The names at the burial site also cannot be used to confirm anything.  The name Jesus is the Greek form of the Hebrew name Joshua.  Simply finding a tomb with the name “Jesus”(or Yeshua) and assuming this must be the Jesus of the New Testament would be like finding a grave today marked “John” and assuming you had discovered the true grave of President John F. Kennedy. I have seen Jesus Alou, baseball player for the Oakland Athletics, play on T.V. but I didn’t assume that because his name was spelled like the Jesus of the Bible that Jesus had returned to earth and joined the American League. 

       Jacobovici claims to have DNA evidence to back up this fiction.  That’s interesting since in order to verify the claim he would have to have a viable, preserved sample of DNA from Jesus or one of His family members. Concerning the DNA evidence, Ben Witherington III, professor of New Testament Interpretation at Asbury Theological Seminary says, “In order for them to establish a positive claim that these are Jesus’ relatives, you have to have control samples to compare it to, but we have no such objective control samples.” 

       Gary Burge is a professor of New Testament at Wheaton College.  His quote in Christianity Today serves as a fitting final commentary on Cameron and Jacobovici’s work.  Burge says, “This is really a brilliant example of archaeological sensationalism.  It happens again and again in the Holy Land that people win their 15 minutes of fame by discovering some new burial cave.”  Part of the collateral damage caused by the loss of the idea of absolute truth in our culture is the rise of ideologically driven pseudo-science masquerading as fact based truth.  Claims made by the scientific community concerning the absolute fact of evolution, global warming, and the so-called “gay gene” which causes people to be born homosexuals, and the communities utter disdain for any dissenting voice demonstrates the total ethical bankruptcy of their discipline.  I guess we can now add some archeologists to the growing list of scientists who resemble the man behind the curtain in the Wizard of Oz who kept his standing in the community by projecting an overblown and totally made up image.    

     This latest attempt to roll the stone back in front of the tomb of Jesus is nothing new.  It began with a conspiracy hatched up by the chief priests and elders of Jesus’ day when some of the guards told them the body of Jesus was no longer in the grave.  The elders gave the guards a large sum of money and told them to say, “His disciples came by night and stole Him away while we were asleep” (Matt. 28:13 NASV). But the lie of the priests and elders could not stop the early church from echoing the words of the angel at the tomb, “He is not here for He has risen, just as He said.”  As for me, if you ask me how I know He lives I will simply add my voice to the millions upon millions who have sung through the ages, “He lives inside my heart!”