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Archiver > GEN-MEDIEVAL > 2007-09 > 1189725569


From: wjhonson <>
Subject: Re: Anna of Arimathea - who is HER husband?
Date: Thu, 13 Sep 2007 16:19:29 -0700
References: <mailman.2091.1189448858.7287.gen-medieval@rootsweb.com><1189538296.481254.79140@e9g2000prf.googlegroups.com><1189538682.643987.124400@q5g2000prf.googlegroups.com><1189549761.994813.282960@g4g2000hsf.googlegroups.com><1189617895.592108.176160@r34g2000hsd.googlegroups.com>
In-Reply-To: <1189617895.592108.176160@r34g2000hsd.googlegroups.com>


On Sep 12, 10:24 am, Christopher Ingham
<> wrote:
> On Sep 11, 6:29 pm, wrote:
>
> > Anne, the so-called sister of Jesus, came to Rome with a party of
> > Christians led by Joseph of Arimathea at the time of the first
> > persecution of the Jerusalem Church in AD 36 where according to legend
> > she met and married the British prince Belus, the son of the British
> > ex-king Dubnovellus ...
>
> No persons referred to above are mentioned in near-contemporary, non-
> biblical sources, except Jesus (Joseph._AJ_28.3). Four brothers and
> at least two unnamed sisters appear in the Bible, as well as Joseph of
> Arimathea, the latter seen in biblical criticism as a fictional
> character invented as a plot device [J. D. Crossan,_Jesus_9 (San
> Francisco, 1994), 156-8;_The Oxford Companion to the Bible_(New York,
> 1993), s.v. "Joseph of Arimathea"]. Rabanus Maurus, a ninth-century
> German monk, is the earliest writer to connect Joseph with Britain.
>
> Christopher Ingham

A small caveat. Epiphanius does mention by name two sisters of Jesus,
calling them the daughters of Joseph by his "first wife" : Mary and
Salome. In another work he has Anne and Salome, but editors have
wondered if the word there might be a scribal error and thus would
possibly erase Anne.

Sophronius who is probably dependent on Epiphanius merges these to
have Anne, Mary and Salome.

As to "... British prince Belus, the son of the British ex-king
Dubnovellus ...", I wonder if this does not refer to the same
individuals that Geoffrey of Monmouth calls : Belinus, King of
Britian, son of Dunwallo [Molmutius], King of Cornwall then of all
Britain who reigned for forty years.

This Belius is further given a son "Gurgiunt Brabtruc" who became in
turn King of Britain.

There is nothing in this part of the history that allows me to give a
chronology, but IF there is indeed *some* legend that Jesus and
Dunwallo or Belinus were contemporaries that would certainly help the
situation. Of course that legend should be properly cited and
quoted. But it's certainly not in Geoffrey's work, so I don't know
from where it comes.

Will Johnson

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