Tuesday, February 08, 2005
ANOTHER GRAIL BOOK
From a Masonic e-zine called the American Mason:
BLOODLINE OF THE HOLY GRAIL The Hidden Lineage of Jesus Revealed
By Laurence Gardner
Reviewed by: Staff
This curious book by the internationally known chivalric geneologist Laurence Gardner argues that France’s Merovingian dynasty are descendant from Jesus and his brother, James. Unshrouded, Gardner contends that Jesus did not die on the cross, but was taken down alive, revived and recovered to marry Mary Magdelene and bear children, extending the Davidian line ( Jesus was descended) to today’s Merovingians.
What happened then? James became leader of one branch of Christianity, sometimes known as the Gnostic branch, while another leader emerged, Saul of Tasarsis who spread a resurrection version of Jesus dying on the cross throughout Europe and the Roman Empire. Saul became St. Paul and the father of Christanity as practiced today by Roman Catholic and Protestant Christians alike. James was stoned to death. Mary Magdelene was purposely obscured by parties unknown wherein Magdalene became someone else, and whenever reference was made to Mary they were as the mother of Jesus.
This approach persisted through the Dark Ages, the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance. Paulist Christianity prevailed and the Jamesian version went into carefully engineered obscurity. Those who want to pursue this line further can explore translations of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Nag Himmaldi parchments for more on James and Gnostic Christianity. It gets complex. But Bloodline of the Holy Grail makes interesting speculative reading for brethren interested in Masonic antiquity—particularly involving those chapters on the Knights Templar of the early Crusades.
Laurence Gardner is a very busy man. His speaking schedule, radio events, and magazine articles are listed here. To say he gets around is putting it mildly.
Here is a Nexus interview with Gardner in which he responds to the question "Is Arch the same as Ark, then?":
In a certain context, yes. The Greek word ark, meaning "gathering box", is arc in English and arche in French. The Oxford Word Library defines the word ark as an obsolete form of the modern English word arc. It was equivalent to the Latin arca, a "chest", "box" or "coffer". Archaeology was about a quest for the Ark. Storage places are called archives. Ancient mysteries are called arcane. Ark-based construction, as used by the Templars, became known as architecture, from which we also get arch, architrave, etc. Masonic lore was based on arcane architectural geometry, and the term Royal Arch or Ark stemmed from this.
In Lost Secrets of the Sacred Ark, I've included a colour plate of Templars in 1147, twenty years after they returned from Jerusalem. The painting, from the Château de Versailles, depicts them with the Ark of the Covenant at the Paris Chapter House.
At the History Channel website discussion board I found an interesting comment:
the real shame with this documentary is that the leading and trusted scholar of the topic laurence gardner wasn't
consulted
the catholics certainly didn't want this message out as another post said
most of brown's work is not fiction and the order of zion
existed even before stated unlike another post
At the Rosslyn Chapel Trust website which offers books for sale, Gardner's book Lost Secrets of the Sacred Ark appears on the list. Genesis of the Grail Kings by Gardner is also there. The Da Vinci Code is there as well, along with more books by the authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail
Sort of helps to explain why the ossuary box that was attributed to the Apostle James was so significant, doesn't it?
