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Jesus, Mary, and Da Vinci

ASRomatifoso

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This show was on last night. Was pretty good. All about the questions raised in Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code." Not sure how much of it I believe but interesting, nonetheless. I certainly find it easy to believe that the Church conceals things that would damage their position, as many powerful and influential organizations would. Nor do I find it hard to believe that men have marginalized women's roles in religion, as they have done in many other areas of culture and society. Many religions have done this to women, mostly various strains of Christianity and Islam. Anyway, I found the book interesting and I thought the show was pretty balanced in how it looked at some of the questions raised; they gave equal voice to the naysayers and the "goddess worshippers" (as I think of them). They also had the guy who wrote Holy Blood, Holy Grail on there. I don't find him very believable at all and his book has been maligned by many for it's leaps in logic and specious research. Thoughts?
 
ASRomatifoso said:
They also had the guy who wrote Holy Blood, Holy Grail on there. I don't find him very believable at all and his book has been maligned by many for it's leaps in logic and specious research. Thoughts?
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I haven't read The Da Vinci Code, but its reviews lead me to believe that the backstory is an equally fatuous (if less earnest) variation on Holy Blood, Holy Grail. The latter work, incidentally, is on Sylvia Browne's list of recommended books, which is a a dubious endorsement.
 
I read The DaVinci Code and liked it a lot. While it may not be true, it certainly fills in a few of the holes in the Jesus story.

My mother, a devout Christian, read it and liked it. She is, however, pretty open-minded and not threatened by opposing view points.

It is also a very quick read - simple sentence structure and common words - so I ripped through it. I could lay out what I remember of the theory if anyone is interested. But for those interested in reading the book, my comments would contain spoilers.
 
I'm disappointed to hear I missed the show. I'm not particularly interested in wading through a book that I assume to be based on dubious sources - so I'd welcome both your review (with spoilers) and your opinion on the book's sources - if no one objects.

-Chris
 
OK, here goes. For those of you interested in reading a decent mystery book, proceed no further.

Spoiler Space

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I will try to remember as much as possible, but it has been a while, so I may mess up some of the details.

In essence, the book tries to explain the whole story of Jesus from a different perspective. After a lot of mystery, we learn that the Holy Grail is not, in fact, a chalice, but the body of Mary Magdelene.

The Holy Grail is supposed to hold the blood of Christ. Well, the book goes on to explain that the word "blood" is being used in another sense. That is, blood is offspring.

Apparently Mary Magdelene and Jesus were married and had children. This is significant because Jesus was descended from King David, which made Jesus the rightful King of Israel. Now, the Romans saw this as a threat because Jesus was claiming he was a king. And the Jews were upset because they did not want to lose their power to some young upstart.

The Illuminati-type group (I cannot remember their name) was a group of followers of the goddess. They hid the body of Mary, along with actual documents written by Jesus, from the Catholic church because the truth of what Jesus taught was in them. The book didn't go into detail about what was contained in the documents, and in fact the main characters never actually see the Holy Grail, though they discover, in the end, where it is hidden.

Here are some other thoughts from the book:

- It makes more sense that Jesus was married because at the time an unmarried 30-year old Jew would not have been given any respect. At least, this is what the author states as the custom (I have not followed up on it).

- The Catholic Church has tried since the start to suppress the female side of the supernatural, making Mary a whore (when Mary was actually some sort of princess, wealthy and educated), removing women from the Bible, and encouraging witch hunts.

- Part of the secret Order's responsibility was to preserve and know the bloodline of Jesus. I am not sure why. They just did.

- Jesus did not claim divinity. In truth, most of what was written about him was untrue.

This is all I can remember. If I think of more, I will post it.
 
While I enjoyed the central mystery of The Da Vinci Code I felt I was slogging through Dan Brown's writing to get to it. Flashbacks abound, characters frequently launch into long expository passage completely unlike conversation... it could have been written better, I think.
 
For what it's worth, if any of you like early PC graphic adventures, Jane Jensen's Gabriel Knight III: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned. covers exactly this same territory, starting with the mystery of Rennes Le Chateau in the south of France. She does a fantatsic job of mixing the real history of the crusades, the knights templar, the priory of scion, and the freemasons, into the speculation surrounding the death of a historical Jesus.

Sometimes it can be a bit clunky but it's mostly entertaining, and she does a fairly thorough intricate examination of Le Serpent Rouge as part of the puzzle solving.

Overall, it's a good time.
 
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