Dr. Bock,

As one of your former students and a graduate of DTS with an MABS, currently working to complete the M.Div. Equivalency for entrance into the DTS D.Min program, I still consider myself a "young puppy" scholar "cutting prudent theological teeth." I have a lot of respect for you, your work, and admired your refrain in the Ted Koppel interview with Simcha Jacobovici, you and others on the Discovery Channel Docudrama "post-mortem."

I found it interesting that even the scientific community represented on the show dispelled Simcha's work in uncovering Jesus’ alleged tomb (e.g., archeological methods, hypothesis, forensic evidence, etc.), calling it "Archeological porn" viewed from a Hollywood intellectual model.

In contrast to the scientific experts, the theological representatives refrained from Ad Hominine attacks and attempted to establish opportunities for dialogue. You did a good job of pointing out the film maker's lack of understanding concerning what Christians believe about the resurrection and reinforcing the Christian position as one of faith. However, I felt the discussion lacked validation for why we believe what we believe. All of the theological representatives referenced that history dictates otherwise concerning Jesus' record about the resurrection than that of James Cameron's film (e.g., Christian view is Jesus' resurrection was bones and all, etc., not just a spiritual ascension), but no data was given to support the Christian view of the resurrection, only verbal positions were emphasized. With anticipation, I patiently waited for you to send in your F-16's and M-1 tanks to destroy their scud missiles; but instead, you chose only to fire "B-B's."

In the NT104 New Testament Exegesis DTS course (I have enjoyed the book you and Fanning edited, "Interpreting the New Testament Text"), we perform laborious word studies, validations, exegetical papers, etc., and like a skilled surgeon, carefully evaluate all the source materials and theological views, textual criticism, and deal with issues such as validating whether or not the dividing wall in Ephesians was metaphorical or the actual wall that divided the Jewish court from the Gentile court (you know the routine), we don't just say from silence what we believe, but validate what we believe with source materials.

In any event, this statement sounds harsher than I intend and maybe I am alone in my critique, but I walked away from your discussion without any validation from extra-biblical or biblical record about our Christian eschatology and why any of you could dispute Simcha Jacobovici’s claim that he may have the authentic tomb of Jesus Christ, Mary Magdalene, and their alleged son. You only stated your opinions but did not validate source data concerning why you held to those positions. I suspect Simcha and his colleague walked away feeling the same way. One caveat, I was "flipping the channels" and did not see the first part of your discussion so I may have missed something. What I was hoping for was not "the Bible says..." that is not what I mean. Opponents and the film maker would have accused you as narrow-minded Bible thumpers, and may have prevented further dialogue with them. Perhaps you could have said, "John says, Romans says, Matthew says, Josephus says," and directed the film makers attention to some of the NT post resurrection witnesses who recorded seeing Jesus in the flesh in Matt 28:1-20; Mark 16:1-14; Luke 24:1-53; John 20:1-31; John 21:12-13 (he ate bread and fish) and Acts 2:29-36; 13:29-37.

You did well to illustrate that Jesus' resurrection was "bones, flesh, and all" and not a Gnostic one like the North Carolina professor tried to claim the "theological people he knows" teach about what Paul says about the resurrection. However, again, except for word usage by Paul, there was little reference to the biblical data by you to validate your position. As you are more aware and astute than I, there is extra-biblical historical evidence concerning Jesus' tomb and the Jewish and Roman authorities’ attempts to defame the truth about the resurrection. The authorities had sufficient political muscle and the military means necessary to locate Jesus' body within the community had it not been raised from the dead. The late first century Jewish historian, Josephus, pointed out that despite all of this influence and power, Jesus' body was never found by the Jewish or Gentile authorities. He also confirmed that many of Jesus' disciples saw him alive, raised from the dead as was predicted thousands of years before by the OT prophets (cf., Antiquities 18.3.3). When the gentlemen seated next to you mentioned, "this is not the first time, the second time, the third time," etc.; concerning Hollywood’s attempts and secular societies attempts to falsely overshadow historical fact about the resurrection, it would have been nice for one of you to have referenced source materials to validate to the unschooled audience what some of those past Anti-Christian attempts and efforts were in respect to the Christian view of the resurrection.

The following summary is by no means a critique of the film (yet I intend to write one in the future) but I do agree with you that James' and Simcha's film has to many "ifs" in the Docudrama for any of the hypothesis to be explicitly validated. Though the film maker's raised interesting questions, it is disturbing that some of the sources they base evidence upon claim their analysis or statements were taken out of context by the film makers. Perhaps their film is more about making money and trying to establish a romantic connection between Dan Brown's book, "The DaVinci Code," and the views of the "secret society" to support a view that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene and had a son, rather than the unbiased analysis they proclaim to hold. Contrary to the film, we can know based on the NT biblical data, that Jesus' flesh and bones are in heaven and not currently existent on the earth, and that believers will receive a glorified body one day (cf. Ps 2:7; Luke 24:39; Acts 13:34; Rom 8:23; 1 Cor 15:42-44; 2 Cor 5:1-5; Heb 9:24).

Again, I hope I didn't sound critical, I respect you (as most of the theological community does) as one the brightest scholars of our time and thank you for your willingness to take a stand on national TV for the faith. So, please do not deduct any extra points off a future paper should I take additional courses from you in future DTS work :0) I am proud of you and wish TV would allow more conservative scholars from the Christian faith an opinion in such issues. In the past, they have primarily weighted biblical expertise from liberalism so it is good to see you up on the stage in the good fight for the sake of the Gospel.

Shalom,

David Brown