Sunday, April 17, 2011

Nails in the coffin of the Nails of the Cross documentary

Before Simcha Jacobovici's Nails of the Cross documentary has even aired, it looks like the story has died. Where news stories have continued to appear, they generally have riders like "Experts doubt it", which is encouraging to see.  When the Washington Post weighed in on Friday, they quoted Gabriel Barkay to the following effect:
"There’s no proof whatsoever that they originate in the tomb of Caiaphas,” he said. “It’s all conjecture."
Even if we were sure that these nails came from the Caiaphas tomb, and even if we were sure that it is Caiaphas the High Priest's tomb, it is of course bonkers to assume that these nails would have been the nails from Jesus' crucifixion.  But Barkay's comment makes clear that there is nonsense on top of nonsense here.

I took a look at the History Channel's schedules and noticed that they are broadcasting this documentary at 11pm, which hardly sounds like a ringing endorsement!

2 comments:

Steve Caruso said...

At least this died quicker than the Lead Codices debacle. This gives me hope that there there is at least *some* sense in the media before Easter hits this year.

Peace,
-Steve

Mark Goodacre said...

I had the same thought. Thanks for your work on that issue, by the way.