The book also claims that the original Virgin Mary was Jesus’ wife – not his mother – and that there was an assassination attempt on Jesus’ life 13 years before he was crucified.
The book titled, “The Lost Gospel” stated that based on a new translation from ancient manuscript held in the British Library and two accompanying letters, Jesus actually got married to Mary Magdalene.
In a statement, Simcha Jacobovici, an Israeli-Canadian documentary filmmaker, and Canadian academic Barrie Wilson, said a code in a sixth century manuscript, “Joseph and Aseneth” refers to Jesus.
They said: “It presents the courtship, marriage, children and an attempt on his life in coded, symbolic terms.
“Because the early years of the Church were so rife with conflict, important manuscripts were disguised in this way to protect it from those who sought to alter or destroy it.”
The book has however faced severe criticism and derision from many. The Church of England also dismissed the claims.
AFP quotes Diarmaid MacCulloch, professor of church history at Oxford University as saying that the claims were based on a “mistaken reading” of the text.
He said: “What they’ve tried to do is say it’s an allegory of the life of Jesus. But it isn’t".
But one of the authors, Barrie Wilson, a professor of religious studies at York University in Toronto, dismissed the “off-the-cuff negative comments”, saying they were motivated by “theological protectionism”.
A similar stir was caused in 2012 when an ancient piece of papyrus was found to contain a mention of Jesus’s wife, although she was not named. The phrase read:“Jesus said to them, ‘My wife”
The 2003 novel by Dan Brown, “The Da Vinci Code” also postulated that Jesus married Mary Magdalene.
According to The Holy Bible and long existing Christian tradition, Jesus Christ never got married.
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