Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Lost Tomb of Jesus update The Washington Post has a story on the brewing kerfuffle wherein William Dever weighs in on the supposed significance of this group of names:
Dever, a retired professor of archaeology at the University of Arizona, said that some of the inscriptions on the Talpiyot ossuaries are unclear, but that all of the names are common.

"I've know about these ossuaries for many years and so have many other archaeologists, and none of us thought it was much of a story, because these are rather common Jewish names from that period," he said. "It's a publicity stunt, and it will make these guys very rich, and it will upset millions of innocent people because they don't know enough to separate fact from fiction."


The fact that Jacobovici is bringing in the James ossuary as a legitimate find really weakens the whole thing from the get-go. Still, I'm not overly concerned about their broadcasting it. Throw it out there and let everyone criticise it.

Dever kinda blew a perfect opportunity for a wicked pun though: "I'm not a Christian. I'm not a believer. I don't have a dog in this fight," said William G. Dever . He really didn't have a. . .god in this fight.

Maybe he's just dyslexic. . . . .