[Uucf-bible] Christ "bones" found

[RevRonRobinson at aol.com]

>From what I have gleaned from reading about the upcoming television show,  
which isn't a whole lot, I would be very skeptical about the discovery of Jesus' 
 bones in the way described, but not skeptical from the point of view of more 
 orthodox theologians. No surprise there. But skeptical from a progressive  
Christian perspective. 
 
With scholar John Dominic Crossan, I suspect that the bones were part of a  
mass burial after the crucifixion by the Romans. They wouldn't have been 
handled  as if Jesus were a noteworthy because of course he wasn't considered as 
such;  they wouldn't have given any special treatment to any of his followers at 
the  time; all of those accounts in the gospels are written after the 
Roman-Jewish  war and people using the gospels to try to trace back archaeologically 
are  putting too much factual emphasis on what wasn't intended to be a news 
report.  As mentioned back when the disputed ossary was supposed to possible,  
statistically, have been James', part of the problem then and with this find now 
 for me is the inscription itself which calls Jesus the son of Joseph. I 
agree  more with the biblical scholars who seriously doubt Jesus' human father was 
 named Joseph, that there was a historical father at all, let alone one named 
 Joseph, and Joseph was used in order to tie in Jesus with the Jewish  
tradition, and Joseph in the one gospel that makes much of him,  Matthew, is there 
to evoke the spirit of Joseph from Genesis. Spong's book  Liberating the 
Gospels: Reading them with Jewish Eyes is a pretty good summary  of that position. 
 
Theologically, one can believe in the dismembered and decaying bones of the  
historical Jesus in a mass grave and still believe in the Resurrection, even a 
 "bodily" one. Remember that Paul was writing about the  "resurrection" or 
"anastasis" decades before the first stories of Jesus'  crucifixion and 
resurrection showed up in the gospel accounts. Not that you have  to believe it, but 
it isn't dependent on the factual account of the gospels,  which means it isn't 
dispelled by discoveries and claims such as this one  particularly. 
 
But thanks to the television documentaries, I always have great current  
events to use for weaving into Easter sermons. 
 
blessings, 
Ron
 
p.s. if you all find good thoughtful responses to the upcoming Discovery  
Channel presentation, feel free to post them on here. I think the show airs this  
Sunday. 
 
 
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