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The Steilacoom woman pointed to biblical stories as evidence: Mary anointed Jesus in a wedding nuptial and was the first person the resurrected Christ appeared to. "I believe that the Gospels portray Jesus and Mary Magdalene as a couple," Starbird said. "They were married."

<p>And was Mary Magdalene his wife?</p> <p>Apparently, a lot of people will be upset if the answer to both these questions is yes.</p> <p>As explained in tonight's "Jesus, Mary and Da Vinci" - a new ABC News prime-time special inspired by the best-selling novel, "The DaVinci Code" - proof that Jesus of Nazareth was a married man enjoying conjugal relations with his wife would upset the apple cart, so to speak, of all of Christianity since Jesus' divinity has been based for so long, at least in part, on the notion that he was celibate.</p>

ABC asks (but in the wee hours): Was Jesus married? The Associated Press     NEW YORK -- ABC News correspondent Elizabeth Vargas concedes her network is stepping into a theological minefield with its one-hour exploration of whether Jesus Christ had a wife.     The ABC News special, "Jesus, Mary and DaVinci," is scheduled to air Tuesday, November 3rd, at 3:35 a.m. (The prime time slot on Monday is occupied by Monday Night Football.)     "You can't talk about this subject without intriguing people or offending people," Vargas said earlier this week. "We're trying to do it as respectfully as we...

A leading US TV news reporter has said her network is taking a risk with a news special which asks whether Jesus Christ had a wife. ABC's Elizabeth Vargas said Jesus, Mary and Da Vinci, to be shown in the US on Monday night, was being made "as respectfully as we can". But she admitted: "You can't talk about this subject without intriguing people or offending people." The programme is partly based on the best-selling novel The Da Vinci Code. The book alleges Mary Magdalene - a biblical figure widely thought to have been a prostitute - was actually Jesus's...

NEW YORK — ABC News correspondent Elizabeth Vargas concedes her network is stepping into a theological minefield with its one-hour exploration of whether Jesus Christ had a wife. The ABC News special, "Jesus, Mary and DaVinci," is scheduled to air Monday at 8 p.m. ET. "You can't talk about this subject without intriguing people or offending people," Vargas said Thursday. "We're trying to do it as respectfully as we can." ABC screened the special for some reporters and religious leaders on Thursday. The program is based on the best-selling novel, "The DaVinci Code," which claims to be partly grounded on...

Before the “Left Behind” series catapulted to the top of the bestseller list, the idea that Christians could be lifted bodily into the clouds during the Rapture was an idea that only obscure theologians studied. These days, of course, lots of people believe that's what will happen the day the world ends. Now a new novel is forcing people to confront another biblical puzzle. The DaVinci Code, a thriller by Dan Brown, tells the story of a Harvard professor summoned to the Louvre Museum after a murder there to examine cryptic symbols relating to DaVinci's work. During the course of...

COMMENTARY A Discovery That's Just Too Perfect Claims that stone box held remains of Jesus' brother may be suspect. By Robert Eisenman Robert Eisenman is the author of "James the Brother of Jesus" (Penguin, 1998) and a professor of Middle East religions and archeology at Cal State Long Beach. October 29 2002 James, the brother of Jesus, was so well known and important as a Jerusalem religious leader, according to 1st century sources, that taking the brother relationship seriously was perhaps the best confirmation that there ever was a historical Jesus. Put another way, it was not whether Jesus had...

Were the final resting-places of the family and disciples of Jesus discovered 30 years ago and then hidden as part of a religious-political conspiracy? The archaeological controversy swirling around two Roma-era burial tombs in Jerusalem refuses to die. Indeed, it has become something of an ugly academic slugfest. In one corner stands the Israeli archaeological establishment represented by the Israel Antiquities Authority and Professor Amos Kloner of Bar-Ilan University, backed by various respected archaeologists and scholars. In the other stands Simcha Jacobovici, the filmmaker and self-styled “Naked Archaeologist,” backed by another group of respected archaeologists and scholars.In 1981, Prof Kloner...

Symposium on Afterlife and Burial Practices in Second Temple Judaism The third in a series of privately-funded symposia on Judaism and Christian Origin was recently held in Jerusalem (Jan 13–16, 2008). As with the earlier two events, this symposium was organized by Professor James H. Charlesworth, the George L. Collord Professor of New Testament Language and Literature at Princeton Theological Seminary. The conference was attended by some fifty international and Israeli scholars. The general subject of the symposium was “Jewish Views of the Afterlife and Burial Practices in Second Temple Judaism,” with specific attention also given to an evaluation of...

MUMBAI, India (UCAN): A Catholic group's claim that its protest forced a television channel from broadcasting a controversial documentary on Jesus' tomb has resulted in the channel threatening to take legal action. Catholic Secular Forum (CSF), a Catholic group based in Bombay archdiocese in western India, said in a March 2 press release that following its protests, the Discovery Channel had agreed not to broadcast the documentary. Bombay is the old name for Mumbai. The Discovery Channel on March 4 broadcast the documentary internationally, but not in India. However, it said the protest was not the reason for the non-broadcast,...

Joe Zias is a fine archaeologist of long standing and good reputation. He is the person who catalogued the ten ossuaries from the Talpiot tomb, and personally catalogued the tenth ossuary. He worked with Amos Kloner as part of the team who made the original discovery. In two emails this morning to someone I have been talking to he made crystal clear that the tenth ossuary was blank, certainly was not the James ossuary at all despite the assertions of those involved in making the Discovery Channel special. These emails have been sent along to me, and I will let...

False Tombs and Gnostic Tales Mocking the heart of Christianity "Last year, it was the Gnostic nonsense of the 'Da Vinci Code.'... This year it's a variation on the 'Da Vinci' theme. We are not only being told that there was a Mrs. Jesus (aka Mary Magdalene). We are also informed that her tomb and that of Jesus have been found in Jerusalem; that DNA testing has proved that they are not related and so must have been married (how exactly does it prove that?)... In a surreal moment on 'Larry King Live' earlier this week, the film's producer, James...

People have been coming back from the dead by the hundreds during the past 15-20 years. All over the world, stone-cold-dead people are being resurrected by the fervent, focused prayers of Christians praying in the name of Jesus. By now, the totals are likely over a thousand. No exaggeration, no joke. My own book "Megashift: Igniting Spiritual Power" documents 52 countries where at least one person has been raised from the dead – with named eyewitnesses ... who have street addresses ... and phone numbers ... and fax numbers ... and e-mail addresses. I even throw in a few photographs....

It is the morning after. Those with an interest in the subject of the resurrection have already seen the film. As most of you know, today I launch into a high-spoeed book writing project to attempt to collect, collate, and present in a clear and understandable fashion the main arguments and facts regarding the Talpiot Tomb, DNA, patina, statistics, gnostic writings and the like. But at best, that book will not be out until Easter. So how about today? Rather than hope no one will ask you what you think, I believe we should be on the offensive---without being offensive....

It is the greatest newspaper story ever told, and it was told again last week. In New York the Oscar-winning film-maker James Cameron pulled back a curtain to reveal two cream-coloured limestone coffins, flown in from Jerusalem. One of them, he said, had once held the recently crucified body of Jesus of Nazareth. Another — there are 10 in the set — had held that of Mary Magdalene.“It doesn’t get bigger than this,” he said, and then claimed it did. He had evidence that Jesus and Mary Magdalene had married and that another coffin — or “ossuary” — had contained...

Wait one blessed minute. A Hollywood filmmaker wants us to believe he's found the bones of Jesus - who walked the earth 2,000 years ago - yet we still can't find Jimmy Hoffa, who's only been gone about 32 years? Please. And no one can locate Amelia Earhart - she went down with a plane, for heaven's sake - yet producer James Cameron and crew claim they can identify the dusty inhabitants of an ancient Jerusalem tomb. People with common names, by the way. Then again, millions of us believe the whole exercise is futile because Jesus left no earthly...

Director James Cameron’s follow-up to his Oscar-winning Titanic was a documentary about the wreckage of the doomed ship. The film contained so many shots of Cameron in a deep-sea submersible that one critic named him “Captain Nemo.” Well, Captain Nemo has surfaced again. In an upcoming Discovery Channel special, Cameron claims to have found an ossuary containing the bones of Jesus. How does he know? Through a combination of Sesame Street and The DaVinci Code. The ossuary is inscribed “Joshua, son of Joseph”—names that are not exactly rare among first-century Jewish males. So Cameron also points out the nearby ossuaries...

The Discovery Channel should cancel a scheduled airing of a film about a purported Jerusalem grave of Jesus Christ, and should apologize for presenting such "an unsubstantiated claim," according to family values organizations. Robert Knight, director of the Media Research Center's Culture and Media Institute, told WND that the film, "The Lost Tomb of Jesus," is just the 2007 version of an annual attack on Christianity right around the time of Easter, the time at which the Christian church remembers Jesus' Resurrection. "It always seems to happen just before Easter," he said. "It's as if there's a script going around,...

'TITANIC' director James Cameron and Simcha Jacobovici, a filmmaker-archaeologist, are set to unveil three coffins this week that they say are those of Jesus, Mary and Mary Magdalene. In an coming documentary, Cameron and Jacobovici cite "scientific evidence" that the resurrection of Jesus never happened and that Jesus fathered a son named Judah with Mary Magdalene. Such claims should, and surely will, be met with overwhelming skepticism. For example, the filmmakers use DNA tests to build their case - but whose DNA is being compared with whose? Did they swab the Holy Ghost? -snip- But prominent Christian clergymen won't issue...

James Cameron has truly moved beyond making sappy movies about ocean liner wrecks. He can now lay claim to being an idolater of the rankest order. Relying upon Pope Benedict to turn the other check in accordance with misinterpreted scripture, Cameron has accused the Gospels of inventing the resurrection the way Michael Moore does documentaries. 'TITANIC' director James Cameron and Simcha Jacobovici, a filmmaker-archaeologist, are set to unveil three coffins this week that they say are those of Jesus, Mary and Mary Magdalene. In an coming documentary, Cameron and Jacobovici cite "scientific evidence" that the resurrection of Jesus never happened...