Anyone planning to watch tonight's televised documentary about the supposed discovery of Jesus' tomb should curl up with a generous helping of skepticism.

That's the consensus of regional scholars and theologians who are not only doubtful, but downright critical, of claims made by the film's producer James Cameron and Director Simcha Jacobovici that the documentary, "The Lost Tomb of Jesus," will provide evidence that the bones of Jesus and his family were found in a crypt unearthed in 1980.

The film, to be shown on the Discovery Channel, goes even further in suggesting that one set of bones may be those of Mary Magdalene and may indicate that she and Jesus were married, and that they had a son who was buried near his parents.

The claims, if true, would challenge the core belief of Christianity that Jesus rose from the dead after his crucifixion and later ascended into heaven, body and soul.

Professor Michael Coogan of Stonehill College in Easton, who edited several biblical texts, including the "New Oxford Annotated Bible," said the claims are more about public relations to promote a film and the companion book than they are about scholarship. "They are not to be taken seriously," Coogan said. "They will make a big splash, and then disappear."

James White, president and professor at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, said statements by the film's producers were orchestrated for publicity and presented as a media event.

"The media bit," he called it, noting the widespread attention the film is getting even as experts globally are wondering why.

"This is dangerously close to a joke," White said.

The six stone boxes or ossuaries holding the bones were actually found in 1980 during construction for an apartment building in Jerusalem. The bones were later reburied in a cemetery according to Jewish law, but the boxes were kept.

Cameron, who is best known for directing the film "Titanic," says the inscriptions on the boxes indicate the bones belong to Jesus; his mother, Mary; Mary Magdalene, who may have been his wife; Joseph, who may have been his brother; a man named Matthew; and Judah, who may have been the son of Jesus and Mary Magdalene.

The filmmakers claim that DNA tests performed on residue from the boxes purportedly containing the bones of Jesus and Mary Magdalene show the two were not related, which could mean they were married because otherwise they both would not have been buried in the family tomb.

Responding to skeptics who say there is no proof the bones belonged to Jesus the savior, Jacobovici said he hired statisticians who concluded that the chances of those particular names being in the same tomb are somewhere between 600 to 2.4 million to one.

Experts say the names were very common in the first century, and concluding that they belonged to Jesus and his family is taking a huge leap. They also say the location of the burial does not fit with what is known about Jesus' life and death.

White of Gordon-Conwell, an evangelical seminary, said those names were as common as Tom, Dick and Harry Smith would be today. "None of this has any validity," he said of the film's claims.

The Rev. Donald Paradis of LaSalette Shrine in Attleboro, who conducts Bible study groups at the shrine, said the discovery of the bones in 1980 generated some publicity at the time, but that quickly fizzled.

"It went nowhere, and it holds every promise of going nowhere this time," he said.

Jennifer Knust, assistant professor of New Testament and Christian origins at Boston University, said in an e-mail that the show is based on conjecture and is so controversial that no firm arguments can be made on either side.

She questions the lesson of the television program, considering the dramatic announcement, and then the media scramble to find experts to comment.

"It is surely not a lesson about the truth of Jesus, Jesus and Mary Magdalene, or Jesus' resurrection - let alone his divinity," Knust said. "Rather, if there are lessons here, I suspect they are about American media culture, the Discovery Channel's confidence in America's love of a good conspiracy and the amount of money to be made by those who manage to capture a Christian audience successfully."

She sees a formula at work in bringing out a conspiracy involving Christians during Lent, especially one that pits science against religion, and that presents fact and faith as though one has to be chosen at the expense of the other.

"Christian faith has never depended upon archaeological or historical facts, and facts never stand alone, apart from their competing interpretations," she said.

Coogan of Stonehill College said the film does raise an interesting question about the impact on Christian belief if the claims were true, and if Jesus' body were actually buried somewhere.

But Coogan said he is not sure there would be any impact.

The Christian belief that Jesus rose from the dead has been interpreted differently, he said, and some see it as a resurrection of the spiritual body and not the physical body, so it would not be affected by the discovery of remains.

Coogan counts himself among the scholars who point to the fact that the empty tomb of Jesus is not mentioned in the letters of Paul, which were written around the year 50 and well before the gospels. But he said the story of the tomb is in all four gospels, which were written after the year 70, so the story was likely developed later.

"Christian belief does not depend on an empty tomb, and especially not on this tomb," he said.

The suggestion that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married capitalizes on "The Da Vinci Code" and on the popularity of conspiracy theories, he said, but is based only on selective evidence.

"It's provocative, but unlikely," he said.

Paradis at LaSalette Shrine said if Jesus had a son, that son would have had some prominence in the early Christian church, as did James, who is referred to as Jesus' brother.

But he said people will believe what they choose to believe, regardless of the evidence.

White at Gordon-Conwell said the notion that Jesus may have been married and had a child was thoroughly thrashed out in the media hype surrounding "The Da Vinci Code," and scholars generally agree that there is no historical record to support the idea.

If Jesus had been married, that would have been known by his followers, he said, and if he had a son, that child would have been revered, yet there is not even a hint of that in the New Testament.

What the hoopla over the Discovery Channel film shows, he said, is that people are incurably religious and continually interested in Jesus as one of the most engaging figures in history.

"People are fascinated by him, his story, his life," White said.

As to the documentary, White predicts that it will go the way of the Titanic, and that viewers will see through its claims after the first five minutes.

"They will see a different form of James Cameron going as quickly as a sinking ship," he said.

GLORIA LaBOUNTY can be reached at 508-236-0333 or at glabounty@thesunchronicle.com.