Groundless Claims

183761 Resource 169992 170084 170084 1190247014775 1192884084804 Controlled That Talpiot Tomb Again

New information on first century burials

Stephen Pfann of the University of the Holy Land, <place w:st="on"><city w:st="on">Jerusalem</city></place> has been <a target="_blank" href="http://www.uhl.ac/blog/?p=351">blogging</a> about the Jesus Family Tomb video, showing how much was staged in this supposed “investigative journalism.” In the third installment he references an online paper he has written about a first century ossuary found on the Mount of Olives in the early 1950’s which was inscribed “Simon Bar Jona”. In an article entitled “<a target="_blank" href="http://www.uhl.ac/Lost_Tomb/ShimonBarzillai">Has St. Peter Returned to <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Jerusalem</place></city>? The Final Resting Place of Simon Peter and the Family of Barzillai</a>”, Pfann uses his skill as an epigrapher to examine the claim that this could have been the ossuary of the apostle Peter, also known as Simon Bar Jona.  Pfann concludes that Franciscan Father Bellarmino Bagatti misread certain letters in the inscription and that it should read, Simon Barzillai. When it was first discovered, it was almost a matter of embarrassment to the Vatican, as it was Catholic archaeologists who both discovered and deciphered the ossuary inscription almost immediately after the Pope had been announcing the discovery of Peter’s sarcophagus in the Vatican, located under the high altar. Simcha Jacobivici’s reference to this <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Jerusalem</place></city> discovery in the Jesus Family Tomb video brought the inscription back into the public sphere again. Pfann’s material, while well documented, lacks one point to give it credibility. It appears to be self published on the web only and has not been subjected to peer review in a professional journal. Notwithstanding, one factor appears to have escaped the minds of most associated with the death of Jesus or his apostles and others in the early church. There appears to be no early tradition of their burial sites. We know that Stephen was the first martyr of the church and within a few years, James the son of Zebedee was also killed by Herod Agrippa.  Yet no tradition remains as to the burial sites of these men.  One rare exception is that of James the brother of Jesus. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/hegesippus.html">Hegesippus</a>, a writer from the second century, records that James was buried where he was slain in the <place w:st="on"><placename w:st="on">Kidron</placename> <placetype w:st="on">Valley</placetype></place>.   <script type="text/javascript" src="http://shots.snap.com//snap_shots.js?ro=1&ap=1&tc=0&tp=1&hdd=1500&si=0&key=f5987da0f6371aba81911b51d8829565&th=silver&sb=1&link_icon=on&shots_trigger=both&size=small&lang=en-us&campaign=addon_ff_1.3.0&plugin=1"></script> 9 application/xml false Apostle Peter Jerusalem Jesus Family Tomb Simon Bar Jona Groundless Claims Can we know the true location of Christ?s burial, and does it make a difference in a largely indifferent world? http://www.vision.org/visionmedia/article.aspx?id=607 Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US; rv:1.8.1.8) Gecko/20071008 Firefox/2.0.0.8 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 pnathan false true false false true 188838 false false true false false false true 169992 blog blogsite/FirstFollowers/web