I picked up this months Nat Geo last night...

[Pat Mustard]

Having read the article, I didn't note any particular "reek of desperation." Nowhere does Romey claim that excavations at Magdala prove the existence of Mary Magdalene. The quoted last sentence of the article should be seen in context:

Well then why does she insist on Jesus being real, and christianity too, based on no more evidence than "Jews lived in Israel 2,00 years ago", which is what the article boils down to?

Why does she dismiss the likes of Richard Carrier who have assembled strong arguments and evidence with just two sentences*, instead of looking to show that they are wrong?

*Incidentally, Carrier et al are in the position currently that historians who said the bible wasn't an accurate historical account were a hundred years ago, disbelieved yet piling up the evidence. If that trend continues Jesus will be relegated to the same historical footnotes as Abraham and David.

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Essentially.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_minuscule

WTH, "Jesus" was invented, too!

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Romey is accurately reporting that what mainstream archaeology in the area has found can be seen as confirming some aspects of the Biblical stories.

I have some major problems with what she wrote.  The biggest is the old canard that "mainstream" historians do not doubt the existence of jesus.  Then she notes that there are two camps.... the fundie fools who think the miracle working godboy is real and the ones who think he was just a guy who built a following.  The third school are the ones who think it is all bullshit and that is the school that is growing.

The simple fact is that the Roman Army destroyed the whole fucking country twice over, leveled Jerusalem and built a new city (Aelia Capitolina) on top of the rubble before Constantine's mother ever got there to start picking out "holy sites."  Israeli archaeologists exploring the first century levels of the city are 30 feet below modern street level.  Romey is a little too enamored by jesus freak bullshit which is what I expected when Rupert Murdoch took over Nat Geo.

Interesting to note too, all her "experts" once she got to Israel were in holy orders. By definition they are going to not only be in the godboy camp, but heavily distort evidence in its favour (because there's so little of it for them).