We made it easy for you to exercise your right to vote! Why? The greatest cover-up in human history. Follow Mark Goodacre as he explores the latest research on Mary Magdaleneâincluding the validity of the Coptic papyrus fragment The Gospel of Jesusâ Wifeâand the role she plays in the early Christian texts.Explore the twists and turns that Maryâs character takes throughout Christian history, focusing on the last few decades that transform her from reformed prostitute to the wife of Jesus. She is a partner in redemption referred to as the "Daughter of God" and "The Bride of God." Sabar often overreaches, as when he dips a toe, then plunges, into the psychoanalysis of his subjects: His treatment of the erotic life of Fritz, a pathological liar who may or may not have been raped by a priest, is as suspect as the cliché that Kingâs âtrailblazing instincts traced in part to her childhood amid the soaring mountains of southwest Montana.â Thereâs lot of this breathy melodrama, useful for the screenplay I hope is coming. Put simply, Paul's Jesus looks a lot like Attis. The claims frequently depict Jesus as married, often to Mary Magdalene, and as having descendants living in Europe, especially France but also the UK. But in the Syriac community from which this Gospel emerged, "Joseph" was a stand-in for Jesus, and Aseneth, "had many children by the Crucified" (Hymn 21 of Ephrem the Syrian). King was mum on who the stranger from Florida was who had given her the fragment, but the writer Ariel Sabar, using sophisticated tools like Google, uncovered that it was one Walter Fritz, a former director of the Stasi Museum in East Germany with a fake Egyptology degree whose businesses included charging for online videos of his wife having sex with other men, and who, more than three weeks before Kingâs bombshell announcement about the papyrus, had registered the web domain gospelofjesuswife.com. By Sean Martin PUBLISHED: 10:01, Sat, Nov 12, 2016 Attis' priests, the Galli, would imitate their god by going into a frenzy, emasculating themselves and offering their testicles as holy sacrifices. Nothing! This idea was a big hit in the Tarsus of Paul's day. The greatest promoter of celibacy for Christians was Paul. Dr. Karen Kingâthe scholar presenting this fragment at International Congress on Coptic Studiesâdid admit, to her credit, that the fragment âdoes not ⦠provide evidence that the historical Jesus was married.âAt the same time, her decision to name the fragment âThe Gospel of Jesusâs Wifeâ didnât exactly lend itself to reasonable discussion and consideration. Then and now, no woman would touch the naked body of a dead Rabbi, unless she was family. He surprised his virgin bride by castrating himself. In 1980, in Talpiot, just outside of Jerusalem, archaeologists discovered a 2000-year-old burial tomb. When you purchase an independently reviewed book through our site, we earn an affiliate commission. Clearly, we are dealing with a very thinly encoded text, concealing a Gospel that would otherwise have been destined for the bonfire. A fourth ossuary was inscribed with the name "Matthew" and a fifth -- the only one in Greek -- with the name "Mariamene," a Greek version of "Mary" associated in all of Greek literature with one woman only -- Mary the Magdalene. Her genealogy is given in Luke 3 (see below). The Hebrew for "tower" is "Migdal", hence Mary the Magdalene. Only when it came to sex Paul was more severe than Moses and Jesus put together. Church Father Origen, did castrate themselves. In the 2,000 years since Mary Magdalene is said to have watched Jesus Christ die on the cross, sheâs been labeled many things.. Complicit were the editors of The Harvard Theological Review, which published these results, and Harvardâs press office, which flogged them to the world with the avidity of Hollywood publicists. Sabar offers too much detail, but his point is that King offered suspiciously little. . klo'-pas (Klopas): The former in the Revised Version (British and American), the latter in the King James Version, of John 19:25, for the name of the husband of one of the women who stood by the cross of Christ.Upon the philological ground of a variety in pronunciation of the Hebrew root, sometimes identified with Alpheus, the father of James the Less. All these images were later incorporated into the iconography of Paul's version of Christianity. Perhaps not coincidentally, Attis was a dying and resurrecting god. It's not her last name, folks. So far, he's demurred. The only thing that continues to argue for Jesus' celibacy is 2000 years of theological bullying. In 2012, the Harvard scholar Karen King announced what she believed to be an extraordinary discovery: a second-century papyrus fragment with a text hinting that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene. I have read that a number of the church fathers (i.e. So what happened with this paradigm-shifting discovery? Never once does Paul argue that Christians should be celibate, because Jesus was celibate. A new book, The Lost Gospel, has claimed there was an unknown plot on Jesus's life when he was 20 and an assassination attempt on Mary and their two children. He was called "the Good Shepard", and his earliest depictions show him with a sheep across his shoulders. She was blind to the conflict of interest. Such a theory is hardly unique. Jesus, also called Jesus Christ, Jesus of Galilee, or Jesus of Nazareth, (born c. 6â4 bc, Bethlehemâdied c. ad 30, Jerusalem), religious leader revered in Christianity, one of the worldâs major religions.He is regarded by most Christians as the Incarnation of God. My dear, Mary Magdalene was the Holy Vessel. And just like all the messengers of Allah he was a human and had the ability to get married and have offspring. By Damien Gayle. ©2020 Verizon Media. As for Aseneth, our manuscript depicts her as living in a "tower." They all tell the same story -- Jesus was married. He threw out Kosher laws, ignored Sabbath observance and prayed that the hands of ritual circumcisers shake so that they cut off their own penises when they perform circumcision (Galatians 5:12). After the fourth century, the Church burnt Gnostic holy books and the people who believed in them. Dan Brownâs fictional novel (emphasis on fictional) The Da Vinci Code insists that Jesus was married and that he had a child named Sarah with his wife Mary Magdalene. Six of them were inscribed. Not only was Jesus Christ married, but He was a father. Jesusâs wife is back. Clement, Epiphanius) mention in their writings some of the disciples who were married. Tap here to turn on desktop notifications to get the news sent straight to you. "It is good for a man not to touch a woman," 1 Corinthians 7:1). It's a title. He digs up facts that she considered irrelevant. The Church has no authoritative declaration on the subject. JESUS Christ married Mary Magdalen and the couple had children together, according to the shocking findings of a book. Even more disturbing for Pauline Christians, a sixth inscribed ossuary -- apparently of a child -- had the name "Judah, son of Jesus" carved on it. To hear a 3-part Viewpoint on Mormonism podcast series originally airing in September 2012, click on the following links: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 By Bill McKeever. King was abetted by a world of academics and higher-ed bureaucrats who forgot that, if we are wise, we should be most gratified to learn when we are wrong. A gospel of Jesusâs wife isnât typically on the menu. In the tomb there were ten ossuaries i.e., limestone coffins. Not surprisingly, this once-popular religion died out. â -- A new book based on interpretations of ancient texts features an explosive claim: Jesus Christ married Mary Magdalene, and the couple had two children. The fragment was first presented by Harvard Divinity School Professor Karen L. King, who suggested that the papyrus contained a fourth-century Coptic translation of a gospel likely composed in Greek in the late second century People have the quaint idea that ancient Jews in Jerusalem went around "anointing" each other. At that time, several of their Gospels were found hidden in jars. Here was a major new document that, like her earlier work, undermined orthodox notions about Christian celibacy and sexuality. She was of the tribe of Judah and the lineage of David (Psalm 132:11; Luke 1:32). The idea that Mary was Josephâs second wife originated with Catholic tradition in an effort to explain the existence of Jesusâ âbrothers and sistersâ (Matthew 13:55). No woman would wash the blood and sweat off his private parts unless she was his wife. CLOPAS; CLEOPHAS. Dear brothers and sisters; we should not think that Jesus came to this world to enjoy with His wife and children for few years. But for me, the most important revelation in this long ignored manuscript has to do with a foiled plot on Jesus and Mary the Magdalene's lives, about 13 years before the crucifixion. The Lost Gospel: Decoding the Ancient Text that Reveals Jesus' Marriage to Mary the Magdalene. Attis had a great love in his life, Cybele. The "Jesusâ wife papyrus" says, "Jesus said to them, 'My wife ...'" This discovery is interesting in that it is the first Gnostic writing to explicitly state that Jesus had a wife. She evinced no interest in the real Fritz, the source of her humiliation: âI donât see the point of a conversation,â King told Sabar, when he offered to tell her what heâd learned. 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