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The Secret Life and Hidden Family of Jesus

Controversial Questions About Jesus and His Heirs

(WARNING: Not all of the links at the right are presently working. Unfinished links could send you to Tripod for the time being.)

Many books and other media are trumpeting a new view of Jesus as a husband, father and rich founder of royal family lines in Europe. Here we address the claims and evidence concerning the real life and family of Jesus.

You will see various questions and answers on the right, with a link to further information, if link is available.

We will be updating these questions and the accompanying links when new issues are raised.

Questions and Answers About Jesus and His Family

  • I want to ask a question about Jesus' life not Iincluded here
  • When exactly was Jesus born?
    • Sundown, Sept 10, 3BC, new moon of Elul, 1st day of 6th month on Hebrew calendar.
  • Was Joseph a widowed carpenter?
    • No. He was a teenager and probably a mosaic artist.
  • Was Jesus' mother a poor girl who had no other children?
    • No. Mary was a wealthy Princess of David's line and had at least eight children: Jesus, Jacob or James the Less, Joseph Jr or Joses, Simeon, Judas Thaddeus or Lebbaeus, and at least three daughters, of whom one was probably named Joanna and one Susanna and one possibly named Anna after Mary's mother.
  • Was Joseph of Arimathea Jesus' uncle?
    • Yes. He was Jesus' mother Mary's twin brother, but born second. Any other sequence would result in Jesus being disqualified from the throne of David through her. He could not be her uncle, for example, or the line would have diverted away from her line through his line.
  • Who were the Magi?
    • Several Ephraimite wise men serving at Babylon and the King of Petra who came to the feasts every year. This time they expected to see the Child about whom Simeon had prophesied the previous year.
  • What was the "Star of Bethlehem?"
    • Jupiter was the Messiah's "star" and its position was followed all the time for signs, but the special "sign" was a conjunction of Jupiter & Venus on June 17, 2 BC. They merged into the brightest of all possible planetary or stellar conjunctions on the western horizon just above Jerusalem as seen from Babylon at sunset. They then rose on the day they went to Bethlehem so that Jupiter was vertically over Venus above the house as viewed from the road the Magi were on. I verified this personally when the conjunctions repeated in 1991. The pointing down at a specific house phenomenon could be seen from my location in Maine, and it would be true anywhere, seen just before sunrise.
  • Was Jesus Adopted?
    • Yes. By His uncle, as the law required. The adoption papers are the genealogy of Luke. See the Greek text of Luke where the phrase "as was supposed" actually means "by custom" or "by law" hence, by adoption.
  • Was Jesus married to Mary Magdelene?
    • No. He is espoused to the Church. She was Jesus' step-mother and married to Joseph of Arimathea, the maternal uncle of Jesus.
  • Wasn't Jesus required to marry to be a Rabbi?
    • Jesus had not studied as a Rabbi, John 8 says. He was a "small-r" rabbi, with no marriage prospects because no one knew who Jesus' father was, and He was not adopted until He was about 30 years old. So there was no one to negotiate a marriage contract for Jesus until Joseph adopted Him.
  • Did Jesus go to India?
    • Possibly. Joseph of Arimathea probably took Jesus on some of his merchant journeys. India was a prime source of brassware, just as it is today.
  • Who were Jesus' childhood friends?
    • Jesus seems closer to the family of Lazarus than the family in Nazareth. If John's Gosepl is any indication, Jesus hung out at Bethany, His step-aunt Mary Magdalene's house, where her younger brother and Jesus used to work on the gardens facing the Temple Mount on the upper flank of Olivet. Martha had married, but was widowed and returned to Bethany.
  • Who were Jesus' closest relatives?
    • Jesus had at least one maternal aunt & uncle, four half-brothers, three half-sisters, a step-uncle, a step-aunt, a step-sister, an adoptive grandfather, and many cousins--most of whom are named in the New Testament.
  • Who was related to Jesus by marriage, but not blood?
    • Jesus' aunt Salome was mother of Peter's wife. So Jesus was related to Peter, Andrew, and their father Jonah by marriage. One of Jesus' sisters was wed at Cana to Simon Zealotes. Jesus' step-first-cousin Anna, daughter of Mary Magdalene, wed Stephen, the first martyr, and tradition says she remarried into a British royal line of the time.
  • Who else was related to Jesus?
    • Jesus was related by marriage and by blood to Stephen and Anna's children Mary and Joseph Barnabus, and Mary's husband Judas Iscariot, and their son John Mark. Also, by marriage to Stephen's father's family, which was quite extensive on Cyprus, where they were Levites in the copper trade.
  • Are there any other more distant relatives of Jesus in the New Testament?
    • Jesus' grandmother Hannah ("St. Anne"), widowed in her 30's(1 BC), went to Britain and married a Silurian prince, who is said to have been ancestor of "Pope" Linus and his sister Claudia, wife of Paul's brother Rufus, father of four saints who were martyred in Rome.
  • Was the New Testament about a family fued?
    • Yes. The house of David's royal claims (Jesus' Family) were opposed by two Hasmonean lines, two Zadokite (Sadducean) priestly lines, Roman royal families, and the Edomites of Herod's line. This free-for-all declined as various lines died out. Today, Jesus Himself is the only generally-known surviving Claimant to the throne whose genealogy is documented, but He would have to physically return to prove He is still alive.
  • Were Jesus and John the Baptist Essenes?
    • Hardly. Jesus was occupied working for his uncle and John was legally exiled across the Jordan from the Essenes. It is difficult to see why either would join them, based upon the first-person accounts of the Essene factions given by Josephus.
  • When was Jesus crucified?
    • Thursday, April 26, 31 AD, according to historical and astronomical evidence. Most peopel and most scholars have overlooked this date because of the false assumption that the eve of a sabbath is always Friday. In 31 AD, Friday April 27 was the High Sabbath day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Once this is understood, as this article shows, all the known biblical and historical and astronomical data align. There is more evidence than we can include in this one article.
  • How was Jesus crucified?
    • On the same fig tree as two revolutionaries atop Mt. Olivet. Each had his own "cross-piece" to which his wrists were nailed from the back side after his arms were bent over the top. They were naked. It was deliberately designed to be as repulsive as possible to inhibit others from committing crimes.
  • Did the resurrected Jesus pass through locked doors?
    • No. He appeared in the midst of the Apostles, apparently in an inter-dimensional manner, as a solid being, not as a ghost or apparition that passed through doors.
  • Why does Nicodemus handle Jesus' dead body on the Passover?
    • The Law required Jesus' closest male relatives to bury him. Nicodemus was the grandfather of Jesus by adoption, being the father of Jesus' adoptive mother, Mary of Bethany, the Magdalene. So Nicodemus was the eldest male relative of Jesus.
  • Was Jesus considered by pagans to be a real historical figure?
    • Absolutely. The pagans questioned who & what Jesus was, not whether He had really lived. Doubt about the historical reality of Jesus is a modern idea, not an ancient one.