Mary after Jesus....

[crystal sage]

This site touches on something which believers and non-believers are likely to enjoy discussing together. Certain references to Mary in the New Testament seem to be unquestionably historic, i.e., they do not look like stories which the early church might have invented.

Here is the evidence:

Matthew 12:47f and parallels tells us that Mary and Jesus's brothers tried to speak with him during his preaching ministry. Jesus replied that whoever does God's will is his family.

We learn from John 19:25 that Mary and her unnamed sister stood at the foot of the cross.

From the cross, Jesus asked her to live with his beloved disciple (probably John), and she did so (John 19:26-27).

Except for this, we have no record of Jesus's blood-relatives being involved with his ministry.

We know from Acts 1:14 that Mary was present with the disciples at the first Pentecost, and that Jesus's brothers had joined them.

Can we put this all together? When I tried it, I was surprised.

It seems reasonable to me to think that at the time of Jesus's passion, Mary had come to Jerusalem because she realized that her son was going to his death. Her sister is with her, but there is nothing about the rest of her family, except perhaps the wife of Cleophas, who may have been Joseph's brother.

Further, why would Jesus suggest the living arrangement with John? A reasonable scenario seems to be that Jesus's siblings actually despised him for his controversial ministry (see the seldom-cited John 7:1-5 are translated in different Bibles), and this caused terrible dissension in the family, with only Mary and her unnamed sister taking Jesus's side. After Easter, it seems probable that Jesus's brother James experienced the "appearance" of the Risen Lord (I Corinthians 15:7) and had a dramatic conversion just as Saul-Paul would have a few years later. When this happened, Mary was already living with John and liked the arrangement so it continued.

The Bible says nothing more about Mary after Pentecost. Whatever else, I think there's a story here that's not been told often enough -- that of a smart, spunky, and good-hearted woman.

http://www.pathguy.com/jesus/mary.htm

[crystal sage]

The Lineage Loophole

Should Mary

be disqualified to transfer the rights of her lineage to her son Jesus,

except for a little known exception to the rule.?

In Matthew 1:1-16 and Luke 3:23-38 we are presented with two genealogies of Jesus Christ. On the surface these different listings would appear to be a contradiction in the scriptures. The genealogy found in Matthew's gospel is the lineage of Jesus' earthly father Joseph, while the genealogy found in Luke's gospel is the lineage of Jesus' mother Mary (see #100 - Dueling Genealogies a complete discussion of the two genealogies). However, many of the people that teach on the genealogies fail to realize or address a major problem associated with the genealogical listing found in Luke's gospel, the lineage of Mary. Once you have established that the line is indeed Mary's you must deal with a second difficulty. The rights of the line are not passed through the mother, only the father. Even though Mary, through her lineage, was of the Davidic bloodline, she should be excluded from being able to pass those rights of the bloodline because of being a female (Deut 21:16). So it is not enough to prove that Mary was an unblemished descendant of David, she had to be a male to transfer the rights. Therefore she would be disqualified to transfer the rights to her son Jesus, except for a little known exception to the rule.

http://www.direct.ca/trinity/loophole.html

[Cadetak]

Would Jesus even get any of the geneology from Joseph because he is not his biological father?

[RollingThunder06]

Have not studied deeply enough to pick up on the family line. Read the web site and was surprised to find out what the little rule was. It is just awesome how God does things. Cade has bought up a great question. Hope someone knows the answer. Will be checking back.

[Bella-Angelique]

I think that Yeshua was more Alexandrian jew than his brothers and sisters might have been, if they were raised more in Palestine while he was raised more in Egypt.

[Time Eternal]

The Lineage Loophole

Should Mary

be disqualified to transfer the rights of her lineage to her son Jesus,

except for a little known exception to the rule.?

In Matthew 1:1-16 and Luke 3:23-38 we are presented with two genealogies of Jesus Christ. On the surface these different listings would appear to be a contradiction in the scriptures. The genealogy found in Matthew's gospel is the lineage of Jesus' earthly father Joseph, while the genealogy found in Luke's gospel is the lineage of Jesus' mother Mary

Time Eternal:

What you say is correct, but Mary's father was Heli, Joseph's father-in-law and probably his uncle to boot. So, the kinship or heirship is established. While Joseph's father and Heli might have been brothers, the chain is through them, not Mary. Mary was only the pure vessel that Jesus could have had. Besides, parentage was established from GOD, not Joseph. Jesus existed, a Biblical fact

[crystal sage]

The Proto-Gospel of James begins by telling how the righteous and childless Joachim, desiring a blessing, went out in the desert and lived in a tent for forty days. It also tells that when doubts were expressed by some regarding the virginity of Mary, Joseph went out into the desert to be tested, after first submitting to the "water of testing"; and after he had returned, his honor vindicated, Mary went out next to undergo the same test.26 The story is peculiar and awkward enough not to be anybody's invention, and indeed one is reminded of the great importance placed upon testing and examining the purity of all comers to the community of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and of their purging of defilements by baptisms and washings. If any doubts existed as to a person's sanctity, passing the tests of the holy covenanters of the desert would allay them.27 A valuable apocryphal source first detected by this writer recounts that it was in one of the desert communities of priests by the banks of the Jordan that Mary became betrothed to Joseph.28

So we would suggest as a possible historical kernel of the stories about the childhood of Jesus certain basic propositions: (1) the family was poor and hard-working; (2) they moved about a good deal; (3) the youthful Jesus said things that astonished and disturbed people; (4) the local ministers stirred up trouble and spread scandalous reports about the family, and (5) they had connections with the pious heretics of the desert, whose writings are full of New Testament ideas and phraseology

http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/publications/transcripts/I00115-Early_Accounts_of_Jesus_Childhood.html

[crystal sage]

Two-fifths of the world population, two billion people, share much more than what we had in mind. Two-fifths of the world accept Jesus’ virgin birth and his miracles,” Mahmoud said.

“With so much in common, one would wonder why there is such a divide between us,” he said.

Mahmoud explained that the Muslim tradition even borrows some narrative from the Christian Gospel.

“Jesus of Nazareth plays a very important role in Islamic tradition and the Koran, and people may not think that’s the case,” said Scott Bartchy, a professor in the history department and director of the Center for the Study of Religion.

“By the fourth century it was conventional for Christians to refer to Jesus as God’s son, and they began to think about Jesus as a God rather than the God who is simply mentioned in the Hebrew scriptures,” Bartchy said.

Though Muslims do not believe Jesus to be God, they do believe in the miracles Jesus performed, and he is termed a messiah in the Koran, Bartchy explained.

Mahmoud pointed out that within the Koran there is much writing on the Virgin Mary, and that Muslims believe in her immaculate conception, which is a continuity between the two religions.

But discontinuity still exists in how each religion reveres Jesus.

Muslims refer to textual evidence in the New Testament, which states that Jesus is a prophet, Bartchy explained.

In the book of Mark, Jesus is said to have turned to his disciples and asked who people think he is. They responded that people think he is a prophet, Bartchy said.

He noted that this may cause Christians to feel that Jesus is being demoted, but that Jesus’ first reputation as a prophet did actually originate from the Christian texts.

Muslims still hold Jesus in great esteem, and uphold many of his teachings.

Mahmoud explained that there are multiple themes embodied by Jesus’ teachings.

“Jesus said, be kind to those who are unkind to you, visit those who don’t visit you – that’s a high road of morality,” Mahmoud said, asking the audience if they would lend money to someone they knew wouldn’t repay them.

He posed further questions to the audience, showing that Jesus’ teachings are the same in the Koran and the Bible.

http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/alb-muslimnews/conversations/topics/2501?var=1

[crystal sage]

Then there are tales about Jesus' twin brother.... could there have been a switch in the end? Explaining the reappearance? To take the heat off Jesus.... will explain clues to the various stories of Mary's further adventures... http://dyneslines.bl...jesus-twin.html

http://intimatevolut...ub/Christ--Twin

The Thomas writings include early Syriac texts in which the apostle is either the chief protagonist or an interlocutor of Jesus and recorder of his secret sayings. Three are of most significance. The Gospel of Thomas is a collection of sayings, found near Nag Hammadi in Egypt in 1945 -- sayings that Jesus is supposed to have entrusted to his "twin," which are sometimes close to those familiar to readers of the canonical New Testament, but often strikingly unfamiliar. It may have been written as early as the first century A.D., certainly not later than the middle of the second.

Another text is the Book of Thomas the Contender, also found at Nag Hammadi. Jesus again addresses the apostle as his twin and as "one who knows himself." He warns against transitory, this-worldly attachments that distract us from reunion with universal spirit. The third major book, the Acts of Judas Thomas, is an account of the apostle's supposed proselytizing travels and ascetic teaching in "India," a region ill-defined in the Roman world of the time.

http://gnosis.org/th...book/intro.html Edited December 21, 2013 by crystal sage

[crystal sage]

Hmmmm .... http://www.beliefnet.com/Entertainment/Movies/The-Da-Vinci-Code/Mary-Magdalenes-Secret.aspx?p=3