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Docu-film: Jesus was married
27/02/2007 14:40 - (SA)
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| The ossuary (bone box) believed to be that of Mary Magdalene. Inscriptions on this ossuary seem to refer to Jesus, two Mary's and Judah, a son of Jesus. (Israeli Antiquities Authority, AP)
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New York - A new documentary by Titanic director James Cameron claims Jesus had a wife and a son, citing evidence from his alleged burial site that contradicts the Bible's account that the Christian son of God was single.
Cameron and his co-filmmaker Israel-born Simcha Jacobovici said on Monday their research suggested Jesus married Mary Magdalene and had a son, Judah, who were buried with him in the Israel cemetery.
The claims in the documentary The Lost Tomb of Christ, to be shown Sunday on US cable television, inject new controversy into the concept of Jesus's resurrection after he was crucified, a central tenet of Christian belief.
If they hold substance, they could reignite questions about Jesus' earthy family life popularised in the hit book and movie The Da Vinci Code.
But representatives of the Catholic and Protestant churches in the United States quickly denounced the claims made by Cameron and Jacobovici.
"It's good hype," David O'Connell, the president of Catholic University told CNN television.
Cameron and Jacobovici, an award-winning documentary director, based their film on a tomb called Jesus's unearthed in Talpiot, Jerusalem, in 1980 by a construction crew developing an apartment complex.
'I should not be afraid of pursuing the truth'
They cite evidence of names etched on ossuaries, or limestone bone boxes, dug up at the site, DNA evidence they hold, and other technical analysis.
"I am not an archeologist or a Bible scholar," Cameron told a press conference on Monday.
But "as a documentary filmmaker I should not be afraid of pursuing the truth," he said.
"I know they will say that we try to undermine Christianity. That is far from the case. This investigation celebrates the real existence of these people."
- AFP
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