More on The DaVinci Code

[barondave]

In today's Bartcop-E I write about the repression of women that's the core of The DaVinci Code. It's a long article (scroll down just a little from the top) so I won't reproduce it here. Annoyingly, the ankh symbol is larger than the cross, which I fixed on my computer but was unfixed while posting.

Comments

[barondave.livejournal.com]

I can't imagine that many people had an angel come to them and tell them they had been chosen to be impregnated by the holy spirit.

Quite a few, according to the convention of the time. (Very short recap: As the equivalent of a nun in the Essenes, Mary would have been waiting for just such a purpose, and wouldn't have gotten officially married until pregnant.)

Most of the evidence is circumstantial (eg whether cousin John the Baptist was married), but there's a lot of it. And what was left out is as important as what was put in. This applies to most texts, including the Pentateuch, but they are different discussions.

I'm not even saying that Jesus wasn't married, I just don't think he had to be and I don't think it changes anything if he was. It isn't significant.

Again, "had to be" is too strong; we also don't know which Haftorah he read for his Bar Mizvah, but we know he had one. We know he kept Kosher (it's in the Sermon on the Mount) but we don't know what he had for lunch. It's highly likely that he was married. I agree that, in the larger scheme of his teachings, whether he was married or not doesn't change things. However, that Mary Magdelene was his wife certainly changes much of the meaning of his story. And the religion that grew after his death. For example, one of the prime reasons women can't be priests is that none of the Apostles was a woman. If, in fact, his wife was above the Apostles in trust and devotion, then that reason flies out the window.

Edited from 6/6 post to correct typo.