新達芬奇密碼 解讀耶穌曾娶妻生子

Did Jesus Christ marry Mary Magdalene and have children with her? Surely, you’re thinking, that’s the kind of sensationalist mumbo-jumbo you find only in the pages of fiction.
耶穌是否跟抹大拉的瑪利亞結婚並生子了呢？也許你會想那是肯定的了，這可能只是一種你從小說裏得到感覺。

In fact, The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown’s 2003 best-selling thriller, was hinged on that very premise: a secret bloodline had sprung from the union between Jesus and Mary.
實際上，丹·布朗2003年的暢銷書《達芬奇密碼》就是以此爲前提的：耶穌和瑪利亞之間存在某種隱祕關係。

But now the authors of a new book, The Lost Gospel, claim to have unearthed evidence of a manuscript which tells the story of Jesus’s two sons and his marriage to Mary.
但是最近，新書《失落的福音》的作者聲稱在一份手稿中找到了證據，該手稿講述的故事中涉及到耶穌的兩個兒子以及耶穌同瑪利亞的婚姻。

Of course, there have been various discoveries of ‘new’ gospels over the years and allegations about a romantic relationship between Jesus and Mary Magdalene have persisted for centuries.
當然，近年來有很多“新福音”的發現，稱耶穌和瑪利亞之間保持着長時間的戀愛關係。

Indeed, they have frequently been explored in popular culture. However, this new book focuses on a story to be found in a manuscript dating back to 570 AD and written in Syriac — a Middle Eastern literary language used between the 4th and 8th centuries and reLated to Aramaic, the language spoken by Jesus.
確實，大衆文化對這方面的探索比較多。但是這本新書的內容聚焦在公元570年發現的一份由敘利亞語寫成的手稿上，敘利亞語是公元4世紀到8世紀期間在中東地區使用的標準語言，也是耶穌所用的語言。

Written on vellum — treated animal skin — it had been in the archives of the British Library for about 20 years, where it was put after the British Museum had originally bought it in 1847 from a dealer who said he had obtained it from the ancient St Macarius Monastery in Egypt.
這份手稿寫在牛皮紙上，在英國圖書館作爲檔案保存了20多年，這以前被存放在英國博物館。1847年英國博物館從一個商人手中買下，該商人稱他從埃及一個修道院裏得到。

For the past 160 years, the document has been studied by a few scholars but has been considered pretty unremarkable.
在這近160年的時間裏，很多學者對這份手稿進行了研究，但都覺得意義不大。

But then Simcha Jacobovici, an Israeli-Canadian film-maker, and Barrie Wilson, a professor of religious studies in Toronto, took a look. After six years of study, they are convinced they’ve uncovered a missing fifth gospel — to add to the four gospels, which tell the story of the life of Christ and are said to have been written by the evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, in the 1st century AD.
直到加拿大籍的以色列電影製片人希姆查·雅各布維奇和多倫多的宗教研究教授巴里·威爾遜看到這份手稿後，經過六年的研究，確信他們發現了遺失的第五本福音，講述了耶穌生活的故事，由福音傳教士馬修、馬克、盧克和約翰等在公元1世紀的時候寫成。

If true, this would make it the greatest revelation into the life of Jesus in nearly 2,000 years.
如果這是真的，這將會成爲近2000年來對耶穌生活研究的一個重大發現。

Later this week, he will present his findings at a conference hosted by the British Library.
本週，雅各布維奇將會在由英國圖書館主辦的一個會議中報告他們的發現。

Like the fictional The Da Vinci Code, which had its hero scouring works of art for secret, religious messages, the document is in code. According to Jacobovici and Wilson, it tells of Jesus’s marriage through the story of the Old Testament character Joseph and his wife Aseneth.
在小說《達芬奇密碼》中，主人公通過解碼藝術品發現隱祕的宗教信息，與此相同，這份手稿也需要解碼。雅各布維奇和威爾遜表示，手稿通過《舊約》裏的人物約瑟夫和他的妻子阿瑟尼斯的故事講述了耶穌的婚姻。

Central to their claim is that Joseph was actually Jesus — and that Aseneth was actually Mary Magdalene.
雅各布維奇他們認爲約瑟夫實際就是耶穌，而阿瑟尼斯實際上就是抹大拉的瑪利亞。

He and his colleague Wilson point to several clues that they say give away its true meaning. Principally, the story about Joseph has little connection with other Old Testament stories about a man who is best-known for the tale of his murderous brothers.
雅各布維奇和威爾遜指出了幾點依據。首先是這份手稿中的約瑟夫的故事和其他舊約中那個因擁有殘忍的兄弟而出名的人關係不大。

What’s more, Joseph is often seen in early Syriac Christianity as a symbol of Jesus. The manuscript calls Joseph — like Jesus — the son of God.
另外，在早期的敘利亞基督教中，約瑟夫被看做是耶穌的一個象徵。該手稿中稱約瑟夫爲上帝之子，這和對耶穌的稱呼是一樣的。

While some academics agree that it is possible that others gospels — recounting Jesus’s marriage — may have existed but since been lost, others are adamant that the idea is a complete nonsense.
雖然有些學者同意這部手稿可能是記敘耶穌婚姻生活的、確實存在但曾經丟失的福音，但也有些學者認爲這部手稿毫無任何意義。

History is littered with such debates.
有關耶穌的婚姻在歷史上也一直存在爭議。

Just two years ago, Harvard professor Karen L. King declared that she’d found a papyrus fragment — thought to be from Egypt — called The Gospel Of Jesus’s Wife. In it, there were four words, written in Coptic (an Egyptian language), saying: ‘Jesus said to them, “My wife . . .”
’兩年前，哈佛教授卡倫·L·金稱發現了一張寫在草紙上的、被認爲是來自埃及的殘稿，並把它叫做《耶穌之妻福音書》。其中，有用科普特語（埃及的一種語言）寫道：“耶穌對他們說‘我的妻子…’”

Jacobovici believes that his ‘lost gospel’ supports Professor King’s studies.
雅各布維奇認爲他的這份“失落的福音”支持了金教授的研究。

He is also convinced the story of Jesus’s marriage is already incorporated into four gospels in the New Testament.
他還確信耶穌婚姻的故事實際上已經包含在了新約的四部福音書裏。

And therefore, he insists, there can be ‘no question’ that, even in the established gospels, Jesus must have a wife.
因此他堅稱，即使是在現有的福音書中，也能毫無疑問地得出，耶穌一定是娶有妻子的。

Not surprisingly, the vast majority of Christian historians are not convinced.
但不管怎樣，大多數基督教歷史學家並不信服。

As for the British Library itself, staff have refused to endorse the new book.
而英國圖書館也表示並未對此書做出批准。

Undaunted, Simcha Jacobovici and Barrie Wilson insist: ‘The only way there is no evidence is if you keep ignoring the evidence.’
不過雅各布維奇和威爾遜毫不畏懼，依然堅稱：“如果你一直忽視證據的存在，那麼就永遠沒有證據。”