Jesus’ Tomb?

Like “The DaVinci Code,” the Discovery Channel documentary “The Lost Tomb of Jesus,” which will be aired on Sunday might, appears to be pretty much a fraud.

Christianity Today describes the content of the video, and then questions Biblical scholars about the issue.

Jesus married Mary Magdalene, had a son named Judah, died, and stayed dead, says Simcha Jacobovici, an award-winning filmmaker . . . Jacobovici, who describes himself as an investigative journalist and a filmmaker, directed and produced the film with Titanic director James Cameron. He claims that statistical, historical, archaeological, and DNA evidence back his position.

In reality, the evidence is pretty thin. In involves the notion that burial ossuaries contain the remains of Jesus, Mary Magdalene (supposedly Jesus’ wife) and other family members, including a son of Mary and Jesus.

If Jesus was in fact married, no historical sources -- not the gospels nor any other source that mentions Jesus -- record that fact. And since Jews in the first century, A.D. considered marriage an entirely honorable state, there would be no reason for early Christians to conceal the fact.

But perhaps more important is a logical argument.

If what Jacobovici says were true, Jesus’ disciples would have stolen his body and buried it in a tomb, let it decompose for a year, and then deposited the bones in an ossuary. As McKnight put it, “It is extremely unlikely that a faith that believed and rooted itself in the resurrection of Jesus would at the same time be building a tomb for the body and bones of Jesus.”

It is fun to go into the details of various conspiracy theories. We do it with the JFK assassination all the time.

But sometimes simple logic is sufficient.