'Tisk it, 'Task it, We found Jesus's Casket*

By David Cox in New York, and Harry de Quetteville in Jerusalem
Last Updated: 1:18am GMT 27/02/2007

A film director sparked religious controversy yesterday by unveiling
what he claimed was the burial casket of Jesus Christ.

James Cameron, who directed the Oscar-winning Titanic, proudly showed
off the 3ft long ossuary to a packed press conference in New York,
claiming that it was proof that Jesus "walked the earth".

The ossuary discovered 25 years ago that was yesterday claimed to be the
burial casket of Jesus

However, his claims were contested by scholars and priests in Jerusalem,
where the casket was found miles away from the traditional site of
Jesus' burial in the city's Church of the Holy Sepulchre. However, some
academics insisted that it was a routine archaeological find and that
its inscription, "Jesus son of Joseph", features two names common in the
1st century AD.

Mr Cameron, whose researchers spent two years on the project and who has
filmed a documentary about it, directed by Simcha Jacobovici, said he
based his belief in the casket belonging to Jesus on the fact that it
was found in a family tomb with several others, including ossuaries
labelled Joseph and Mary. Mr Cameron said he was only convinced by the
discovery of another casket in the same tomb labelled "Mariamene e
Mara", a rare Greek adaptation of the phrase "Mary known as the Master".
This unusual and specific variation, the documentary claims, was used by
Mary Magdalene, and puts the statistical chance of the tomb belonging to
any other but the Holy Family at about 600 to 1.

Mr Cameron likened discovering the unusual name to finding a grave
marked Ringo alongside a John, Paul and George. "Mariamene is Mary
Magdalene – that's the Ringo that's what sets this whole film in
motion," Cameron said.

For priests in particular, the very earthly nature of the find – which
included bones from which DNA samples were taken – would appear to
challenge Jesus' resurrection.

For archaeological experts, including the British academic who uncovered
the burial place where the casket was found more than 25 years ago –
before DNA testing was available – the dramatic claims of Mr Cameron are
by no means scientifically watertight.

Simcha Jacobovici, burial casket of Jesus

Director Simcha Jacobovici in the cave in Jerusalem

"Entering that tomb in 1980, I didn't imagine this would become such an
international focus," said Dr Shimon Gibson. "These are typical stone
caskets from the first century. There are a lot of aspects that need to
be looked at. A lot of new research has to be done. I'm sceptical.
That's who I am."

However, if the tomb is accepted as that of the Holy Family, it raises a
more controversial challenge to Christian orthodoxy. For alongside the
casket of "Jesus" and "Mariamene" is one for "Judah son of Jesus",
implying that the Messiah had a son. "I have never doubted that there
was a historical Jesus, that he walked the Earth, but the simple fact is
that there has never been a shred of physical archaeological evidence to
support that fact until right now," said Mr Cameron.

For some scholars however, the extravagant claims made by the film
makers are not matched by equivalent in-depth academic research. Amos
Kloner, the archaeologist who oversaw work on the site upon its
discovery, dismissed its new-found Hollywood treatment. "It was an
ordinary middle-class Jerusalem burial cave," he told reporters in
Jerusalem. "The names on the caskets are the most common names found
among Jews at the time.It makes a great story for a TV film. But it's
impossible. It's nonsense."