Contact Us (EC Test)
by Benjamin Hawkins
FORT
WORTH, Texas (SWBTS) – Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
professors Steven Ortiz and William Dembski make no bones about the
reality of Christ’s resurrection. Both contributed essays to the
recently published Buried Hope or Risen Savior: The Search for the
Jesus Tomb, a response to the supposed discovery of Jesus’ bones last
spring.
A year in the making, B&H Academic’s Buried Hope or Risen Savior,
edited by Charles L. Quarles, counters claims in The Lost Tomb of
Jesus, a documentary produced by award-winning director James Cameron
and aired on the Discovery Channel last March. According to the
documentary, the Talpiot tomb in southeast Jerusalem contained an
ossuary—or bone box—holding the remains of Jesus of Nazareth. In the
tomb was an ossuary with the inscription “Jesus, son of Joseph,”
alongside ossuaries with the names of other New Testament characters,
such as “Mary,” “Mary the Master,” “Jose” (Joseph) and “Matthew.”
Although the tomb was actually excavated by professional archaeologists
in 1980, the makers of The Lost Tomb of Jesus suggested that the
experts did not consider the significance of these remains residing
together in a family tomb. They proposed that the tomb actually held
the remains of Jesus of Nazareth, with his supposed wife Mary Magdalene
and son Judah. According to the film, this group of names being found
together in a tomb is a statistical “slam dunk,” proving that the
“Jesus son of Joseph” in the Talpiot tomb was Jesus of Nazareth.
According to Dembksi, research professor of philosophy at Southwestern
Seminary, the statistics actually point to the opposite conclusion.
“The Jesus Family Tomb people miscalculated the relevant probabilities
for deciding statistically whether this is or is not likely to be the
tomb of the New Testament Jesus,” he said in a recent interview.
Dembksi co-authored an essay titled “The Jesus Tomb Math” alongside
Robert J. Marks II, in which they show that it is more reasonable to
believe that the Talpiot tomb does not contain Jesus of Nazareth.
Examining the archaeology of The Lost Tomb of Jesus, Ortiz, associate
professor of archaeology and biblical backgrounds, concluded that it
contains only a sensational, pseudo-archaeology reminiscent of the
“Hollywood model of Indiana Jones.” In his essay, titled “The Use and
Abuse of Archaeological Interpretation and the Lost Tomb of Jesus,” he
notes ten attributes of this sensationalism and offers a realistic view
of archaeology.
“I think the Hollywood image is that archaeologists are treasure
seekers, usually after objects, and also that everything is solved
within an hour. And archaeology is not like that,” Ortiz said in an
interview. The Lost Tomb of Jesus gives the appearance of a one-hour
discovery, he added, but the tomb is actually well-known and has been
documented and discussed by archaeologists.
As opposed to the Hollywood model of archaeology, Ortiz compared this
field of study to piecing together a jigsaw puzzle. Any one dig just
adds a piece to the puzzle, he said, “and it takes time to put all
these pieces together to say something significant historically.”
According to Ortiz, Buried Hope or Risen Savior not only provides a
response to The Lost Tomb of Jesus and its claims, but also lays a
foundation for understanding the resurrection, the study of names from
the first century, and ancient tombs and burials from the second-temple
period. Scholars Craig A. Evans, Richard Bauckham, Gary R. Habermas,
Michael Licona and Darrell L. Bock also contributed to these
theological and historical discussions in the book.
About Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
Southwestern Seminary celebrates its centennial in 2008. Since its founding, the seminary has trained and sent out over 40,000 graduates to serve in local churches and mission fields around the world. In 1908, B.H. Carroll established the seminary on the campus of Baylor University. It was moved to its current location on Seminary Hill in Fort Worth in 1910 and was placed under the direction of the Southern Baptist Convention in 1925. Paige Patterson was elected as the eighth president of the seminary in 2003.
For more information, contact:
Dr. Thomas White, Vice President for Student Services and Communications
Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
817.923.1921 ext. 7300
Email: twhite@swbts.edu
Web: www.swbts.edu
