Digging for Jesus (and Family)
Click here (YouTube) to watch a brief video about recent claims regarding archaeological discoveries and their disputed relevance for earliest Christianity...
What kind of evidence would it take to definitively resolve such controversies?
2 comments:
I think there would always be speculation around any physical evidence directly related to Jesus. I think it would take a marker of some kind that could be linked to Jesus undoubtedly and exclusively (the Jonah and the whale while mentioned by Jesus and representing resurrection, could have been placed on the box of anyone who was hoping for resurrection or believing in it, etc, for example) while being in an area he undoubtedly was. Even then there would still be naysayers. Because, as far as famous figures go, Jesus was so 'secretive' and low profile, and so he did not leave much of an impact when alive on the world. What I mean by that, is if he had been the kind of messiah Peter expected him to be, there would almost definitely be historical accounts from many different nations of his absolute dominance and power. A man who could control the elements, raise people from the dead, and heal people would definitely have been noticed if Jesus had been more flamboyant -- imagine if Jesus had raised an army to fight the Romans: in a battle only the Romans are assaulted by the elements and not the Israelites, the Israelite army never seems to become sick, and every time an Israelite is slain he comes back to life. The world would definitely take notice of that. There would be hundreds of accounts. And any monument to Jesus would be definitively marked. However, that was not how Jesus was. The most trouble he made for others was to the religious institution of the time, and they managed the 'Jesus problem'. Jesus made his impression in the minds of his followers and the people of Israel, no monuments were made. Impressions and memories fade (the gospels differing radically could be argued a possible example of this). Only items such as those share by everyone in the ancient world (cloths, tombs, bone boxes) are the speculated physical ties to Jesus, which are revered now, but no one in the ancient world would have thought to save and preserve. Items like that would not be 'connected' exclusively to Jesus, so why hold on to them? Christianity only gained a strong following long after Jesus's death, and so any such ordinary objects would be long forgotten about and lost. For this reason, I think their could ever be any definitive evidence to resolve controversies such as this one.
Sydney
Very thoughtful comments, Sydney; much appreciated!
pdk
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