ABC Continues to Push Book With ‘Astonishing’ Claim That Jesus Married and Had Children

[rangerrebew]

NewsBusters
 

ABC Continues to Push Book With ‘Astonishing’ Claim That Jesus Married and Had Children

By Curtis Houck | November 12, 2014 | 8:51 PM EST


On Wednesday night, ABC News continued to promote a new book with the “astonishing” claim that Jesus Christ married Mary Magdalene and had two children together with a flattering one-and-a-half minute segment on ABC’s World News Tonight with David Muir.

Anchor David Muir began by stating that it “has sparked a fiery debate among the faithful” while ABC News chief foreign correspondent Terry Moran characterized the book’s central premise as an “astonishing and, to many, blasphemous claim” that “Jesus married Mary Magdalene and had two sons with her, is history.” [MP3 audio here; Video below]



Moran and Muir even likened it to something straight out of the book The Da Vinci Code and included clips from its film version with the exception being “[t]hat was fiction.”

Only near the segment’s conclusion did Moran include a soundbite from Duke University’s Mark Goodacre, who said that there is “simply no evidence in this text or anywhere else” to support the book’s claim.

Following that, Moran ended with this dig at Jesus Christ and Christianity: “One thing's for sure: After 2,000 years, the power of Jesus to inspire great faith and great controversy abides.”

Additionally, ABC hasn’t been the only American network to promote this book and its claims. On Tuesday night, the Spanish-language broadcaster Univision offered a favorable story on the book during its evening news program, Noticiero Univision.

As noted at the beginning of this story, this was not the first time this week that ABC promoted this book or anti-Christian sentiments. As the Media Research Center’s Scott Whitlock noted, ABC ran reports making assertions about Christianity in 2007, 2010, and on Monday’s Good Morning America, when it included a similar story to Moran’s that was filed by ABC’s Dan Harris.



The complete transcript of the segment that aired on ABC’s World News Tonight with David Muir on November 12 can be found below.


ABC’s World News Tonight with David Muir
 November 12, 2014
 6:43 p.m. Eastern

[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE CAPTION: Married with Kids?]

DAVID MUIR: And tonight, a headline that has sparked a fiery debate among the faithful. A new book with a provocative theory straight out of The Da Vinci Code. Was Jesus married with children? ABC's chief foreign correspondent Terry Moran tonight with the authors and the lost gospel they say proves their claim.

TERRY MORDAN: Did Jesus have a wife and two kids? That is the astonishing and, to many, blasphemous claim in the new book, The Lost Gospel.

[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Jesus Married? New Clues Found in Old Text]

SOPHIE NEVEU [CHARACTER FROM THE DA VINCI CODE FILM]: Who is she?

MORAN: A claim just like the one in The Da Vinci Code.
                     
 SIR LEIGH TEABING [CHARACTER FROM THE DA VINCI CODE FILM]: Mary Magdalene was Jesus see wife.

MORAN: That was fiction. This morning in London, the authors of this new book claim their version, that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and had two sons with her, is history. Hidden History. There's a secret code, they say, buried in the ancient words of a 1,500-year-old manuscript and they say in their book and an upcoming documentary, they've cracked that code.

THE LOST GOSPEL CO-AUTHOR SIMCHA JACOBOVICI: What’s the code? Not only is he married, but it celebrates his sexuality.

MORAN: Many scholars are skeptical. For instance, the name Jesus never actually appears in that ancient text.

DUKE UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR MARK GOODACRE: There is simply no evidence in this text or anywhere else that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene, much less that they had a couple of children.

MORAN: One thing's for sure: After 2,000 years, the power of Jesus to inspire great faith and great controversy abides. Terry Moran, ABC News, London.

MUIR: Terry, thank you.



Source URL: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/curtis-houck/2014/11/12/abc-continues-push-book-astonishing-claim-jesus-married-and-had

[NavyCanDo]

Regurgitation of old news by ABC.   This myth has been brought up time and time again by full time Bible debunkers. And it has never had a lick of truth.

This is over a book called The Lost Gospel and it’s  an unoriginal claim that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene and had two children with her. The UK newspaper, The Independent, wrote about the “scholarly” work, claiming it is based on a 1,500 year old manuscript unearthed at the British Library. Why should we question it?    Well, this manuscript never mentions the names “Jesus” or “Mary Magdalene” even once. Not. Once.
In fact, the “decoded” manuscript speaks of two people named Joseph and Aseneth. Somehow the authors managed to divine what no other scholars who have looked at the manuscript have: Joseph is Jesus, and Aseneth is Mary Magdalene. Poof! Now it’s truth. The authors have no other historical claims to back it up, nor any scholarly claims to explain how they decoded it and came to this revelation. But, thanks to the media, they have instant “credibility”… you know, the media reported it so it must be true.
Author, Simcha Jacobovici, is a professional Bible debunker. That means his purpose in life is to make the Bible and proven biblical history a fairy tale, so he writes them. Never mind that archeology and non-Christian historical sources have proven much of the historical references, places and times recounted in the Bible.

[mountaineer]

Anchor David Muir began by stating that it “has sparked a fiery debate among the faithful” while ABC News chief foreign correspondent Terry Moran characterized the book’s central premise as an “astonishing and, to many, blasphemous claim” that “Jesus married Mary Magdalene and had two sons with her, is history.”

The claim is so baseless and stupid, the only response it draws from me is ... yawn. It doesn't warrant debate, let alone a fiery one.

[massadvj]

The story here is the MSM's clear agenda to do what it can to discredit Christianity.  So long as this country is a majority made up of Christians who believe in God, there is no hope for a populace cowered by government and its media controllers.  And in a startling turn of events, it appears we may have a pope who seems to want to flirt with the devil.   

[GourmetDan]

Can you imagine any woman actually being married to the perfect man?

One who is never wrong and never makes a mistake?

 

[mountaineer]

Can you imagine any woman actually being married to the perfect man?

One who is never wrong and never makes a mistake?

 

Isn't that all men (to hear them tell it)?   

[raml]

I was once married to the perfect man and it isn't all that you would think it could be. It was hell on earth. I'll take a human man anytime over the prefect one ( in his mind anyway).

[NavyCanDo]

Not exactly shock and awe that a full time Bible debunker is coming out with another crazy claim, writing a book, and getting his 15 minutes of fame and a small fortune.   But really does ABC News really have to promote it and allowing as much air time as they did?

Thankfully we had the TV sound  muted because we were having dinner, but I could see the subject line, and was thankful my impressionable 13 year old was unaware of the story.

[jmyrlefuller]

MORAN: That was fiction. This morning in London, the authors of this new book claim their version, that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and had two sons with her, is history. Hidden History. There's a secret code, they say, buried in the ancient words of a 1,500-year-old manuscript and they say in their book and an upcoming documentary, they've cracked that code.

So we're applying "Bible code" type pseudocryptography to texts that, even at their oldest possible date, were written multiple centuries after the original Gospels. Yeah. That's a REAL reliable way to find truth. It's more like a cheap attempt to try to gin up controversy.

As for the actual issue at hand here: Jesus speaks favorably of marriage. He was very close to Mary Magdalene—she was the last to see him before he died, and the first to see him when he rose again. That's something I don't discount. They may have very well been lovers of some sort, something that the church may have discounted to further a "bride of Christ" imagery (especially found in John's writings).

But I can say with virtual certainty that they had no children. Why? Because surely, if Jesus had children, SOMEONE in the Gospels or the early Church would have mentioned them, for good or bad. Such children would have been under tremendous scrutiny because of their father's legacy. For instance, Matthew could have easily used corrupted children of Jesus to draw parallels between them and the sons of Eli, as written in 1 Samuel, or the descendants of David. Yet he did not. Paul did not mention Jesus having children in his epistles, even though he mentions Jesus's brothers. Writings from the early church note that Jesus had nephews (his [half-]brother Jude had several) but say nothing of children. Even the Gnostics, who claimed a secret wisdom separate from the traditional canon (and emphasized Mary Magdalene's relationship with Jesus even more), say nothing of children.

In short, there is no evidence Jesus had kids, and anyone who tells you otherwise is just trying to drum up controversy.

[kevindavis007]

Now will they report a story about Mohammed having sex with a underage girl??

[aligncare]

Now will they report a story about Mohammed having sex with a underage girl??

A Piece be upon him ... 

[DCPatriot]

Aw geez.....now I'd expect a DRUDGE siren with "Obama DNA shows he's a descendant of Jesus Christ"   

[Carling]

Meanwhile, according to the actual Koran, Mohammed was a pedophile, and ABC News has yet to ever air anything about it.   

[kevindavis007]

Meanwhile, according to the actual Koran, Mohammed was a pedophile, and ABC News has yet to ever air anything about it.   

Two reasons, one they are afraid of their lives, or they just like bash Christianity cause they know they will not get killed.

[MACVSOG68]

Aw geez.....now I'd expect a DRUDGE siren with "Obama DNA shows he's a descendant of Jesus Christ"   

This provides a whole new project for ancestry.com.

[DCPatriot]

This provides a whole new project for ancestry.com.

 

[ABX]

This really isn't new. There was a whole cottage industry from the time of Constantine the Great onward writing and creating lineages for rulers and aristocrats across Europe to make them all somehow related to Jesus. An entire town in Spain is not only named after Mary Magdeline but its history is tied to stories created about being populated by the descendents of Jesus. This was going on so much, I'm actually surprised we don't have a manuscript pop up each week with claims like this.

I don't find the idea as heretical as some, nor shocking if it was true. However, the mythology around all the stories I mentioned, there would be no way of really ever knowing if it was or wasn't.

[ABX]

This provides a whole new project for ancestry.com.

It may be a funny way to troll the DUmmies. It probably wouldn't be hard as some think. Just find some sort of connection to the Stewart family in Obama's lineage, then use some of Sir Lawrence Gardner's fabricated genealogies and bam, Obama is Jesus' great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandson. Heck, from his Father's side, I wonder if he could also be connected to Mohammed?

[MACVSOG68]

But I can say with virtual certainty that they had no children. Why? Because surely, if Jesus had children, SOMEONE in the Gospels or the early Church would have mentioned them, for good or bad.

Interesting point.  But remember that early Christianity was full of various sects reflecting both the history and nature of Christ.  It wasn't really until Emperor Constantine in the 4th Century that he brought everyone together to settle many of those contrary and controversial issues.  I wonder what we would believe today if Constantine would have gone golfing instead...

[Carling]

The book The Da Vinci Code had a more believable premise than this latest "finding," and it was a work of fiction.    

[MACVSOG68]

It may be a funny way to troll the DUmmies. It probably wouldn't be hard as some think. Just find some sort of connection to the Stewart family in Obama's lineage, then use some of Sir Lawrence Gardner's fabricated genealogies and bam, Obama is Jesus' great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandson. Heck, from his Father's side, I wonder if he could also be connected to Mohammed?

Interesting you brought that up.  I've been on ancestry.com for several years and have one line going back to 10th Century England from the English through the Normans and the Danes...even without Gardner's "able" assistance.    Pretty hard to get past the Vikings with so many monasteries where all the records were kept destroyed by them.  Some accounts I've seen reflect lines back to the Anglo-Saxon times, but very few, and somewhat suspect. 

[MACVSOG68]

The book The Da Vinci Code had a more believable premise than this latest "finding," and it was a work of fiction.   

Fiction??? What???

Actually it was a fun read...but even suggesting that on TOS could have gotten you banned.

[ABX]

But I can say with virtual certainty that they had no children. Why? Because surely, if Jesus had children, SOMEONE in the Gospels or the early Church would have mentioned them, for good or bad.

Disclaimer: This is solely for the intellectual exercise, I'm not implying I actually believe it.

I would argue just the opposite. It was so common place at the time, and expected, that it would be more shocking of the time, and worth mention, if he didn't. No where in the Gospel does it say he chose a life of celibacy or eschewed marriage. Marriage and lineage were vital among the Jewish people, especially in his family where every member of his lineage was traced. Yet the Gospels don't say he stopped it. The Bible does have several areas that hint he was at least married. The wedding at Cana for example, why was it Jesus' responsibility to see to the guests? Why did his mother come to him about the wine as though it was his own party?  How about Mary washing Jesus' feet?  If you understand Orthodox Jewish rituals, it would be forbidden for her to touch a man other than her husband. Even now, an Orthodox woman won't shake the hand of a man she isn't married to. John 12:3 also states she dried his feet with her hair. According to Jewish tzniut law, a woman's hair must remain covered for all but he husband.

Why else would it not be mentioned? Maybe the church fathers didn't want it to be. Look at the schism in Islam between the descendents of Mohammed (Shiite) and the descendents of his prophets (Sunni).  The church founders, especially in the Holy Roman Empire, didn't want a challenge to their rule as they were claiming it was divinely appointed.

Repeating the Disclaimer: This is solely for the intellectual exercise, I'm not implying I actually believe it.

[mountaineer]

Bible scholar Hank Hanegraaff addresses the question.

[GourmetDan]

Bible scholar Hank Hanegraaff addresses the question.

"Finally, while no evidence from the historical record supports the notion that Jesus was married, the New Testament contains powerful evidence that Jesus was not.  In 1 Corinthians 9:5 Paul defended his right to have a wife by appealing to the fact that Peter and other apostles had wives: “Don’t we have a right to take a believing wife along with us, as do the Lord’s brothers and Cephas?”  If Jesus had been married it is unthinkable that Paul would have neglected to appeal to Jesus as the ultimate precedent.  For this reason Paul Maier, professor of ancient history at Western Michigan University, aptly refers to 1 Corinthians 9:5 as “the graveyard of the married–Jesus fiction.”"