The cover story of the December issue of National Geographic is Kristin Romey’s “What Archaeology is Telling Us About the Real Jesus.” Romey revisits modern scholars’ never-ending quest to determine whether or not Jesus was a real historic figure, and, if he did exist, what kind of a person he was. The only possibility they seem unwilling to consider is the New Testament narrative. After her visit last spring to Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the traditional burial place of Jesus, Romey has little doubt that, though lacking real archaeological evidence that Jesus’ body actually rested on the flat stone inside the tomb, at the very least the church was built atop a first century Jewish cemetery. “I’m also struck by the many lines of evidence that converge on this ancient church,” she writes. “Just yards from the tomb of Christ are other rockhewn tombs of the period, affirming that this church, destroyed and rebuilt twice, was indeed constructed over a Jewish burial ground.”

A National Geographic documentary titled “Is This Really the Tomb of Christ”...

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