Registered: Sep 2000
Location: MadCo
Posts: 1801

I'm reading this nifty little book called Holy Blood, Holy Grail.

It was mentioned in the recent bestseller called The Da Vinci Code, and I've heard it mentioned elsewhere, so I decided to go out and get it. It's fascinating, utterly utterly fascinating.

The first two thirds are long and rather dry, and spent proving the existence of a single organization called the Priory of Sion, and proving the possible existence of a bloodline that spans from the tribe of Benjamin to today - the Meronvingian bloodline.

Now we're getting to the meat of the matter....the Meronvingian bloodline is quite possibly the bloodline of Jesus the Nazarene, and his wife.....Mary the Magdalen. Fun Fun Fun, I love history.

And this is important, because they believe that Jesus faked his crucifixion and most of his miracles in order to fulfill the prophecies of the Old Testament, with the help of his wife, and his brother in law, Lazarus, and a contingent of high ranking Jews who were trying to throw off the yoke of Roman rule.

Their evidence that Jesus was an Aristocrat is varied, and comes from the Gospel (Matthew Mark Luke and John). When the Wedding in Cana is described, they not that the servants obey Jesus and his Mother explicitly, lending credence that they themselves were either hosting the wedding (Possibly Jesus' wedding to Mary?) or that they were well known to the Servants, and used to giving orders to the servants. Also, why would the host of the wedding ask Jesus' and his mother to provide wine, unless they themselves were the hosts?

Anyways, while some of the conclusions drawn in this book are tenuous, they all make some sort of sense, and are at least possible. So anyways, dunno exactly where I was going with this....book review or topic to titillate and provide me with something fun to talk about, either one works.

So, what are your feelings on Christianity? Heard any good Apocrypha lately?

Melesse

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: Jul 2000
Location: my mother's bloody womb
Posts: 7148

it sounds really interesting. how was the other book, the da vinci code?

__________________

[Ignore Sig]

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: Sep 2000
Location: MadCo
Posts: 1801

Da Vinci Code was really good. I almost said amazing, but I guess it depends. It's basically the history of the Priory of Sion with a murder mystery wrapped around it. I enjoyed the Murder Mystery, but I liked the Historical part of it alot more.

It's similiar to the Clive Cussler or Jack Du Brul books in that there's a story that involves something historical, and I love it when they do that.

The Da Vinci Code begins in the Louvre, where the Curator has been murdered, and has been leaving codes for the police to find to lead them to his killer.

There're the prerequisite twists and turns, and then there's the end

Dan Brown also wrote one called Angels and Demons, that's similiar. There's a bomb in the Vatican, and in order to find out where it is, and solve the case, the Hero (Same one as in Da Vinci Code) has to solve the riddles of the Illuminati )

I love this stuff

Melesse

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: Oct 2001
Location:
Posts: 18145

I read Baigen, Leigh & Lincoln's book and its sequel The Messianic Legacy years ago and found it very interesting. It is not history, nor is it journalism by any stretch. And in some instances they start making outlandish conclusions and work from assumptions that undermine the credibility of their work. However, they make some interesting points about the Synoptic Gospels that caused me to re-think my reading of them. Things like:

Why did the Romans send a cohort of men (600-2000 troops) to arrest some fanatical rabbi and a dozen followers? Things like that and their observations of the wedding at Cana and the identity of Mary of Bethany and the Madgalen and some other points I found very illuminating.

But don't take the whole book too seriously. Read the Messianic Legacy, however, as well. They're both interesting books, but they get a bit carried away and they take themselves just a bit too seriously. I haven't read it in over a dozen years, and I can still remember large pieces of it, so it must have had a certain effect on me as well, I suppose. Dad's read it as well. We had a couple of bookstores in the first half of the 80s, and we both read a lot of the same books.

__________________

[Ignore Sig]

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: May 2002
Location:
Posts: 8821

If only there were a book forum..

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged