A new book called The Lost Gospel by authors Simcha Jacobovici and Barrie Wilson is claiming that evidence shows that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene and had several children. While this theory has been popular for some time, the book also claims that there was an assassination attempt on Jesus thirteen years before he was crucified.
While the new book may be interesting, experts say it is not correct. The authors claim that the book was written using information sourced from a 1,500-year-old manuscript that was found in a British library. But experts say that there is no proof to back up the claims made in the book.
“I don’t think that there is any credibility in these claims at all,” said Mark Goodacre, a professor of religious studies at Duke University. “There is simply no evidence in this text or anywhere else that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene, much less that they had a couple of children.”
The big questions – was Jesus married with kids? http://t.co/0toa55HSKQ #religion pic.twitter.com/0pDBeLXWqh
— The Courier-Mail (@couriermail) November 11, 2014
Greg Carey, a professor of the New Testament at the Lancaster Theological Seminary, also thinks the claims are outrageous and told the Huffington Post that he believes the two authors just made the stories up to make the book interesting and to make money.
“Unfortunately, Jacobovici and Wilson describe the text as ‘Gathering dust in the British Library’ and suggest they have ‘uncovered’ it. Unfortunately, the media has bought into that narrative. A Washington Post story claims that scholars previously reviewed the document and considered it insignificant. Hardly. Online databases reveal over three hundred scholarly books and articles devoted to this text, not counting book reviews. Over twenty manuscripts of Joseph and Aseneth have survived. If you’re curious, you can consult a modern translation online. In fact, Duke University professor Mark Goodacre created his Joseph and Aseneth home page in 1999 — quite a bit before its recent “uncovering,” he said.
The life of Jesus is somewhat of a mystery. While scholars and professors have learned and shared many interesting facts about him over the years, there is still much to learn. There have been numerous claims and outrageous stories about his life and whether or not he was married or had children.
Scholars hope to someday find evidence or proof of an answer to this question and others that surround the life of Jesus.