Was Jesus Married ? Part II

Part II:

Kissing on the mouth was a practice reserved exclusively for those who were married. What Dan Brown does not mention is that in the Gospel of Thomas, when Peter says "women are not worthy of life," Jesus responds, "I myself shall lead her in order to make her male....For every woman who will make herself male will enter the Kingdom of Heaven."

The Church has done everything in its power to supress information about Christ's marriage. In 1958 a manuscript of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinope was found in a monastrey near Jerusalem by Morton Smith, Professor of Ancient History bt Columbia University.

He discovered a letter from Bishop Clement of Alexandria (150 AD to 215 AD) to his colleague Theodore in a book of the works of St. Ignatius of Antioch. Included was part of the Gospel of Mark which had previously been unknown. He stated that this part of the Gospel should be omitted as it did not conform to the teachings of the Church. The Gospel of Mark was significant as it was the first to be written and formed the basis of all the other gospels!

The part that was repressed has Lazarus, whom Christ is said to have miraculously raised from the dead, crying out from the tomb, indicating that he was not dead when Jesus saw him. Lazarus had, in fact, been excommunicated and this was considered as being on a par with death. The period that excommunication took to complete was four days. On the third day Martha and Mary sent a message to Jesus that Lazarus was about to lose his soul to eternal damnation.

Jesus was there to reinstate him even though it was technically out of his poewr to help. In addition, the part that was suppressed did not mention the resurrection and ends with the women running out of the empty cave. The last twelve verses of the version of Mark 16 that we have today were added at a later date.

When the arrival of Jesus at the house where Martha and Mary live is described in John, it gives the impression that Mary is hesitant to leave the house. Hoever, in the part of the Gospel of Mark that was cut out, it explains that Mary came out of the house with Martha to greet Jesus, but the disciples told her to return indoors. The reason was that as Jesus' wife, she was only permitted to leave the house with his permission.

Roman Catholics claim that St. Peter was the founder of the Catholic Church. The name Peter comes from the Greek, Petros, meaning stone, which was teh name Christ gave to him.
He had the reputation as s misogynist, or as Dan Brown would say, "a sexist," and if that is true we can understand why the Church that he was instrumetal in founding has disregarded women throughout history.

However, if we are to believe that Mary Magdalene was good enought not only to be Jesus' most faithful disciple, but also his wife, we have to ask ourselves such questions as why women are not allowed to be Roman Catholic priests?

Furthermore, we must ask ourselves why the Church is unwilling to admit to the marriage of Christ?

Given the evidence, we can only conclude, as Dan Brown does through the character of Sir Ligh Teabing, that the Christian Church wished to "declare itself the sole vessel through which humanity could access the divine and gain entrance to the Kingdom of Heaven."

Sources : Da Vinci Decoded by Martin Lunn