May 04 2008
New documentary claims Jesus married, had child
A controversial new documentary, following in the footsteps of the popular, if heretical, “The Da Vinci Code,” asks the brazen question: “What if the greatest story ever told was a lie?” Coming to theaters later this month, “Bloodline” seeks to prove the conspiracy tale that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and had a child whose bloodline continues today. Ben Hammott, an English adventurer, claims to have discovered in southwest France a remote tomb and relics from Jerusalem, dated back to the first century. The discovery provides the subject matter for this new film about what producers say is “the Church’s best kept secret.”
The findings include a pottery cup and an ointment vase that were reportedly used at the alleged marriage of Jesus and Mary Magdalene.The British Museum and Gabriel Barkay of Bar Ilan University in Jerusalem have analyzed the items.
“It is possible that artifacts excavated by the Templars on Temple Mount would find a way to Europe,” said Barkay. “The finds in this chest are really intriguing and it is really something that inflames the imagination.”
The tomb contained a mummified corpse lying beneath a shroud with a red cross, the symbol of the Knights Templar, a medieval Christian military order. The documentary shows that a DNA test revealed that the corpse is of Middle Eastern origin.
According to the documentary, the tomb was discovered because of information found in a bundle of papers, hidden by a French priest at the end of the 19th century. The papers explained that he discovered the tomb and it led to him to break from his Catholic faith.
“The resurrection of Jesus was a trick, it was Mary Magdalene who took his body from his tomb,” the priest said. “Later, the body of Jesus was discovered by the Templars and then hidden three times. Not in Jerusalem. The Tomb is here. Parts of the body are safe.”
Read more here.
[From me]
Knights Templar? This sounds more like a Disney movie with Nicolas Cage. Where do they get this stuff?
3 responses so far
It is all about $$$. When a work like the DaVinci Code is financially successful people will mimic it in various forms.
Neil’s last blog post..Bible study tips / 1 John 5
NOT the “Christ kids” crap again!!!
I read “Holy Blood, Holy Grail” years ago, which more or less kicked-off this entire thing. Even its own authors now declare, more than a quarter-century later, that it’s rubbish. Very good fiction though, but very bad history.
Then two years ago I finally read “The Da Vinci Code” (no, I ain’t seen the movie), and after finishing the last page I literally threw the book at the wall for the time wasted on it. As Salman Rushdie said, “It’s a book so bad it makes bad books look good.”
(Here’s the review that I wrote of it, if anyone’s interested.)
There are probably dozens of fascinating historical mysteries regarding the life of Christ, any one of which has some factual evidence for it. I’m not too entirely doubtful that Jesus might have spent some of his early years in England, as has been speculated. Wouldn’t either increase or decrease my faith if He did, though. Neither would it add anything substantial to what we know of Him already. But we only seem to hear about the stuff that’s advertised to bring down the faith, not build it up or otherwise give us reason to appreciate Christian history.
I see this sort of thing happen every few years. Some “historian” comes out of the woodwork with “earth-shattering evidence” that threatens to explode not just Christianity but all of western civilization. Not one has stood up to rigorous scrutiny. Neither will this. It will probably be not much more than a vague memory a year from now.
Chris Knight’s last blog post..New THE DARK KNIGHT trailer strikes online and it is EPIC!
Chris,
I agree. I don’t think the claims are credible at all; the closer you look them, the less plausible they seem. I think the only value in the publicity that the claims get is that they can engender potentially meaningful discussions about what actually is historic and how do we know.