Well, the reason it seems a big deal.... first off, traditional Christianity has basically ignored Jesus's family life. As far as we're concerned, his ministry basically starts when he's 30 or so. Whatever he was doing before then as a carpenter is not well-documented by the gospels at all; presumably he was just, well, living and taking in the world and all. So far, so good; him being married and it not really being mentioned might seem odd, but is just a matter of focus. The thing is, uh, certain branches within the Catholic church have really played up the whole sex=evil thing. How would the Catholic church's no-marriage*, celibacy policy sound if Jesus, the head of the church, was gettin' it on? Even sillier than it is today. This has big implications for Catholics.
As for magic Jesus powers. I believe the book refers to them as "the true royal family" once; consider that many kings claimed their right to rule due to the fact that they were directly descended from David or the like (allegedly on Jesus's ancestry, too), or somehow more directly descended from Adam (??). No, I'm not kidding; check out John Locke and Two Treatises on government, becuase that's exactly the position he attacks at the beginning. It's an amazing coincidence that the guy who bloodily hacked his way to power four generations ago happened to be the rightful ruler of the country, no? Anyway, the discovery of the true royal line would explode such claims once and for all. Not very magical, but still.
There's also the possible implication that these people are probably holier than normal. According to Catholic theology, Mary was the only human without sin or some nonsense, because God could only be born to a clean soul, obviously (????). Presumably Jesus, cleansed of Adam's taint, could have kids free from original sin who are extra saintly, or at least not actively drawn towards evil as the vast majority of the human race is.
I'm more confused by the fact that when I read the book, it weirdly undercuts itself towards the end by claiming Jesus & Mary themselves were just two cool people who encouraged the gospel of hanging out. I was perfectly cool with the story as an alternate history where the God & Goddess came down to Earth, had a party, and showed people how to live. That's where I was assuming the story was going, and in that case, being a descendent would be fairly meaningful. Not to mention that dualism being correct would be a fairly major revelation and changing of Christian theology, which has always emphasized 1=3 gods, not 2. But like I said and as you'll recall (You did read the book, right? Langdon asserts that ancient Judaism was this way too, believing in God and the Goddess, but Langdon makes a lot of stuff up.), he backs up from the "Jesus is God" statement- in which case his descendents are utterly pointless. And that is a flaw in his book.
Anyway. Note the number of times I said "in Catholic theology" above. Most Protestants can fairly safely shrug their shoulders on this one.
* And yes, there are exceptions, like with the Maronites & converted Episcopalian priests (what are they going to tell them, get a divorce?).
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2006-05-03 10:09 pm (UTC)As for magic Jesus powers. I believe the book refers to them as "the true royal family" once; consider that many kings claimed their right to rule due to the fact that they were directly descended from David or the like (allegedly on Jesus's ancestry, too), or somehow more directly descended from Adam (??). No, I'm not kidding; check out John Locke and Two Treatises on government, becuase that's exactly the position he attacks at the beginning. It's an amazing coincidence that the guy who bloodily hacked his way to power four generations ago happened to be the rightful ruler of the country, no? Anyway, the discovery of the true royal line would explode such claims once and for all. Not very magical, but still.
There's also the possible implication that these people are probably holier than normal. According to Catholic theology, Mary was the only human without sin or some nonsense, because God could only be born to a clean soul, obviously (????). Presumably Jesus, cleansed of Adam's taint, could have kids free from original sin who are extra saintly, or at least not actively drawn towards evil as the vast majority of the human race is.
I'm more confused by the fact that when I read the book, it weirdly undercuts itself towards the end by claiming Jesus & Mary themselves were just two cool people who encouraged the gospel of hanging out. I was perfectly cool with the story as an alternate history where the God & Goddess came down to Earth, had a party, and showed people how to live. That's where I was assuming the story was going, and in that case, being a descendent would be fairly meaningful. Not to mention that dualism being correct would be a fairly major revelation and changing of Christian theology, which has always emphasized 1=3 gods, not 2. But like I said and as you'll recall (You did read the book, right? Langdon asserts that ancient Judaism was this way too, believing in God and the Goddess, but Langdon makes a lot of stuff up.), he backs up from the "Jesus is God" statement- in which case his descendents are utterly pointless. And that is a flaw in his book.
Anyway. Note the number of times I said "in Catholic theology" above. Most Protestants can fairly safely shrug their shoulders on this one.
* And yes, there are exceptions, like with the Maronites & converted Episcopalian priests (what are they going to tell them, get a divorce?).