Catholic outcry in India ‘forces’ Discovery to can 'The Lost Tomb of Jesus' documentary

Indian Catholics have raised voices of protest against the proposed airing of Discovery's documentary, 'The Lost Tomb of Jesus,' forcing the television channel to cancel its plans. However, Discovery later clarified that the documentary was not aired not as a result of the protests but because it was not scheduled to.

On February 26, in New York Public Library, James Cameron, the Oscar–winning filmmaker, and a team of scholars, including filmmaker archeologist Simcha Jacobovici, revealed the two stone ossuaries, or bone boxes, that he said might have once contained the bones of Jesus of Nazareth and his family. The findings also suggest that Jesus and Mary Magdalene might have produced a son named Judah.

'The Lost Tomb of Jesus' documentary purports to claim that the two ossuaries or small caskets, which formed part of 10 excavated in 1980 from the Talpiot Tomb during construction in South Jerusalem. The tomb was unearthed as construction crews blasted for new apartments in the town of Talpiot, a suburb south of Jerusalem.

In the documentary, Cameron and colleague Jacobovici have used evidence from DNA tests, chemical analysis, archaeological surveys and biblical studies, to show that 10 stone coffins discovered in the Jerusalem suburb, belonged to Jesus and his family.

Discovery, which had announced a global television premier, March 4, has even set up a special website – www.discovery.com/tomb – to provide related in–depth information and to allow viewers to come to their own conclusions about the entire matter.

"It doesn't get bigger than this. We've done our homework; we've made the case; and now it's time for the debate to begin," Cameron told a news conference at the New York Public Library surrounded by scholars and archeologists.

"It's mind boggling. It's an altered reality," Toronto documentary director Jacobovici said.

"You have to kind of pinch yourself," said Jacobovici, known as the Naked Archaeologist after a Vision TV series. "Are we really saying what we are saying?"

"This has been a three–year journey that seems more incredible than fiction," he said. "The idea of possibly finding the tomb of Jesus and several members of his family, with compelling scientific evidence, is beyond anything I could have imagined."

"People who believe in a physical ascension — that he took his body to heaven — those people obviously will say, wait a minute," he said, adding that he hopes the film sparks more scientific study of the tomb and the ossuaries found inside.

The Discovery Channel has touted the evidence as the "greatest archaeological find in history."

Greatest or not, one thing the documentary managed to generate: controversy.

Joining the wave of protests by Christian and Jewish scholars and leaders was the Mumbai–based Catholic Secular Forum (CSF) which forced the television channel to cancel its plans of airing the documentary in India.

According to CSF, the documentary trivialized the credibility of the Bible and the Christian faith.

Urging the television channel to scrap its plans, CSF secretary Joseph Dias said that the show offended religious sentiments in a pluralistic society and was an attempt to commercialize religion for selfish profit and commercial gains or cheap publicity.

The references to Jesus as a human being with a family; mention of Judah as the secret offspring of Jesus through Mary Magdalene; portrayal of Matthew, one of the writers of the Gospels, as a maternal relative of Jesus and a mention of the burial of Jesus' siblings in the same tomb, the CSF said amounted to attacking the basic tenets of Christianity.

"The documentary can be best described as a hotchpotch, concocting archaeological adventure," Dias said. "The credibility of the Bible, which says that Jesus was buried in a borrowed tomb and rose from the dead to rise to the heaven, is trivialized in the documentary."

"We are showing our disappointment to protest and warn viewers that a lot of mistruth is being shown on the Discovery Channel. The viewers should take such kind of telecast with a pinch of salt," Dias warned.

Besides writing a memorandum to Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and other ministers, including information and broadcasting minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi, demanding that the telecast be scrapped, CSF also threatened an agitation on the day of telecast and legal action if the channel went ahead with its plan.

Fr. Babu Joseph, spokesman, Catholic Bishops Conference of India (CBCI), also denounced the documentary, saying that it is "not based on proven historical fact."

"Historically speaking, evidences closer to the event have more authenticity than evidences dished out after 2000 years. According to Biblical and non–Biblical sources, it has been believed that Jesus rose from the dead, and that is the basis of entire Christian faith and tradition," he said.

However, Discovery refused to be drawn into further controversy, announcing the cancellation of its plan, and according to CSF, apologized to the Christians for inadvertently hurting the "religious sentiments of the Christian community."

CSF is planning to prevent the release of the book and DVD in the country.

Interestingly, however, Discovery later clarified that though it had, March 4, broadcast the documentary internationally, yet, it was not aired in India as it was not scheduled for broadcast in India and not because of the protest raised by CSF.

In fact, the television channel's Indian affiliate on March 6 sent a legal notice to CSF asking it to desist from giving "false and misleading statements" aimed at gaining "undeserved mileage for ulterior motives."

Discovery Communications India, on whose behalf the legal notice was sent, does not control the channel's programming for the rest of the world, the notice clarified.

In a statement that was circulated to different media houses, the television channel said, "Media reports have erroneously claimed that Discovery Communication India has withdrawn the television program 'The Lost Tomb of Jesus' as a result of pressure from a local religious group. This assertion is false and inaccurate."

"Discovery Communication India had never scheduled the telecast of the programme in India, as demonstrated by our programme guide, monthly press kit and website," it said.

The television channel also clarified that it had not produced any DVDs or books relating to the documentary as claimed by CSF.

"The CSF claims are totally false. In fact CSF had written to us on March 4, stating that they were still 'awaiting for a written' response from us on the issue. So how could they claim on March 2 that we had withdrawn the telecast of the documentary and claim that we had also expressed our regrets," news agency IANS quoted Discovery's Rajiv Bakshi as saying. "According to our program guide, monthly press kit and our website the documentary was never scheduled for telecast in India, so the question of us withdrawing as a result of pressure from the CSF does not arise."

However, Dias has denied receiving "any legal notice" from Discovery.

"We did not want The Lost Tomb of Jesus to be aired as it is presented as fact, making false claims on issues sacred to Christian fundamental beliefs," Dias explained. The "gullible" would easily take it as real and we "did not want that to happen," he added.

"The claims that this documentary makes are so preposterous that it hits at the basic divinity of Jesus, that Jesus is not God and is just an ordinary human being," he said.

"Biblical scholars say the names inscribed on the tombs are very common names. Twenty–five per cent of women of those days were named Mary and one out of every 10 Hebrew children was called Jesus. These are very commonplace names," Joseph Dias claimed.

Notably, CSF had also opposed the blockbuster movie, "Da Vinci Code" adapted from Dan Brown's novel with the same name in which Jesus is said to have married Mary Magdalene and had a daughter, sparking a centuries–long cover–up.

The novel, denounced by church groups around the world, spawned a mini–industry speculating about the historical Jesus, his relationship to Mary and his family life. Church leaders, including the Pope, had dismissed the book and movie as pure fiction.

In India, though the movie was ultimately released, it came with a disclaimer that termed it as a work of fiction.