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Most recent on the Domination of Eiler reading list was "Holy Blood, Holy Grail", the book which started the "DaVinci-Code" theory that Jesus of Nazareth had children. The theory can actually be summarized as a rude joke: If you seek a Holy Grail that held the Savior's bodily fluids, you need look no further than Mary Magdalene.
One might say, the topic's been controversial.
- The authors admit, they were forced by the lack of evidence to loosen their scholastic rigor to roughly the level of novelists. Not to say they're wrong, but not to say they're necessarily right either.
- According to the authors, the book was most fervently opposed by the Anglican Church. The Catholic Church just shrugged and said, "Maaaybe, but we'll never admit it."
- It so happens, the Domination of Eiler operates a Cyber-Church - of Jesus Christ Childfree. The topic of whether Jesus had children is therefore of great interest to the Domination's freelance theologians - and they've already responded. Suffice it to say, Jesus makes more sense as a bachelor.
These theorists assume the early apostles tried to stamp out Jesus's family after the Crucifixion, and the family had to go to France for its own safety. Christian tradition says differently: for some reason, the original Christians actually acted like good Christians.
- Jesus's relatives didn't always get along with the disciples during his ministry. But afterward, the disciples adopted the family. The apostle John treated Mary of Nazareth as his own mother. And James the Lord's brother found the new family business so lucrative, he joined in.
- Indications are, the early Christians freely swapped information - hence the similarity of the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. The Nativity story was probably recorded by the apostle Paul's follower Luke, after an interview with Mother Mary.
In its fullest bloom, the story of Jesus's children encompasses the first post-Roman kings of France, the Crusader kings of Jerusalem, the Knights Templar, the Albigensian crusade, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the Priory of Zion. This makes a perfectly good conspiracy theory, and the Domination of Eiler sees no reason to destroy it just because the Savior had no children.
- Under Jewish law (Deuteronomy 25:5-10), Jesus's little brother James would be perfectly eligible to continue his brother's bloodline. Indeed, he'd be required to if Jesus were married. That might have given James a bit of extra motivation to join the family business.
- The family of Jesus had every reason to stay in Judea - at least until Judea rebelled against Rome. Then they'd have every reason to go to France instead.
Ultimately God alone knows what happened. That is to say, it's perfectly reasonable for the rest of us to believe in alternate pasts. It just so happens, the Domination of Eiler favors one particular alternate past in this case.
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