Re: {UAH} The book that claims Jesus had a wife and kids — and the embattled author behind it - The Washington Post

Pojim;

I cannot disagree with you.

Ocen

Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone.

From: 'edward pojim' via Ugandans at Heart (UAH) Community Sent: Monday, November 10, 2014 17:39 To: ugandans-at-heart@googlegroups.com Reply To: ugandans-at-heart@googlegroups.com Subject: Re: {UAH} The book that claims Jesus had a wife and kids — and the embattled author behind it - The Washington Post

Ocen;

Christianity and Islam are the two religions that are most intolerant and violent. More people have been killed in the names of Christianity and Islam than all the other religions combined.

Pojim

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From: "ocennekyon@gmail.com" <ocennekyon@gmail.com>
To: ugandans-at-heart@googlegroups.com
Sent: Monday, November 10, 2014 2:23 PM
Subject: Re: {UAH} The book that claims Jesus had a wife and kids — and the embattled author behind it - The Washington Post

Pojim;

The one thing I never get into or try to avoid are  argu‎ments on Religion.


I believe no one wins in any discussion because minds are pretty made up on any position/s.


It is not lost on me that for example Christianity in general is on the wane in the West where it originated,  while it going strong in Africa where it was used as a tool of conquest.


I remember a quote attributed to Jomo Kenyatta, who stated: "when the Christian Missionary came to Africa, he had the Bible and we had the land. They (Missionaries) urged us to pray by closing our eyes. When we opened our eyes, they (Missionaries) had the land and we Africans had the Bible."


Ocen




Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone.
  Original Message  
From: 'edward pojim' via Ugandans at Heart (UAH) Community
Sent: Monday, November 10, 2014 16:28
To: ugandans-at-heart@googlegroups.com
Reply To: ugandans-at-heart@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: {UAH} The book that claims Jesus had a wife and kids — and the embattled author behind it - The Washington Post

Ocen;

As with anything about JC, this book will garner readership and criticism in equal measure.

Jesus is the one guy who has the knack to divide the world every time his name is mentioned. I don't know if this book changes anything about the person of Jesus Christ, for he's remembered not because of his chastity, but because of his message - that he died for our sins and we are now all eligible to join him in Heaven if we only accept him as our personal saviour.

Sounds like a pretty easy deal to me, but is it? The struggle continues.

Pojim



--------------------------------------------
On Mon, 11/10/14, ocennekyon@gmail.com <ocennekyon@gmail.com> wrote:

Subject: {UAH} The book that claims Jesus had a wife and kids — and the embattled author behind it - The Washington Post
To: "Ugandans Heart" <ugandans-at-heart@googlegroups.com>
Date: Monday, November 10, 2014, 12:58 PM

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/11/10/the-book-that-claims-jesus-had-a-wife-and-kids-and-the-controversial-author-behind-it/?tid=HP_more?tid=HP_more



The book that claims Jesus had a wife and kids —
and the embattled author behind it
Reproduction of print
showing Christ and Mary Magdalene. (Library of Congress
Prints and Photographs Division)The authors
want to talk about Christ. They want you to know that,
buried beneath centuries of misinformation and
conspiracy, Jesus had a secret wife, named Mary Magdalene,
and he fathered two children with her. And they want you to
know that their book on the matter, named the
"Lost Gospel," is on sale soon for
$21.74. "If true," reported the Daily Mail in an overheated
dispatch, "this would make it the greatest revelation into
the life of Jesus in nearly 2,000 years."Indeed. If
true. But is this just the latest theory of
an embattled theologian?Rekindling one of the
Jesus Christs's greatest mysteries, a la "The Da Vinci
Code," the new book draws from a
1,500-year-old Aramaic-language manuscript found inside
the British Library. There, the authors say, the secrets of
Jesus's family life have been in plain sight for more
than a century."What the Vatican feared — and
what ["Da Vinci Code" author] Dan Brown only
suspected — has come true," begins the book, authored by York
University (Canada) professor Barrie Wilson
and documentarian Simcha Jacobovici."There is
now written evidence that Jesus was married to Mary the
Magdalene and that they had children together. … Gathering
dust in the British Library is a document that takes us into
the missing years of Jesus's life. … According to the
document that we uncovered, sometime during this period he
became engaged, got married, had sexual relations, and
produced children. Before anyone gets his/her theological
back up, keep in mind that we are not attacking anyone's
theology. We are reporting on text."The text in
question is called the Ecclesiastical History of Zacharias
Rhetor, written on treated animal skin, which was brought to
the United Kingdom in 1847 when the British Museum bought it
from an Egyptian monastery. Scholars scrutinized the
document and discarded it as insignificant.Then,
years ago, Wilson and Jacobovici gave it a look, and began
to suspect otherwise. The Sunday Times quoted Wilson describing it as an
"ancient Syriac manuscript lurking in the British Museum
… Scholars have known about it for almost 200 years, but
have not known what to make of it."But these
authors, who are expected to answer questions on Wednesday
at the British Library, did. They claim the meaning of the
text had been enshrouded in code and "embedded meaning." It speaks of a figure named
Joseph, who apparently bore striking similarities
to Jesus. He was depicted as "savior-figure," the
book said. "Joseph, like Jesus, was assumed dead and
turned up alive; he too had humble beginnings and ended up a
king of sorts." So they contend Joseph was really
Jesus in the text.And this Joseph, they said, had a
wife named Aseneth, who they purport represented Mary
Magdalene. "Put simply, in order to convey the stature of
Aseneth — perhaps Mary the Magdalene — to his audience,
the unknown author of our manuscript selected a dominant
image … he could be sure his readers would readily
understand."The book's purported findings,
however, only tell part of the story. Jacobovici, widely
known in the theological community, has already come
under criticism for pursuing theories of early
Christianity that many scholars have dismissed. The
controversy is a subplot to the grander drama
surrounding the study of Jesus's life, illustrating the
tug-and-pull between popular interest, entrenched doctrine,
the potential for big payouts and the limits of academic
inquiry.In 2002, Jacobovici, a Canadian filmmaker who
studies biblical archaeology, pushed
out a documentary that hailed a seemingly pivotal
relic called the James ossuary, which allegedly showed
Jesus had a family. Later named one of the top 10 scientific hoaxes of
all time by Discovery Channel, its owner was indicted on
charges of forgery, and archaeologists from Israel to the
United States denounced the ossuary as a hoax.
"It's a publicity stunt, and it will make these guys
very rich," University of Arizona archaeologist William G.
Dever told The Washington Post in 2007. "And it
will upset millions of innocent people because they don't
know enough to separate fact from
fiction."Jacobovici went on to author other works
called out for veering into untruth. One imbroglio spilled
over into the courts, with Jacobovici suing a critic
for libel. Jacobovici fumed in aninterview with Time: He "crossed the line
from fair comment to outright libel. Specifically, he has
accused me repeatedly — verbally and in writing — of
'forging archaeology.'"Then a group of
academics from Duke University to Columbia University to Tel
Aviv Universitywrote a joint letter in 2008 that cast
suspicion on his work involving the Talpiot tomb, which
Jacobovici claimed showed Jesus had a family. The
letter, signed by 17 academics, called Jacobovici's
work "controversial" and disputed his assessment that
one archaeologist's widow had "vindicated" his claims about the
relics."We wish to protest the misrepresentation of
the conference proceedings in the media," the lettersaid. "And make it clear that the majority of
scholars … either reject the identification of the Talpiot
tomb as belonging to Jesus's family or find this claim
highly speculative."So what about this most
recent one?"It sounds like the deepest bilge,"
Diarmaid MacCulloch, an Oxford University professor toldthe Sunday Times. "I'm very surprised
that the British Library gives these authors
houseroom."Terrence McCoy is a
foreign affairs writer at the Washington Post. He served in
the U.S. Peace Corps in Cambodia and studied international
politics at Columbia University. Follow him on
Twitter here.The book that claims Jesus had a wife and
kids — and the embattled author behind it - The Washington
Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/11/10/the-book-that-claims-jesus-had-a-wife-and-kids-and-the-controversial-author-behind-it/?tid=HP_more?tid=HP_more
Sent from my BlackBerry 10
smartphone.



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UAH forum is devoted to matters of interest to Ugandans. Individuals are responsible for whatever they post on this forum.To unsubscribe from this group, send email to:  ugandans-at-heart+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com or Abbey Semuwemba at: abbeysemuwemba@gmail.com.

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UAH forum is devoted to matters of interest to Ugandans. Individuals are responsible for whatever they post on this forum.To unsubscribe from this group, send email to: ugandans-at-heart+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com or Abbey Semuwemba at: abbeysemuwemba@gmail.com.