One favorite speculation is that they had been lovers, and this was the basis of an erotic fantasy that had appeared at www.salon.com late last week -- a fantasy told from the viewpoint of MM.

However, the "Catholic League for Civil and Religious Rights" objected that that story was "bigotry", which I find rather strange. If they are grossed out by the thought of Jesus Christ having a sex life, they are entitled to be. However, that does not make such fantasies bigoted.

Finally, this speculation would make MM the missing bride/queen in the mythic-hero profile as applied to JC; URL: http://www.secularhumanism.org/libra...price_20_1.htm

Just as a side note, if I recall correctly, the Catholic League is as close to fundamentalist Catholicism as you'll find.

There is actually a fundy group (Herbert W. Armstrong's World Wide Church of God) that teaches Jesus was married & had children. Based on Jewish law; a man had to be married by age 20, a father had 5 duties to his son, one was to get him a wife, Jesus & his mom were in charge of the wedding at Caanan, that would mean it was his wedding, On Jesus relationship to Mary see 'The Gospel of Philip' he kisses her on the mouth & Philip speaks of how close they were, of course they left out Philip's Gospel, eewww Jesus kissed an icky girl! he's got kooties! eewww.
Also a Rabbi had to be married.

Marduck,

Do you know if the Gospel of Philip is posted anywhere on the web? I bought the "Complete Gospels" that was compiled by Funk,(or Borg, I am not sure as I am at work.) and it didn't include Philip. I was ticked. I would be very interested in reading it.

Without wax,
Spider

And at Christ's death Mary moved to France and bore his son who founded the Merovingian dynasty. An old theory. For more check out the book "Holy Blood, Holy Grail". Very weak on the evidence.

mary Magdelene! I just finished MacDonald's _The Homeric Epics and the Gospel of Mark_ which everyone interested in debate should read. See Carrier's review of it.

MacDonald relates MM and the other women at
the Crucifixion to the women watching from the as Hector is killed. It's very convincing. I suggest you find the book through the interlibrary loan and read the whole damn thing. I used to believe that MM was the wife, but now I think she's entirely fictional, regardless of the historicity of Jesus himself.

Michael
turton@ev1.net

First off, the Merovingian dynasty was a medieval-French dynasty of kings from 481 to 752 -- over 4 centuries in the future from JC and MM! And to become a Merovingian ancestor, one would have to have moved a long way... most likely, the ancestors of the Merovingian kings back then were some obscure Germanic barbarians.

OTOH, IMO, the hypothesis that the Gospel of Mark is a retelling of the Homeric epics is a much stronger hypothesis. It would certainly explain the aquatic preoccupations of some of the characters in that Gospel. I doubt that that means that MM is entirely fictional, any more than it would mean that JC is entirely fictional. But as I had pointed out, JC and MM being lovers, or even married, would certainly fit Mr. Price's mythic-hero profile.

I doubt that that means that MM is entirely fictional, any more than it would mean that JC is entirely fictional. But as I had pointed out, JC and MM being lovers, or even married, would certainly fit Mr. Price's mythic-hero profile.

It does (loosely) fit the mythic-hero profile, but because Mark derived it from a mythic-hero story. The three are (loosely) Hecuba, Andromache and Helen. And Mark plays with the stories, reworks them, reinterprets them. He's not just doing the Iliad/Odyssey with the serial numbers filed off.

I wish I could reproduce the whole section here, because it is pretty convincing, but it is too long, illegal, and I don't want to spoil the book.

Michael
turton@ev1.net

Spider

it was here:

http://search.msn.com/
http://ms...spel+of+philip

but when I tried it tonight it wasn't working?
I suspect a vast conspiracy.

The Book of John was the first gospel written. Now, do not bombard me with dogma,
I am a pesher. Read the first few sentences
in John. Jesus is the "Word". Now, use your
search engines and look for "Word" in the
NT. You may discover something!