2 Thessalonians 2:3 (KJV) "Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first..."
A Biblical scholar says that the recent claims of an Israeli activist that Jesus’ burial place was discovered in 1980 is “sensationalist” and baseless.
“I have been to the Talpiot Tomb and interviewed one of the archaeologists who excavated it in 1980. There is no evidence that Jesus or his family members were buried there, certainly not his supposed wife and son. Those behind this latest announcement traffic in sensationalism, not archaeology,” Scott Stripling, the chair of the Humanities and Foreign Language Department at Wharton County Junior College, and adjunct professor at Belhaven University (biblical archaeology and English) and The Bible Seminary (church history), told The Christian Post in a statement on Wednesday.
Several western media outlets have been promoting the claims of Aryeh Shimron who says that the evidence “could not be stronger” that Jesus was buried in that tomb, thus proving Christianity to be false. Shimron has been working with television producer Simcha Jacobovici to produce shows claiming Christianity is false.
Stripling said the alleged “discoveries” are actually irrelevant because no one has disputed the tombs that were discovered date to near the first century A.D.
“The argument set forth by producer Simcha Jacobovici that the names of Jesus’ family, including his supposed wife, were found on the 10, or in the Shimron/Jacobovici view 11, ossuaries does not hold up under scrutiny,” Stripling said.
“First, some of the names are open to interpretation. Second, virtually every family in the first century had members with the names Jesus, Joseph, James, and Mary. There is abundant evidence which supports the Church of the Holy Sepulchure as the actual site of the culmination of the Passion of Jesus.”
On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ” Then they remembered his words. Luke 24:1-8 Hallelujah!