Debate Looms Over Authenticity Of New Version Of 5th Gospel Claiming Jesus Married & Had Children With Mary Magdalene

The already divided Christian faith is expected to be further broken into two or more school of thoughts over the civil status of Jesus Christ with the release of a new book titled The Lost Gospel. Based on a 1,450-year-old manuscript found in the British Library, the book claims it is the fifth Gospel.

But what makes this so-called fifth Gospel different from the four existing ones found in the Christian Bible, written by disciples Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, is its claim, which would surely trigger a lot of "holy" debates, that Jesus married and had children with Mary Magdalene. She is a female character in the Christian Bible who is believed to the same woman he saved from stoners because of adultery and later became one of the followers of Jesus.

This one appears to be different from the so-called Lost Gospel of Thomas.

YouTube/Omid Ceazar

The teachings of the Roman Catholic Church is that Jesus was single until he died at the age of 33 after he was crucified on the cross by Romans. Other versions of the Bible, especially those used by Protestant denominations, mention of Jesus being married, but there are sparse details on his so-called marriage.

Other than the Bible, Dan Brown's 2003 hit novel made into a movie, The Da Vinci Code, has as its premise that the union between Jesus and Mary resulted in children.

The Lost Gospel claims that based on the manuscript in Syriac language which was translated to English, Jesus had two sons out of his marriage to Mary Magdalene. The idea of the two having a romantic relationship has been speculated for centuries but remain unproven.

Filmmaker Martin Scorsese believes in that theory and made the film The Last Temptation of Christ in 1988 which suggested the two married after the crucifixion of Jesus.

The authors of the book, Israeli-Canadian filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici and Toronto religious studies professor Barrie Wilson, studied for six years the manuscript written on treated animal skin and reached the conclusion it is the fifth Gospel. Jacobovici is scheduled to discuss his findings at a conference sponsored by the British Library where the manuscript has been kept in its archives for the past two decades.

It was original bought by the British Museum in 1847 from the St Macarius Monastery in Egypt.

The authors said the manuscript is in code, hence the alleged marriage of Jesus to Mary Magdalene was told through the Old Testament character Joseph and his wife Aseneth. They said the couple was married by the Pharaoh of Egypt, Joseph's former master, and one of their bases that they were Jesus and Mary Magdalene is the pharaoh's blessings which reads: "Blessed are you by the Lord God of Joseph, because he is the first-born of God, and you will be called the Daughter of God Most High and the bride of Joseph now and for ever."

They had a seven-day wedding feast and eventually Aseneth gave birth to two sons - Manasseh and Ephraim.

The debate would also likely draw in followers of the Islam faith, explained Peer Viqar Ul Aslam, who wrote in a Facebook newsfeed: "We Muslims have been saying that the sources of Christians is fabricated and they need to look for a real Christ in Qu'ran where in he has been mentioned 25 times and even one whole chapter is named by name of Mother Mary."

But Denis Kisanje Nsubuga replied, "I don't care about that no(n)sense, what I know and believe is that, Jesus is Lord and King of Kings!"

In turn, Danny Elvis Coxill opted to be neutral and wrote, "All religion is false, so move on next story." Car Jones agreed, saying, "All religion is a con you silly people."

The Lost Gospel would likely add to the growing rift between Islam and Christianity followers which has gone beyond Bible or Qu'ran thumping but escalated into a jihad now being waged mainly in Syria and Iraq.