Was Mary Magdalene really the wife of Jesus? That’s what Canadian-Israeli journalist and documentarian Simcha Jacobovici believes.
The Emmy winner for Outstanding Investigative Journalism and a New York Times bestselling author makes that claim in his new book The Lost Gospel, which he co-authored with York University religious studies Professor Barrie Wilson. It tells the story of the meeting between Jesus and Mary Magdalene. It describes their marriage and the meaning of their relationship for their original followers. Not only that, it tells the previously unknown story of the politics behind the crucifixion.
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On his blog Jacobovici wrote, “what we’re talking about is a 1, 450-year-old manuscript written in Syriac (Christian Aramaic) that’s been in the British Museum and later in the British Library since November 11th, 1847 (our press conference, coincidentally, is on November 12th). Basically, as we argue in our new book, Barrie and I believe that this is a lost Gospel that tells a story that pre-dates the four Gospels of the Christian canon. It’s a Gospel before the Gospels.”
The book also asserts that the early Christians viewed Mary Magdalene as a deity.
“This shows that Mary Magdalene really got ripped off, ” Jacobovici said at his book’s launch.
This may sound like something out of The Da Vinci Code, but biblical scholars have already made such suggestions for years now. Many believe that the first Christians did not see Jesus as a deity or the son of God and only believed him to be the messiah. They also assert that the first Gospels do not make any reference to a virgin birth and that this part of Christian theology came much later.
So what then is the new revelation of Mr. Jacobovici’s new book?
He has been criticized in the past by archeologists and other professionals for making historical claims that they feel were unsubstantiated. Mr. Jacobovici is also neither an archeologist nor a historian, but a journalist by profession.
He is probably best known today for his Israeli documentary television series The Naked Archeologist which can be seen in the U.S. on the History Channel. In it Jacobovici visits various archeological sites in and around Israel and interviews archeologists.
