Holy Blood, Holy Grail by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, Henry Lincoln
|
List Price: Our Price: $1.80 You Save: $6.19 (77%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Holy Blood, Holy Grail
Book Review: The Book That Inspired The Da Vinci Code
Summary: 5 Stars
Holy Blood/Holy Grail by Michael Baigent and his research team inspired the recent and best selling novel, The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown. This book, published in the 80's, rocked the foundation of many people's Christian beliefs and caused quite a great controversy. This was also the same decade that saw the Scorcese film "The Last Temptation Of Christ" which feauted a dream sequence in which Jesus and Mary Magdalene engage in human intercourse and are apparently in love. The theory is not altogether new. For years, these ideas have been put together by collecting the Apocryphal and Gnostic Gospels that never made it to the standard Bible. The Gospel Of Mary Magdalene is the most important, since she is in her own words relating how she was the most loved of Jesus' followers. Extensive research lead others, like Laurence Gardner, to collect a wealth of information on the theory. And there are so many reasons why one could believe this. First of all, the information is always open to public scrutiny and criticism. Baigent, Gardner and Da Vinci Code writer Dan Brown are not forcing anyone to believe this notion of Jesus being a father and married to Mary Magdalene. They are merely expressing their own beliefs. Most of the population in the West (North America, South America and Europe) believe that Jesus is either the son of God or God himself. A lot of people are not ready to believe other ideas. It's really up to you. This book only offers their thoughts on what they regard as truth. It does not cheapen or lessen the glory of Jesus in any way. He was a great man nonetheless and his wisdom and teachings helped millions live a better life. Jesus is to the West what Buddha is to the East. It's that simple.This book mostly proposes the question and only offers some evidence. Laurence Gardner, who must have read this book himself, gathered a lot more information and "evidence". Jesus, who was a Jewishs man let's not forget, could not have remained single and chaste for so long. Also, there is no mention in the Gospels of his teen years and life in his 20's. There is missing time after his 12th birthday when he hob-nobbed with the Jewish rabbis and temple scholars and when he was ages 30-33 at which time he was conducting his ministry with his disciples only to die on the Cross and "resurrect" on the third day. What did he do in his 20's ? Is it possible that he remained single that long ? Jewish tradition was far more strict and single men were looked upon as weird or even mistrusted citizens. Mary Magdalene has always been dubbed a whore and prostitute, though repentent, but she is still connected to Jesus in a signifcant, vague way. Why was she at his tomb the day after he was buried ? Would'nt a wife be paying tribute to her dead husband that way ? Why was she the first who saw him in his resurrected body ? It somehow indicates that she was intimately close to him to deserve such honors. She might have been either his wife or his favorite follower and Disciple to whom he may have even trusted the Church he founded. The Chuch would later cover this up by having Peter, who never liked Mary Magdalene because he was a sexist, becoming the first Pope or Christian leader after Jesus' death. As for Mary Magdalene, she became an obscure figure who has only little mention in the Bible, condemned as a prostitute, when for all we know she may have been of royal blood as Jesus was of royal blood. Her obscurity even triggered the search for the lost Goddess figure. The Goddess, or Shekinah, was the wife of God who was later demolished in a male-dominated religion. I find this book is very great to read for the open minded.
Book Review: Something is amiss! ET IN ARCADIA EGO.
Summary: 5 Stars
First as a novel of suspense and intrigue, an intellectual adventure, this book is great. You will literally not be able to put it down. That's where the five star rating comes from. That said, however, there is something not right going on here . . . it just doesn't bode well. The naive of course are busy either attacking the book for its wild (ridiculous!) style of speculation upon speculation and poor historical method (they are right, but for all the wrong reasons of course), or they are praising the book as some astounding new discovery. There's nothing really new here however. Anyone familiar with the Koran knows that it presents a radically different picture of Jesus than that found in the Bible. And, heresy has been around since the beginning, folks. God knows the Church has enemies, enough to fill an entire continent. But, I feel the important thing here, and the overlooked important thing at that, has absolutely nothing to do with the concocted pseudo-history of Jesus' alleged marriage to Mary Magdalene, and the propagation of some sort of bloodline from her (there simply is not any documentation of this). . . . Okay, let's cut to the chase folks, and this is the disturbing question to ask. But, we have to ask it. What the hell is the Priory of Zion, and what does it want? And, who the hell is Pierre Plantard, and what does he want? Those reviewers who believe there is more than meets the eye here are likely right.Let's look at this alleged organization, the Priory of Zion. What are its goals? Obviously they are political. Are they nationalist? Are they communist? Or, do they promote some sort of other, as yet poorly understood, political ideology? I believe it's likely that the authors ran into (or they themselves were part of) a ring of spies, who repeatedly left cryptic messages in the Parisian library under the title "Les Dosiers Secrets". And, as spies are known to do, what better way to pass on their message than to encode them in some postmodern occult myth, a bloodline stemming from Jesus Christ, the Merovingian dynasty, the Knights Templar, the prophecies of St. Malachy (and just think what these have to say for the future of the papacy), the artwork of Poussin, the mystery of Rennes-le-chateau, the crazed priest who puts a sign on the door of his church "This place is terrible!", and of course the secret society the Priory of Zion . . . we know where this is leading. Obviously these things could easily be taken as code-talk for the current state of political affairs. French political affairs no less, French Revolutionary political affairs. And, that's precisely what I believe they are. (The careful observer of political affairs might want to take a look at the book _Fire in the Minds of Men_, which discusses in great detail the workings of secret societies, mostly Freemasonic and Illuminist in nature, behind the French and Russian revolutions.) This book has the stench of bad European politics to it. And, we all know how bad, bad European politics can be, especially given the atrocities of the past century. My personal hunch is that what you have in your hands is a piece of Bolshevik propaganda; call me paranoid.
Interestingly, Umberto Eco took up the themes in this book and wrote the "fictional" (yeah right!) novel _Foucault's Pendulum_. You might want to check this out for parallels.
Book Review: REALLY!?!?!
Summary: 5 Stars
I first must confess that I haven't finished the book yet, but I'm already going to comment. I'm of course, guilty of flipping to the back and getting to the point, and I must say, it was the smartest thing I could have done for myself. I found it extremely perplexing, and without a doubt I found myself saying "really" a number of times, a great number of times. I won't give you any examples, just because what I fine interesting, you might find incoherent. One part that I did find most thrilling was the introduction when the three authors was on the Berry Norman show, and Berry asked Hugh Montefoire, bishop of Birmingham; if he found this book could be potentially dangerous? Without a simple hesitation, the bishop responded "absolutely." Then the producers said cut, and they wanted the Bishop to say something else. I won't say what, for I want you to read it yourself. I find right there, a perfect example of what censorship can truly do. Edit out actual feelings, unto staged acting. Another section in the introduction I found extremely puzzling is that when the book was being "reviewed" or "criticized," A bishop, I won't say who said they found seventy-nine errors in this book. The Authors being exuberated with disbelief found small, petty mistakes, one example that stands out to me, would be. That the Authors said, "the Greek city of Ephesus," and not "the city of Ephesis in Greece." Well in fact Ephesis is in Asia Minor. The authors could only plea guilty to this, even though it wasn't their fault; the printers are the ones who made the mistake. The thing I find interesting in all of this, is that a bishop who obviously spent his entire life to god, couldn't handle any sort of "actual fact?" against what he so strongly believes. So he picks at anything and everything he can find to try to downgrade this book. Now remember this is all in the introduction. I still had 400 more pages to read of this possible truth. This book has easily enough information to seriously challenge many Christian beliefs. This book is very convincing and even the most faithful Christians will be moved in some sort of emotional imbalance to their everyday beliefs. I suggest if you ever had a question against the Christian bible, or for the Christian bible, I would strongly suggest this book, (and remember I haven't finished it yet.) Things such as the "real?" status of Mary Magdelan, The Crucifixion might have been a hoax with even the Roman Empire involved with the plot. Read for yourself, and judge for yourself, you might look at Jesus in a different light.
Book Review: A New View of History; Hard to Put Down
Summary: 5 Stars
Several documentaries of some of the authors' claims have appeared on the Discover and Learning Channels, but I bought this after playing some of "Gabriel Knight III," which is based on the book's material and even introduces it, in a different name. The purchase of this book was certainly worth it, as it was very interesting. _Holy Blood, Holy Grail,_ a play on the old french SANGRAAL, which can be broekn up to mean either, is a conspiracy theory. The conspiracy theory is huge, encompassing the past several millenea and presenting a view more fluid than the orthodox one has.
However, the author's fail to support several of their claims. At other times they contradict themselves, such as "The French Revolution was a disaster for the Order of Sion," accompanied mere pages later by "There is no Reason to Believe that the Order of Sion is less powerful than it was in the past."
Also there are a couple red herrings, some of which take up considerable space and go nowhere. The Tribe of Benjamin for about a 100 pages seems meaningful, but then it brushed off as "irrelevent."
And then they're the author's weird political attitudes. In the Conclusion it calls for a reinstatement of feudalism. This strange view is extended into the past, as where repeatedly the authors claim that the Roman Catholic Church's "abandonment" of the Merovignians was inexcuable, indefensivle, etc., though the authors themselves espouce the original theory than the Merovignians had secretly converted back to Arianism some time before.
According to the author's Constantine's conversion to Christianity was merely politics. Then they doubt it happended at all. Then they claim that he maybe converted, but really was a Sun worshipper. Then we're told he was converted against his will.
The authors twist the Bible to suit their own ends. It claims one Gospel said he was born rhich. It claims that he, explicitly mentioned as a guest in the story of Water into Wine, was the groom.
In summary, if you want an original, bizzare, and all-encompassing conspiracy theory read this book. If you want to learn history, look elsewhere (_The Last Apocolypse_ is highly recommended). If you want to learn about the effects of Christianity, read a book by Thomas Cahill.
Book Review: A seminal work
Summary: 5 Stars
Holy Blood, Holy Grail is a seminal book that has inspired several others, including the best-selling fictional book by Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code, and the non-fiction The Woman With the Alabaster Jar, by Margaret Starbird.
From the back cover:
"Is the traditional accepted view of the life of Christ in some way incomlete?
"* Is it possible Christ did not die on the cross?
* Is it possible Jesus was married, a father, and that his bloodline still exists?
* Is it possible that parchments found in the South of France a century ago reveal one of the best-kept secrets in Christendom?
* Is it possible that these parchments contain the very heart of the mystery of the Holy Grail?
"According to the authors of this extraordinarily provocative, meticulously researched book, not only are these things possible--they are probably true! So revolutionary, so original, so convincing, that the most faithful Christians will be moved; here is the book that has sparked worldwide controversy."
Many questions, and few answers.
Holy Blood, Holy Grail is the result of over a decade of careful research by its three authors, who came to whatever conclusions they were able to make only after sifting through thousands of documents, seeking answers; answers which were often illusive. But they found much circumstantial evidence which led them to educated conjecture, often speculative, but nevertheless enough to satisfy any reasonable, open-minded jury.
I heard about this book through reading others which dealt with the same general subject matter. It did not disappoint, but the reader should be forewarned: it is not light reading. Be prepared to read while comparing passages to other material, especially the Bible, taking notes, keeping track of names of people and places and dates, and generally staying alert.
For me, it was most persuasive. For others, perhaps less so. It would be well if the reader has some knowledge already of church history, has read some of the Gnostic gospels and is familiar with the currently orthodox Bible--either Catholic or protestant.
Joseph (Joe) Pierre
author of The Road to Damascus: Our Journey Through Eternity
and other books