THE NON-EMPTY TOMB: A MAJOR ARGUMENT POSSIBLY DEFLATED

This was in my Yahoo news content today.

This is always a pivotal argument for the xtians: how does one account for the empty tomb?

For a group of folks who put much stock (at least the Catholics) in relics and holy places, this is a major point of contention. Let's never mind that no one can agree where the bloody thing is: or that the quality of 'eyewitnesses' would be chucked out of any court, ancient or modern (the Jews of the first CE, as well as the Romans, never accepted hearsay testimony in their courts).

Part the one is mostly back story, the reader is welcome to view the link provided. Part the second is somewhat more to the meat of the matter (part the third will arrive tomorrow):

"I embarked on my own journey nearly 30 years ago, a quest that that began in an old London bookshop and sent me down a trail of evidence reaching from Palestine to Kashmir, and beyond to the Tibetan border. It suggests that after the crucifixion, Jesus did not ascend to heaven, but remained alive, escaped into Persia, and continued to travel east. This theory that Jesus became a father, lived out his final years in Kashmir and remains buried there today, bears odd resemblance to the "Da Vinci Code" theory.

The New Testament itself has puzzling passages, such as the one from Luke where Christ speaks to his disciples after the crucifixion. "Behold my hands and feet that it is I myself, handle me and see for a spirit hath no flesh and bones as ye see me have.""

The gentleman named Saleem, continues:

"According to the family history and genealogical tables (written in Persian), the name clearly and explicitly mentioned is Shahzada Nabi Hazrat Yura Asaf. From him the lineage comes directly down to my father and to me. This man came here from
Afghanistan more than 1,900 years ago. He was a prophet, highly reverenced, some sources say of the highest reverence, who performed miracles.

"But the name," Saleem said carefully, "is always Yura Asaf, not Jesus."

The group that first claimed that Jesus and Yura Asaf were the same man was the Ahmadiyya movement, a controversial nineteenth century offshoot of Islam. Numerous Muslim and Persian documents - the Tafir-Ibn-I-Jarir, the Kanz-al-Ummal, and the Rauzat-us-Safa - have references that contribute to the theory of Christ's escape. Some of these also mention that Jesus was accompanied by Mary, and there is another burial place in Pakistan, along his theoretical route to Kashmir, known as Mai Mari da Ashtan, or "resting place of Mother Mary."

The Tarik-i-Kashmir tells of the prophet Yura Asaf arriving in Kashmir at a time coinciding with the supposed arrival of Jesus. An old Persian book, Negaris-Tan-i-Kashmir, tells how Jesus became a husband and father. The Bhavishya Mahapuroma, an ancient Hindu text, places him in Kashmir decades after the crucifixion, and in the old lamasery of Hemis in Ladakh, scrolls exist which reportedly attest to Christ's presence there at one time."

I have seen this theory before, here.

Before anyone scoffs, here's an interesting passage from the above website:

"I was sent by Titus Caesar with Ceralius and a thousand riders to a certain town by the name of Thecoa to find out whether a camp could be set up at this place. On my return I saw many prisoners who had been crucified, and recognized three of them as my former companions. I was inwardly very sad about this and went with tears in my eyes to Titus and told him about them. He at once gave the order that they should be taken down and given the best treatment so they could get better. However two of them died while being attended to by the doctor; the third recovered.”

The above quote from Josephus is very significant. We are conditioned from birth to associate crucifixion with death. Many people will never have heard of the idea of survival of crucifixion. The idea of Jesus dying on the cross is something that is so widely accepted that its rarely questioned.

But what happened to Jesus Christ? We are fortunate to live in modern times, when science and the field of medicine lend us powerful tools of analysis, as well as a language of medical and scientific terminology. These things even allow us to determine what may have occurred physiologically to Jesus Christ during and, assuming he survived the crucifixion, even after his ordeal on the cross.

One of the more interesting features of said tomb is here.



This is perhaps the most unique aspect of any tomb found in the world. Unseen (that I know of) anywhere else in this world.

The question still stands: Which Jesus are we talking about here?

Of course, the truth of this would bring the blind, shambling giant of xtianity crashing down, a slung stone striking the behemoth in its sightless, cyclopean eye.

I do expect to hear some noise on this. After all, to paraphrase that song by the Whispers,
"And the bleat goes on...."