Yesterday evening as I was sitting here in my favorite chair relaxing after
a hard day's work and watching the evening news, a story came on that caught my
attention. Some archaeologist digging around at an old church in Turkey have
found, they claim, what could be a piece of the very cross Jesus of Nazareth was
crucified upon. Certainly you don't hear that type of thing often!
Oddly enough, one of the few things on my agenda for this weekend was to
watch a new DVD I recently purchased (at a huge discount!), The Lost Tomb of
Jesus. These kinds of "discoveries" and stories go on endlessly, always
educing much buzz among believers and unbelievers alike.
As a former Christian I do recall the excitement these stories would
generate, yet we never placed our faith in such artifacts. Christian apologists
do place great stock in some of the findings of archaeologists, but only in a
confirmatory way. Faith for the Christian is rooted in tradition and The
Book.
The nonbelievers will "make hay" of this opportunity to poke fun at the
folks they consider simpletons for accepting the Gospel story. Authenticating
this piece of wood as a chunk of Jesus' cross is surely a virtual impossibility,
so there is great occasion here for the Christians to appear foolish.
This story, therefore, is that archaeology Professor Gülgün
Koroglu claims to have found a piece of wood she believes might have been
part of Jesus' cross. Woo-hoo! (Right; I was being sarcastic.)
Of course many secular historians have conceded that Jesus of
Nazareth probably did exist and likely was crucified in the barbaric manner
described in the New Testament. Even if it were possible to authenticate a piece
of Jesus' cross, it wouldn't prove the grander elements of Gospel story. That is
the point at which faith takes charge in order to breath life into the
subject.
There came a point in my life when my doubts overcame my faith. No news
story or archaeological finding will ever restore it. Perhaps that could only be
affected by a personal Damascan Road experience. And life goes on....
As an historian, I have read numerous articles on the history of early Christianity, which state that there have been "found" by various early churches pieces of the "true cross", which if all put together would exceed the size of any known cross used by the Romans as an instrument of capital punishment. Hence, the most recent find would most probably be judged to be fraudulent. I'm like you, it would not convince me one way or the other.
ReplyDeleteDon,
DeleteI think these stories are "fun" in a way, but are almost always overblown, it seems.