Who was Mary Magdalene really for Jesus?

The Gospels present the sister of Martha and Lazarus as a sinner, a prostitute, a woman possessed that Jesus delivered from the forces of Evil. Yet, she was smitten by him. She was his companion, his beloved disciple, the apostle of apostles. She wept at the foot of the Cross, and at the tomb, she was the first to whom he appeared after the Resurrection.

Some believe that she sought refuge in the South of France after Jesus' death, taking with her the Grail, the Holy Cup containing the blood of Christ. Others believe that she is actually the Grail, carrying Jesus' descent in her veins; they claim that the expression "Sangreal", used in the initial versions of the books devoted to Christ, should not have been split into "San Greal", meaning the Holy Grail, but into "Sang Real", meaning Royal Blood.

The hypothesis that Mary Magdalene was Jesus' wife, or at least his most important disciple – even more than Peter – is lost in the mists of time. However, it won a new group of followers after 46 documents dating back to the 2nd century were discovered near Nag Hammadi in Egypt in 1945. The documents include fragments of accounts whose existence until then was known only by a handful of academics and experts on the Bible: the Gospel of Peter, the Gospel of Philip... and the Gospel of Mary. In reality, along with the other Mary, Jesus' mother, Mary Magdalene is the most prevalent woman in the New Testament. She is the first to witness the Resurrection of Jesus, a fact which attaches great importance to her. There is a consensus among theologists to describe her as one of Christ's most important disciples, and some art historians have even claimed that it is she that can be seen towards the right in Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper, which is supposed to be Jesus' last meal with his apostles before he was arrested (see below).

Website: Article by Christian Doumergue, entitled "Mary Magdalene, the Forgotten Queen"

Is Mary's perpetual virginity a "real" fact?

The Bible proves that this dogma (made official during the Council of Trent - 1545-63 - where Mary was also declared as being "without sin") is wrong: Matthew (13:55) and Mark (6:3) are highly explicit and claim that Jesus had brothers and sisters. Mark (16:40-47) even points out that James the Less is none other than the son of Mary, Jesus' mother. The Catholic Church has always put this down to the fact that "brother" for them means "cousin". However, in Greek (the language in which the Bible was actually written), although "brother" (adelphos) may represent a parent, it certainly does not apply to "sister" (adelphe); to designate "cousin, parent", the word anepsios should have been used. Furthermore, while we are talking about sisters, Matthew said, "And his sisters, are they not all with us?" (13:56).

Who was Jesus' real father?

Nowhere is it written in the Bible that Jesus was of humble origin. The only mention of Jesus' social origins comes from the apostle Paul, "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich" (Corinthians 8:9). This contradicts the theory that Jesus was the son of a poor carpenter. So who was his real father?

We know that Jesus was not born in Nazareth, which did not exist at the time, and we also know that during the crucifixion, the inscription I.N.R.I. nailed to the cross does not mean "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews", but "Jesus the Nazorean, King of the Jews".
The Nazoreans, "who accept only God as Master", belonged to a movement created by Judah of Gamala, who raised the people of Galilee against the Romans to protest against the census organised by Quirinus in the year 6. Judah of Gamala, who was of Davidian and royal lineage, was killed during the revolt; he then became the "Hero of God", which is written Geber-ael, a word which strangely enough resembles Gabriel.
Judah of Gamala was married to a Gamalan princess, Mary, whom the Scriptures unfairly turned into Mary of Magdala (this town was actually only invented in the fourth century by renaming Taricheae as Magdala). They had seven children, four of whom were boys: Jesus, Thomas and the twins Simon-Peter and James. It is said that Jesus, Mary's "firstborn son" (Luke 2:7), was born unto a virgin, which is the term used at the time to refer to a child born to a mother who had remained virtuous until marriage.

In his Gospel, Matthew speaks of these children, "For four boys and girls were born unto Joseph and Mary" (13:54-56). But why was Judah of Gamala replaced by Joseph?

In 325, during the Council of Nicaea, the Church proclaimed the dogma of the Trinity and made Jesus a "son of God". At a time when the Church was seeking to win over the Roman Empire, which was mostly Mithraist despite the recent conversion of Emperor Constantine, it could not risk giving the name of the genetic father, as he happened to be the sworn enemy of the Romans. It therefore invented an adoptive father by the name of Joseph, the choice for which was based upon an incorrect interpretation of the Prophecy of Zechariah, "And I will strengthen the house of Judah, and save the house of Joseph" (10:6).
As for Joseph's profession, it results from a mistranslation: Jesus was often referred to by the term Hehresh-shin, which means "magician", however, it was translated as "carpenter", which is written Hethresh-shin (with an extra "t"). As tradition dictated that the eldest son enter the same profession as his father, it was decided that Joseph would be a carpenter.

Anecdotally, it was the fact that Judah of Gamala was dead and Joseph never existed that Leonardo da Vinci (him again), who was in charge of painting the Holy Family's flight into Egypt, did not represent Joseph in the first version of his painting "Virgin of the Rocks", which is on display at the Louvre.

What did Jesus do up to the age of 33?

Jesus, the son of Judah of Gamala and Mary, received a princely education, which explains his great learning and flawless knowledge of the Torah, amazing the doctors of Law during his predominantly religious exam at the age of 13 (bar-mitsva).

In the year 6, after the death of Judah of Gamala, Mary, Jesus' mother, was being looked for by the Romans, who were in the habit of exterminating any royal family taking part in a rebellion, "And the dragon (Roman Empire) was wroth with the woman (Mary), and went to make war with the remnant of her seed" (Revelation, 12:17). She fled with her children to Egypt.

The family first fled into the desert among the Essenians where a refuge had been prepared, "And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred [and] threescore days" (Revelation, 12:6). There can be no doubt whatsoever that this woman was Mary, because it is written that "she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron" (Revelation, 12:5).

After three and a half years in the desert with the Essenians, Jesus, who was then 16, and his own travelled to Egypt, probably to Alexandria, whose cultural influence was immense and which was home to an extremely large Jewish community (two out of the five districts). Jesus was initiated into the Kabbalah and gained several "Powers". However, he could not ignore the religion of his host country or remain indifferent to the Egyptian "Mysteries", which like the Essenians taught of the immortality of the soul and purification through baths. He discovered the myth of the three-day resurrection of Osiris and was more than likely initiated into Egyptian magic, which at the time was forbidden and punishable by death according to the Torah, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live" (Exodus 22:18). Several accounts deemed to be apocryphal by the Church, such as the Gospel of Thomas, tell of Jesus having and wielding magic powers during his childhood.

Jesus, who had been sentenced in absentia by the Romans, was obliged to remain in hiding in occupied Egypt. He inherited the name Bar-aba, which means both "son of the father" and "hidden son". He might even have travelled east to escape their clutches.

At the beginning of the 30s, Jesus returned to his native land, Galilee, in an attempt to retrieve his goods. The parable of the minas and the parable of the talents could be hints of Jesus at the family fortune entrusted to faithful servants during the flight into Egypt, so as to avoid it from being confiscated and exploited. Jesus also wanted to take over his father's party, the Nazorean movement. To do so, he surrounded himself with loyal comrades-in-arms, indiscriminately called cutthroats or zealots. He then met his cousin, John the Baptist, son of Elizabeth (Mary's sister), to pave the way for his entry into Jerusalem. John the Baptist was an Essenian priest, and like all Essenians, he considered priests of the Temple to be usurpers; furthermore, he hated them, because they had killed his father, Zechariah. Texts found in Qumran tell of the wait for two Messiahs ("liberators" in this sense): a messiah-priest (John the Baptist), a descendent of Aaron and appearing as the "Master of Virtue", and a royal-messiah (Jesus), a descendent of David and responsible for cleansing the kingdom of Israel by fire and blood.

In the year 36 at his lodgings in Bethany, Jesus was symbolically anointed by John the Baptist, thereby obtaining the title of Christ, meaning king. He then organised his triumphal entry into Jerusalem so as to tie in with the prophecy (episode about riding upon an ass) and then went to the Temple. As the head of the Zealot troops, Jesus then led the Samaritans to Mount Garizim, their sacred mountain, where they were surprised and crushed by the Roman troops controlled by Pontius Pilate. Jesus and his close friends escaped and sought refuge in the forest at the foot of the Mount of Olives, at the entrance to Jerusalem. That is where they were arrested shortly after by a troop of Roman soldiers accompanied by Jewish bailiffs.