The Tomb of Jesus

In what may be the Discovery Channel's finest archeological special presentation to date, The Tomb of Jesus examined what could be the burial place of the family of, and the man, Jesus of Nazareth.

It also asked the question of whether discovering the human, physical remains of Jesus, or the vessel which contained them, would alter or impede the faith of Christians. I would venture a guess at the following conclusion; no.

Being neither Christian, Jewish nor Islam in faith, I watched the premier Sunday evening with great interest. Jesus was obviously a figure of great importance in his time, as in this day. Whether or not the world's three largest faiths choose to recognize him as the son of God on Earth, if we have found physical evidence of the tombs of Jesus and his family, we have the means to understand that he existed in the flesh.

Does it mean that Jesus did not ascend to heaven as the scriptures imply? Of course not. The physical body is a vehicle, a vessel. It is the spirit, the ethereal propelling agent of the body, that takes its place in the heavens. Bodies themselves don't go to heaven. They are carbon-based, earth bound, temporary shelters for our spiritual essence.

Among Native American peoples and many others, there is a popular saying that goes something like this:

"We are not physical beings having a temporary spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a temporary physical experience."

Physical bodies do not ascend into the heavens. Only spiritual bodies do that. Regardless of the faith, of the part of the world from which it comes, and of its antiquity, humans generally understand this.

What of the pharaohs and their hoards of material things to follow them into the afterlife, then? Even among the ancient Egyptians, the bodies themselves were contained within tombs that did not allow the skin and bones to escape. With all of their elaborate ceremony devoted to the dead, and all of the preparation given to the bodies of the deceased, it was understood that the spirit left the body, and the body remained earth-bound.