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10 September 1999 = 1 Tishri (Rosh Hashana) 5760

According to Stan Tenen "... there are 288 "sparks" that must fall away during every cycle of creation. ... One possible meaning is that at some level, "sparks" refer to "years" in the Messianic cycle. ... 5760 is ... a "generation of creation cycles." There are 20 ... to a generation ... 20 x 288 = 5760. ... the Christian ... followers ... back-adjusted the birth year ... so that their millennium, at 2000, would coincide with the true generational creation cycle at 5760. ...".

Why were there 288 sparks at creation?

If you start with a big bang original point in 4-dimensional HyperDiamond lattice spacetime and

you go out 22 lattice-norm steps then

you have 288 vertices, or sparks.

5 February 2000 = Chinese New Year 4697

Year of Metal Dragon

- or was it 3953 - or was it 4698?

4695 (1998) (year of Earth and Tiger) beginning before and ending after Li Chun, was a DOUBLY-BRIGHT YEAR for the NEW YORK YANKEES.

4696 (1999) (year of Earth and Rabbit) ended after Li Chun, but is a Blind year as it begins after Li Chun.

4697 (2000) (year of Metal and Dragon) is Doubly-Blind, beginning after and ending before Li Chun. It is the 60th anniversary year of my conception.

4698 (2001), (year of Metal and Snake) beginning before and ending after Li Chun, is Doubly-Bright. It is the 60th anniversary year of my birth. (Metal comes from Earth and is tempered by Water.)

4699 (2002), (year of Water and Horse) is Doubly-Blind, beginning after and ending before Li Chun. The Horse with human rider was the basis of the Mongol Empire.

4700 (2003), (year of Water and Sheep) ends before Li Chun, but is a Bright year as it begins before Li Chun. In the previous year of Water and Sheep, 4640 (1943), on my second birthday,

I got a lamb with my birthday cake.

The Sheep has provided humans with food and clothing.

The Lamb was the symbol of Christians

( until the Quinisext Synodi Council of Constantinople decreed in 692 AD that the image of Christ on the Cross should replace the Lamb ). According to The Revelation of St. John the Divine ( Chapters 5-22, King James Version ):

"... I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book ... sealed with seven seals. ... And I beheld ... a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. ... And he came and took the book ... the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb ... saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof; for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us ... out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; ... and I heard the voice of many angels ... the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; ... And when ... the Lamb ... had opened the seventh seal ... I saw the seven angels ... and to them were given seven trumpets. And another angel came ... having a golden censer ... And another ... angel ... with ... a rainbow ... upon his head ... had in his hand a little book open ... And sware ... that there should be time no longer .... But ... when ... the seventh angel shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished .... ... And the seventh angel sounded ... And I saw a new heaven and a new earth ...[and]... that great city, the holy Jerusalem ... the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass. ...[and] a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal ... and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, ... And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for ... the Lamb is the light thereof ...".

 

Blessed are the meek; for they shall inherit the earth.

( Beatitude from the Gospel According to St. Matthew 5:5 King James Version )

( Lamb images from a Three Lions Redempion web page of Doug Gray )

It is interesting that

up to age 12, Jesus was far from meek.

According to The Gospel of Infancy Thomas (as translated by Harold Attridge & Ronald F. Hock in the book The Complete Gospels, Harper Collins, ©1992):

"... When ... Jesus, was five years old, he was playing at the ford of a rushing stream ... collecting the flowing water into ponds ... He then made soft clay and shaped it into twelve sparrows. He did this on the sabbath day ... So Joseph went there, and as soon as he spotted him he shouted, "Why are you doing what's not permitted on the sabbath?" ... Jesus simply clapped his hands and shouted to the sparrows: "Be off, fly away, and remembe' me, you who are now alive!" And the sparrows took off and flew away noisily. ...

The son of Annas the scholar, standing there with Jesus, took a willow branch and drained the water Jesus had collected. Jesus ... became angry, saying to him, "Damn you, you irreverent fool! What harm did the ponds of water do to you? From this moment you, too, will dry up like a tree, and you'll never produce leaves or root or bear fruit." In an instant the boy had completely withered away. ...

The parents of the boy who had withered away ... came to Joseph and accused him: "It's your fault - your boy did this." ...

Later ... a boy ran and bumped him [Jesus] on the shoulder. Jesus got angry and said to him, "You won't continue your journey." And all of a sudden, he fell down and died. ...

... The parents of the dead boy came to Joseph and blamed him saying, "Because you have such a boy, you can't live with us in the village, or else teach him to bless and not curse. He's killing our children!" So Joseph summoned his child and admonished him in private, saying, "Why are you doing all this? These people are suffering and so they hate and harass us." Jesus said, "... those people must take their punishment." There and then his accusers became blind. ...

... Joseph ... got angry and grabbed his ear and pulled very hard. ...[Jesus]... became infuriated with him and replied, "... Don't you know that I don't really belong to you? Don't make me upset." ... A teacher by the name of Zacchaeus was listening to everything Jesus was saying to Joseph, and was astonished ... so he summoned Joseph and said to him, "You have a bright child, and he has a good mind. Hand him over to me so he can learn his letters. I'll teach him everything he needs to know so as not to be unruly." ... Jesus ... said to Zacchaeus, "... If you wish to be a perfect teacher, listen to me and I'll teach you a wisdom that no one else knows except for me and the one who sent me to you. It's you who happens to be my student ..." ....

... the teacher said to Joseph, "Bring him to the classroom and I'll teach him the alphabet." ... The teacher wrote the alphabet for him and began the instruction by repeating the letter alpha many times. But the child was quiet and did not answer him for a long time. ... the teacher got angry and struck him on the head. The child took the blow calmly and replied to him, "I'm teaching you rather than you're teaching me, and your condemnation is great. To you these letters are like a bronze pitcher or a clashing cymbal, which can't produce glory or wisdom because it's all just noise. ... Since you don't know the real nature of the letter alpha, how are you going to teach the letter beta? ... " he said to Zacchaeus, "Listen, teacher, and observe the arrangement of the first letter:

How it has two straight lines or strokes proceeding to a point in the middle, gathered together, elevated, dancing, three-cornered, two-cornered, not antagonistic, of the same family, providing the alpha has lines of equal measure."

After Zacchaeus the teacher had heard the child expressing such intricate allegories regarding the first letter, he ... spoke ..."... I can't endure the severity of his look or his lucid speech. ... I strove to get a student, and I've been found to have a teacher. ... Therefore, I ask you, brother Joseph, take him back to your house. ..." ... [Jesus] ... laughed loudly and said, "Now let the infertile bear fruit and the blind see and the deaf in the understanding of their heart hear ..." ... When the child stopped speaking, all those who had fallen under the curse were instantly saved. And from then on no one dared to anger him for fear of being cursed and maimed for life.

A few days later Jesus was playing on the roof of a house when one of the children playing with him fell off the roof and died. When the other children saw what had happened, they fled, leaving Jesus standing all by himself. The parents of the dead child came and accused Jesus: "You troublemaker you, you're the one who threw him down." Jesus responded, "I didn't throw him down - he threw himself down. He just wasn't being careful and leaped down from the roof and died." Then Jesus himself leaped down from the roof and stood by the body of the child and shouted in a loud voice: "Zeno!" - that was his name - "Get up and tell me: Did I push you?" He got up immediately and said, "No, Lord, you didn't push me, you raised me up." ...

A few days later a young man was splitting wood in the neighborhood when his axe slipped and cut off the bottom of his foot. He was dying from the loss of blood. ... Jesus ... forced his way through the crowd and grabbed hold of the young man's wounded foot. It was instantly healed. He said to the youth, "Get up now, split your wood, and remember me." ...

... Joseph ... handed him over to another teacher. (2)The teacher said to Joseph, "First I'll teach him Greek, then Hebrew." This teacher, of course, knew of the child's previous experience (with a teacher) and was afraid of him. Still, he wrote out the alphabet and instructed him for quite a while, though Jesus was unresponsive. Then Jesus spoke: "If you're really a teacher, and if you know the letters well, tell me the meaning of the letter alpha, and I'll tell you the meaning of beta." The teacher became exasperated and hit him on the head. Jesus got angry and cursed him, and the teacher immediately lost consciousness and fell facedown on the ground. The Child returned to Joseph's house. But Joseph was upset and gave instruction to his mother: "Don't let him go outside, because those who annoy him end up dead." ...

... another teacher, a close friend of Joseph, said to Joseph, "... this child ... already he's full of grace and wisdom. So I'm asking you, brother, to take him back home." When the child heard this, he immediately smiled at him and said, "Because you have spoken and testified rightly, that other teacher who was struck down will be healed." And right away he was. Joseph took his child and went home. ...

... When he was twelve years old his parents went to Jerusalem, as usual, for the Passover festival, along with the their fellow travelers. After Passover they began the journey home. But while on their way, the child Jesus went back up to Jerusalem ... in the temple area, sitting among the teachers, listening to the law and asking them questions. ... And Jesus continued to excel in learning and gain respect. ...".

More details about twelve-year-old Jesus in the temple are given in The Arabic Gospel of the Infancy of the Saviour:

"... when He was twelve years old, they took Him to Jerusalem to the feast. And when the feast was finished, they indeed returned; but the Lord Jesus remained in the temple among the teachers and elders and learned men of the sons of Israel, to whom He put various questions upon the sciences, and gave answers in His turn. ... And a philosopher who was there present, a skilful astronomer, asked the Lord Jesus whether He had studied astronomy. And the Lord Jesus answered him, and explained

• the number of the spheres, and of
• the heavenly bodies, their natures and operations;
• their opposition; their aspect, triangular, square, and sextile;
• their course, direct and retrograde;
• the twenty-fourths, and sixtieths of twenty-fourths; and other things beyond the reach of reason.

There was also among those philosophers one very skilled in treating of natural science, and he asked the Lord Jesus whether He had studied medicine. And He, in reply, explained to him

• physics and metaphysics, hyperphysics and hypophysics, the powers likewise and humours of the body, and the effects of the same; also
• the number of members and bones, of veins, arteries, and nerves; also
• the effect of heat and dryness, of cold and moisture, and what these give rise to;
• what was the operation of the soul upon the body, and its perceptions and powers;
• what was the operation of the faculty of speech, of anger, of desire; lastly,
• their conjunction and disjunction, and other things beyond the reach of any created intellect. ...

And from this day He began to hide His miracles and mysteries and secrets, and to give attention to the law, until He completed His thirtieth year, when His Father publicly declared Him at the Jordan by this voice sent down from heaven: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; the Holy Spirit being present in the form of a white dove. ...".

What did Jesus do between the age of 12 and the age of 30?

According to the Acts of Yesu ("... Acts of Yesu became public in the Europe as the apocryphal book that Fr. Martin Corzeni, who worked in the Vatican archives for years, secretly removed from the library.  After his terrible death in 1982, Acts of Yesu was discovered (by his landlord) among his possessions in a room where he sometimes boarded.  He died from inhalation of a nerve toxin. ... The copy of Acts of Yesu available here is not the original that Fr. Corzeni brought into the light.  This is an English translation of the original text, discovered in North western Pakistan in 1999.  Translation was made by a female monk who specialize in ancient Persian language.  What is remarkable is the slight differences between the English text in use by some groups and the ancient Corzeni copy in the original text. ...".):

"... In Egypt the child, Yesu received education of reading and writing and he was reading and singing Holy Scripture ... when he was five years of age. When the seventh year of Yesu came to pass, he was moved with his mother to the schools of the Greeks of Alexandria to learn the tradition. When the 11th year of Yesu came to pass, he was moved with his mother to the Hebrew schools of Siphora in Galilee to learn the tradition. ...

When Yesu was a young man and his year was fourteen he took the caravan up to the plains of Dash't and continued his schooling as his ministry began. ...

[ According to a yesinet web page:

"... "It is not certain what route Jesus took on his journey to the East. Here is one possible itinerary via ancient roads and trade routes, reconstructed from Notovich, Abhedananda, and Roerich texts and legends: Jesus departed Jerusalem (follow the yellow line),

took the Silk Road to Bactra, headed south to Kabul, crossed the Punjab and proceeded to a Jain area on the Kathiawar peninsula where Jain temples were later built bear the town of Palitana. He crossed India to Juggernaut (Puri), made trips to Rajariha (Rajgir), Benares, and other holy cities and, fleeing his enemies went to Kapilavatsu--birthplace of Gautama Buddha. Jesus took a trail just west of Mt. Everest to Lhasa (where the palace of the Dalai Lama was built in the 17th century). On the return trip (follow the violet line), he took the caravan route to Leh, went south to the state of Rajputana and the north to Kabul. He proceeded on the southern trade route through Persia where Zoroastrian priests abandoned him to wild beasts. Jesus survived and arrived unharmed in Jerusalem." Map and text from The Lost Years of Jesus. ...". ]

... In the Sistia it came to pass that Yesu mastered the art of affinity when the high priest of the temple planned to poison the Saviour. The priests crafted to tell Yesu the drinking of the poison was the test for mastery of the tradition; that Yesu may not leave before the test. ... And Yesu, led by the Spirit of the Mother, agreed to take the test on his final day before departing to India. ... And He drank the whole of the cup; and those priests and teachers who were vexed in evil toward the Saviour and his pupils and followers fell to the ground and died a horrible death for all to see their deceit. ...

... To Kashmiri ... The Saviour left that town by the East road, alone as he came into it. ... On the way to Kashmiri our Saviour entered by the valley ... On the way to Kashmiri our Saviour entered by the valley road and at the pass the man asked him for his name because the news of Yesu had not yet reached those areas. Yesu said to the gatekeeper, 'Nada, my older brother, I am returning home after many years. I desire to visit my family and to meet my younger sister which I know not.' ...

... Yesu took to the schools of the northern areas ... Jammu or Tibet ... when he was twenty four years; and mastered the art of self-control taught by those as the Way; and Yesu loved the Scriptures and meditated on the healings it wrought. ... prostitutes were brought in to the ashrama to sleep in the beds of the monks as the tradition was. For many months the monks disrobe and sleep naked by them without any issue before gaining success in self-control. The child brought in for Yesu was called Magdalene, from an important family in the province where the Buddha was born in India. ... The child told Yesu how she fell in lust with a girl from her town and how they were discovered in sexual embrace, and they were hauled before the town elders. Her parents were disgraced and sold her to a brothel owner and told him to send her far away from there but the other girl, from a poor house, was sent to work in the gold mines where she will surely die. ...

[ My comment: The Acts of Yesu say that Mary Magdalene was from Kapilavastu, the birthplace of Gautama Buddha, and some say that Mary Magdalene was from a town called Magdala on the Sea of Galilee. However, I thnk that Tibet is too near Kapilavastu to be "far away from there", and I think that transportation links from the Sea of Galilee Magdala to Tibet are too convoluted for substantial slave trade. My opinion is that Mary Magdalene was from

the town of Magdala in Ethiopia (map from National Geographic Maps CD, Africa: Countries of the Nile, October 1963), as it is both "far away" from Tibet and accessible to Tibet by major trade routes of the first millenium BC: by land from Magdala to Massawa, by sea from Massawa to India near Astakapra, and by land from Astakapra to Mathura and then on through Kapilavatsu to the monastery in Tibet.

( map of major trade routs modified from Past Worlds, The Times Atlas of Archaeology ( Crescent Books 1995 ) )

... ]

Yesu took pity on the young girl; and following the rules of the initiation, told her to undress and sit on his bed. And Yesu taught her the secret art of sacred sensuality; of using the body and the senses to engender holy energy to the purpose of purification and control over the senses and the bodily impulses. ... Magdalene advanced quickly ... and she controlled her intelligence and she became an expert yogi for her love and sensitivity. She conquered the lust which ran wild within her and tamed it and gained control over her soul; and ... the Saviour taught Magdalene the Greek reading and the Aramaic, and she read.

Magdalene learned by night, but for according to monk's rule the prostitute was naked throughout, sharing the mat. In the mornings the master teacher came to see if any issue from the monk was there but he only found Yesu and Magdalene in holy meditation. ... When the time was fulfilled Yesu presented Mari to the elders and asked for her to be tested along with the men. These words caused much dissension for never has a woman been to school for holy initiation. ... A great riot resulted in the temple ... Yesu took Mari and they left that city to be purified by its own fire. ...

... Yesu walked with Mari but stopped by a river to rest on the way down the valley where women were washing. Mari went down to the women and spoke with them, and told them everything that happened; and how Yesu taught her to read the Scriptures; and the women became exited and Mari recited verses from the Scriptures and told them what they meant. Mari brought the women up to speak with Yesu and they asked him many questions about birth and marriage and transmigration and love and children and duty. ...

... in Sringa ... it was the time of the Feast of Shiva ... the Temple of All Bodhisattvas and Buddha the Merciful ... was in silence because the festival was not one of the Buddha tradition ... Mari ran down the road to the shrine to meet Yesu ... Yesu and Mari stayed with the begging children and taught them how to find food and to make clothing and huts for winter time. ... After the festival ... Yesu ... the elders to explain why, even if their Scriptures tell them otherwise, do they refuse to feed and heal the children ... But the elders answered that the children are from another caste and sect. ... And Yesu said, 'I was not aware that you are from a different caste to mine. I and my disciple and the children are from the caste of the children of God the Father and Mother but you say that we are different &endash; now this means that you are from the caste of evil because only the caste of evil thinks of themselves as belonging elsewhere than the caste of the children of God.' ... And Yesu and Mari stayed with them two months ... teaching ... The Way and the tradition purified itself from the rust and moths of years of neglect. ...When the time came for Yesu to leave for India the beggar children were no longer left but were cared for by the Ashrama of the city. ...

... And Yesu was 27 years when, as he was instructed by the holy ones, he entered the gates of the Nazoreans at Edes-Ra'y ... [i]n Persia ... Mari followed the Lord through the towns to the community of the devout by the river Jordan, in the land of Palestine ...

And it came to be said the Lord's cousin was preparing the way for him from Egypt to the Dead Sea to start the ministry of the Saviour among the people of that land ... And the angel of God ... spoke to Yesu saying the baptism of John is the way to serve all the nations ... And the Lord followed the way to Egypt where John was preparing. ...

When the baptism of John the Nazorean came to be done after seven days on the way ...[ In this stained glass window in the First Baptist Church, Cartersville, Georgia,

John (purple and gold) and Jesus (red and green, and bright white, are in the River Jordan below a Holy Spirit dove. The entire stained glass window

(click here for a larger image) was given to the Church (which was built in 1904) by Methodist Rev. Sam Jones as a memorial to his brother, Rev. Joe Jones. The border reminds me of a Lo Pan, with:

• an orange inner ring of 48 segments;
• a wide ring with 8 circular designs, each separated from its neighbor by a pattern of 2 large things and 12 + 4 + 2 + 3 + 3 = 24 small things (the 2 + 24 = 26 large and small things remind me of J3(O)o, and all 8x24 = 192 small things remind me of the Rig Veda). Each circular design has:
  • a central circle surrounded by:
  • a ring of 6 segments (together with the central circle, these remind me of a 7-sphere); and
  • a green ring of 8 segments (together with the 7 inner circle and segments, these remind me of a 15-sphere, and all 8 of them remind me of a 600-cell);
• a green ring of 48 segments; and
• a red outer sixth ring of 48 segments (the 48 + 48 + 48 orange-green-red things plus 12x8 of the small things remind me of the 240 vertices of the E8 root vector polytope, and if the 2x8 = 16 large things are added, I am reminded of the Cl(8) Clifford algebra). ]...

... the countenance of Yesu was changed, and he retained his human form by will, and the Light went up for all those in waiting in the ashrama in all the worlds; and in (the Mediterranean) and Syria and Parthia and in India the saints were shaken by the Lord's presence as if He was present with them in their rooms and in the fields. ... From this time on the Lord ministered to all at once and remained in his human form for those hard at heart in the lands of Palestine, Samaria, Judah, Galilee, Syria and Phoenicia. ...

... Yesu added to John's baptism also that baptism of fire from within and he lifted many devotees on high and sent them out to minister to the congregations of holy ones all over the world.

Mari with more than three hundred women who became virgins and were liberated from their afflictions also followed. And they followed behind the Lord and cared for him greatly. And the Magdalenes taught of healings and making the enjoyment of the sense pleasures holy chariots; and they kept pure and secret the mystical teachings and it was taken to many parts of the world.

When the time came for the Lord to finish the ministry in body he was 34 years old and accomplished in spirit to the Saviour, and he commanded many to teach the mysteries of the baptisms to worthy ones. ...

... Yesu the Lord prepared for seven days and went up to give himself to the evil ones of the pious of those lands to hang him up as despicable, for that is what the world does with holiness, unto to the death of the body; because he was to discard it for the sake of the ministry in the other universes; and he left the body to die and he gained union with God as the beloved son. ...

... after three days he removed that dead body from its filthy grave and swaddling clothes and made it alive again when he needed it. And the Lord travelled the lands of his former ministries, appearing whenever he needed; and he brought with him a great army of angels to light the Way.

And the Lord appeared first to Mari his beloved companion and to his blessed mother and the devotees (apostles) of that land, that they too may believe; and he sent the devotees to minister in different lands and appeared to be with them. And the Lord ministered to the congregations of Yuda in Kushan, and James in Egypt and Mari in Alexandria, in Ethiopia, Peter in Armenia, in Syria, with Matthew in Parthia and Yuda when he became the Thoma in India for many years. ...".

Why did Mary Magdalene return to Ethiopia, the country of her home town of Magdala, after Jesus was crucified ?

Consider the role of Ethiopia in the history of Judaic/Christian/Islamic religion:

According to "The Historic Implications of the Kebra Nagast" in the book "The Kebra Nagast" edited by Gerald Hausman ( St. Martin's Press, New York1997 ):

"... the Great Pyramid at Giza ..., as a mystical and scientific symbol and also as a practical archtectural design and building structure, goes back ... to the Ethiopian roots of the world culture in Kemet. ... The authorized King James Bible, which first appeared in 1611, was ... going to include ... the Kebra Nagast ... However, the editors were told, presumably by the clergy - although it came down by royal decree - to excise the chapters which included the Kebra Nagast. ...".

According to the Kbre Nege'st in the book "The Kebra Nagast" edited by Gerald Hausman ( St. Martin's Press, New York1997 ):

"... Solomon [said] ... to the Queen [of Sheba]: ... I saw many visions in a dream. The sun rose on Israel, but it went away and lighted up the country of Ethiopia. So that country shall be blessed through you. ... Nine months aand five days ...[later]... the Queen ... brought forth a man-child [Solomon's firstborn] ... and she called him Bayna-Lehkem. ...[when]... he was twenty-two years old ... Bayna-Lehkem came through ...[the]... gate ... [of his father King Solomon]... when King Solomon sw his son he ... said, "Behold my father David has renewed his youth and has risen from the dead." Then he said to all of his court, "... He is David ...".

... Gabriel ... the Angel of Death ... said to ... Solomon ... "... Harken to what I say, for God has sent me. From being a wise man you have turned into a fool ... and all because you have broken the commandment of God. You held this lightly, thinking you were wiser than God and believing you would have many male children.

Know that your Salvation was created in the belly of Adam. And it began in the form of a pearl before Eve. The pearl ... went forth from the belly of Adam into the belly of Seth. And then it ... came to Arbam. And it .. went into Isaac the pure ... into Jacob the humble ... into Judh, the innocent ... And ... it came to Fares the patient. And from him the pearl went to the firstborn until it came into the belly of Jesse, your grandfather. And then ... it went to the seventh, David, your innocent and humble father. Now the pearl of your salvation will pass through many generations until it will reach him who ... is crucified without sin and who rises without corruption. He who goes into Sheol and tears down its walls. ... and Zion [ the Ark of the Covenant ], taken up by [David] your firstborn [son], shall be the salvation of the people of Ethiopia forever; and the pearl shall be carried in the belly of Rehoboam your [second-born] son, and shall be the savior of all the world. ..."

... when David the son of Solomon returned [ to Ethiopia ] with the Ark of the Covenant, he met his mother Makeda [ Queen of Sheba ] and she granted that he should be King of Ethiopia. ...

... When the Pearl, the Son of the Lord, was born ... the people of Ethiopia were loved by God because the Savior of the World, his Son, was beloved by them. ...".

 

Also, consider the relationship of Mary Magdalene and Jesus:

This Durer woodcut The Large Passion - 9 of 12 - Last Supper - 1510

showing 6 apostles on each side of the couple Jesus and Mary Magdalene indicates that in Durer's Europe ca 1500 it was believed (at least by some) that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were man and wife, with Mary Madgalene being even closer to Jesus than the 12 apostles.

According to a Web Gallery of Art web page:

"... In the summer of 1518 he [Durer] went to Augsburg where he met Martin Luther, who had in the previous year circulated his Ninety-five Theses denouncing the sale of papal indulgences. Dürer later became a devoted follower of Luther. ...".

According to an 11 August 2003 Time article by David Van Biema found on a danbrown web page:

"... The Gnostic Gospel of Philip describes Magdalene as "the one who was called [Jesus'] companion," claiming that he "used to kiss her on her [mouth]." ... Martin Luther believed that Jesus and Magdalene were married, as did Mormon patriarch Brigham Young. ...

The notion that Magdalene was pregnant by Jesus at his Crucifixion became especially entrenched in France, which already had a tradition of her immigration in a rudderless boat, bearing the Holy Grail, his chalice at the Last Supper into which his blood later fell. Several French kings promoted the legend that descendants of Magdalene's child founded the Merovingian line of European royalty, a story revived by Richard Wagner in his opera Parsifal ... The Wachowski brothers ... named a villain in The Matrix Reloaded Merovingian, filming him surrounded by Grail-like chalices. His wife in that film was played by Italian actress Monica Bellucci, who will also play Magdalene in Mel Gibson's upcoming Jesus film ... The idea that Magdalene herself was the Holy Grail - the human receptacle for Jesus' blood line - popped up in a 1986 best seller, Holy Blood, Holy Grail, which inspired Brown's Da Vinci Code. ...

[ In my opinion, it is unlikely that a pregnant Mary Magdalene would have gone to France, which was in the part of the world controlled by the Roman Empire, which Roman Empire at that time was quite hostile to Christianity. I think that it is more likely that Mary Magdalene would have returned to the Christian-friendly land of her birth, Ethiopia. ]

The idea that Magdalene herself was the Holy Grail - the human receptacle for Jesus' blood line - popped up in a 1986 best seller, Holy Blood, Holy Grail, which inspired Brown's Da Vinci Code. ...".

According to a book "Bloodline of the Holy Grail" by Laurence Gardner on a karenlyster web page and related pages:

"... Dynastic heirs such as Jesus were expressly required to perpetuate their lines. Marriage was essential, but community law protected the dynasts against marriage to women who proved barren or kept miscarrying. This protection was provided by the three-month pregnancy rule. Miscarriages would not often happen after that term, subsequent to which it was considered safe enough to complete the marriage contract. ..

... Jesus ... was a Messiah, which means ... an 'Anointed One'. ... all anointed senior priests and Davidic kings were Messiahs; Jesus was not unique in this regard. Although not an ordained priest, he gained his right to Messiah status by way of descent from King David and the kingly line, but he did not achieve that status until he was ritually anointed ... the bridal anointing of the king ... used ... the oil ...[of]... spikenard (an expensive root oil from the Himalayas) ... spikenard ... was the express prerogative of a Messianic bride who had to be a 'Mary' - a sister of a sacred order. Jesus's mother was a Mary; so too would his wife have been a Mary, ...

... There are seven lists given in the Gospels of the women who were Jesus's regular companions. These lists all include his mother, but in six of these seven lists the first name given (even ahead of Jesus's mother) is that of Mary Magdalene, making it plain that she was, in fact, the First Lady: the Messianic Queen. ...

... Messianic marriages were always conducted in two stages. ... Chronologically, these anointings (as given in the Gospels) were two-and-a-half years apart. ...

Of all the four Gospels, only John records the wedding feast at Cana ...[which]... can be dated to the summer of AD 30, in the month equivalent to our modern June. ... the Cana ceremony ... appears to have been their own betrothal feast ...[It]... embodie[d] the ... water and wine ... wine taken at betrothal feasts was only available to priests and celibate Jews, not to married men, novices or any others who were regarded as being unsanctified. They were allowed only water ... Mary ... and Jesus then flouted convention, abandoning the water to provide wine for everyone. ...

... The first (the anointing in Luke) ... was the legal commitment to wedlock ... First weddings were always held in the month of Atonement (modern September) and betrothal feasts were held three months before that. In this particular instance, we find that the first marital anointing of Jesus by Mary Magdalene was at the Atonement of AD 30, three months after the Cana ceremony ...

... the second (the later anointing in Matthew, Mark and John) was the cementing of the contract. ... the ... anointings of Jesus by Mary at Bethany. ... From that day she would carry a vial of spikenard around her neck, throughout her husband's life, to be used again on his entombment. It was for this very purpose that Mary Magdalene would have gone to Jesus's tomb, as she did on the Sabbath after the Crucifixion. .... In Jesus and Mary's case the second anointing was of particular significance for, as explained by Flavius Josephus in the 1st-century Antiquities of the Jews, the second part of the marriage ceremony was never conducted until the wife was three months pregnant. ... the trial and crucifixion of Jesus are mentioned in the Annals of Imperial Rome. We can now determine from chronological survey that the Crucifixion took place at the March Passover of AD 33, while the Bethany second marriage anointing was in the week prior to that. We also know that, at that stage, Mary Magdalene had to have been three months pregnant - which means she should have given birth in September of AD 33. ...".

 [ As Laurence Gardner noted in his article, the birth of Jesus ( celebrated in December but possibly actually in February or March ) violated the rule of birth in the Atonement month of September. However, Gardner says that "... special dispensation for the birth was granted by the ... priest ...". That, and the calendrical customs described in the above quotes from Gardner, sound reasonable to me, so that I agree with Gardner that Mary Magdalene was three months pregnant with her child conceived with Jesus when the Crucifixion took place at the March Passover of AD 33. However, in the rest of his book "Bloodline of the Holy Grail", Gardner goes beyond the Gospels to Acts, Revelations, etc., and in doing so contends that Jesus survived the Crucifixion and that Mary Magdalene had two more children by Jesus and that they moved to France and founded the Merovingian bloodline. I find those ideas implausible and inaccurate, and I do not believe Gardner is correct about those Merovingian ideas. Even though Gardner may be wrong about his Merovingian ideas, their inaccuracy is not grounds to question his material on the Gospels and wedding customs, which I find plausible and convincing. ]

 Perhaps Jesus and Mary Magdalene, knowing that Jesus would die on the Cross, conceived a child to have been born around the September month of Atonement of AD 30.

Mary Magdalene returned to her home country of Ethiopia because it was the most friendly country to Christianity, much more friendly than the Roman Empire, Zoroastrian Persia, Hindu/Buddhist India, and Confucian Han China.

Ethiopia would be the best place to raise a child conceived by Jesus and Mary Magdalene.

Thus Ethiopia became the Land of Reunification of Zion and the Pearl,

Nicolas Notovitch, in his book The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ, gives an account similar to that of the Acts of Yesu. According to a web page about his work: "... During the latter part of the 1870s, Notovitch decided to embark on an "extended journey through the Orient." ... reaching India in 1887 ... [heard] that the life of Jesus Christ had been recorded in Buddhist manuscripts. ... Jesus is referred to as "Issa" in Buddhist documents, as "Isa" in the scripture of Islam, the Quran, and as "Isa" in the Hindu scripture, the Bhavishya Mahapurana. ... Notovitch decided to delay his return to Europe ... and ... to ... journey to Thibet [Tibet] ... While riding his horse near Hemis Monastery, Notovitch suffered a terrible fall from his horse and broke his right leg, and he was forced to remain under the care of the Buddhist monks at Hemis until his leg healed. After requesting to see the manuscripts concerning Jesus in India, the monks brought to his bedside two books with loose, yellowed leaves. During the next two days one of the monks read these documents to Notovitch while an interpreter translated and Notovitch took notes. ... Notovitch now felt that he had come across the most powerful discovery in 2000 years: written manuscripts giving stunning details of the lost years of Jesus, between the ages 12 and 30, that are not mentioned in the Bible, and showing that Jesus had been tutored by Buddhists. ...

... Notovitch is just one tiny part of the story. ... there still exists Persian, Tibetan and Sanskrit documents, all of which mention the sojourn of Jesus in India. The Tarikh-i-Kabir-i-Kashmir, the Bagh-i-Sulaiman, the Ain-ul-Hayat, the Wajees-ut-Tawareekh, the Negaristan-i-Kashmir, the Usool-al-Kafi, the Book of Balauhar and Buddasaf, the Rauzat-us-Safa, Ikmal-ud-Din, the Grugtha Thams Chand, the Bhavishya Mahapurana, the oral traditions of the people of Kashmir, the oral traditions of the Followers of Jesus in Afghanistan, the inscriptions of the Takhat Sulaiman monument in Srinagar, as well as other documents, all mention the sojourn of Jesus in Kashmir ...".

According to a web page about Swami Abhedananda: "... Swami Abhedananda read Notovitch's account, and in 1922 he decided to travel to the Hemis Monastery himself ... The lama who was acting as the Swami's guide took a manuscript from the shelf and displayed it to the Swami. He told him that it was an exact translation of the original manuscript which was lying in the monastery of Marbour near Lhasa. The original manuscript, he explained, was in the Pali language, while the manuscript that was preserved at Hemis (the one Nicolas Notovitch claimed to have seen, and that the Swami had later been shown in 1922) was written in the Tibetan language. It is said to consist of fourteen chapters and two hundred twenty-four couplets called slokas. ...".

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