Vern G. Swanson, longtime director of the Springville Museum of Art, knows some readers will think he's crazy. Others will be intrigued, and still others may be offended.
That's because Swanson has written a provocative new book theorizing that Jesus Christ was married to Mary Magdalene, that they bore children and that LDS Church founder Joseph Smith was their direct descendant. Swanson also suggests that this heavenly birthright gave Smith spiritual authority as a prophet and affirms the historical legitimacy of the LDS Church.
Titled Dynasty of the Holy Grail: Mormonism's Sacred Bloodline, the book was published in November by Cedar Fort, a Springville-based publisher. The scholarly 540-page tome hasn't yet attracted much attention beyond Utah, but Swanson believes his topic will eventually reach a large audience of Mormons, Holy Grail theorists, and fans of The Da Vinci Code book and movie.
I don't mean to sound like I'm making fun of someone's religion (especially where I am living), but this just cracks me up.
Can anyone show me definitive proof (not just the New Testament) that the messiah in question existed, and that he got married and had descendants?
And how can you trace anyone's genealogy back 2000 years? Hell, if you are tracing back the surname Smith, things can get pretty murky just a couple of generations back. And to claim an ability to trace the Smith family back to Yeshua bar Yusuf of Palestine strikes me as near impossible. I may have to check out the book just to see how he claims to have accomplished said task.
To my LDS friends and relatives, I mean no disrespect to your beliefs, but I think this is pushing the boundaries of belief just a bit.
Just my opinion.
8 comments:
No one can prove it. Some folks have better research to back up their theories than others do, but it still all comes down to, "If we look at why this isn't historically likely in this gospel, then compare it to the translation of this word in this text that the Nicean Council voted to leave out of the bible..." Personally, I think it's a whole lot more likely that he and Mary Magdalene were married and had children than some of the things Christianity actually does teach about him. But I'm seriously suspicious of anyone who says they can prove it, and I think there would be so many descendants by this time that it wouldn't really be anything all that special. Plus, being descended from Jesus wouldn't really give a religion any sort of legitimate claim to being "THE" religion. That's just not how Christianity works, and last I heard, Mormons are still claiming to be Christians. So... mmm hmm. This dude will have to try harder to impress me.
You can test to see how related you are to someone from 2000 years ago using DNA. But does anyone have a DNA sample of Jesus?
I grew up LDS and I still think this guy is a loon.
Who cares if Jesus was married... it is irrelevant to what his life was about.
It wouldn't matter to me if the Pope (or Joseph Smith) were a direct descendant of Christ. Blood (alone) does not a Prophet make.
Interesting. I never knew anyone was proposing this kind of stuff.
To me, it seems that all religions are about to go in panic for one or another reason. Their belief is crumbling and they struggle to find aomething to hold on to.
"I grew up LDS and I still think this guy is a loon."
There are a lot of goofy characters out there who, one way or another, people tend to associate with the LDS faith. Take the crazy polygamist cults that are in the news all the time; people (and to a certain degree, the MSM) tend to see them as representatives of the Mormons. As someone who has LDS relatives (I am from staunch LDS on both sides) and friends, I sympathize with them, even though I am not a believer, myself.
Why do Mormons always have to "copy" what other people do? It's like the Under-T Phenomenon. One person has the idea and before you know it, everyone has the idea and companies are popping up all over the place. Please. Just one more copy cat. Such a sub-culture thing.
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