We have tried to discuss the many aspects of Jesus Christ’s life in many of our previous posts. Today we will discuss about the most controversial aspect of his life. There are indeed many mysteries that surround the life of Jesus. These mysteries are mainly because not much was written about his life when he was alive and another reason for these is that many people have different accounts to say about Jesus and his life. Jesus was the son of the God and he was born to show mankind the right way to live. Jesus gave his life for the benefit of the people.
The Controversial Claim
We will talk about a manuscript that claims that Jesus Christ was married and he even had children. This is indeed a controversial claim and many people contradict it. This manuscript was discovered in a British library. This originally belonged to an old church. It was copied by an anonymous monk and it can be as old as 1450 years.
It belongs to the first century which is the lifetime of Jesus. This gospel was in Syriac and was translated into English. It is a very different document because it tells about the social life of Jesus and about his personal life there are not many books like this. Most of the books tell that how Jesus was a saint and how he helped people. Very few documents talk about his personal life and this is one of such documents.
The Last Gospel
This manuscript is called “the last gospel”. This takes the readers through a very unique journey into history. The manuscript claims that Jesus had a personal life and a family. He married a woman named Mary Magdalene. This happened 13 years before Jesus was crucified as per the manuscript. After the death of Jesus attempt was also made to kill his wife and his children. The manuscript says that Jesus had two sons.
The Missing Years
The experts believe that there are many manuscripts about Jesus and many have different stories to say. The reason behind these manuscripts is that nothing much is known about the early life of Jesus. He was 12 when he went to Jerusalem with his parents. After he attained the age of 30 he started to preach about religion and how all humans must live peacefully and have faith in God.
In those days a thirty year old man would definitely be married and there is a possibility that Jesus could have been married. Although there are many manuscripts that talk about the life of Jesus none of them have created such a controversy. This manuscript has been studied again and again by many people and many have different opinions about it.
The British Library
The religious followers say that these claims have no basis but the scientists and the scholars say that there is a good possibility that Jesus was married. The religious experts further say that they cannot believe that a reputed library like the British Library keeps such baseless manuscripts. Let’s look at the history of this manuscript. From where did it reach the British Library? It was in the British museum before this.
This manuscript was obtained by a British dealer from Egypt. He thought the manuscript was interesting and he sold it to the British Museum and later it was shifted to the library. Once it reached the library it was studied by many and it became very popular.
This manuscript could give evidence of the personal life of Jesus Christ that no one ever knew of. The manuscript was also the key to many mysteries that surrounded the life of Jesus. This manuscript is considered to be a remarkable piece of work by many.
Study of Barrie Wilson
Barrie Wilson who is a professor of religious studies in Toronto studied this script and he made a detailed study for five long years on this manuscript. After the study he said that this manuscript is a key to several other missing pieces of work. He claimed that he also found a fifth gospel and in that gospel there is a more detailed account of the life of Jesus. It was written in the 1st century AD.
This manuscript also explains why it was found in Egypt. It could have been the biggest discovery that was made about the life of Jesus Christ. This manuscript had 29 chapters and they also give insights to many chapters in Bible.
Hi-tech digital imaging was used to take photographs of these texts about 13 times. After this the document was again translated from Syriac to English. The study revealed some very interesting yet controversial facts. The study claimed that Joseph was actually Jesus. Aseneth was Mary Magdalene.
The pharaoh of Egypt had blessed the wedding of Joseph and Aseneth. They said in the blessing that “you are by the lord God of Joseph, as you are the first born of god. You will be called the daughter of god as you are the bride of Joseph now and forever.
The text also claims that the wedding celebrations went on for seven days. Joseph and Aseneth had an intercourse and she conceived. She later had two sons named Ephraim and Manasseh. These two boys were born in the house of Joseph.
Gospels & Claims: Trustworthy?
Later many such similar claims were made. Professor Karen L. King indicated that she too found a manuscript that was called “Gospel of Jesus’ wife” in this manuscript there is a mention where Jesus said to them “my wife”. The mystery about the wife of Jesus only deepens and there is not much solid proof to support it apart from these manuscripts.
The origin of these manuscripts cannot be trusted completely. In those days when Jesus was so popular and he was becoming a threat to the political leaders many things were written about him and his personal life. The first thirty years of Jesus’s life after birth is nothing but a mystery as nothing much is known about it. This gap in the life of Jesus gave way to the historians and writers of that time to write about his personal life and his family.
However, there is no solid evidence yet that can solve this 2000 years old mystery. Many also feel that even the religious leaders of that time knew about the family of Jesus but they did not talk much about them as they wanted to protect the family and ensure that they are not killed too. There are many theories that are actually told about the personal life of Jesus but there is no theory that can be completely trusted.
Where is the family?
The biggest question here is if Jesus actually had a family. What happened to them? They were also killed? If they survived why there is no mention about them anywhere else. The stories about the family of Jesus end with his death and that is quite strange indeed.
Many people had a lot of faith in Jesus and they could have done many things to protect his family. Till more evidence is provided all these just remain to be stories that are told about the life of Jesus and these theories cannot be trusted much as they do not have historic evidence.
We have tried to discuss about “the last Gospel” in this article and about many other claims that have been made in this manuscript. It is definitely a mystery and there is indeed very little clarity on the personal life of Jesus Christ.
We hope that with the help of technology one day we will be able to know what the truth about the personal life of Jesus was. However, it is indeed interesting to imagine that Jesus had a personal life and it is even more interesting to imagine what might have happened to this family of his after his death.
Editor’s Note: we do not support or refute the above theory but have only presented the points as they exist in common knowledge. We fully respect Jesus and Christianity and do not have any intention to hurt any religious sentiments but we believe in equality of all religions and Sages, so we leave it to the readers to decide.
On a more contemplative note, does it even matter whether He had a family or not. That does not put any doubt on His greatness or compassion. There have been many married saints and sages in the orient and it is nothing wrong even if it is so. Jesus Christ was one of the great philosopher and mystic that the world has ever known and will continue to occupy that position.