"Jesus, the mystery of his descendents" is a documentary recently shown on SVT (Swedish public service TV). Weirdly, I can´t seem to find any information about it on the web. It seems to be French or Franco-Belgian, featuring both French-speaking and English-speaking scholars and independent researchers. The date of release is unknown to me.
While the docu has a skeptical undertone, it is surprisingly even-handed. Both mainline scholars and mavericks are able to speak without interruption. Purely by chance, the documentary premiered on SVT the same week as another network showed "The Da Vinci Code" on prime time. OK, let me guess. Jesus is the reason for the season?
The focus is on two controversial discoveries relating to Jesus: "The Gospel of Jesus´ Wife" and the Talpiot family tomb. Both could be interpreted as suggesting that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene. The "gospel" is a tiny fragment in Coptic, but it could be read that Jesus had a wife and that women could be disciples. The fragment was presented to the public by professor Karen L King, but many believe that it´s a forgery. The main suspect is the fragment´s original owner, Walter Fritz. He denies it and isn´t interviewed in the documentary.
The Talpiot tomb is promoted by Simcha Jacobovici, an Israeli film-maker who worked with James Cameron and James Tabor. The tomb contains ossuaries which supposedly contained the remains of Jesus, James, Mary Magdalene, Matthew, John and a son of Jesus named Judah. Among others! The whole thing is perhaps a bit too good to be true, but Jacobovici defends his hypothesis ably enough. If he is right, Jesus was both married, had children and...never resurrected (unless we re-interprete whatever that even means).
"Jesus, the mystery of his descendents" might not be the most interesting production around, but it could work as a teaser trailer to the broader problematique surrounding these issues...
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