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| Holy Blood, Holy Grail | 
| Authors: Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, Henry Lincoln
Publisher: Dell
Category: Book
List Price: $7.99
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Avg. Customer Rating:  474 reviews
Sales Rank: 9529
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 496
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 6.8 x 4.1 x 1.2
ISBN: 0440136482
Dewey Decimal Number: 944
EAN: 9780440136484
ASIN: 0440136482
Publication Date: January 15, 1983
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com
Michael Baigent, Henry Lincoln, and Richard Leigh, authors of The Messianic Legacy, spent over 10 years on their own kind of quest for the Holy Grail, into the secretive history of early France. What they found, researched with the tenacity and attention to detail that befits any great quest, is a tangled and intricate story of politics and faith that reads like a mystery novel. It is the story of the Knights Templar, and a behind-the-scenes society called the Prieure de Sion, and its involvement in reinstating descendants of the Merovingian bloodline into political power. Why? The authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail assert that their explorations into early history ultimately reveal that Jesus may not have died on the cross, but lived to marry and father children whose bloodline continues today. The authors' point here is not to compromise or to demean Jesus, but to offer another, more complete perspective of Jesus as God's incarnation in man. The power of this secret, which has been carefully guarded for hundreds of years, has sparked much controversy. For all the sensationalism and hoopla surrounding Holy Blood, Holy Grail and the alternate history that it outlines, the authors are careful to keep their perspective and sense of skepticism alive in its pages, explaining carefully and clearly how they came to draw such combustible conclusions. --Jodie Buller
Product Description
Is the traditional, accepted view of the life of Christ in some way incomplete?
• 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 of 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 controversey.
"Enough to seriously challenge many traditional Christian beliefs, if not alter them."
— Los Angeles Times Book Review
"Like Chariots of the Gods?...the plot has all the elements of an international thriller."
— Newsweek
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| Customer Reviews: Read 469 more reviews...
 Book Revies May 9, 2008
The book arrived in excellent condition. Look like I had just plucked it off the shelf. No yellowing of pages, dog ears or tares.
 Book Review April 24, 2008
After reading The Davinci Code, this gives you more reasons to think. Very interesting if you can stay objective.
 None March 23, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I have enjoyed reading the book. My only negative comment is that it is 25 years dated and there has been considerable new and updated study since this was first published. It was well worth the read.
 Tough Read February 18, 2008
I had a difficult time following this book and staying interested. It came highly recommended to me and I think I had higher expectations than what it delivered.
The Book that set off the firestorm leading to the Da Vinci Code February 1, 2008
Introduction
It must be said up front that this is probably an apocryphal story. But so are most biblical stories. However, this is one whose veracity, coherence, and credulity is at least "no worse" than, and lies on the same plane as, "the best of faith-based biblical history." Which is another way of saying that it is at least no worse than any standard orthodox biblical history. In this regard, it is not insignificant to point out that the much-respected biblical scholar Karen Armstrong gives religious history a much needed "pass" by redefining it as the "recording of a history of a faith" rather than as "history" per se. Of course, her artful circumlocution does nothing to fix the problems inherent in the gaping lack of credibility in most biblical history.
"Faith based history," or "a history of faith" (or whatever else one wants to call it) even at its best is no better than the worse history fashioned in this impressive narrative. The bottom line is that neither is "real history" in the sense that either can be "fact-checked," or "proven" to be entirely (or even partially) true. Thus both, in important ways, lie on the same plane of fictional reconstruction: They are reconstructed stories, narratives, and morality tales fashioned after the fact to make or to emphasize certain points. Arguably, all attempts at religious history are attempts to come to grips with, and come up with, the best reconstruction of a historical picture that supports the existing theology; and must to do so very much after the fact.
But even fiction must have its day in the court of world opinion. Even fiction has its own canons and standards of excellence, and must, at the very least, maintain a consistent relationship and alignment with the underlying truths it is committed to tell and defend. Arguably, when ideology, theology and emotional beliefs come into play -- as is the case with most religious canons and biblical texts -- the truth goes south. Or, as is the cliche about war, the truth is the first casualty. And while others have argued better than I, that this is certainly the case with most religious history, this is not at all the case with the story, told here in Holy Blood Holy Grail.
This story is the valiant attempt by three religious scholars of competing sects, who agreed to temporary lay aside their theological differences in order to engage in a joint research project, the task of which was to seek the truth about Jesus' bloodline and reconstruct a coherent picture of the events that took place two thousand years ago during and after Jesus' crucifixion. All they had as research tools were their fierce objectivity and the same secondary and tertiary documentary sources that were used to put the bible itself together. Quite simply, it is an investigative journey by respected biblical scholars, of biblical proportions, in an effort to come to grips with, and arrange into a coherent and meaningful mosaic, either what was "completely unknown," or the "slightly known" facts of the history of that period. That said, here is a basic summary of a beautifully coherent and well-told story.
The Story
The story told here, is a stark and rather controversial alternative to official biblical history, but one that keeps recurring in the secular, and now, among biblical scholars. It maintains that Jesus was an "anti-Roman Jewish revolutionary" who used the guise of an itinerant religious teacher to engage in anti-Roman subversive political activities, all with the hope of returning the power taken over by the Romans back to its rightful owners, the Jewish House of David. As all histories agree, Jesus and many of his closest confederates were eventually either dispersed or rounded up, and like Jesus, summarily executed via crucifixion. However, since Jesus was not the poor itinerate son of a carpenter he posed as in public, but instead was a well-connected heir of the Jewish King, Solomon, through the House of David. He, at least for a brief time, and somehow with the help of confederates in the Sanhedrine, managed to survive the crucifixion, pulled off the cross wounded but still alive. The tales as to how he might have done this, vary, but most are plausible given the context of the times. In any case, they cannot be proven or dis-proven any more than the religious alternative to them can be, and he did eventually die and left behind an impregnated wife, Mary Magdalene. At least that is the consistent story these alternatives all tell.
As the tenor of the times would suggest "the coming of Messiahs," "being raised from the dead," all sorts of magic, including claims of "survival after death," were standard fare for those very hectic and politically incendiary times. In fact, "survival after death" was the "gold standard" for not only spooking the Romans, who were losing faith in their own gods, but also the best proselytizing tool for gathering in anti-Roman and religious converts and recruits.
Thus, using the crucifixion as a way of making a virtue out of necessity, (rather than what it really was: abject revolutionary defeat), Jesus' brief survival after his crucifixion, became the basis of a theater of revolutionary martyrdom for Jesus' anti-Roman revolutionary cause. That theater of martyrdom continues to be "played out" even today. As a purely revolutionary act, rather than as a religious one, Jesus' temporary survival after the crucifixion was not only recast as his "having been raised from the dead," but also very quickly afterwards, his pregnant wife was spirited off to the coast of France, to protect his bloodline (the real holy grail) and the legends of the survival of the Holy Blood and the Holy Grail were born.
If it was indeed the case that Jesus, was not just a common unmarried itinerant preacher, but was instead, married royal heir (as a great deal of evidence (including some biblical evidence) seems to suggest), then attempts to maintain the royal bloodline intact does not in any way stretch credulity for the times being considered. After all, if Jesus were a threat to Roman rule, surely any of his heirs would also have been considered similar threats. However, after Jesus dies and Mary is spirited away to Europe, the legend gets very murky over the next 2000 years, as attempts are made to keep the bloodline intact and the story straight. But even here it must be said that the story, as long-winded and as sinuous, and as interesting as it is, still holds together very well, credibility-wise. There are no gaps in logic; no turns in mid air to make the story conform to ideological and religious orthodoxy as is repeatedly found to be the case with the Bible. Altogether there is very little that is implausible in the entire epic sized story.
The only real gaping hole was the recent discovery that the "so-called" Secret Dossier supposedly containing Jesus' family tree, handed down through the centuries, and upon which the story is supposedly based, was a forgery. As the facts and history of the story seem to stand completely apart from the forgery, or the veracity of the family tree, it was silly to try to manufacture them to lend added credibility to the more important history and theory of the crucifixion. Had its authors not tried to fabricate the "so-called" secret dossier, that purports to be evidence of an unbroken blood link that goes from the present all the way back to the date of the crucifixion, the legend's credibility would probably still remain strong.
Even dismissing the forgery, it is a tribute to the tenacious scholarship of the authors, that the story still hangs together very well and still has considerable "face validity." Whether one believes the "whole" story or not (and like the bible there are some vignettes that do indeed stretch credulity), the totality and quality of the story as a whole, has the unmistakable aura of truth. So many of the inessentials are in place, that the questionable "big events" hardly distract from the fullest of the panoramic picture. It is a picture whose fullness has no possibility of being reproduced in any existing historical or especially existing religious document. This sweeping peek into history that we should have know about all along, is itself worth Five stars.
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