I remember to look for it.