I grew up in a predominantly Irish neighborhood in Brooklyn. You could yell out, "James, John, Thomas!" and get half the neighborhood to respond. And most of their mothers would be named Mary!

I fear for this generation. Everything possible is being done to bring belief in Yeshua into question. The battles we faced as young believers are nothing compared to what this generation has to contend with. I suppose it isn't unlike the Gentile world Paul encountered. Moral relativism, religious syncretism, and the "we all worship the same god anyway" attidue are a deadly combination.

I think we're gonna need some miracles.

MJ

I totally agree with MJ regarding the very common names back in the times of Yeshua. There definately have been many with the same name. But I don't think we need "Miricles". What we need is just pure "FAITH". We know what scripture says and we must just believe. Study to show yourself approved it says. When you know the word you can see when the evil one is trying to pull one over on us. We must teach our children the Word and stress that they not just take someones word for fact but to test it against the Scriptures...if they align then it is truth..if not run like heck!!! We pray daily for the Lord to give us wisdom in teaching our little ones "HIS" word alone.

Daniel:

Thank you for taking the time to comment on at least some of the many "nutty" stories that now circulate. There is so much misinformation available nowadays I'm fearful that finding truth will be like looking for that "needle" in a hay stack. May your "needles" be spread far and wide.

The need for miracles I mentioned is not for believers, it's for unbelievers. Yeshua said signs would follow. It's the classic "My G-d is bigger than your god" power struggle. Why should unbelievers flock to Yeshua? There are lots of religions offering easy, feel-good paths to salvation that don't offend anyone with their exclusivity. It's a lot easier to spin a prayer wheel than to spend time with a G-d who actually expects growth from you. Why Yeshua instead of Krishna or Buddha?

Those of us who have our roots in some form of Christianity have had belief in at least a "Jesus" figure ingrained in us from birth. But what about all those teenagers out there and their parents for whom belief in G-d is more superstition than religion? I see the miracles in the Bible and Yeshua's statement that signs would follow us, and I wonder what has gone wrong. People who live a "moral" life are not looked up to and respected, they are ridiculed. So what's the draw? How do we do this in 2007?

MJ

Thanks for being vocal about this Daniel. It sure is funny though, in a sad sort of way. It's amazing the sensationalism that some people stoop to. I couldn't resist blogging about this myself.

Also, I posted an answer to MJ's question about how to walk things out. I think that is an excellent way to take this whole nonsense...

As a disclaimer, it is in my nature to be a devil's advocate. I'm not agreeing with what was presented in the documentary, just that we should never be intimidated by things that bring doubt and question to our faith. Those questions will lead to the seeking of truth-which will strengthen our faith.

To continue...

In spite of the bias exhibited in the documentary, it does raise valid questions that can and should be researched. Again, there are a lot of assumptions made in the documentary. However, we also have scientific resources available today that weren't around even 10 years ago. It will be possible to prove whether the claims made in this documentary are true.

To correct one point made by Daniel (no offense),

"Their reasoning assumes that it is statistically unlikely that there would have been two men named Yeshua bar Yosef in first century Jerusalem. On the contrary, given the popularity of the names Yeshua and Yosef, it is very likely."

The reasoning was not that there were two men of the same name. It is stated in the documentary that Yeshua was a very common name in the 1st century, as was Yosef. The reasoning is that it is statistically unlikely that so many related names would be found in the same tomb.

Something I learned from the documentary is Judaism's perspective. I asked myself, What if this is true? My answer was that there was God alone. At this I realized this has been Judaism's perspective the whole time. I have understood the perspective for a while, but to a small degree I experienced it in questioning if I would still be saved if that was Yeshua's tomb.

Certainly I don't have all the answers. There are many things behind the scenes I don't know. My faith in Yeshua is not in question because of it, but the documentary created questions that will lead me to a clearer understanding of Yeshua's mission and work. Perhaps it is that I am still a youngin in this faith and working my ways through. In my mind though, a faith you do not wrestle with in trying to understand and know is not worth spending much time in.

Shalom Jason,

Thanks for your post. I have a few thoughts about the issues you raised. I am all for asking hard questions and wrestling with faith. If the truth is true, it has nothing to fear from investigation. We should all emulate our father Jacob the wrestler as we wrestle with our faith. But in this sort of inquiry, it is necessary that the questions posed be legitimate questions. Otherwise is becomes an endless game. So much of the modern, popular criticism of the Gospel is based on groundless claims, junk science and conspiracy theories that a person could exhaust himself trying to answer it all.

I contend that the documentary does not raise valid questions. We do have scientific resources that were not around (such as genetic testing), but those are not going to be necessarily helpful in any case. What could they tell us? The documentary makes the assumption that Yeshua and Mary Magdalene were married. This is a forgone conclusion borrowed from the fictional work The DaVinci Code. There is not a scrap of ancient literature, not even the Gnostic Gospels, that make this suggestion. If not for the DaVinci Code factor, the presence of an ossuary called Yehudah ben Yeshua in the same tomb with a Yeshua ossuary would rule out association with the Master. By pulling in the DaVinci Code factor, the documentary producers are able to reverse this damaging bit of evidence, but they completely discredit themselves in so doing.

Regarding the statistical question, the statistical probability of a Yeshua ben Yosef ossuary is the central concern. Beyond that probability, however, the documentary makers factored in the cluster of other names related to Yeshua’s family to produce a seemingly rock-solid statistical case. However, all of these names are common names, and the pool is chosen after-the-fact, and only then is the probability calculated. This is a bit like flipping a coin fifty times, recording the outcomes, calculating the probability of those exact outcomes, and then declaring your results to be a statistical impossibility. For a sober analysis of the actual statistical data, see the article by Jack Poirer “The Statistics behind ‘The Tomb’”at the Jerusalem Perspective Synoptic School website.

Let me remind our readers again that the current issue of messiah magazine, (Issue 95) has a full story on the most likely candidate for legitimate tomb of Yeshua, and as it turns out, this one is empty.

Thanks for taking the time to respond, Daniel.

I am neither an expert in, nor fond of, statistics. It's a lot of painstaking work that causes my head to hurt and a minimal sense of satisfaction when I am done. Neither am I overtly familiar with the DaVinci Code, aside from the Jesus got married and had a secret kid thing. (I did recognize the pattern established in the documentary on Discovery.)

After reviewing Poirier's work I see the error of basing the statistics on the assumption of Yeshua being married and having a son whose name is Judah. Just another example of how careful people need to be when reviewing statistics. And a humbling reminder for myself.

I had not looked at the info presented in the documentary any further and appreciate you taking the time to point to a resource explaining the issue in more detail. The show in and of itself was probably as entertaining as the DaVinci movie, which I have still not seen. It was a fun ride and played a few fun games. With all of the junk research that is out there, this is one of the better ones published.

I'm going to go back to watching the original Loonie Tunes with my son now. :) Shalom.

It is true that the world is turning upside down and sometimes lies can ironically be tinged with a high degree of realism! the test however is that we-as believers-should stand up to the challenge so that our faith is not shatterred and we do not let ourselves to the whims of the wind. Finally I wanna thank you for the time you dedicated to write these words...