Mary Magdalene was a “co-messiah”, the wife of Jesus and the mother of his children, according to a translation of an ancient manuscript.
The authors of a new book claim that by decoding the manuscript and translating it from the Syriac language, they shed light on the politics leading up to the crucifixion, fill in “significant gaps” about Jesus’s life and present him as a “human” who placed importance on family, marriage, love and sex.
Simcha Jacobovici, co-author of The Lost Gospel, said that far from being a prostitute, Mary Magdalene was a woman “of stature” who was revered as a goddess.
“It goes way beyond marriage,” he said. “It describes (Mary Magdalene) as a co-messiah, co-deity, defender of humanity.
“This shows her as the leader of the Gentile (non Jewish) church. She is called the mother of virgins. This text is called the story of Mary Magdalene. It’s about her.”
The Lost Gospel is based on a 29-chapter manuscript dating back to about AD570 that was purchased by the British Museum from an Egyptian monastery in 1847 before being transferred to the British Library some 20 years ago.
It is the tale of Joseph, recipient of the famed coat of many colours in the Old Testament, and his wife Aseneth.
The manuscript was translated from Syriac into English by Mr Jacobovici, an Israeli-Canadian investigative journalist, and Barrie Wilson, a professor of religious studies at York University, Toronto.
Although the script does not mention Jesus and Mary, they claim that Joseph stands for Jesus and Aseneth for Mary Magdalene. They said the names of their sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, may also be code.
The authors said that although the literal story of Joseph and Aseneth is known to experts, “subtleties” were lost when it was translated into Latin and Greek in the 12th century.
By returning to the ancient Syriac, a Middle Eastern literary language from the 4th to 8th centuries, they claimed they were able to read the entire text and decode its meaning.
Crucially, they said the manuscript was accompanied by two letters which proved that the person who authorised the translation into Syriac “knew they were taking a great risk”.
The letters confirm that the manuscript is written in code and contained a “hidden message” about Jesus, they said.
One of them had been “mysteriously” cut in half, fuelling suspicions of censorship.
The code was deciphered by American digital imaging experts using state-of-the-art equipment. A form of x-raying enabled them to “see through” every ink smudge to discern the writing.
