'Lost Gospel' claims Jesus had a wife and children
“Gathering dust in the British Library is a document that takes us into the missing years of Jesus' life,” the book states.
By ARIEL COHEN'Jesus found in the Temple’ by James Tissot(photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)Lost Gospel, a new book based on ancient manuscripts, claims that Jesus wed Mary Magdelene and had two children with the alleged prostitute.Does this sound like heresy to you? The Church of England thinks so, and has dismissed the claims made in the book, stating that the Lost Gospel is more fiction than factRegardless, authors, Simcha Jacobovici and Barrie Wilson, claim that Jesus's life was different to what most people think. This never-before published information is based off the translation of an Aramaic-language manuscript found in the British Library.In the New Testament, Mary Magdelene was a fallen prostitute who was later redeemed. According to the Bible, she witnessed both Jesus’s crucifixion and resurrection, but had absolutely no romantic relations with the son of God.“Gathering dust in the British Library is a document that takes us into the missing years of Jesus' life,” the book begins. “According to the document that we uncovered, sometime during this period he became engaged, got married, had sexual relations and produced children. Before anyone gets his/her theological back up, keep in mind that we are not attacking anyone’s theology. We are reporting on text.”The text in question is the Ecclesiastical History of Zacharias Rhetor, a manuscript written on animal skin, and brought to the United Kingdom from an Egyptian monastery in 1867.At the time, scholars who read and studied the text deemed it to be untrue and insignificant in Christian history.These claims could completely overturn the historical, biblical notion that Jesus never had romantic relations or produced a family. If true, the descendants of Jesus Christ could be walking the earth today.“What the Vatican feared — and what [Da Vinci Code author] Dan Brown only suspected — has come true,” the book states.According to book-seller website Amazon, Lost Gospel will be available from November 12.
