The book made headlines this week, claiming that a new translation of an ancient Syriac manuscript “fills significant gaps” about the life of Jesus and Mary Magdalene. According to the authors, the translation describes Mary Magdalene as a “co-messiah”, the wife of Jesus and mother of his children.

The manuscript, “The Ecclesiastical History of Zacharias Rhetor” dates back to AD570 and is housed in the collections of the British Library after being bought from an Egyptian monastery in 1847.

It records the tale of Joseph and Aseneth. Historian John Dickson from the Centre for Public Christianity calls it an “ancient Jewish tale about the patriarch Joseph marrying the gentile Aseneth in Egypt in the second millennium BC”.

“It’s not even about Jesus,” he wrote on Facebook.

Despite the manuscript not mentioning Jesus or Mary at all, the authors of The Lost Gospel, Canadian filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici and Professor of religious studies at Toronto’s York University, Barrie Wilson, claim ‘Joseph’ is code for ‘Jesus’ and ‘Aseneth’ is code for ‘Mary’.

The Washington Post this week has labeled one of the authors as an “embattled researcher”, pointing to Jacobivici’s previous work attempting to show that Jesus had a family that brought him under intense criticism from scholars. Jacobovici was also the director of The Lost Tomb of Jesus from the Discovery Channel. Dickson calls it a “farce about the claimed discovery of Jesus’ tomb”.

Dickson told the Facebook-curious this week that the manuscript in question is not newly discovered. Rather, there are 16 manuscript copies and the Syriac copy in the British Library, on which The Lost Gospel relies, is “listed in all the scholarly literature”. In fact, Dickson said he felt embarrassed even commenting on the book, which he called “entirely bunkum”.

“To claim that the rollicking Jewish story of Joseph and Aseneth (set in Egypt, by the way) is really code for Jesus’ ministry in Israel is to engage in pure mischief. All scholars of ancient Judaism know this document. None thinks it is really about Jesus.”

According to Dickson, The Lost Gospel authors find “permission” for the code-reading in what they believe is clear Christian phraseology in the story of Joseph and Aseneth. He says Joseph is called a “son of God”, but says many other Jewish figures are called the same. Similarly, Aseneth is called “daughter of the Most High” and there is a reference to the “bread and cup of life”. But Dickson says these too are “common enough Jewish phrases.”

Letters attached to the Syriac version of the manuscript speak of “hidden meaning” of “our Lord”, according to Jacobovici and Wilson who point to it as further confirmation that the manuscript is written in code.

“But that’s nuts!” says Dickson. “It was routine for scribes to read all ancient stories as containing an allegory pointing to the redemptive work of Jesus. They do it with the biblical story of Joseph in Pharoah’s house. They do it with Moses. They do it with David. And so on.”

The Church of England has responded to the launch of The Lost Gospel with a Monty Python reference: “It’s not Lost, it’s not a Gospel, it’s a very naughty marketing campaign” wrote Rev. Arun Arora, the Church of England’s Director of Communications.

Answering his own question as to why such a book would ever be taken seriously, Arora cheekily suggested that with such a “high degree of religious illiteracy in society that people lack the rigour to tackle such spurious claims in the same way they would if the author had written a book saying the moon was made of blue cheese”.

A more charitable interpretation, said Arora, was that Jesus remains a fascinating figure, and speculative and sensational claims about his life and teaching still guarantees an audience.

“The Gospels as they stand make extraordinary claims about Jesus. They talk about his life, death and resurrection. The way he transformed the lives of the sick, the poor and the oppressed through word and deed. They relate teachings which remain the touchstone for billions of people thousands of years later. They tell of a man who claimed to be God and who was killed for that claim and of those people who after his death saw him again,” he wrote.

“This is fantastical stuff. It is also life changing and transforming. There’s no need to marvel at the claims of ‘the lost gospel’. The genuine ones do the job well enough.”

On his Facebook page this week, John Dickson posted translated text of the beginning and ending of the story of Joseph and Aseneth, so you can read it for yourself:

JOSEPH AND ASENETH
It happened in the first year of the seven years of plenty, in the second month. Pharaoh sent out Joseph to go around the whole land of Egypt. 2 And Joseph came in the fourth month of the first year, on the eighteenth day of the month into the territory of Heliopolis. 3 And he was gathering all the grain of that land, as the sand of the sea. 4 Now there was a man in that city, a satrap of Pharaoh; and this one was ruler of all of Pharaoh’s satraps and nobles. 5 And he was exceedingly rich, and prudent, and generous, and he was Pharaoh’s counselor, and his name was Pentephres; and he was a priest of Heliopolis. 6 And Pentephres had a daughter, a virgin of eighteen years of age, tall and beautiful and graceful, more beautiful than every virgin in the land. 7 And this one was quite unlike the daughters of the Egyptians, but in every respect like the daughters of the Hebrews. 8 And she was as tall as Sarah, and as beautiful as Rebecca, and as fair as Rachel. And the name of that virgin was Aseneth. 9 And the fame of her beauty spread through all that land, even to its remotest corners. And all the sons of the nobles and of the satraps and of the kings sought her hand in marriage, all young. 10 And there was great rivalry between them because of her, and they began to fight among themselves [10] because of Aseneth. 11 And Pharaoh’s first-born son heard about her, and he begged his father to give her to him as (his) wife. 12 And he was saying to him: “Give me Aseneth the daughter of Pentephres the priest of Heliopolis as (my) wife.” 13 And his father [Pharaoh] said to him: “Why do you seek a wife lower than you? Are you not king of all the inhabited world? 14 “No! But behold, the daughter of King Joakim is pledged to you, and she is a queen and exceedingly beautiful indeed. Take this one to yourself as (your) wife.”

[From John Dickson: “Then follows 29 rollicking chapters of romance, conversion, and fighting over the beautiful Aseneth, who finally marries Joseph and has kids, etc. Then …”]

And Aseneth said to them: “Spare your brothers and do them no harm, for the Lord has shielded me and reduced the swords in their hands to dust, and they melted away like wax before the fire. 11 “Surely this is enough for us that the Lord is fighting for us. Finally, spare your brothers.” 12 And Simeon said to Aseneth: “Why should our mistress plead for her enemies? 13 “No! We will cut them down with our swords, because they have plotted evil against our father Israel and against our brother Joseph already twice, and (they have plotted) against you today.” 14 And Aseneth said to him: “No brother, you must not repay evil for evil to your neighbor, for the Lord will avenge this outrage.” 15 And after these things Simeon bowed to Aseneth; and Levi came to her, and he kissed her right hand and blessed her. 16 And Aseneth saved the men from the wrath of their brothers, so that they did not kill them. And the son of Pharaoh arose from the ground and sat up; and he spat blood from his mouth, because his blood was running from his temple into his mouth. 2 And Benjamin ran upon him and took hold of his sword and drew it from its scabbard — for Benjamin had no sword of his own with him. 3 And as he was about to strike the son of Pharaoh, Levi rushed up and seized him by the hand and said: “No brother, you must not do this deed, for we are men who worship God, and it is not right for a man who worships God to repay evil for evil, or to trample upon a man who has fallen, or to afflict his enemy to death. 4 “But come: let us bind up his wound; and if he lives, he will be our friend, and his father Pharaoh will be our father.” 5 And Levi raised up the son of Pharaoh and washed the blood off his face and bound a bandage on his wound; and he set him on his horse and took him to his father. 6 And Levi told him everything that had happened. 7 And Pharaoh rose up from his throne and bowed to Levi upon the ground. 8 And on the third day the son of Pharaoh died from the wound of the stone of Benjamin. 9 And Pharaoh mourned for his first-born son, and he was worn out with grief. 10 And Pharaoh died at the age of one hundred and nine; and he left his diadem to Joseph. 11 And Joseph was king of Egypt for forty-eight years. 12 And after this Joseph gave the diadem to the grandson of Pharaoh; and Joseph was like a father to him in Egypt.

Featured image: Noli me tangere, fresco by Fra Angelico, public domain.