Holy Blood, Holy Grail
Although the copyright date of this non-fiction study of the Holy Grail was 1982, the book regained popularity after being mentioned in Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code, published in 2003. The book is based on an investigation of New Testament gospels, which date back to the 1st century A.D.,and other documents, that have been found since then. Some of these documents concerned the Prieure de Sion, a secret group in which men such as Leonardo Di Vinci, Sir Isaac Newton, Victor Hugo, and Claude Debussy were once the grand masters. Nearly all of these men were basically Catholic, but they all held strong unorthodox religious beliefs and were known to possess a "secret weapon" that could some day intimidate the Vatican.
Through their studies, the authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail, found evidence that the Holy Grail could represent several things: it could be a vessel that contained Jesus’ bloodline, or it could have referred to the womb of Mary Magdalene, if Jesus had married her and they had children. The authors contend there is no reason why Jesus’ "divinity should be dependent on sexual chastity."
The bigger question is whether Jesus actually died on the cross. Several documents state that he did not, that there was a substitute hung on the cross in his place, and that the substitute was put in the tomb instead of Jesus. If this is true, it is likely that Jesus and his family escaped. However, the New Testament gospels found it necessary to tell of his death on the cross, possibly to "exonerate the Romans of all guilt for Jesus’ death...and blame the death of the Messiah on certain Jews."
The fact that Christianity is based on the chastity of Jesus, his sacrificial death on the cross, and his immortality as the Son of God, becomes questionable. But the authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail contend that, "The Jesus who emerges from our research enjoys....a much more valid claim to what Christianity would have him be."
That this information might be the "secret weapon" of the Prieure de Sion, or just a small part of it, makes the book most intriguing.