Jesus: Married With Children?

A report and comment on religious trends and events being covered by the media.This week’s item is from the Scotland Sunday Herald, July 17^th, 2005 with a headline, “Jesus Married with Children, says author.The following are excerpts: Author Dan Brown defends claims he makes in the book that Jesus Christ married and had a child.Brown reaffirms his belief in the book’s key theory that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene and their French born child started the bloodline stretching to the present day.Critics have denounced the new claims as bonkers.The Da Vinci Code claims Leonardo da Vinci’s painting, “The Last Supper” holds the key to the Holy Grail.According to the book, the Grail is not a chalice as traditionally believed but Mary Magdalene. It alleges that Jesus and Mary married and had a child and that their bloodline survives to this day, a secret kept by the Catholic Church.Brown argues in the documentary that efforts to describe Mary Magdalene as a prostitute were part of a smear campaign against the wife of Jesus.Brown contends that Jesus must have wed because at that time in history, for a young Jewish man not to be married, it was practically a sin.

Tom:

This book has influenced a lot of people.I’ve talked to some who profess to be Christians and they said well wait a minute, what’s so wrong with that?You know when they were filming the movie there were some places that objected to it to the point where they weren’t going to let them film there.For example, Westminster Abbey.They decided they couldn’t do it.Then they went to Lincoln Cathedral which is in Lincolnshire in England, and the dean there, Alec Knight, he says it’s fiction.It’s been attacked as blasphemous because it argues the notion that Jesus’ humanity included an element of sexuality.My view is that the book isn’t blasphemous, it doesn’t denigrate God in any way, but it is speculative, far-fetched, and heretical.And therefore they took the fee from the production company and let them use the Cathedral.But is it blasphemous as some said?Well wait a minute, what would be wrong with Jesus marrying somebody and having children.I mean the Mormons believe that.The Mormons believe that Jesus not only married Mary Magdalene, but also Mary and Martha because you need to have more than one wife.

Dave:

Well he says that efforts to describe Mary Magdalene as a prostitute were part of a smear campaign against the wife of Jesus.Now first of all, the Bible is God’s Word.It is historical; we can verify the history of the Bible, everything about the Bible. It’s talking about real people, real places, and real events.So historically it is provable; it is verifiable.The prophecies in the Bible—this puts the stamp of divine authorship upon the Bible.There’s no question about it and God said I will tell you what’s going to happen before it happens.So I am going to go by the Bible.The Bible says nothing about Jesus being married to anyone.In fact the implication would be that he was not.Furthermore, that would be entirely wrong.Why am I going to accept some guy that comes along and writes a sensational novel and he bad-mouths the Bible, trashes the Bible literally, and claims that it’s all wrong and that there had been a cover up and on and on it goes.That’s not possible.The Bible is verifiable as I’ve said.Now what does he have to back up his claims? Nothing.And he comes up with this absurd idea about a Holy Grail.But the Holy Grail, he says, is not the cup that Jesus drank out of, but Mary Magdalene herself.So now, we’ve trashed the Bible which is verifiable, and—

Tom:

Dave, can I just add to that so our folks know they were listening?So if you look at Da Vinci—this is where this comes from.Da Vinci supposedly planted not just codes but planted certain things in his paintings and so on, so therefore when you look at his painting “The Last Supper” which by the way, is just his idea.He just made this up!

Dave:

Of course.

Tom:

So he puts one character in there that is supposedly more feminine looking than the others and this is supposed to be now, not John the beloved, or any of the other disciples, it’s Mary Magdalene.

Dave:

Yes, so we have one disciple missing.So Da Vinci who was a great artist—

Tom:

No doubt about that.

Dave:

He’s the authority.Now we have a book written by 40 different men, prophets over a period of over 1600 years, most of them never knew one another, they lived at different times and different cultures.They all agree—it’s consistent all through.For every author of the Bible, you have 39 independent witnesses.Now out of the air he pulls Da Vinci.Woooo, he’s the guy who really knew!And so he put it in there—it’s nonsense, but anyway so after trashing the Bible and the prophets, the history, everything, he’s telling us he knows.Where does this guy end up?He ends up worshiping at the shrine of Mary Magdalene.Now if that isn’t a let down, but it’s the best he’s got.

Tom:

But it’s worse than that Dave.You see here we have now the Son of God and we can prove that through the scripture.

Dave:

Right.

Tom:

But now the Son of God marries and has the grandson of God, what’s going on here? How far do we take this?And then of course the movie, I mean it’s a thriller, that kind of thing.People will be attracted to it.But our great concern here is people who don’t read the Bible are going to think well that’s what it’s about.And of course the Catholic Church takes a bad rap for all of this.For all the problems within Roman Catholicism you know regarding any secret that Jesus actually married and had children and so on.As we said the only people who believe that I know religiously are the Mormons.

Dave:

Well Tom, it’s blasphemy.And unfortunately this is what we are trying to do today.The popularizing theories that attack the Bible; attack Jesus Christ, his person, his character, the truth of who he is and the redemption that we have through him.