Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Since this is all over the news....

....I decided to go and watch The Da Vinci Code. To be honest with all of you, its not all it's cracked up to be! It was a pretty good movie overall, although I kinda got bored in the middle of it, and I kept glancing at my watch.

I'm going to apologize in advance if this offends anyone, but these are my HONEST thoughts about what the movie proposes (and I've resorted to some text from the book as well to make my points)

I wanted to get this post out in the light as soon as I got most of my research completed on the the given perspective, and seeing as how I'm still researching on different topics, if I am able to use anything that I come upon in a previous topic that I have covered I will be adding it to the respective post in bolded text.

This is the first of my series that I am starting (dont know the exact number of entries this topic will produce-we'll just have to see), and to be quite honest, this has been a hard entry to write. I strongly believe in spiritual warfare, and I have gone through so much these past couple of days while researching, and writing.

1. Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene
This is the backbone of the movie (if anyone hasn't heard) As most of us know, there is no historical evidence to suppore this claim.

Many sources point that the only evidence Mr. Brown cites to support this claim is from the so-called "gospel of Phillip" The title is somewhat misleading; according to scholars, the text makes no claim as to be written by the Apostle Phillip. However, there is a reference to the Apostle.

According to the text on page 246 of the hardcopy edition of The Divinci Code you'll find this passage:

"the companion of the Savior is Mary Magdalene. Christ loved her more than all the disciples and used to kiss her often on her mouth. The rest of the disciples were offended by it and expressed disapproval. They said to him, 'Why do you love her more than all of us?'"

Wouldn't you think that IF Jesus and Mary would have been married that the disciples wouldn't have had to ask that last question? It would be obvious why Jesus loved her more than the rest of the disciples if they would have been married.

Imagine this scenario: a group of grown men asking a married man, "why do you love your wife more than us?, and why do you keep kissing your wife?" I mean c'mon now, that just doens't make any sense.

In the book, Brown claims that definition of "companion" as found in the "gospel of Philip" literally meant "spouse". However, the text was originally written in Coptic, so using a Aramic definition is irrelevant to the claim of any so called marriage.

Also, many scholars have also stated that the translation of these gnostic texts can not be accurate due to the conditions of the actual text when the transcription had taken place. One major example of this is the fact that it says that Jesus would kiss Mary on the mouth. When anyone begins their research on such delicate texts, you will find that there is an omited word in the text, thus scholars have filled in the blank with the word mouth, face, forehead, hand, cheek, etc. In the culture of many Middle Eastern countries back during the time of Christ, it was custom for a teacher to kiss his students on the cheek or hand, therefor the word being substituted could have easily been manipulated to satisfy any one person's point.

When reviewing the gnostic texts, none of them actually make the reference to any form of intimate relationship between Jesus and Mary; Mary's own text doesn't even make such a claim.

So whether or not you choose to take my observations to heart is up to you. If anyone would ever like to discuss any type of spiritual topics, feel free to drop me aline. Also, I want to extend my hand to anyone needing prayer, or just someone to talk to, and if any of you that are not Christians, and are curious, feel free to ask me questions as well.

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