Jesus bloodline

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The Jesus bloodline (not to be confused with the genealogy of Jesus or the Desposyni) is a modern hypothesis which asserts that the historical Jesus had at least one natural child with Mary Magdalene or another woman. The hypothesis was first postulated by Donovan Joyce in his 1973 book The Jesus Scroll,[1] then by Andreas Faber-Kaiser in his 1977 book Jesus died in Kashmir, where he interviewed the late Basharat Saleem who claimed to be a descendant of Jesus.[2] It was popularized by the 1982 controversial non-fiction book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln.[3]

Margaret Starbird later developed the hypothesis that Saint Sarah was the daughter of Jesus and Mary Magdalene and that this was the source of the legend associated with the cult at Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer. She also claimed that the name "Sarah" meant "Princess" in Hebrew, thus making her the forgotten child of the "sang raal", the blood royal of the King of the Jews.[4] Barbara Thiering also developed a Jesus bloodline hypothesis in her books, basing her historical conclusions about Jesus on her own particular interpretation of the Pesher technique applied to the Dead Sea scrolls.[5]

The authors of the 2000 book Rex Deus: The True Mystery of Rennes-Le-Chateau;[6] and later the 2003 conspiracy fiction novel The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown, accepted both of the above theses as being valid. The 1996 book, Bloodline of the Holy Grail by Laurence Gardner is unique in that it presents dubious pedigree charts of Jesus as ancestor of all the royal families of European history.

Elements of the hypothesis are propounded by the 2007 documentary film The Lost Tomb of Jesus by Simcha Jacobovici focusing on the Talpiot Tomb discovery,[7] that was also published as a book entitled The Jesus Family Tomb.[8]

Hypothesis

The Jesus bloodline hypothesis was popularized by the 1982 controversial non-fiction book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln, in which the authors argued:

The symbolic significance of Jesus is that he is God exposed to the spectrum of human experience - exposed to the first-hand knowledge of what being a man entails. But could God, incarnate as Jesus, truly claim to be a man, to encompass the spectrum of human experience, without coming to know two of the most basic, most elemental facets of the human condition? Could God claim to know the totality of human existence without confronting two such essential aspects of humanity as sexuality and paternity? We do not think so. In fact, we do not not think the Incarnation truly symbolises what it is intended to symbolise unless Jesus were married and sired children. The Jesus of the Gospels, and of established Christianity, is ultimately incomplete - a God whose incarnation as man is only partial. The Jesus who emerged from our research enjoys, in our opinion, a much more valid claim to what Christianity would have him be.[3]

Although they have become intertwined in some accounts, there are two different versions of the Jesus bloodline hypothesis.

Merovingian dynasty

The main elements of the Merovingian version of the most well-known Jesus bloodline hypothesis are that:

  • The historical Jesus was a descendant of both King David and High Priest Aaron;
  • The historical Jesus had a child or children with Mary Magdalene, with whom he was married;
  • The child or children of the historical Jesus and Mary Magdalene were part of the Desposyni;
  • The European descendants of these children became the Merovingian dynasty, which ruled the Franks from 457 to 751;
  • The Roman Catholic Church has conspired to systematically suppress the truth about the historical Jesus, Mary Magdalene and their bloodline for 2000 years;
  • The Church tried to kill off all remnants of this bloodline and their supposed guardians, the Cathars and the Knights Templar, in order to maintain its power through the apostolic succession of Peter instead of the hereditary succession of Mary Magdalene;
  • There is a secret society known as the Priory of Sion (regardless of whether it was created during the Middle Ages or modern times) which is manipulating political happenings from behind the scenes in their bid to install elite members of this bloodline on the thrones of France and the rest of Europe.

Rex Deus dynasty

The main elements of the Rex Deus (Latin for "King God") version of the Jesus bloodline hypothesis are that:

  • There is a bloodline descended from both King David and High Priest Aaron;
  • The bloodline consists of Israelite noble families who preserved their dual lineage intact;
  • The bloodline includes the historical Jesus, Mary Magdalene, their children, and the Desposyni;
  • Members of the bloodline have appointed themselves as the custodians of the mysteries of Judaism and Christianity;
  • The bloodline avoided persecution by adopting the strategy of blending in with whatever culture and religion they happened to be in the presence of (compare with Taqiyya), while secretly passing on from generation to generation their true beliefs and rituals;
  • The bloodline also survived culturally by disseminating certain ideas which became embedded within the psyche of the people of Europe. A notable example would be Arthurian legend and Grail lore.

Claimants

The following is a list of notable persons who have and continue to claim to be of the Jesus bloodline:

Religious adherence

In reaction to The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, The Da Vinci Code, and other controversial books on the same theme, a significant number of individuals in the New Age movement of the late 20th and early 21st centuries have adopted a religious devotion to the hypothetical Jesus bloodline.[15] They believe this "holy bloodline" will eventually breed a lineal descendant of Jesus who will become a messiah - a sacred king, endowed with a higher consciousness, who will rule a Federal Europe or a world government - during an event which they will interpret as a figurative second coming of Jesus.[16]

The views of many of these "adherents to the bloodline" are influenced by the writings of academics and laymen who seek to challenge predominant Judeo-Christian beliefs and institutions through a systematic defense of the "sacred feminine".[17][18][19][20][21][22] These iconoclasts often portray Mary Magdalene as being the apostle of a Christian feminism, and even the personification of the mother goddess, usually associating her with the Black Madonna.[23] Some, such as Margaret Starbird, wish the ceremony that celebrated the beginning of the alleged marriage of Jesus and Mary Magdalene to be viewed as a "holy wedding"; and Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and their alleged daughter, Sarah, to be viewed as a "holy family".[24]

No mainstream Christian denomination has adhered to the Jesus bloodline hypothesis as a doctrine or a source of devotion since they maintain that Jesus, being God the Son, was perpetually celibate, continent and chaste, and metaphysically married to the Church. Furthermore, they maintain that Jesus died, was resurrected, ascended to heavean, and will eventually return to earth thereby making his second coming a literal event.[15]

Many fundamentalist Christians believe the Antichrist, mentioned in the Book of Revelation, plans to use the fact that he is of the Davidic line to bolster his false claim that he is Jewish Messiah as propaganda having the primary purpose of influencing the opinions, emotions, attitudes, and behavior of both Jews and Christians in such a way as to support the achievement of Satanic objectives.

Criticism

The Jesus bloodline hypothesis has parallels with other legends about the flight of disciples to distant lands, such as the one depicting Joseph of Arimathea traveling to England after the death of Jesus taking with him a piece of thorn from the Crown of Thorns, which he later planted in Glastonbury. Historians generally regard these legends as "pious fraud" produced during the Middle Ages.[25][26][27]

The Jesus bloodline hypothesis from the book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail is not contained in any of the "Priory of Sion documents" and was dismissed as fiction by Pierre Plantard in 1982 on a French radio interview, as well as by Philippe de Cherisey in a magazine article.[28][29] Plantard claimed that the Merovingians were only descended from the Tribe of Benjamin,[30] which contradicts the Jesus bloodline hypothesis which traces the Merovingians to the Davidic line from the Tribe of Judah. While the Desposyni (the relatives of Jesus and their descendants) are claimed to have existed in various anti-gnostic Christian texts that have only survived by way of quotations;[31] the notion of a direct bloodline from Jesus and Mary Magdalene, and its supposed relationship to the Merovingians, is strongly dismissed as pseudohistorical by an overwhelming majority of academic historians such as Darrell Bock and Bart Ehrman,[32][33] as have journalists and investigators such as Jean-Luc Chaumeil, who has an extensive archive on this subject matter.

In 2005, UK TV presenter and amateur archaeologist Tony Robinson edited and narrated a detailed rebuttal of the main arguments of Dan Brown and those of Baigent, Leigh, and Lincoln, "The Real Da Vinci Code", shown on Channel 4.[34] The programme featured lengthy interviews with many of the main protagonists and cast severe doubt on, among other related myths, the alleged landing of Mary Magdalene in France by interviewing on film the inhabitants of Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, the centre of the cult of Saint Sarah.

The speculation surrounding a Rex Deus bloodline is based upon dubious historical evidence that has been supposedly lost, therefore conveniently cannot be independently verified. The authors' informant who related this revisionist history is named "Michael", who claimed that the evidence was contained in his father's bureau. The account goes as follows:

Sadly, Michael's father died suddenly ... and by the time he returned to the family home he found that the bureau and all it contained had been appropriated by a brother. Bound by his oath of secrecy, he could never explain why he wanted it back and, despite the best efforts, he has not seen that piece of furniture nor its contents from that day to this and he has reason to believe that his brother sold the bureau, an antique of some value, blissfully unaware of its contents."[6]

Robert Lockwood, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh’s director for communications, sees the hypothesis of Jesus having had children and its cover-up by the Church as a deliberate piece of anti-Catholic propaganda; he compares it with Reformation period allegations such as the sexual misbehavior of Popes (which did actually occur: see, for example, Pope Alexander VI) and sees it as part of a long tradition of anti-Catholic feeling with deep roots in the American Protestant imagination.[35]

The Fellows of the Jesus Seminar, a group of scholars involved in the quest for the historical Jesus from a liberal religious perspective, concluded that the notion that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene or some other woman (regardless of whether or not this union produced a child or children) is possible, and should not be viewed as "heretical", "blasphemous" or "anti-Christian". They argue that there is no biblical or historical evidence which conclusively supports or refutes such a notion.[36]

Ultimately, the notion that a person living millennia ago has a small number of descendants living today is statistically improbable.[37] Steve Olson, author of Mapping Human History: Genes, Race, and Our Common Origins, published an article in Nature demonstrating that, as a matter of statistical probability, "[i]f anyone living today is descended from Jesus, so are most of us on the planet."[38] The Y-chromosomal Aaron experiments have recently shown that many Europeans of Jewish ancestry do appear to have a shared paternal lineage, traditionally ascribed to the high priest Aaron, as a priest in the Jewish faith must fulfill this criterion.[39]

Notes

  1. ^ Donovan Joyce, The Jesus Scroll, a time bomb for Christianity? p. 97-98 (Sphere Books, 1975; ISBN 0 7221 5103 9).
  2. ^ Andreas Faber-Kaiser, Jesus died in Kashmir: Jesus, Moses and the Ten lost Tribes of Israel (London: Gordon and Cremonesi; 1977).
  3. ^ a b Baigent, Michael; Leigh, Richard; Lincoln, Henry (1982). The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail. Corgi. ISBN 0-552-12138-X.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  4. ^ Margaret Starbird, The Woman with the Alabaster Jar: Mary Magdalen and the Holy Grail, Bear & Company, 1993.
  5. ^ For a discussion between Barbara Thiering and Geza Vermes surrounding this, see http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2065
  6. ^ a b Rex Deus: The True Mystery of Rennes-Le-Chateau. Element Books. 2000. ISBN 1862044724. {{cite book}}: Cite uses deprecated parameter |authors= (help)
  7. ^ The Lost Tomb of Jesus (The Discovery Channel), first transmitted on 4 March 2007.
  8. ^ Simcha Jacobovici and Charles Pellegrino,The Jesus Family Tomb: The Discovery, the Investigation, and the Evidence That Could Change History(HarperOne, 2007).
  9. ^ The Tomb of Jesus Christ
  10. ^ Mystery of the Martyr's Tomb: Part Two
  11. ^ Laurence Gardner, Bloodline of the Holy Grail: The Hidden Lineage of Jesus Revealed p. 338 (Element Books Limited; 1996).
  12. ^ The Man Who Would Be King
  13. ^ Los Angeles Times (2006). "Author takes leap of faith with theory of Mary Magdalene". Retrieved 2008-04-15. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  14. ^ Carol Memmott (2006). "Is this woman the living 'Code'?". Retrieved 2008-04-15. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  15. ^ a b Bertrand Ouellet, "“But you, who do you say that I am?” Proclaiming Jesus Christ after the Da Vinci tsunami", officecom.qc.ca, 2006. Retrieved on 2008-04-23.
  16. ^ Baigent, Michael; Leigh, Richard; Lincoln, Henry (1987). The Messianic Legacy. Dell. ISBN 0-440-20319-8.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  17. ^ L. Shannon Andersen, The Magdalene Awakening (Pelican Press, 2006).
  18. ^ Siobhan Houston, Invoking Mary Magdalene: Accessing the Wisdom of the Divine Feminine (Integrated book and CD; Sounds True; Har/Com edition; 2007).
  19. ^ Bettye Johnson, Secrets of the Magdalene Scrolls: The Forbidden Truth of the Life And Times of Mary Magdalene (Living Free Press; 2005).
  20. ^ Claire Nahmad and Margaret Bailey, The Secret Teachings of Mary Magdalene: Including the Lost Verses of The Gospel of Mary, Revealed and Published for the First Time (Watkins; 2006).
  21. ^ Elizabeth Clare Prophet, Mary Magdalene and the Divine Feminine: Jesus’ Lost Teachings on Woman (Summit University Press; 2005).
  22. ^ Gail Swanson, The Heart of Love – Mary Magdalene Speaks (Lightning Source; 2006).
  23. ^ Ean Begg, The Cult of the Black Virgin (1985).
  24. ^ Margaret Starbird, The Woman with the Alabaster Jar: Mary Magdalen and the Holy Grail (Bear & Company; 1993).
  25. ^ Roger Sherman Loomis (Editor),Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages. A collaborative history. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1959.
  26. ^ Reginald Francis Treharne, The Glastonbury Legends: Joseph of Arimathea, the Holy Grail and King Arthur, London, Cresset Press, 1969
  27. ^ Joseph Armitage Robinson, Two Glastonbury Legends: King Arthur and St Joseph of Arimathea, University Press, Cambridge, 1926
  28. ^ Quoting Pierre Plantard: "I admit that 'The Sacred Enigma' (French title for 'The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail') is a good book, but one must say that there is a part that owes more to fiction than to fact, especially in the part that deals with the lineage of Jesus. How can you prove a lineage of four centuries from Jesus to the Merovingians? I have never put myself forward as a descendant of Jesus Christ" (Jacques Pradel radio interview on 'France-Inter', 18 February 1982).
  29. ^ Philippe de Chérisey, Jesus Christ, his wife and the Merovingians (Nostra – 'Bizarre News' N° 584, 1983).
  30. ^ Pierre Jarnac, Les Mystères de Rennes-le-Château: Mèlange Sulfureux (CERT, 1994),
  31. ^ The alleged testimony of Hegesippus, quoted in the Ecclesiastical History by Eusebius of Caesarea.
  32. ^ Darrell L. Bock, Was Jesus Married?
  33. ^ Bart Ehrman, Truth and Fiction in The Da Vinci Code: A Historian Reveals What We Really Know about Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and Constantine, Oxford University Press, 2004, ISBN 978-0195181401, quoted at [1]
  34. ^ The Real Da Vinci Code, Channel Four Television, presented by Tony Robinson, transmitted on 3 February 2005
  35. ^ Maier, Craig. ‘Da Vinci’ proves Catholic in Pittburgh Catholic, April 27, 2006
  36. ^ The Acts of Jesus: The Search for the Authentic Deeds of Jesus (1998), Harper SanFrancisco, ISBN 0-06-062979-7
  37. ^ F. M. Lancaster, The Ancestor Paradox
  38. ^ Olson, Steve. Why We're All Jesus' Children in Slate, March 15, 2006
  39. ^ Hammer, M. F. (2000). "Jewish and Middle Eastern non-Jewish populations share a common pool of Y-chromosome biallelic haplotypes". PNAS, Volume 97, Number 12. 97: 6769. doi:10.1073/pnas.100115997. PMID 10801975. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)

External links

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