Chapter 27: Non-Canonical - Gospel of Mary Magdala

Phenomenology of World Religions ©

Chapter 27

Gospel Mary Magdala (Magdalene)

Some know this text as Gospel of Mary Magdala, estimated to have been written in the 2^nd century AD (CE), it disappeared until a fragmentary copy was found written in Coptic in the late 19^th century, transcribed in the 5^th century, purchased in Cairo by Carl Reinhardt who took it to Berlin in 1896. Two additional fragments discovered, written in Greek, in the 20^th century (1940s) which totals to less than eight pages of ancient papyrus text survive, which amounts of half of the text lost. Considering that the early Christian Church ordered the Gnostic library and the texts not authorized by the Christian Church to be destroyed, it is amazing that any of those texts could ever be found.

Chapter 8: Jesus of Nazareth, The Christ of Christianity

Phenomenology of World Religion

Chapter 18

Jesus of Nazareth - Foreword

There are also many things which Jesus did, that if they should be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain all the books that would be written. Saint John the Apostle/Evangelist

Introduction to Chapter Eight

Before I begin the complex examination of the historical and spiritual character known as Jesus of Nazareth or Jesus the Christ, I would like to inform the reader that scripture passages quoted come from the King James Version of the Holy Bible, unless otherwise noted. I do this because I feel that re-translated scriptures and text from the Holy Bible, Old and New Testaments have corrupted its meaning. It is like whispering a phrase in a circle of friends and by the time it reaches back to the originator, it is out of context. The Holy Bible is an anthology of texts, Hebrew in origin and later written in Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Aramaic, Middle English and many other languages, totaling to about 80 languages and dialects.

Investigating Scriptures and the Search for Lost Text of the Bible

In 2006 the novel The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown was produced on film  and because of the public interest in the fictional work based upon certain historical facts, as well as conjecture that has been argued by scholars for a long time, there was a great deal of controversy over the content. A well acted and directed film, it soon became the big discussion on the Internet and there are some websites that still exist today that concern the subject material in one form or another. This information being provided as background information.

After being released and previewed at the opening night of the Cannes Film Festival, May 17th, 2006, the film was criticized by the Roman Catholic Church and bishops urged Christians to boycott the film orchestrated by the Vatican curial department by Archbishop Angelo Amato. Some of the earliest showings had protesters outside the movie theaters and critical rhetoric was prolific. 

One More Time with Facts: The DaVinci Code is Fiction

Here I go again, but maybe a little more blunt and to the point?

The DaVinci Code novel is the popular talk of the town and because the gist of the story involves conspiracy, it is popular. That is what made Michael Moore’s “documentary” films so popular, not to mention that it satisfied Bush Haters in their lust for character assassination. Both of them are making money off of fiction. Don’t get me wrong, I am hopping mad at the Bush administration over several things, one of them his immigration policy that is coupled with the insane idea to create a North American federation that mirrors the European Union. What happened to the idea that the American system is not only unique, but is the best system (the way it was designed by the Founding Fathers) that has ever been drafted in human history? I am against certain Bush policies because of fact, not fiction or that I belong to the Bush Haters Club - the same applied for my views of the Clinton administration. But I digress …

DaVinci Code is a Novel

Dan Brown’s best-selling novel (key word here is novel) is quite the subject and the film based upon the book will be coming to a theater near you this summer.

Roman Catholic Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Archbishop of Genoa, has called the novel and upcoming film “shameful and unfounded.” Cardinal Gaudencio Rosales, the Archbishop of Manila, stated that it was “blasphemous.” The Greek Orthodox Church says that “from a religious and historical point of view the film is wholly false.”

What are they talking about - The DaVinci Code, of course. It is a novel of fiction that is a murder mystery in which the Holy Grail is the gist of the story. Two people, Robert Langdon and Sophie Neveu are out to solve the mystery and learn that the Bible was not divinely inspired by god but rather politically inspired by Roman Emperor Constantine. They also learn that Jesus’ divinity was “a late-developed doctrine foisted on Christians by the Council of Nicaea.” Instead of being divine, Jesus was a human prophet who married Mary Magdalene and had children by her. The Holy Grail is actually Mary Magdalene’s ancestry (“blood line”).