{"id":8254,"date":"2004-01-02T09:43:26","date_gmt":"2004-01-02T09:43:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2004\/01\/mrs_jesus.html"},"modified":"2004-01-02T09:43:26","modified_gmt":"2004-01-02T09:43:26","slug":"mrs_jesus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2004\/01\/mrs_jesus.html","title":{"rendered":"Mrs. Jesus"},"content":{"rendered":"

A profile of Margaret Starbird, one of the most prominent proponents of the theory that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married.<\/a><\/p>\n

She’s been writing about this for years, but…<\/p>\n

\n

Things changed in the spring when “The Da Vinci Code” by Dan Brown hit the best-seller lists. It claimed Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married, and that they had created a royal bloodline in France.<\/p>\n

\nBrown cited the first two of Starbird’s five books in his novel as evidence supporting the idea that Jesus was married. Those titles, which Brown said helped inspire his book, are: “The Woman with the Alabaster Jar” and “The Goddess in the Gospels.”<\/p>\n

\nThat’s when the phone at Starbird’s house in Steilacoom started ringing like crazy. “That’s what put me on the map,” she said.<\/p>\n

\nSince then, her speaking engagements across the country – including some at Christian churches – have doubled. Her book sales have soared 10-fold. She was interviewed in November on an ABC News special called “Jesus, Mary and da Vinci.”<\/p>\n

\nWhile still controversial and unorthodox, the idea that Jesus and Mary were married has moved into mainstream discussion. And so has Starbird.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

A couple of quick points:<\/p>\n

First, the sources that these folks use – primarily gnostic writings, especially those discovered at Nag Hammadi – are seen by most scholars as valuable for what they tell us about 2nd-4th century gnosticism, but not for anything they purport to tell us about Christian origins. Most of them are clearly dependent on the synoptics or John and are gnostic riffs upon same. <\/p>\n

Secondly, you can judge Starbird’s assessment of the gospel accounts for yourself, and as you do so, consider two things: what motive would the evangelists have for supressing a marriage between Jesus and Mary? Judaism was not an anti-sexual or anti-marriage tradition, to say the least. Secondly, wonder why, to these people, some parts of the gospels, or at least their interpretations, are gospel truth, while others – that is, the parts that provide the basis for orthodox Christianity – are not.<\/p>\n

And, I highly recommend Phillip Jenkins’ The Hidden Jesus<\/a> for a good synopsis of scholarly thinking on the gnostic materials<\/a>, as well as John Meier’s A Marginal Jew<\/a>, which is pretty harsh about this tendency to date the gnostic materials, or even their purported “core” sources far earlier than they deserve.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A profile of Margaret Starbird, one of the most prominent proponents of the theory that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married. She’s been writing about this for years, but… Things changed in the spring when “The Da Vinci Code” by Dan Brown hit the best-seller lists. It claimed Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married, and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nMrs. Jesus - Via Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2004\/01\/mrs_jesus.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mrs. Jesus - Via Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A profile of Margaret Starbird, one of the most prominent proponents of the theory that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married. 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The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. 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