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The Hidden History of Jesus
and the Holy Grail
HOME PAGE| SUBS INFO| BACK ISSUES| PRODUCTS LIST| ORDER FORM
The early Christian Church leaders adopted scriptures
and teachings
that would obscure the truth about the royal bloodline of
Jesus.
Part 1
(Go to Part 2; Go to Part 3)
Ext ract ed from Nexus Magazine, Volume 5, Number 2 (February-
March 1998).
PO Box 30, Maplet on Qld 4560 Aust ralia.e d it or @ne x us ma g a z ine .c om
Telephone: +61 (0)7 5442 9280; Fax: +61 (0)7 5442 9381
From our web page at :h t t p :/ / www.n e x us ma g a z in e .c o m
From a lect ure present ed by
Sir Laurence Gardner, Kt St Gm, KCD
Aut hor of Bloodline of t he Holy Grail
at The Ranch, Yelm, Washingt on, USA
30 April 1997
Videot ape t ranscribed by Rut h Parnell
The Hidden History of Jesus
and the Holy Grail
HOME PAGE| SUBS INFO| BACK ISSUES| PRODUCTS LIST| ORDER FORM
The early Christian Church leaders adopted scriptures
and teachings that
would obscure the truth about the royal bloodline of
Jesus.
Part 3 - (final)
Ext r act ed f r om NEXUS Magazine, Volume 5, Number 4 (J une-J uly
1998).
PO Box 30, Maplet on Qld 4560 Aust ralia.e d it or @ne x us ma g a z ine .c om
Telephone: +61 (0)7 5442 9280; Fax: +61 (0)7 5442 9381
From our web page at :h t t p :/ / www.n e x us ma g a z in e .c o m
From a lect ure present ed by
Sir Laurence Gardner, Kt St Gm, KCD
Aut hor of Bloodline of t he Holy Grail
at The Ranch, Yelm, Washingt on, USA
30 April 1997
Videot ape t ranscribed by Rut h Parnell
W
(Back t o Part 1)
(Back t o Part 2)
e know f r om t he Gospel chr onology t hat t he Bet hany second-
mar r iage anoint ing of J esus by Mar y Magdalene was in t he week
before t he Crucifixion. And we know t hat at t hat st age Mary was
t hree-mont hs pregnant and t heref ore should have given birt h in t he
f ollowing Sept ember.
So, what do t he Gospels t ell us about event s in Sept ember AD 33? I n f act ,
t he Gospels t ell us not hing, but t he st ory is t aken up in The Act s of t
he Apost les which det ail for Sept ember t he event which we have come t o know
as "t he Ascension".
The one t hing t hat t he Act s do not do, however, is call t he event "t he
Ascension". This was a name given t o t he r it ual when t he Roman Chur ch
doctrines were established over three centuries later. What the text act ually s
ays is: "And when he had spoken t hese t hings...he was t aken up, and a cloud r
eceived him out of t heir sight ." I t t hen cont inues t hat "a man in whit e"
said t o t he disciples: "Why st and ye gazing up int o
heaven? This same J esus...shall so come in like manner as ye have seen
him go." Then, a lit t le lat er in t he Act s, it says t hat "heaven" must
receive J esus unt il "t he t ime of rest it ut ion".
Given t hat t his was t he very mont h in which Mary Magdalene' s child
was due, is t here perhaps some connect ion bet ween Mary' s
conf inement and t he so-called Ascension? There cert ainly is, and t he
connect ion is made by virt ue of t he t ime of rest it ut ion.
Not only were t here rules t o govern t he marriage ceremony of a
Messianic heir, but so t oo were t here rules t o govern t he marriage
it self . The rules of dynast ic wedlock were quit e unlike t he J ewish f amily
norm, and Messianic parent s were f ormally separat ed at t he birt h of a chil
d. Even prior t o t his, int imacy bet ween a dynast ic
husband and wif e was only allowed in December, so t hat birt hs of heirs would
always f all in t he mont h of Sept ember-t he mont h of At onement , t he holie
st mont h of t he J ewish calendar.
I ndeed, it was t his very rule which J esus' s own parent s (J oseph and Mary)
had t hemselves broken. And t his was t he reason why t he J ews were split in o
pinion as t o whet her J esus was, in f act , t heir t rue
Messiah.
When a dynast ic child was conceived at t he wrong t ime of year, t he
mot her was generally placed in monast ic cust ody f or t he birt h so as t o
avoid public embar r assment . This was called being "put away pr ivily",
and Mat t hew st at es quit e plainly t hat when Mary' s pregnancy was
discover ed, "J oseph, her husband, being a just man and not willing t o
make her a public example, was minded t o put her away pr ivily".
I n t his inst ance, special dispensat ion for t he birt h was grant ed by t he
archangel Simeon who at t hat t ime held t he dist inct ion of "Gabriel", being
t he angelic priest in charge. Bot h t he Dead Sea Scrolls and t he Book of Enoc
h (which was excluded f rom t he Old Test ament ) det ail t hat t he "archangels
" (or chief ambassadors) were t he senior priest s at Qumran, ret aining t he t
radit ional t it les of "Michael", "Gabriel",
"Raphael", "Sariel", et c.
I n t he case of J esus and Mary Magdalene, however, t he rules of
wedlock had been obeyed t o t he let t er, and t heir first child was
properly conceived in December AD 32, t o be born in Sept ember AD
33.
From t he moment of a dynast ic birt h, t he parent s were physically
separat ed-f or six years if t he child was a boy, and f or t hree years if
t he child was a girl. Their marriage would only be recommenced at t he
designat ed t ime of rest it ut ion. Meanwhile, t he mot her and child would
ent er t he equivalent of a convent , and t he f at her would ent er "t he
Kingdom of Heaven". This Kingdom of Heaven was act ually t he Essene High Monast
ery at Mird, by t he Dead Sea, and t he ceremony of ent ry was conduct ed by t
he angelic priest s under t he supervision of t he
appoint ed Leader of t he Pilgrims.
I n t he Old Test ament book of Exodus, t he I sraelit e pilgrims were led int o
t he Holy Land by a "cloud"-and in accordance wit h t his cont inued Exodus ima
gery, t he priest ly Leader of t he Pilgrims was designat ed wit h t he t it le
"Cloud".
So, if we now read t he Act s verses as t hey were int ended t o be
underst ood, we see t hat J esus was t aken up by t he Cloud (t he Leader
of t he Pilgrims) t o t he Kingdom of Heaven (t he High Monast ery). And
t he man in whit e (an angelic priest ) said t hat J esus would ret urn at t he
t ime of rest it ut ion (when his Eart hly marriage was rest ored).
I f we now look at St Paul' s Epist le t o t he Hebrews we discover t hat he exp
lains t he said Ascension event in some great er det ail, f or Paul t ells of ho
w J esus was admit t ed t o t he Priest hood of Heaven when he
act ually had no ent it lement t o such a sacred of f ice. He explains t hat J e
sus was born (t hrough his f at her J oseph) int o t he Davidic line of J udah-a
line which held t he right of kingship but had no right t o
priest hood, f or t his was t he sole prerogat ive of t he line of Aaron and
Le vi.
But , says Paul, a special dispensat ion was grant ed, and he t ells t hat
"f or t he priest hood being changed, t here is made of necessit y a
change also of t he law". As a result of t his express "change of t he
law", it is explained t hat J esus was enabled t o ent er t he Kingdom of
Heaven in t he priest ly Order of Melchizedek.
So, in Sept ember AD 33, t he f irst child of J esus and Mary Magdalene
was born, and J esus duly ent ered t he Kingdom of Heaven. There is no ref erenc
e t o t his child being a son (as t here is f or t he t wo subsequent birt hs),
and given t hat J esus ret urned t hree years lat er, in AD 36, we know t hat Ma
ry must have had a daught er.
By f ollowing t he chronology of t he Act s, we see t hat in Sept ember AD
37 a second child was born; and t hen anot her in AD 44. The period
bet ween t hese t wo birt hs t o t he second rest it ut ion in AD 43 was "six ye
ars", which denot es t hat t he AD 37 child was a son. This f act is also convey
ed by t he use of crypt ic wording-t he same crypt ic wording
af f orded t o t he AD 44 child-so we know t hat t his t hird child was also
a son.
I n accordance wit h t he scribal codes det ailed in t he Dead Sea Scrolls, ever
yt hing crypt ic wit hin t he New Test ament is set up beforehand by some ot her
ent ry which explains t hat t he inherent message is "f or
t hose wit h ears t o hear". Once t hese codes and allegories are
underst ood, t hey never ever vary. They mean t he same t hing every
t ime t hey are used, and t hey are used every t ime t hat same meaning is
required.
For example, t he Gospels explain t hat J esus was called "t he Word of
God": "And t he Wor d was made f lesh, and dwelt among us...f ull of
grace and t rut h." J ohn goes t o great lengt hs t o explain t he relevance
of t his def init ion, and subsequent ent ries give det ails such as "t he
Word of God st ood by t he lake" and "t he Word of God was in Samaria".
Messages conveying inf ormat ion about f ert ilit y and new lif e are
est ablished in t he Parable of t he Sower whose seed "bore fruit and increased"
. Thus, when it is said t hat "t he Word of God increased", "t hose wit h ears t
o hear" would recognise at once t hat "J esus
increased"-t hat is t o say, he had a son. There are t wo such ent ries in
t he Act s, and t hey f all precisely on cue in AD 37 and AD 44.
Probably t he most misrepresent ed book of t he New Test ament is The
Book of The Revelat ion of St J ohn t he Divine-misrepresent ed by t he
Church, t hat is; not by t he book it self . This book is quit e unlike any
ot her in t he Bible. I t is dubbed wit h t errible supernat ural overt ones,
and it s st raight f orward imagery has been savagely corrupt ed by t he
Church t o present t he t ext as some f orm of f oreboding or prophecy of
warning! But t he book is not called "The Prophecy" or "The Warning".
I t is called "The Revelat ion".
So, what does t he book reveal? Chronologically, it s st ory f ollows The
Act s of t he Apost les, and t he Book of The Revelat ion is, in f act , t he
cont inuing st ory of J esus, Mary Magdalene and t heir sons, part icularly t he
elder son, J esus J ust us. I t f ollows his lif e and det ails his marriage, a
long wit h t he birt h of his own son. This much-misunderst ood New
Test ament book is not a f oreboding or a warning as t he f earf ul Church
would have us believe. I t is pr ecisely what it says it is: a r evelat ion.
As we saw earlier, ordained priest s of t he era were called "fishers"; t heir h
elpers were called "fishermen", and bapt ismal candidat es were called "f ishes"
. J esus became an ordained f isher when he ent ered t he Kingdom of Heaven, but
unt il t hat t ime (as explained by St Paul) he
held no priest ly of f ice.
I n t he rit e of ordinat ion, t he of f iciat ing Levit e priest s of t he
Sanct uary would administ er f ive loaves of bread and t wo f ishes t o t he
candidat es, but t he law was very f irm in t hat such candidat es had t o be ci
rcumcised J ews. Gent iles and uncircumcised Samarit ans were on no account af f
orded any such privilege.
I ndeed, it was t his part icular minist erial rit ual which J esus had
f lout ed at t he so-called "f eeding of t he f ive-t housand", because he
presumed t he right t o grant access t o his own new liberal minist ry by
of f ering t he loaves and f ishes t o an unsanct if ied gat hering. Apart
f rom event ually becoming a f isher, J esus was also ref erred t o as "t he
Christ "-a Greek def init ion which meant "t he King". I n saying t he name
"J esus Chr ist ", we ar e act ually saying "King J esus", and his kingly
herit age was of t he Royal House of J udah (t he House of David), as
ment ioned numerous t imes in t he Gospels and in t he Epist les of St Paul.
From AD 33, t herefore, J esus emerged wit h t he dual st at us of a
"Pr iest Chr ist " or , as is mor e commonly cit ed, a "Fisher King". This
def init ion, as we shall see, was t o become an heredit ary and dynast ic
of f ice of J esus' heirs, and t he succeeding "Fisher Kings" were
paramount in t he hist ory of t he Grail bloodline.
Prior t o t he birt h of her second son in AD 44, Mary Magdalene was
exiled f r om J udaea f ollowing a polit ical upr ising in which she was
implicat ed. Along wit h Philip, Lazarus and a f ew ret ainers, she t ravelled
(by arrangement wit h King Herod-Agrippa I I ) t o live at t he Herodian
est at e near Lyon, in Gaul (which lat er became France).
From t he earliest t imes, t hrough t he mediaeval era, t o t he great
Renaissance, Mary' s f light was port rayed in illuminat ed manuscript s
and great art works alike. Her lif e and work in France, especially in
Provence and t he Languedoc, appeared not only in works of European
hist ory but also in t he Roman Church lit urgy-unt il her st ory was
suppressed by t he Vat ican.
Mar y Magdalene' s exile is t old in The Book of The Revelat ion which describes
t hat she was pregnant at t he t ime. I t t ells also of how t he Roman aut hor
it ies subsequent ly persecut ed Mary, her son and his
heirs: "And she, being wit h child, cried...and pained t o be
delivered...and behold, a great red dragon, having seven heads...and
seven crowns...st ood bef ore t he woman...f or t o devour her child... And
she brought f ort h a man-child...and t he woman f led int o t he
wilderness... And t he dragon was wrot h wit h t he woman, and went t o
make war f orever wit h t he remnant of her seed...which...have t he
t est imony of J esus Chr ist ."
I t was t o Gaul t hat Mary was said t o have carried t he Sangréal (t he
Blood Royal, t he Holy Gr ail); and it was in Gaul t hat t he f amous line of
J esus and Mary' s immediat e descendant heirs, t he Fisher Kings,
flourished for 300 years.
The et ernal mot t o of t he Fisher Kings was "I n St rengt h"-inspired by
t he name of t heir ancest or, Boaz (t he great -grandfat her of King
David), whose name similarly meant "I n St rengt h". When t ranslat ed
int o Lat in, t his became "I n Fort is", which was subsequent ly corrupt ed
t o "Anf ort as", t he name of t he Fisher King in Grail romance.
We can now ret urn t o t he Grail' s t radit ional symbolism as a chalice
cont aining t he blood of J esus. We can also consider gr aphic designs
dat ing back well beyond t he Dar k Ages t o about 3,500 BC. And in doing
t his, we discover t hat a chalice or a cup was t he longest -st anding symbol o
f the female. I ts representation was that of the Sacred Vessel-t he vas ut erus
, t he womb.
And so, when f leeing int o France, Mary Magdalene carried t he Sangréal
in t he Sacred Chalice of her womb-just as t he Book of The Revelat ion
explains. And t he name of t his second son was J oseph.
The equivalent t radit ional symbol of t he male was a blade or a horn,
usually represent ed by a sword or a unicorn. I n t he Old Test ament ' s
Song of Solomon and in t he Psalms of David, t he f er t ile unicor n is associa
t ed wit h t he kingly line of J udah; and it was f or t his very reason t hat t
he Cat hars of Provence used t he myst ical beast t o symbolise t he Grail bloo
dline.
Mar y Magdalene died in Pr ovence in AD 63. I n t hat ver y year , J oseph
of Arimat hea built t he f amous chapel at Glast onbury in England as a memorial
t o t he Messianic Queen. This was t he f irst ' above-ground' Christ ian churc
h in t he world, and in t he f ollowing year Mary' s son J esus J ust us dedicat
ed it t o his mot her. J esus t he Younger had in
f act been t o England wit h J oseph bef ore, at t he age of t welve, in AD
49. I t was t his event which inspired William Blake' s f amous song,
J er usalem: "And did t hose f eet in ancient t ime, walk upon England' s
mount ains green."
But who was J oseph of Ar imat hea, t he man who assumed f ull cont r ol of af f
airs at t he Crucif ixion? And why was it t hat J esus' mot her, his wif e and
t he rest of t he family accept ed J oseph' s int ervent ion wit hout
quest ion?
As lat e as t he year 900, t he Church of Rome decided t o announce t hat J osep
h of Arimat hea was t he uncle of J esus' mot her Mary. And f rom t hat t ime, p
ort rayals of J oseph have shown him as being rat her elderly at t he Crucif ixi
on, when Mot her Mary was herself in her f if t ies. Prior t o t he Roman announ
cement , however, t he hist orical records of J oseph depict ed a much younger m
an. He was recorded t o have died at t he age of 80 on 27 J uly AD 82, and t hus
would have been aged 32 at t he t ime of t he Crucif ixion.
I n fact , J oseph of Arimat hea was none ot her t han J esus Christ ' s own
brot her, J ames, and his t it le had not hing what ever t o wit h a place
name. Arimat hea never exist ed. I t t herefore comes as no surprise t hat
J oseph negot iat ed wit h Pilat e t o place J esus in his own f amily t omb.
The heredit ary "Arimat hea" t it le was an English corrupt ion of t he
Graeco-Hebrew st yle ha-Rama-Theo, meaning "of t he Divine Highness",
or "of t he Royal Highness" as we' d def ine it t oday. Since J esus was
t he senior Messianic heir-t he Christ , Khrist os or King-t hen his younger
brot her was t he Crown Prince-t he Royal Highness, Rama-Theo. I n t he Nazarene
hierarchy, t he Crown Prince always held t he pat riarchal t it le of "J oseph"
-just as J esus was a t it ular "David" and his wif e was a
"Mar y".
I n t he early fift h cent ury, J esus and Mary' s descendent Fisher Kings becam
e unit ed by marriage t o t he Sicambrian Franks, and f rom t hem emerged a whol
e new ' reigning' dynast y. They were t he not ed
Merovingian Kings who f ounded t he French monarchy and int roduced
t he well-known f leur-de-lys (t he ancient J ewish symbol of
circumcision) as t he royal emblem of France.
From t he Merovingian succession, anot her st rain of t he f amily
est ablished a wholly independent J ewish kingdom in sout hern France:
t he Kingdom of Sept i-mania, which we now know as t he Languedoc. And
t he early princes of Toulouse, Aquit aine and Provence were all
descended in t he Messianic bloodline of t he Holy Grail. Sept imania was
grant ed t o t he Royal House of David in 768, and Prince Bernard of
Sept imania lat er married a daught er of Emperor Charlemagne.
Also f rom t he Fisher Kings came anot her import ant parallel line of
succession in Gaul. Whereas t he Merovingian Kings cont inued t he
pat rimonial ' male' herit age of J esus, t his ot her line perpet uat ed t he m
at riarchal herit age of Mary Magdalene in a ' f emale' line. They were t he dyn
ast ic Q ueens of Avallon in Burgundy, t he House del Acqs-
meaning "of t he wat ers", a st yle grant ed t o Mary Magdalene in t he
early days when she voyaged on t he sea t o Provence.
Those f amiliar wit h Ar t hur ian and Gr ail lor e will by now have
recognised t he ult imat e signif icance of t his Messianic f amily of t he
Fisher Kings, t he Queens of Avallon and t he House del Acqs (corrupt ed
in Ar t hur ian r omance t o "du Lac").
The descendant heirs of J esus posed an enormous t hreat t o t he Roman
High Church because t hey were t he dynast ic leaders of t he t rue
Nazarene Church. I n real t erms, t he Roman Church should never have exist ed a
t all, f or it was no more t han a ' hybrid' movement comprised of various pagan
doct rines at t ached t o a f undament ally J ewish base.
J esus was bor n in 7 BC and his bir t hday was on t he equivalent of 1
March, wit h an ' of f icial' royal birt hday on 15 Sept ember t o comply
wit h dynast ic regulat ion. But , when est ablishing t he Roman High Church
in t he f ourt h cent ury, Emperor Const ant ine ignored bot h of t hese
dat es and supplement ed 25 December as t he new Christ ' s Mass Day-t o
coincide wit h t he pagan Sun Fest ival.
Lat er, at t he Synod of Whit by in 664, t he bishops expropriat ed t he
Celt ic f est ival of East er (Eost re), t he Goddess of Spring and Fert ilit y,
and at t ached a wholly new Christ ian signif icance. I n so doing, t hey
changed t he dat e of t he Celt ic fest ival t o sever it s t radit ional
associat ion wit h t he J ewish Passover.
Christ ianit y, as we know it , has evolved as a ' composit e religion' quit e
unlike any ot her. I f J esus was it s living cat alyst , t hen Christ ianit y
should right ly be based on t he t eachings of J esus himself -t he moral
and social codes of a f air-minded, t olerant minist ry, wit h t he people as
its benefactors.
But ort hodox Christ ianit y is not based on t he t eachings of J esus: it is
based on t he t eachings of t he Roman Church, which are ent irely
different . There are a number of reasons for t his, t he foremost of
which is t hat J esus was deliberat ely sidest epped in f avour of t he
alt ernat ive t eachings of Pet er and Paul-t eachings which were
t horoughly denounced by t he Nazarene Church of J esus and his
brother J ames.
Only by removing J esus f rom t he f ront line could t he Popes and
cardinals reign supreme. When f ormally inst it ut ing Christ ianit y as t he
st at e religion of Rome, Const ant ine declared t hat "he alone" was t he t rue
"Saviour Messiah", not J esus! As f or t he Bishops of Rome (t he Popes), t hey
were grant ed an apost olic descent from St Pet er-not a legit imat e Desposyni
c descent f rom J esus and his brot hers, as was ret ained wit hin t he Nazarene
Church.
The only way f or t he Roman High Church t o rest rain t he heirs of Mary
Magdalene was t o discredit Mary herself and t o deny her bridal
relationship with J esus. But what of J esus' brother J ames? He, too,
had heirs, as did t heir ot her brot hers, Simon, J oses and J ude. The
Church could not escape t he Gospels which st at e t hat J esus was t he
Blessed Mot her Mary' s "f irst -born son", and so Mary' s own
mot herhood also had t o be repressed.
As a result , t he Church port rayed Mot her Mary as a virgin, and Mary Magdalen
e as a whore-neit her of which descript ion was ment ioned in any original Gospe
l. Then, just t o cement Mot her Mary' s posit ion
out side t he nat ural domain, her own mot her, Anna, was event ually said
t o have borne her by way of "I mmaculat e Concept ion"!
Over t he course of t ime, t hese cont rived doct rines have had
widespread effect . But , in t he early days, it t ook rat her more t o
cement t he ideas because t he original women of t he Nazarene mission
had a signif icant f ollowing in t he Celt ic Church-women such as Mary
Magdalene, Mart ha, Mary J acob-Cleophas and Helena-Salome who had
run schools and social missions t hroughout t he Medit erranean world.
These women had all been disciples of J esus, and close f riends of his
mot her, Mary, accompanying her t o t he Crucif ixion, as conf irmed in t he
Gospels.
The Church' s only salvat ion was t o deny women alt oget her; t o deny
t hem not only right s t o ecclesiast ical of f ice, but t o deny t hem right s
t o any st at us in societ y. Hence, t he Church declared t hat women were all h
eret ics and sorceresses!
I n t his, t he bishops were aided by t he words of Pet er and Paul, and on
t he basis of t heir t eachings t he Roman High Church was enabled t o
become wholly sexist . I n his Epist le t o Timot hy, Paul wrot e: "I suf f er n
ot a woman t o t each, nor t o usurp any aut horit y over t he man, but t o be i
n silence." I n t he Gospel of Philip, Pet er is even quot ed as saying t hat "W
omen are not wort hy of lif e". The bishops even quot ed t he
wor ds of Genesis, wher ein God spoke t o Eve about Adam, saying "He
shall rule over t hee".
The Church Fat her Tert ullian summed up t he whole Roman at t it ude
when writ ing about t he emergent disciples of Mary Magdalene: "These heret ical
woman! How dare t hey! They are brazen enough t o t each, t o engage in argumen
t , t o bapt ise... I t is not permit t ed f or a woman t o speak in chur ch...n
or t o claim...a shar e in any masculine f unct ion-least of all in pr iest ly o
f f ice."
Then, t o cap it all, came t he Roman Church' s most amazing document , The Apos
t olic Order. This was compiled as an ' imaginary' conversat ion between the apo
stles after the Last Supper. Contrary to the Gospels, it supposed t hat Mary Mag
dalene had been present at t he Supper, and it was agreed t hat t he reason why
J esus had not passed any wine t o
Mary at t he t able was because he had seen her laughing!
On t he basis of t his ext raordinary, f ict it ious document , t he bishops rul
ed t hat , even t hough Mary might have been a companion of J esus, women were n
ot t o be af f orded any place wit hin t he Church because t hey were not seriou
s! This sexist at t it ude has persist ed wit hin t he Church t o t he present d
ay. Why? Because Mary Magdalene had t o be
discredit ed and removed f rom t he reckoning so t hat her heirs could be
ignor ed. But t hings ar e now changing, and, in t he Anglican Chur ch at
least , women are being rest ored t o t he priest ly st at ion.
Not wit hst anding t he avid sexist movement , t he Messianic heirs
ret ained t heir social posit ions out side t he Roman Church
est ablishment . They progressed t heir own Nazarene and Celt ic Church
movement s and f ounded Desposynic kingdoms in Br it ain and Eur ope.
They were a const ant t hreat t o t he Roman High Church and t o t he f igurehea
d monarchs and government s empowered by t hat Church. They were t he very reaso
n for t he implement at ion of t he brut al I nquisit ion because t hey upheld a
moral and social code which was cont rary t o High Church requirement .
This was especially apparent during t he Age of Chivalry, which
embraced a respect f or womanhood, as exemplif ied by t he Knight s Templars who
se const it ut ional oat h support ed a venerat ion of "t he Grail Mot her", Que
en Mary Magdalene.
Prior t o t he Middle Ages, t he individual st ories of t his f amily were
hist or ically well-known. But when t he Chur ch began it s r eign of
fanat ical persecut ion (t he great I nquisit ion), t he whole Nazarene and
Desposynic herit age was f orced underground.
But why t he vengef ul onset of t he I nquisit ion? Because t he Knight s Templa
rs had not only ret urned f rom t he Holy Land wit h document s t hat undermined
t he Church' s t eachings, but t hey also est ablished t heir own Cist ercian c
hurches in opposit ion t o Rome. These were not
just any churches; t hey were t he great est religious monument s ever t o grace
t he skylines of t he west ern world: t he Not re Dame cat hedrals of Fr ance.
Despit e t heir present -day image, t hese impressive Got hic cat hedrals
had not hing what ever t o do wit h t he est ablished Christ ian Church.
They were f unded and built by t he Knight s Templars, and t hey were
dedicat ed t o Mary Magdalene-Not re Dame, Our Lady-whom t hey called
"t he Grail of t he world".
This, of course, def eat ed every dogma t hat t he High Church had
encouraged, and t he bishops ret aliat ed by re-dedicat ing numerous
ot her churches t o Mary, t he mot her of J esus. But , in so doing, t hey
made a st rict decree t hat all art ist ic port rayals of Mot her Mary, t he Mad
onna, must hencef ort h show her dressed in "blue and whit e only"- so as not t
o grant her any right s t o ecclesiast ical of f ice in t he male- only priest h
ood.
Mary Magdalene, on t he ot her hand, was being port rayed (by t he
world' s great est art ist s) wearing t he red mant le of cardinal st at us or t
he black robe of a Nazarit e High Priest ess-and t here was not hing t he Chur
ch could do about it . The bishops' only opt ion was t o pr oclaim t he
pract ice sinf ul and heret ical-because, in having previously elect ed t o
ignore Mary Magdalene and her heirs, she was out side t heir
j ur isdict ion.
I t was at t hat t ime t hat Grail lore was it self denounced as a heresy by
t he Vat ican. The sixt h-cent ury writ ings of Merlin were expressly
banned by t he Ecumenical Council, and t he original Nazarene Church of
J esus became an "underground st ream", aided by such not able
sponsors as Leonardo da Vinci and Sandro Bot t icelli.
I n t hose days, t he Church policed and cont rolled most lit erat ure in t he
public domain; and so, in order t o avoid out right censorship, t he Grail
t radit ion became allegorical and it s message was communicat ed by way
of secret wat ermarks, esot eric writ ings, Tarot cards and symbolic
ar t wor k.
But why should Gr ail lor e and t he wr it ings of Mer lin have posed such a
problem f or t he High Church? Because, wit hin t he cont ext of t heir
advent urous t ext s, t hey t old t he descendant st ory of t he Grail
bloodline-a bloodline which had been oust ed f rom it s dynast ic posit ion by t
he Popes and Bishops of Rome who had elect ed t o reign supreme by way of a con
t rived "apost olic succession".
This apost olic succession was said t o have been handed down f rom t he f irst
bishop, St Pet er (and, indeed, t his is st ill t he promot ed view). But one on
ly has t o st udy t he Church' s own Apost olic Const it ut ions t o
discover t hat t his is simply not t rue. Pet er was never a Bishop of Rome-
nor of anywhere else, for t hat mat t er!
The Vat ican' s Const it ut ions record t hat t he f irst Bishop of Rome was Pri
nce Linus of Brit ain, t he son of Caract acus t he Pendragon. He was inst alled
by St Paul in AD 58, dur ing Pet er ' s own lif et ime.
From t he 1100s, t he powerful Knight s Templars and t heir cat hedrals
posed an enormous t hreat t o t he ' male-only' Church by bringing t he
herit age of J esus and Mary Magdalene t o t he f ore in t he public
domain.
The cardinals knew t hat t heir whole est ablishment would t umble if t he Messi
anic descendant s gained t he upper hand. They had t o be crushed! And so t he b
rut al I nquisit ion was implement ed-a hideous persecut ion of all who dissent
ed f rom t he rule of t he bishops.
I t all began in 1208, when Pope I nnocent I I I sent 30,000 soldiers int o
t he Languedoc region of sout hern France. This was t he home of t he
Cat hars ("t he Pure Ones") who were said t o be t he guardians of a great
and sacred t reasure-a myst erious secret which could overt urn
ort hodox Christ ianit y. The Pope' s so-called Albigensian Crusade last ed
f or 36 years-during which t ime, t ens of t housands of innocent people
were slaught ered-but t he t reasure was never found.
The main t hrust of t he I nquisit ion (or "Holy Of f ice") was inst it ut ed by
Pope Gregory I X during t he course of t his massacre, in 1231, and it
was set against anyone who support ed "t he Grail heresy". By 1252, t he
t ort ure of vict ims was f ormally aut horised, along wit h execut ion by
bur ning.
"Heresy" was a wonderf ul charge t o level against capt ives, because only
t he Church could def ine it . The vict ims were t ort ured unt il t hey
conf essed, and having conf essed t hey were execut ed. I f t hey did not
conf ess, t hen t he t ort ure cont inued unt il t hey died anyway. One
recorded f orm of t ort ure was t o spread t he vict im, lit t le by lit t le, w
it h
f at (beginning wit h his f eet ), and t hen t o roast him alive in sect ions,
limb by limb, over an open f ir e.
These savage persecut ions and punishment s were openly waged f or
more t han 400 years, and were also ext ended against J ews, Muslims
and Prot est ant dissent ers. But t he I nquisit ion was never formally
t erminat ed. As recent ly as 1965 it was renamed "t he Sacred
Congregat ion", and it s powers are t heoret ically st ill in f orce t oday.
Undaunt ed by t he I nquisit ion, t he Nazarene movement pursued it s own
course, and t he st ory of t he bloodline was perpet uat ed in lit erat ure
such as t he Grand Saint Grail and t he High Hist ory of t he Holy Grail. These
writ ings were largely sponsored by t he Grail court s of France (t he court s o
f Champagne, Anjou and ot hers), and also by t he Knight s Templars and t he Des
posyni; and, at t hat st age, Art hurian Romance became a popular vehicle f or t
he Grail t radit ion.
I n t he light of t his, t he Templars became a specif ic t arget of t he I nqui
sit ion in 1307 when t he henchmen of Pope Clement V and King Philip I V of Fran
ce were set in t heir direct ion. The papal armies
scoured Europe f or t he Templar document s and t reasure-but , like t he
Cat har inherit ance, not hing was f ound. However, many Knight s were
t ort ured and execut ed in t he process, and t heir companions escaped t o
count ries out side t he papal domain.
But t he Templar hoard was not lost , and while t he Vat ican emissaries were se
arching, t he t reasure and document s were locked away in t he Chapt er House T
reasury vault s of Paris. They were under t he
prot ect ion of t he Templar Grand Knight s of St Ant hony-"t he Guardian
Princes of t he Royal Secret "-who loaded t he hoard one night ont o 18
galleys of t he Templar f leet at La Rochelle.
By daybreak, t he f leet had sailed f or Scot land, and on arrival t hey
wer e welcomed by King Rober t t he Br uce who, along wit h t he whole
Scot t ish nat ion, had been excommunicat ed by t he Pope f or challenging
t he Cat holic King Edward of England. I n Scot land, t he Templars and
t heir t reasure remained, and t he Knight s f ought wit h Bruce at
Bannockburn in 1314 t o regain Scot land' s independence f rom
Plant agenet England.
Subsequent t o t he Bat t le of Bannockburn, Bruce and t he St Ant hony
Templars founded t he new Order of t he Elder Brot hers of t he Rosy
Cross in 1317-from which t ime t he Kings of Scot s became heredit ary
Grand Mast ers, wit h each successive St ewart King holding t he
honoured Grand Priory t it le of "Prince Saint Germain".
So, why was it t hat King Art hur, a Celt ic commander of t he sixt h
cent ury, was so import ant t o t he Knight s Templars and t he Grail court s
of Europe? Q uit e simply, because Art hur had been unique, wit h a ' dual'
herit age in t he Messianic line.
King Ar t hur was by no means myt hical, as many have supposed. Far f rom it . B
ut he has generally been looked f or in t he wrong places. Researchers, misguide
d by t he f ict ional locat ions of t he romances,
have searched in vain t hrough t he chronicles of Brit t any, Wales and t he wes
t of England. But t he det ails of Art hur are t o be f ound in t he Scot s' and
I rish annals. He was indeed "t he High King of t he Celt ic
I sle", and he was t he sovereign commander of t he Brit ish t roops in t he
lat e sixt h cent ury.
Art hur was born in 559, and he died in bat t le in 603. His mot her was Ygerna
del Acqs, t he daught er of Q ueen Viviane of Avallon, in descent f r om J esus
and Mar y Magdalene. His f at her was High King Aedàn of Dalriada (t he West ern H
ighlands of Scot land, now called Argyll)-and
Aedàn was t he Br it ish Pendr agon ("Head Dr agon" or "King of Kings") in
descent from J esus' brother J ames. It is for this reason that the
st ories of Art hur and J oseph of Arimat hea are so closely ent wined in
t he Gr ail r omances.
I ndeed, t he coronat ion records of Scot land' s King Kennet h MacAlpin (a
descendant of Aedàn t he Pendragon) specif ically ref er t o his own
descent f rom t he dynast ic Queens of Avallon.
King Aedàn' s pat ernal legacy emerged t hrough t he most ancient House
of Camulot (England' s Royal Court of Colchest er) in a line f rom t he
f ir st Pendr agon, King Cymbeline (who is well-known t o st udent s of
Shakespeare).
By t hat t ime, Messianic descendant s had f ounded Desposynic kingdoms
in Wales and across t he St rat hclyde and Cambrian regions of Brit ain.
Art hur' s fat her, King Aedàn of Scot s, was t he first Brit ish monarch t o
be inst alled by priest ly ordinat ion, when he was crowned and anoint ed
by Saint Columba of t he Celt ic Church in 574. This, of course,
inf uriat ed t he Roman Church bishops because t hey claimed t he sole
right t o appoint kings who were supposed t o be crowned by t he Pope!
As a direct result of t his coronat ion, Saint August ine was event ually sent f
rom Rome in 597 t o dismant le t he Celt ic Church. He proclaimed himself Archb
ishop of Cant erbury t hree years lat er, but his overall mission f ailed and t
he Nazarene t radit ion persist ed in Scot land,
I reland and Wales and across t he breadt h of nort hern England.
An import ant fact t o remember is t hat t he Grail dynast s were never
t errit orial governors of lands. Like J esus himself , t hey were
designat ed "Guardians" of t he people. The Merovingians of Gaul, f or
example, were Kings of t he Franks-never Kings of France. King Aedàn,
Robert t he Bruce and t heir St ewart successors were Kings of t he
Scot s-never Kings of Scot land.
I t was t his implicit ly ' social' concept which t he High Church f ound so dif
f icult t o overcome, f or t he bishops pref erred t o have dominion over ' t e
rrit orial kings' , while t he people' s senior lord and mast er was
supposed t o be t he Pope. Only by maint aining ult imat e spirit ual cont rol
over individuals could t he Church reign supreme, and so whenever a Grail dynast
came t o t he f ore he was met by t he wrat h of t he papal machine.
I n 751 t he bishops managed t o depose t he Merovingian succession in
Gaul, and t hey est ablished a new t radit ion whereby kings of t he
Carolingian succession (t hat of Charlemagne) had t o be approved and
crowned by t he Pope. But t he Church could never t opple t he
Desposynic lines in Scot land, even t hough t he old Celt ic kingdoms of
England had been dismant led by Germanic Anglo-Saxons f rom t he sixt h
cent ur y.
Even int o t he Middle Ages-long af t er t he Norman Conquest of England-
t he Nazarene Church and t he long-prevailing cult of Mary Magdalene
were prominent in Europe. Women' s right s of equalit y were upheld
t hroughout t he Celt ic st ruct ure-and t his was an enormous problem f or
t he male-only priest hood of ort hodox Christ ianit y.
The under lying pr inciple of t he Gr ail monar chs was always one of
Service, in accordance wit h t he Messianic code est ablished by J esus
when he washed his apost les' feet at t he Last Supper. And so t he t rue Grail
dynast s were kings and guardians of t heir realms, but t hey were never rulers.
This key aspect of t he Grail code was perpet uat ed at t he very heart of nurse
ry t ale and f olklore. Never did a valiant cardinal or bishop ride t o t he aid
of an oppressed subject or a damsel in dist ress, f or t his has always been t
he social realm of Grail princes and t heir appoint ed
knight s.
The Grail code recognises advancement by merit and acknowledges
communit y st ruct ure, but , above all, it is ent irely democrat ic. Whet her a
pprehended in it s physical or spirit ual dimension, t he Grail belongs t o lead
ers and f ollowers alike. I t also belongs t o t he land and t he
envir onment , r equir ing t hat all should be "as one" in a common, unif ied
Service.
Throughout t he ages, parliament s and government s have had as much
t rouble as t he Church in conf ront ing t he Messianic social code, and t he
posit ion is no dif f erent t oday. President s and prime minist ers are
' elect ed' by t he people. They are supposed t o represent t he people.
But do t hey? I n act ual f act , t hey don' t . They are always af f iliat ed t
o a
polit ical part y, and t hey achieve t heir posit ions by way of majorit y
part y vot e. But not everybody t akes t he t rouble t o vot e, and
somet imes t here are more t han t wo part ies t o vot e f or. Consequent ly,
at any given t ime, mor e t han half t he people of a nat ion may not be
represent ed by t he polit ical part y in power. I n t his regard, even
t hough a ' majorit y vot e' has been applied, t he democrat ic principle
f ails. What emerges is not "government by t he people, f or t he people",
but "government of t he people".
J esus conf ront ed a very similar sit uat ion in t he f irst cent ury. At t hat
t ime, J er usalem and J udaea wer e under Roman occupat ion, wit h King Herod
and t he Governor, Pont ius Pilat e, bot h appoint ed by Rome. But who represent
ed t he people? The people were not Romans; t hey were Holy Land J ews-Pharisee
s, Sadducees, Essenes and t he like. Apart
f rom t hat , t here were large numbers of Samarit ans and Gent iles (non-
J ews, t he Arab races). Who represent ed t hem? The answer is "no one"-
unt il J esus made it his mission t o do so.
This was t he beginning of t he Grail code of non-af f iliat ed princely
service-a code perpet uat ed by t he Messianic dynast s in t heir
cont inuing role as "common f at hers" t o t he people. The Grail code is based
on t he principles of libert y, f rat ernit y and equalit y, and it was part icu
larly apparent in t he American and French revolut ions, bot h of which discarde
d t he lordship of despot ic arist ocracy. But what has replaced it ? I t has be
en replaced by part y polit ics and largely non- represent at ive government .
From t he Middle Ages t here were a number of chivalric and milit ary
orders specif ically at t ached t o t he Messianic Blood Royal in Brit ain and
Europe. They included t he Order of t he Realm of Sion and t he Order
of t he Sacred Sepulchre. But t he most prest igious of all was t he
Sovereign Order of t he Sangréal-t he Knight s of t he Holy Grail. This
was a dynast ic order of Scot land' s Royal House of St ewart , t he royal
house which in t he 14t h cent ury int roduced t he unicorn of t he Cat hars
as t he sovereign emblem of Scot land. Short ly aft erwards, t hey
int roduced t he prest igious Order of t he Unicorn, which carried t he
Gr ail mot t o "All as One".
Like King Art hur, t he St ewart Kings also had a dual Desposynic
herit age f rom bot h J esus and his brot her J ames. I n f act , f rom t he
1370s t hey were t he senior house of t he Messianic line, and t hey were
Europe' s longest -reigning dynast y, holding t heir crown f or 317 years
unt il f inally deposed by t he Anglican Church in 1688. They were
deposed because, in compliance wit h t he Grail code, t hey claimed
af f init y t o God and t he nat ion bef ore Parliament , t he Church and t he
ar ist ocr acy.
Today, t he senior legit imat e descendant in t his line is HRH Prince
Michael St ewart , Count of Albany (whose own book, The Forgot t en
Monarchy of Scot land, is scheduled f or publicat ion by Element Books in
May 1998).
And now t o a quest ion t hat I have f requent ly been asked in t he mont hs sin
ce Bloodline of t he Holy Gr ail was published. The quest ion is: why is all t h
is inf ormat ion coming t o light at t his part icular t ime?
The fact is t hat t he informat ion has never been suppressed by t hose whom it
concerns. I t has been suppressed by out side power-seekers who have sought t o
serve t heir own ends, rat her t han serve t he
communit ies t hey are supposed t o represent .
Today, however , we ar e in a new age of ' quest ing' , as many people gr ow mor
e disillusioned wit h t he est ablishment dogmas t hat prevail. We live in an ag
e of sat ellit e communicat ions, sound-barrier t ravel, comput ers and t he I n
t ernet -so t he world is effect ively much smaller t han before. I n such an en
vironment , news t ravels very quickly, and t he t rut h is f ar more difficult
t o rest rain.
Also, t he very f abric of t he ' male-dominat ed' Church and
government al st ruct ures is being quest ioned, and it is generally
perceived t hat t he old doct rines of spirit ual cont rol and t errit orial
management are not working. More and more people are searching f or t he origina
l, unclut t ered root s of t heir f ait h, and f or t heir purpose in societ y.
They are seeking more ef f ect ive f orms of administ rat ion t o combat t he al
l-t oo-apparent slide int o social and moral decline. They are, in f act , quest
ing f or t he Holy Grail.
This quest f or new enlight enment is considerably height ened by t he
coming new millennium, and t here is a widespread f eeling t hat t his
should also present a new Renaissance, an era of rebirt h wherein t he
precept s of t he Grail code are acknowledged and pract ised-t he
precept s of libert y, frat ernit y and equalit y.
Grail lore spells out loud and clear t hat t he wound of t he Fisher King
must be healed if t he wast eland is t o ret urn t o f ert ilit y. And so, given
t hat I had been afforded privileged access over past years t o t he
archives of t he Knight s Templars, t he Celt ic Church and t he Messianic
sover eign houses of Eur ope, t he t ime ar r ived f or me t o play my own
small part in t rying t o heal t he age-old wound of t he Fisher King. The
r esult was my book, Bloodline of t he Holy Gr ail.
About the Speaker:
Sir Laur ence Gar dner , Kt St Gm, KCD, is an int er nat ionally known
sovereign and chivalric genealogist . He holds t he posit ion of Grand
Prior of t he Celt ic Church' s Sacred Kindred of Saint Columba, and is
dist inguished as t he Chevalier Labhràn de Saint Germain. Sir Laurence
is also President ial At t aché t o t he European Council of Princes, a const it u
t ional advisory body est ablished in 1946. He is f ormally at t ached t o t he
Noble Household Guard of t he Royal House of
St ewart , f ounded at St Germain-en-Laye in 1692, and is t he J acobit e
Hist oriographer Royal.
Editor' s Notes:
(Back t o Part 1)
(On t o Part 3)
It was not unt il t he early sevent eent h cent ury t hat t he first
accept able English language Bible t ranslat ion was made-f or t he Scot s
King J ames VI (St uart ), J ames I of England. This was t he Aut horized
Version, upon which t he majorit y of subsequent English-language Bibles
have been based. But even t his was not a direct t ranslat ion f rom
anyt hing; it was most ly t ranslat ed f rom t he Greek, part ly f rom t he
Lat in, and t o some ext ent f rom t he works of ot hers who' d made ot her
illegit imat e t ranslat ions bef ore.
I n t heir rendering of t he New Test ament , King J ames' t ranslat ors
endeavoured t o appease bot h t he Prot est ant s and t he Cat holics. This
was t he only way t o produce a generally accept able t ext , but t heir
at t empt t o appease was not ent irely successful. The Cat holics t hought t he
t ranslat ors were siding wit h t he Prot est ant s and t ried t o blow up King
 J ames in t he Houses of Parliament , and t he Prot est ant s said t he t ransl
at ors were in league wit h t he Cat holics.
Anyway, t he Bible survived but t he t ranslat ors t ried as well f or
somet hing called "polit ical cor r ect ness". We know about it t oday; it
applied t hen. Good examples of t his are f ound in many inst ances-one in
part icular where t he direct t ranslat ion referred t o a group of people
called "heavenly soldiers". They didn' t like t his very much, so it ' s
act ually crossed out , and underneat h it says "heavenly army". But
somebody else came along and said, "No, t his is st ill not good enough; it
denot es an armed unit here; t his is not polit ically correct ," and so it
was crossed out again, and t hey resurrect ed an old word t hat had not been wri
t t en in t he English language f or cent uries. They called it "t he heavenly h
ost ". Nobody knows what t he heavenly host is. I n f act it ' s quit e ast ound
ing how many obscure, old and obsolet e words were
brought back int o use t o provide polit ical correct ness f or t he King
J ames Bible, but which nobody could underst and. At t he same t ime,
William Shakespear e was doing likewise in his plays.
I f we look at t he reference books t hat exist ed prior t o J ames and
Shakespeare and at t hose t hat exist ed just aft er J ames and
Shakespeare, we see t hat t he English-language vocabulary was
increased by more t han f if t y per cent as a result of words invent ed or
brought back from obscurit y by t he writ ers of t he era. The problem
was t hat nobody, let alone t he dict ionary compilers, knew what most of
t hese words meant . But t hey had somehow t o be def ined, and
"heavenly host " emer ged, quit e ambiguously, as "a heavenly lot of
people"!
So alt hough eminent ly poet ic, t he language of t he Aut horized English
Bible is quit e unlike any language ever spoken by anyone in England or
anywhere else. I t bears no relat ion t o t he Greek or Lat in f rom which it
was t ranslat ed. I t was cert ainly not t he language spoken by God, as
some priest s once t old me. But f rom t his approved canonical
int erpret at ion, all ot her English language Bibles have emerged in t heir var
ious f orms. Despit e t hat , f or all of it s f ault s, despit e it s beaut if
ul verse pat t erns and t he new words, it st ill remains t he closest of all En
glish language t ranslat ions f rom t he original Greek manuscript s. All ot her
versions, t he St andard versions, t he New versions, t he Revised versions, t
he Modern English versions, have been signif icant ly
corrupt ed and t hey' re quit e unsuit able f or serious st udy by anyone
because t hey have t heir own specif ic agenda.
We can cit e an ext reme version of how t his works in pract ice. We can
look at a Bible cur r ent ly issued t oday in Pacif ic Papua New Guinea
where t here are t ribes who experience f amiliarit y on a daily basis wit h no
ot her animal but t he pig. I n t he current edit ion of t heir Bible, every ani
mal ment ioned in t he t ext , whet her originally an ox, lion, ass, sheep or wh
at ever , is now a pig! Even J esus, t he t r adit ional "Lamb of God", in t his
Bible is "t he Pig of God"!
So, t o f acilit at e t he best possible t rust in t he Gospels, we must go
back t o t he original Greek manuscript s wit h t heir oft en-used Hebrew and Ar
amaic words and phrases. And in so doing we discover t hat , just as wit h t he
Nat ivit y st ory, a good deal of relevant cont ent has been misrepresent ed, mi
sunderst ood, mist ranslat ed or simply just lost in t he t elling. Somet imes t
his has happened because original words have no direct counterpart in other lan
guages.
We' ve all been taught that J esus' father J oseph was a carpenter.
"Why not ? I t says so in t he Gospels." But it didn' t say t hat in t he
original Gospels. By t he best t ranslat ion, it act ually said t hat J oseph
was a Mast er of t he Craf t . The word "carpent er" was simply a
t ranslat or' s concept of a craft sman. Anyone associat ed wit h modern
Fr eemasonr y will r ecognise t he t er m "t he Cr af t ". I t ' s got not hing
what ever t o do wit h woodwork. The t ext simply denot ed t hat J oseph
was a mast erly, learned and scholarly man.
Anot her example is t he concept of t he Virgin Birt h. Our English-
language Gospels t ell us t hat J esus' mot her Mary was a virgin; t hey
keep t elling us t hat she was a virgin. Well, let ' s consider t he word
"virgin". We underst and t he word; it t ells us t hat t his was a woman
wit h no experience of sexual union. But t his was t ranslat ed not f rom
t he Greek init ially but f rom t he Lat in. That was easy because t he Lat in c
alled her virgo; Mary was a virgo. I t didn' t mean t he same t hing at all! Vir
go in Lat in meant not hing mor e t han "a young woman". To have meant t he sam
e t hing as "virgin" does t o us t oday, t he Lat in would have been vir go int
act a, t hat is t o say, "a young woman int act ".
Let ' s look back beyond t he Lat in t ext ; let ' s see why t hey called her vi
r go, a young woman. Maybe t hey act ually got somet hing r ight which we' ve go
t wrong lat er on. We discover t hat t he word t ranslat ed t o mean vir go, a y
oung woman, was t he old Hebr ew wor d almah which
meant "a young woman". I t had no sexual connot at ion what ever . Had
Mary act ually been physically virgo int act a, t he Hebrew word used
would have been bet hula, not almah.
So, have we been complet ely misguided by t he Gospels? No; we' ve been
misguided by t he English language t ranslat ions of t he Gospels. We' ve
also been misguided by a Church est ablishment t hat has done
ever yt hing in it s power t o deny women any nor mal lif est yle in t he
Gospel st ory. The New Test ament ' s key women are virgins or whores
or somet imes widows-never everyday girlf riends, wives or mot hers, and
cert ainly not ever priest esses or holy sist ers.
Not wit hst anding t hat , t he Gospels t ell us t ime and t ime again t hat
J esus was descended f rom King David t hrough his f at her J oseph. Even
St Paul t ells us t his in his Epist le t o t he Hebrews. But we are t aught
t hat J esus' f at her was a lowly carpent er and his mot her was a virgin-
neit her of which descript ions can be f ound in any original t ext . So it
f ollows t hat t o get t he best out of t he Gospels we' ve really got t o
read t hem as t hey were writ t en, not as we decide t o int erpret t hem
according t o modern language.
Precisely when t he f our main Gospels were writ t en is uncert ain. What we do
know is t hat t hey were f irst published at various st ages in t he second half
of t he f irst cent ury. They were unanimous init ially in
t elling us t hat J esus was a Nazarene. This is act ually upheld in t he
Roman annals; and t he f irst -cent ury chronicles of t he J ews and t he
Bible' s Act s of t he Apost les confirm t hat J esus' brot her J ames and
St Paul were leaders of t he sect of t he Nazarenes.
This def init ion of "Nazarene" is very import ant t o t he Grail st ory
because it has been so oft en misrepresent ed t o suggest t hat J esus
came f rom t he t own of Nazaret h. For t he past 400 years, English
language Gospels have perpet uat ed t he error by wrongly t ranslat ing
"J esus t he Nazarene" as "J esus of Nazaret h". There was no
connect ion bet ween Nazaret h and t he Nazarenes. I n fact , t he
set t lement at Nazaret h was est ablished in t he AD 60s, t hirt y years or
so af t er t he Crucif ixion. Nobody in J esus' early lif e came f rom
Nazareth-it was not there!
The Nazarenes were a liberal, J ewish sect opposed t o t he st rict
Hebrew regime of t he Pharisees and Sadducees. The Nazarene cult ure
and language were heavily inf luenced by t he philosophers of ancient
Greece, and t heir communit y support ed t he concept of equal
opport unit y f or men and women. Document s of t he t ime ref erred not
t o Nazaret h but t o t he Nazarene societ y. Priest esses exist ed in equal
opport unit y wit h priest s, but t his was so dif f erent f rom what t he male-
dominat ed Hebrew societ y want ed and what t he lat er, male-dominat ed Roman
Church required.
I t has t o be remembered t hat J esus was not a Christ ian: he was a
Nazarene-a radical, west ernised J ew. The Christ ian movement was
f ounded by ot hers in t he wake of his own mission. The word "Christ ian"
was f irst recorded and used in AD 44 in Ant ioch, Syria.
I n t he Arab world, t he word used t oday, as t hen, t o describe J esus
and his f ollowers is Nazara. This is conf irmed in t he Muslim Koran:
J esus is Nazara; his f ollowers are Nazara. The word means "Keepers" or "Guardi
ans". The f ull def init ion is Nazrie ha-Brit , "Keepers of t he Covenant ". I
n fact , t he Brit aspect of t hat is t he very root of t he count ry name of Br
it ain. Brit -ain means "Covenant -land".
I n t he t ime of J esus t he Nazarenes lived in Galilee, and in t hat
myst ical place which t he Bible calls "t he Wilderness". The Wilderness
was act ually a very def ined place. I t was essent ially t he land around
t he main set t lement at Qumran which spread out t o Mird and ot her
places. I t was where t he Dead Sea Scrolls were produced-discovered
at Qumran in 1948.
Somewhere af t er t he Crucif ixion, Pet er and his f riend Paul went of f t o
Ant ioch, t hen on t o Rome, and t hey began t he movement t hat became
Christ ianit y. But as recorded in t he ot her annals, J esus, his brot her
J ames and t he majorit y of t he ot her apost les cont inued t he Nazarene move
ment and progressed it int o Europe. I t became t he Celt ic Church. The Nazaren
e movement as a Church is document ed wit hin t he Celt ic Church records as bei
ng f ormally implement ed as t he Church of J esus in AD 37, f our years af t er
t he Crucif ixion. The Roman Church was
formed 300 years lat er, aft er Paul and Pet er' s Christ ians had been
persecuted for three centuries.
Through many cent uries t he Nazarene-based Celt ic Church movement
was direct ly opposed t herefore t o t he Church of Rome. The difference
was a simple one: t he Nazarene f ait h was based on t he t eachings of
J esus himself . The gut s of t he religion, t he moral codes, t he
behavioural pat t erns, t he social pract ices, t he laws and just ices
relat ed t o Old Test ament t eaching but wit h a liberal message of
equalit y in mind-t his was t he r eligion of J esus. Roman Chr ist ianit y is "
Churchianit y". I t was not t he message of J esus t hat was import ant : t his
Church t urned J esus int o t he religion. I n short , t he Nazarene
Church was t he t rue social Church. The Roman Church was t he Church
of t he Emperors and t he Popes; t his was t he I mperial hybrid
move me nt .
Apar t f r om st r aight f or war d misunder st andings, misint er pr et at ions
and
mist r anslat ions, t he canonical Gospels suf f er f r om numer ous
purposef ul amendment s. Some original ent ries have been changed or delet ed; o
t her ent ries have been added t o suit t he Church' s vest ed interest. Back in
the fourth century when the texts were translated
int o Lat in f rom t heir original Greek and Semit ic t ongues, t he majorit y
of t hese edit s and amendment s were made.
Even earlier, about AD 195-one t housand, eight hundred years ago-
Bishop Clement of Alexandria made t he f irst known amendment f rom t he Gospel
t ext s. He delet ed a subst ant ial sect ion f rom t he Gospel of Mark, writ t
en more t han a hundred years bef ore t hat t ime, and he
just if ied his act ion in a let t er. "For even if t hey should say somet hing
t rue, one who loves t he Trut h should not ...agree wit h t hem... For not all
t rue t hings are t o be said t o all men." I nt erest ing. What he meant was t
hat even at t hat very early st age t here was already a discrepancy
bet ween what t he Gospel writ ers had writ t en and what t he bishops
want ed t o t each.
Today, t his sect ion delet ed by St Clement is st ill missing f rom t he
Gospel of Mark. But when Mark is compared wit h t he Gospel t hat we
know t oday, even wit hout t hat sect ion we find t hat t oday' s Gospel is a
good deal longer t han t he original! One of t hese addit ional sect ions compri
ses t he whole of t he Resurrect ion sequence; t his amount s t o t welve full v
erses at t he end of Mark, chapt er 16.
I t ' s now known t hat everyt hing t old about t he event s aft er t he
Crucif ixion was added by Church bishops or t heir scribes some t ime in
t he lat e f ourt h cent ury. Alt hough t his is conf irmed in t he Vat ican
archives, it is dif f icult f or most people t o gain access-and even if t hey
do, old Greek is very dif f icult t o underst and.
But what exactly was in this section of Mark that Clement saw fit to
remove? I t was t he sect ion t hat dealt wit h t he raising of Lazarus. I n
t he cont ext of t he original Mark t ext , however, Lazarus was port rayed in a
st at e of excommunicat ion: spirit ual deat h by decree, not physical deat h.
The account even had Lazarus and J esus calling t o each ot her before t he t om
b was opened. This defeat ed t he bishops' desire t o
port ray t he raising of Lazarus as a spirit ual miracle, not as a simple
release f rom excommunicat ion. More import ant ly, it set t he scene f or t he
st ory of t he Crucif ixion of J esus himself , whose own subsequent raising fro
m spirit ual deat h was det ermined by t he same t hree-day rule t hat applied t
o Lazarus.
J esus was raised (released or resurrect ed) from deat h by decree on
t he st at ut ory t hird day. I n t he case of Lazarus, however, J esus
flout ed t he rules by raising his friend aft er t he t hree-day period of
symbolic sickness. At t hat point , civil deat h would have become
absolut e in t he eyes of t he legal elders. Lazarus would have been
wrapped in sacking and buried alive. His crime was t hat he had led a
violent people' s-revolt t o saf eguard t he public wat er supply which had been
divert ed t hrough a new Roman aqueduct in J erusalem. But J esus perf ormed t
his release while not holding any priest ly ent it lement t o do so. What happen
ed was t hat Herod-Ant ipas of Galilee compelled t he
High Priest of J erusalem t o relent in f avour of J esus-and t his was
regarded as an unprecedent ed miracle!
But t here was more t o t he removed sect ion of Mark, because in t elling
t he st ory of Lazarus t he Mark account made it perfect ly clear t hat J esus a
nd Mary Magdalene were act ually man and wif e. The Lazarus st ory in J ohn cont
ains a rat her st range sequence t hat has Mart ha coming from t he Lazarus hou
se t o greet J esus, whereas her sist er, Mar y Magdalene, r emains inside unt i
l summoned by J esus. But in
cont rast t o t his, t he original Mark account said t hat Mary Magdalene act ua
lly came out of t he house wit h Mart ha and was t hen chast ised by t he discip
les and sent back indoors t o await J esus' inst ruct ion. This was a specif ic
procedure of J udaic law, whereby a wif e in rit ual
mourning was not allowed t o emerge f rom t he propert y unt il inst ruct ed
by her husband.
There' s a good deal of inf ormat ion out side t he Bible t o conf irm t hat J e
sus and Mary Magdalene were man and wif e. But is t here anyt hing relevant in t
he Gospels t oday, anyt hing t hat t he edit ors missed t hat
t ells us t he st ory? Well, t here are some specific t hings and t here are
some ancillary t hings.
There are seven list s given in t he Gospels of t he women who
permanent ly seemed t o f ollow J esus around, and t hese include J esus' mot he
r; but in six of t hese seven list s t he f irst name, even ahead of his mot her
, is Mary Magdalene. When one st udies ot her list s of t he period which relat
e t o any f orm of hierarchical societ y, one not ices
t hat t he "first lady" was always t he first name list ed. The t erm "First Lad
y" is used in America t oday. The f irst lady was t he most senior; she was alwa
ys named f irst -and as t he Messianic Queen, Mary Magdalene would have been nam
ed f irst , as indeed she was.
But is t he mar r iage def ined in t he Gospels? Well, it is. Many have
suggest ed t hat t he wedding at Cana was t he marriage of J esus and
Mary Magdalene. This was not t he wedding ceremony as such, alt hough
t he marriage is det ailed in t he Gospels. The marriage is t he quit e
separat e anoint ings at Bet hany. I n Luke we have a f irst anoint ing by
Mary of J esus, t wo-and-a-half years before t he second anoint ing. I t
doesn't occur to many people that they are different stories, but they
are t wo-and-a-half years apart .
Readers of t he f irst cent ury would have been f ully conversant wit h t he t w
o-part rit ual of t he sacred marriage of a dynast ic heir. J esus, as we know,
was a "Messiah", which means quit e simply an "Anoint ed One". I n f act , all a
noint ed senior priest s and Davidic kings were Messiahs. J esus was not unique.
Alt hough not an ordained priest , he gained his right t o Messiah st at us by
way of descent f rom King David and t he kingly line, but he did not achieve t h
at Messiah st at us unt il he was act ually
physically anoint ed by Mar y Magdalene, in her capacit y as a high
priest ess, short ly before t he Crucifixion.
The word "Messiah" comes f rom t he Hebrew verb "t o anoint ", which
it self is derived f rom t he Egypt ian word messeh, "t he holy crocodile".
I t was with the fat of the messeh that the Pharaoh' s sister-brides
anoint ed t heir husbands on marriage. The Egypt ian cust om sprang f rom
kingly pr act ice in old Mesopot amia.
I n t he Old Test ament ' s Song of Solomon we hear again of t he bridal
anoint ing of t he king. I t is def ined t hat t he oil used in J udah was t he
f ragrant oint ment spikenard, an expensive root oil f rom t he Himalayas,
and we learn t hat t his anoint ing rit ual was perf ormed always while t he
husband/ king sat at t he t able. I n t he New Test ament , t he anoint ing of
J esus by Mary Magdalene was indeed perf ormed while he sat at t he
t able, and wit h t he bridal anoint ment of spikenard. Aft erwards, Mary wiped
his f eet wit h her hair, and on t he f irst occasion of t he t wo-part marriage
she wept . All of t hese t hings signif y t he marit al anoint ing of a dynast
ic heir.
Ot her anoint ings of Messiahs, whet her on coronat ion or admission t o
t he senior priest hood, were always conduct ed by men, by t he High
Zadok or t he High Pr iest . The oil used was olive oil, mixed wit h
cinnamon and ot her spices; never, ever spikenard.
Spikenard was t he express prerogat ive of a Messianic bride who had
t o be a Mary, a sist er of a sacred order. J esus' mot her was a Mary; so,
t oo, would his wif e have been a Mar y, by t it le at least if not by
bapt ismal name. S ome convent ual or der s st ill maint ain t he t r adit ion b
y
adding t he t it le "Mary" t o t he bapt ismal names of t heir nuns: Sist er
Mary Theresa, Sist er Mary Louise.
Messianic marriages were always conduct ed in t wo st ages. The f irst
st age, t he anoint ing in Luke, was t he legal commit ment t o wedlock. The
second st age, t he anoint ing in Mat t hew, Mark and J ohn, was t he
cement ing of t he cont ract . And in J esus and Mary' s case, t he second
anoint ing at Bet hany was of express signif icance. Here t he Grail st ory
begins, because, as explained in books of J ewish law at t he t ime and by
Flavius J osephus in The Ant iquit ies of t he J ews, t he second part of
t his marriage ceremony was never conduct ed unt il t he wif e was t hree
mont hs pregnant .
Dynast ic heirs such as J esus were expressly required t o perpet uat e
t heir lines. Marriage was essent ial, but t he law had t o prot ect t hem
against marriage t o women who proved barren or kept miscarrying, and
t his prot ect ion was provided by t he t hree-mont h-pregnancy rule.
Miscarriages would not of t en happen af t er t hat t erm, and once t hey
got t hrough t hat period it was considered saf e enough t o complet e t he
marriage cont ract . When anoint ing her husband at t his st age, t he
Messianic bride, in accordance wit h cust om, was said t o be anoint ing
him f or burial. This is conf irmed in t he Gospels. The bride would f rom t hat
day carry a vial of spikenard around her neck, f or t he rest of her husband' s
lif e; she would use it again on his ent ombment .
I t was f or t his very purpose t hat Mary Magdalene would have gone t o t he t
omb, as she did on t he Sabbat h aft er t he Crucifixion. Subsequent t o t he se
cond Bet hany anoint ing, t he Gospels relat e t hat J esus said: "Wheresoever t
his Gospel shall be preached t hroughout t he whole
world, t his also t hat she hat h done shall be spoken of f or a memorial of
her."
I n his f amous rendering of t he event , t he Renaissance art ist Fra
Angelico act ually depict ed J esus placing a cr own on t he head of Mar y Magda
lene. But despit e t he f act t hat Fra Angelico was a learned 15t h- cent ury D
ominican f riar, did t he Christ ian Church aut horit ies honour Mary Magdalene
and speak of t his act as a memorial of her? No; t hey did not . They complet el
y ignored J esus' own direct ive and denounced Mary as a whore.
To t he esot eric Church and t he Knight s Templars, however, Mary
Magdalene was always regarded as a saint . She is st ill revered as such by many
t oday, but t he int erest ing part about t his saint hood, when we t hink abou
t Grail lore, is t hat Mary is list ed as t he pat ron saint of
winegrowers, t he guardian of t he vine-t he guardian of t he Holy Grail,
t he guardian of t he sacred bloodline.
There is much in t he Gospels t hat we don' t presume t o be t here
because we are never encouraged t o look beyond t he superf icial level.
We' ve been aided great ly in t his regard in recent years by t he Dead
Sea Scrolls and by t he ext raordinary research of Aust ralian t heologian
Dr Barbara Thiering.
The Dead Sea Scrolls have opened up a whole new awareness of jargon; we have a w
hole new enlight enment here. They set down t he communit y of f ices of t he Me
ssiah of I srael. They t ell us about t he council of
t welve delegat e apost les who were permanent ly appoint ed t o preside
over specif ic aspect s of government and rit ual. This leads t o a great er
awareness of t he apost les t hemselves. We now know not only what t heir names
were-we always knew t hat -but we can underst and who t hey were, who t heir f a
milies were, what t heir dut ies and posit ions were.
We now underst and f rom st udying t he Gospels t hat t here is an allegory
wit hin t hem: t he use of words t hat we don' t underst and t oday. We now
know that baptismal priests were called "fishers"; we know that those who aided
t hem by hauling t he bapt ismal candidat es int o t he boat s in large net s we
re called "f ishermen"; and we know t hat t he bapt ismal candidat es t hemselve
s were called "fishes". The apost les J ames and J ohn were bot h ordained "fish
ers". The brot hers Pet er and Andrew were lay "f ishermen", and J esus promised
t hem priest hood wit hin t he new minist r y, saying "I will make you t o beco
me f isher s of men".
We now know t here was a part icular jargon of t he Gospel era, a jargon
t hat would have been readily underst ood by anybody reading t he
Gospels in t he f irst cent ury and beyond. These jargonist ic words have
been lost t o lat er int erpret at ion. Today, f or example, we call our
t heat re invest ors "angels" and our t op ent ert ainers "st ars", but what
would a reader f rom some dist ant cult ure in t wo t housand years' t ime make
of "The angel went t o t alk t o t he st ars"? The Gospels are f ull of t hese j
argonist ic words. "The poor", "t he lepers", "t he mult it ude", "t he blind"-n
one of t hese was what we presume it t o mean t oday.
Def init ions such as "clouds", "sheep", "f ishes", "loaves" and a var iet y of
ot hers were all relat ed, just like "st ars", t o people.
When t he Gospels were writ t en in t he first cent ury t hey were issued
int o a Roman-cont rolled environment . Their cont ent had t o be disguised
against Roman scrut iny. The inf ormat ion was of t en polit ical; it was
coded, veiled. Where import ant sect ions appeared t hey were oft en
heralded by t he words, "This is for t hose wit h ears t o hear"-for t hose who
underst and t he code. I t was no different t o t he coded informat ion passed b
et ween members of oppressed groups t hroughout hist ory.
There was a code f ound in document at ion passed bet ween t he lat er
J ews in Germany in t he 1930s and 1940s.
Through our knowledge of t his scribal crypt ology we can now
det ermine dat es and locat ions wit h very great accuracy. We can
uncover many of t he hidden meanings in t he Gospels t o t he ext ent t hat t he
miracles t hemselves t ake on a whole new cont ext . I n doing so, t his does n
ot in any way decry t he f act t hat a man like J esus, and, in f act , specif i
cally J esus, was obviously a ver y special per son wit h enor mously special po
wers, but t he Gospels laid down cert ain st ories which have
since become described as "miracles". These were not put down
because t hey were really miraculous supernat ural event s; t hey were
put down because in t he t hen-current polit ical arena t hey were act ually
quit e unprecedent ed act ions which successf ully f lout ed t he law.
We now know ot her t hings. We now know why t he Gospels are oft en
not in agreement wit h each ot her. For example, Mark says t hat J esus was cruc
if ied at t he t hird hour, whereas J ohn says he was crucif ied at t he sixt h
hour. This does not , on t he f ace of it , look t oo import ant ,
but , as we shall see, t his t hree-hour t ime difference was crucial t o t he
event s t hat followed.
Let ' s look at t he wat er and wine at Cana, f ollowing t he st ory t hrough
what t he Bible act ually t ells us, as against what we t hink we know.
What was a very st raight forward event is now dubbed wit h
supernat ural overt ones. The Cana wedding, out of f our Gospels, is
described only in J ohn. I f it was so import ant t o t he Church as a
miracle, why is it not in t he ot her t hree Gospels? I t does not say (as is
so of t en said f rom pulpit s): "They ran out of wine." I t doesn' t say t hat
.
I t says: "When t hey want ed wine, t he mot her of J esus said, ' They
have no wine.' "
The Gospel t ells us t hat t he person in charge was t he ruler of t he
f east . This specif ically def ines it not as a wedding ceremony as such,
but a pre-wedding bet rot hal f east . The wine t aken at bet rot hal f east s
was only available t o priest s and celibat e J ews, not t o married men,
novices or any ot hers who were regarded as being unsanct if ied. They
were allowed only wat er-a purif icat ion rit ual, as st at ed in J ohn.
When t he t ime came f or t his rit ual, Mary, clearly not happy about t he
discr iminat ion and dir ect ing J esus' at t ent ion t o t he unsanct if ied
guest s, said: "They have no wine." Having not yet been anoint ed t o
Messiah st at us, J esus responded: "Mine hour is not yet come." At t his,
Mary f orced t he issue and J esus t hen f lout ed convent ion, abandoning wat e
r alt oget her. Wine for everyone! The ruler of t he feast made no comment what
soever about any miracle; he simply expressed his
amazement t hat t he wine had t urned up at t hat st age of t he
pr oceedings.
I t ' s been suggest ed oft en t hat t he wedding at Cana was J esus' own
wedding ceremony because he and his mot her displayed a right of
command t hat would not be associat ed wit h ordinary guest s. However,
t his f east can be dat ed t o t he summer of AD 30, in t he mont h
equivalent t o J une. Fir st weddings wer e always held in t he mont h of
At onement (Sept ember), and bet rot hal feast s were held t hree mont hs
before t hat . I n t his inst ance, we find t hat t he first marit al anoint ing
of J esus by Mary Magdalene was at t he At onement of AD 30, t hree
mont hs af t er t he Cana ceremony which appears t o have been t heir own
bet rot hal feast .
The Gospels t ell a st ory t hat alt hough not always in agreement f rom
Gospel t o Gospel is act ually f ollowable out side t he Bible. The account s
of J esus' act ivit ies right up t o t he t ime of t he Crucif ixion can be
f ound in various records of t he era. I n t he of f icial annals of I mperial
Rome, t he t rial by Pilat e and t he Crucif ixion are ment ioned. We can
det ermine precisely f rom t his chronological diary of t he Roman
governors t hat t he Crucif ixion t ook place at t he March Passover of AD
33. The Bet hany second marriage anoint ing was in t he week prior t o t hat . W
e know t hat at t hat st age Mary Magdalene had t o have been t hree mont hs pre
gnant , by law-which means she should have given birt h in Sept ember of AD 33.
That , we' ll come back t o.
I f t he Gospels are read as t hey are writ t en, J esus appears as a
liberat ing dynast , endeavouring t o unit e t he people of t he era against t h
e oppression of t he Roman Empire. J udaea at t he t ime was just like France un
der German occupat ion in World War I I . The aut horit ies
were cont rolled by t he milit ary occupat ional f orce; resist ance
movement s were common.
J esus was await ed, expect ed, and by t he end of t he st ory had become
an anoint ed Messiah. I n t he f ir st cent ur y Ant iquit ies of t he J ews,
J esus is called "a wise man", "a t eacher " and "t he King". Ther e is
not hing t here about divinit y.
While t he Dead Sea Scrolls ident ify t he Messiah of I srael as t he
Supreme Milit ary Commander of I srael, it is no secret t he apost les
were armed. From the time of recruitment, J esus checked that they
all had swords. At t he very end of t he st ory, Pet er drew his sword
against Malchus. J esus said, "I come not t o send peace but a swor d."
Many of t he high-r anking J ews in J er usalem wer e quit e cont ent t o hold
posit ions of power backed by a f oreign milit ary regime. Apart f rom
t hat , t he Hebrew groups t hemselves were sect arian; t hey did not want
t o share t heir God J ehovah wit h anybody else, specif ically unclean
Gent iles. To t he Pharisees and Sadducees, t he J ews were God' s chosen
people: He belonged t o t hem, t hey belonged t o Him. But t here were
other J ews-there were the Nazarenes, there were the Essenes-who
were influenced by a more liberal, west ern doct rine. I n t he event ,
J esus' mission f ailed; t he rif t was insurmount able. Gent iles, in modern- d
ay language, are simply t he non-J ewish Arab races-and t he rif t is st ill the
re today.
The sent encing of J esus was by t he Roman Governor Pont ius Pilat e, but
J esus was act ually condemned and excommunicat ed prior t o t hat by
t he Sanhedrin Council. I t was decided t o cont rive a punishment ,
whereby J esus would be sent enced by t he Roman Governor who was
already t rying ot her prisoners f or leading insurrect ions against
himself .
As confirmed by t he Supreme J udge and At t orney-General of I srael
even t oday, it was quit e illegal f or t he Sanhedrin Council t o sit at night
or t o sit and operat e during t he Passover, so t he t iming was perf ect .
They had an ideal opport unit y, and a reason t o say: "Sorry, we can' t do
t his ourselves. You, t he Roman Governor, have t o do t his."
As f or J esus' deat h on t he Cross, it is perf ect ly plain t his was spirit u
al
deat h, not physical deat h, as det ermined by t he t hree-day rule t hat
everybody in t he f irst cent ury reading t his would have underst ood. I n
civil and legal t erms, J esus was already dead when he was placed on
t he Cross. He was denounced, scourged, prepared f or deat h by decree.
Today, we call t his "excommunicat ion". For t hree days J esus would
have been nominally sick, wit h absolut e deat h coming on t he f ourt h day.
On t hat day he would be ent ombed, buried alive; but during t he f irst t hree
days he could be raised or resurrect ed. I n fact , he predict ed t hat he would
.
Raisings and resurrect ions (apart from t he fact t hat J esus once
f lout ed t he rule, and t hat was a miracle!) could only be perf ormed by
t he High Priest or by t he Fat her of t he Communit y. The High Priest at
t hat t ime was J oseph Caiaphas, t he very man who condemned J esus;
t herefore t he raising had t o be performed by t he pat riarchal Fat her.
There are Gospel account s of J esus t alking t o t he Fat her from t he
Cr oss, culminat ing in "Fat her , int o t hy hands I commend my spir it ", and
at t hat t ime we know from t he list ings t hat t he appoint ed Fat her was t h
e Magian apost le Simon Zelot es.
We have been t aught t hat J esus' physical deat h was proved by t he blood and
wat er t hat f lowed when he was pierced by t he spear, but t his has been very
badly t ranslat ed. The original word does not
t ranslat e t o "pierced"; it t ranslat es t o "pricked" or t o "scrat ched".
This in t urn was mist ranslat ed int o t he Lat in verb "t o open", and int o
t he English word "pierced".
They were not primit ive t imes. They were t imes when t here were
doct ors, medical men; t here were even f orms of hospit al. And we can
see t hat , just like t oday, t he t est for reflex act ion was scrat ching,
prodding or pricking t he skin wit h a sharp inst rument .
I have in my possession a let t er f rom a surgeon of t he Brit ish Medical
Council. I t says: "Medically, t he out flow of wat er is impossible t o
explain. Blood f lowing f r om a st ab wound is evidence of lif e, not deat h.
I t would t ake a large, gaping lacerat ion f or any drop of blood t o f low
f rom a dead body because t here is no vascular act ion."
So let ' s look f urt her; let ' s look at what t he Gospels act ually said.
J oseph of Arimat hea t ook down J esus' body f rom t he Cross. I n f act ,
t he word t hat was t ranslat ed t o t he English word "body" was t he
Greek word soma, meaning "live body". The alt ernat ive word denot ing
"dead body" or "cor pse" w ould have been pt oma.
J esus very apparent ly survived, and t his is explicit ly maint ained in
ot her books. Even t he Koran says t hat J esus survived t he Crucif ixion.
During t hat Friday af t ernoon when J esus was on t he Cross, t here was a
t hree-hour-forward t ime change. Time was recorded t hen by sundials
and by priest s who marked t he hours by a sequence of measured
prayer sessions. I n essence, t here were dayt ime hours and t here were
night -t ime hours. Today we have a t went y-f our-hour day. I n J ohn, J esus s
aid: "Are t here not t welve hours in a day?" Yes, t here were t welve hours in
a day and t here were t welve hours in t he night , and
dayt ime st art ed at sunrise. From t ime t o t ime t he beginning of dayt ime
changed; t hus t he beginning of night -t ime changed. I n March, t he beginning
of dayt ime would have been somewhere round about six o' clock in t he mor ning
, as we know it .
We know t hat J oseph of Arimat hea negot iat ed wit h Pont ius Pilat e t o have
J esus removed from t he Cross aft er a few hours of hanging. The Gospels don'
t act ually agree on t he sequence of event s here: some use t he t ime before t
he t ime change; some use t he t ime aft er t he t ime
change. But t hree hours disappeared f rom t he day, t o be replaced wit h
t hree night -t ime hours. Daylight hours were subst it ut ed by hours of
darkness. The land f ell int o darkness f or t hree hours, we are t old in
t he Gospels. Today we would simply, in a split second, add t hr ee night -
t ime hours t o t he day.
But t hese t hree hours were t he crux of every single event t hat
followed, because t he Hebrew lunarist s made t heir change during t he
dayt ime. The solarist s, of which t he Essenes and t he Magi were
f act ions, did not make t heir change unt il midnight -which act ually means
t hat according t o t he Gospel t hat relat es t o Hebrew t ime, J esus was
crucif ied at t he t hird hour; but in t he ot her, solar t ime he was
crucified at t he sixt h hour.
On t hat evening t he Hebrews began t heir Sabbat h at t he old nine
o' clock, but t he Essenes and Magians st ill had t hree hours t o go bef ore
the Sabbath. I t was those three hours that enabled them to work wit h, on and f
or J esus, dur ing a per iod of t ime in which nobody else was allowed t o unde
rt ake any physical work what soever.
And so we come t o probably one of t he most misunderst ood event s of
the Bible
I
did not decide t o writ e t he book [Bloodline of t he Holy Grail]. The
book happened by accident , not by design. I t happened by virt ue of t he
fact t hat for about t he last t en years I have been t he appoint ed
hist or ian and sover eign genealogist t o t hir t y-t hr ee r oyal f amilies. I
t
happened because during t hose early periods I was document ing
evidence on t he hist ory of t hose royal f amilies and t heir noble
of f shoot s, and t he chivalric archives of t hose noble and sovereign
f amilie s.
What I was doing was put t ing t oget her writ t en chronological account s
of t hings t hat t hese families knew t he subst ance of but did not
necessarily know t he det ail of . I t is t he reason why in Brit ain and
Europe I necessarily spend f ar less t ime on t his biblical aspect ,
because t here' s a lot of what we' ll t alk about t onight t hat in Europe is t
aken as read. I t was never any secret when my book came out , f or t he majori
t y of t hese people, t hat J esus was married and t hat J esus had heirs, becau
se it was writ t en as such in very many f amily archives, not necessarily just
privat e but in t he open domain. The published papers of Mary, Queen of Scot s
t alk about it at lengt h. The papers of J ames II of England, who was wasn't de
posed until 1688, talk of it at length.
I n put t ing t oget her t he det ail, generat ion by generat ion, of t his st o
ry, we were act ually compiling somet hing f or post erit y t hat , at t hat poi
nt in t ime when I began t he wor k, was locked away in boxes and
cupboards, and I was act ually in a posit ion where I was present ed wit h t hin
gs and said, "Look, t his says, ' Last opened in 1732!". So, some very, very old
document at ion, not only last opened in sevent een-whenever, but act ually doc
ument ed and writ t en down hundreds of years bef ore t hat .
The book happened by accident . Over a period of t ime-probably,
looking back now, t en or t welve year s ago-I began t his wor k wit h
separat e commissions f rom separat e f amilies, doing work on t hese
genealogies. What happened was t hey began t o converge. I t became
very apparent -and it t ook a long t ime because genealogies have t o be done ba
ckwards, put t oget her backwards and const ruct ed backwards- but what was happ
ening was t hat a t riangle, f rom a large t op base wit h numer ous f amily lin
es, was pulling in t o a point .
I suddenly r ealised what t his point was, and I said, "Wow, do you
realise what I ' ve f ound here?"; and t hey said, "Ah, you know t he
f at her of so and so?"; and I said, "No, no, no; I ' m act ually f inding t hat
t his comes out of t he House of J udah in t he f irst cent ury"; and t hey sai
d, "Oh, yeah, we know all t hat ; what we want ed you t o do was f or
you..."; and I said, "Well, t her e ar e millions of people out t her e who do
not know about it , so let ' s t urn t his t riangle upside down and t urn it
int o a book!". So t hat ' s how t he book happened.
On t op of t hat , f or t he last six years I have been Brit ain' s Grand Prior
of t he Sacred Kindred of Saint Columba, t he royal ecclesiast ical seat
of t he Celt ic Church. So I had, also, access t o Celt ic Church records dat in
g back t o AD 37. Because of my at t achment s t o t he f amilies, t o t he knig
ht ly orders, I also had access t o Templar document s, t o t he very document s
t hat t he Knight s Templar brought out in Europe in 1128 and confront ed t he
Church est ablishment wit h, and fright ened t he life out of t hem wit h, becau
se t hese were document s t hat t alked about bloodline and genealogy, and we' l
l get on t o t hat .
So t onight we' re going t o embark on a t ime-honoured quest . Some have called
it t he ult imat e quest . The Christ ian Church has condemned it as a heresy,
and it is, of course, t he quest f or t he Holy Grail.
A heresy is described in all dict ionaries as "an opinion which is cont rary
t o t he ort hodox dogma of t he Christ ian bishops", and, in t his regard,
t hose ot her quest s which comprise much of t oday' s scient if ic and
medical research are equally heret ical. The word "heresy" is, in
essence, not hing more t han a derogat ory label, a t ag used by a f earf ul
Church est ablishment t hat has long sought t o maint ain cont rol of
societ y t hrough f ear of t he unknown. A heresy can t heref ore def ine t hose
aspect s of philosophy, research, which quest int o t he realms of t he unknown
, and which f rom t ime t o t ime provide answers and
solut ions t hat are quit e cont rary t o Church doct rine.
Quest s are by t heir very nat ure int riguing; hist ory and hist orical
research are enlight ening; but t he f indings f rom neit her are of any use
what soever unless t here are present -day applicat ions which, like
science and medicine, can sow t he seeds of a bet t er fut ure.
Hist ory is no more t han recorded experience-generally, t he experience of it s
winners. I t makes common sense t o learn f rom t he experience of yest erday.
I t ' s t hat very experience which holds t he moral, cult ural, polit ical, soc
ial keys of t omorrow, and it ' s in t his cont ext t hat t he Holy Grail suppor
t s t hat which we call "t he Messianic Code". This is t he
code of social pract ice inst it ut ed by J esus when he washed his
apost les' feet at t he Last Supper. I t pert ains t o t he obligat ions of
giving and receiving service; it det ermines t hat t hose in posit ions of
elect ed aut horit y and inf luence should always be aware of t heir dut ies
as represent at ives of societ y, obligat ed t o serve societ y, not t o
pr esume aut hor it y over societ y. I t is t he essent ial key t o democr at ic
government . This is def ined as government by t he people, f or t he
people. Wit hout t he implement at ion of t he Grail Code, we experience
t he only-t oo-f amiliar government of t he people. This is not democrat ic
gove r nme nt .
Now, in t he cour se of our jour ney we' ll be discussing many it ems which are
t horoughly f amiliar, but we' ll be looking at t hem f rom a dif f erent perspe
ct ive t o t hat normally conveyed. I n t his regard it will appear t hat we are
of t en t reading wholly new ground, but in f act it was only
t he ground t hat exist ed before it was carpet ed and concealed by t hose
wit h ot herwise vest ed int erest s. Only by rolling back t his carpet of
purposef ul concealment can we succeed in our quest f or t he Holy Grail.
S o our quest will begin in t he Holy Land of J udaea in t he t ime of J esus an
d we' ll spend a good while t here. I will not move f rom t hat era unt il we br
eak, because it will t ake t hat long t o set t he emergent scene f or t he next
2,000 years of hist ory.
We' ll be t ravelling t hrough t he Dark Ages t hen, t o spend some t ime in
mediaeval Eur ope. The Gr ail myst er y will t hen be f ollowed int o King
Art hur' s Brit ain and, event ually, in t ime, t o t he Unit ed St at es of
America where t he American fat hers were among t he great est exponent s of t h
e Grail Code. Eminent Americans such as George Washingt on, J ohn Adams, Benjami
n Fr anklin, Char les Thompson,
Thomas J ef f erson were as much champions of t he Holy Grail as were
King Art hur, Sir Lancelot and Galahad.
Bloodline of t he Holy Grail, t he book, has been described as "t he book
of messianic descent ". I t was a radio int erviewer who called it t hat ;
and it ' s an apt descript ion because t he book carries t he subt it le, The Hi
dden Lineage of J esus Revealed. This of course indicat es t hat J esus had chil
dren and, by implicat ion t heref ore, t hat he was married. So
was he married? Did J esus have children? I f so, do we know what
happened t o t hem? Are t here descendant s alive t oday? The answer t o
each of t hese quest ions is yes. We shall be looking at t he emergent
f amily in some det ail. We will f ollow t he st ory, t heir st ory, cent ury by
cent ury; t he st ory of a resolut e royal dynast y, t he descendant heirs of J
esus who st ruggled against all odds t hrough t he cent uries t o preserve t he
Messianic Royal Code down t o dat e.
Tonight ' s st ory will be a conspiracy: usurped crowns, prosecut ions,
assassinat ions, and t he unwarrant ed concealment of inf ormat ion f rom t he p
eople of t he West ern world. I t ' s an account of good government and bad gove
rnment ; about how t he pat riarchal kingship of people was supplant ed by dogma
t ic t yranny and t he dict at orial lordship of lands.
I t ' s a compelling journey of discovery, a view of past ages, but wit h it s e
ye f irmly set on t he f ut ure. This is hist ory as it was once writ t en but h
as never been t old.
Let ' s begin wit h t he most obvious of all quest ions. What is t he Holy
Grail? How is t he Holy Grail connect ed wit h t he descendant heirs of
J esus? The f act t hat J esus had descendant s might come as a surprise
t o some, but it was widely known in Br it ain and Eur ope unt il t he lat e
Middle Ages, just a f ew hundred years ago.
I n mediaeval t imes, t he line of messianic descent was def ined by t he French
word Sangréal. This derived f rom t he t wo words, Sang Réal, meaning "Blood Royal"
. This was t he Blood Royal of J udah, t he kingly
line of David which progressed t hrough J esus and his heirs. I n English
t ranslat ion, t he def init ion, Sangréal, became "San Gréal", as in "San"
Francisco. When writ t en more f ully it was writ t en "Saint Grail", "Saint ",
of cour se, r elat ing t o "Holy"; and by a nat ur al linguist ic process came t
he more romant ically f amiliar name, "Holy Grail".
From t he Middle Ages t here were a number of chivalric and milit ary
orders specif ically at t ached t o t he Messianic Blood Royal in Brit ain and
Europe. They included t he Order of t he Realm of Sion, t he Order of
t he Sacred Sepulchre; but t he most prest igious of all was t he
Sovereign Order of t he Sangréal-t he Knight s of t he Holy Grail. This
was a dynast ic Order of Scot land' s Royal House of St ewart .
I n symbolic t erms t he Grail is of t en port rayed as a chalice t hat
cont ains t he blood of J esus; alt ernat ively as a vine of grapes. The
product of grapes is wine, and it is t he chalice and t he wine of Grail t radit
ion t hat sit at t he very heart of t he Communion, t he Mass, t he Eucharist ;
and t his sacrament , t he Sacred Chalice, cont ains t he wine that represents
the perpetual blood of J esus.
I t is quit e apparent t hat alt hough maint aining t he ancient Communion
cust om, t he Christ ian Church has convenient ly ignored and elect ed not
t o t each t he t rue meaning and origin of t hat cust om. Few people even t hin
k t o enquire about t he ult imat e symbolism of t he chalice and wine sacrament
, believing t hat it comes simply f rom some gospel ent ry
relat ing t o t he Last Supper. Well, it ' s t he significance of t he perpet ua
l
blood of J esus. How is t he blood of J esus, or anyone else f or t hat
mat t er, perpet uat ed? I t is perpet uat ed t hrough family and lineage.
So why was it t hat t he Church aut horit ies elect ed t o ignore t he
bloodline signif icance of t he Grail sacrament ? They kept t he
sacrament . Why was it t hey went so f ar as t o denounce Grail lore and
Grail symbolism as heret ical?
The fact is t hat every government and every church t eaches t he form of hist o
ry or dogma most conducive t o it s own vest ed int erest . I n t his regard we'
re all condit ioned t o receiving a very select ive f orm of
t eaching. We are t aught what we' re supposed t o know, and we are t old
what we' re supposed t o believe. But f or t he most part we learn bot h
polit ical and r eligious hist or y by way of nat ional or cler ical pr opaganda
,
and t his of t en becomes absolut e dogma, t eachings which may not be
challenged for fear of reprisals.
Wit h regard t o t he Church' s at t it ude t owards t he chalice and t he wine,
it is blat ant ly apparent t hat t he original symbolism had t o be reint erpre
t ed by t he bishops because it denot ed t hat J esus had of f spring and t here
f ore t hat he must have unit ed wit h a woman.
But it was not only sacrament s and cust omary rit ual t hat were
reint erpret ed because of t his: t he very gospels t hemselves were
corrupt ed t o comply wit h t he male-only est ablishment of t he Church of Rome
-much like a modern f ilm edit or will adjust and select t he t apes t o achieve
the desired result, the result of the vested interest of the
f ilm-maker .
We' re all f amiliar wit h t he gospels of Mat t hew, Mark, Luke and J ohn,
but what about t he ot her gospels? What about t he Gospel of Philip, of
Thomas, of Mar y and of Mar y Magdalene? What of all t he numer ous gospels and
act s and epist les t hat were not approved by t he Church councils when t he Ne
w Test ament was collat ed? Why were t hey
excluded when t he choices were made?
There were act ually t wo main crit eria f or select ion of gospels f or t he Ne
w Test ament . These were det ermined at t he Council of Cart hage in the year 3
97. The first criterion was that the New Testament must be writ t en in t he nam
es of J esus' own apost les. Mark was not an apost le of J esus, as f ar as we k
now; nor was Luke. They wer e colleagues of t he lat er St Paul. Thomas, on t he
ot her hand, was one of t he original
t welve, and yet t he gospel in his name was excluded. Not only t hat , but
along wit h numerous ot her gospels and t ext s it was dest ined and
sent enced t o be dest royed.
And so t hroughout t he mediaeval world, Thomas and numerous ot her
unapproved books were buried and hidden in t he f if t h cent ury. Only in recen
t t imes have some of t hese manuscript s been uneart hed, wit h t he great est
f ind being at Nag Hammadi in Egypt in 1945, 1,500 years
after the burial of these documents.
Alt hough t hese books weren' t rediscovered unt il t his present cent ury,
t hey were used openly by t he early Christ ians. Cert ain of t hem,
including t he gospels ment ioned, along wit h t he Gospel of Trut h, t he
Gospel of t he Egypt ians and ot hers, were act ually ment ioned in writ ings
by early churchmen. Clement of Alexandria, I renaeus of Lyon, Origen
of Alexandr ia-t hey all ment ion t hese ot her gospels.
So why were t he gospels of Mark and Luke select ed if t hey were not
J esus' own apost les? Because Mark and Luke act ually were apost les of
J esus, and t he early Church fat hers knew t his. I n t hose days before
t he New Test ament was corrupt ed, t hey knew f ull well t hat J esus
survived t he Crucif ixion. I n t hese early gospels t here was no st ory of
Resurrect ion; t his was added lat er.
Why were ot her apost olic gospels not select ed? Because t here was a second, f
ar more import ant crit erion-t he crit erion by which, in t rut h, t he gospel
select ion was really made. And t his was a wholly sexist
regulat ion. I t precluded anyt hing t hat upheld t he st at us of women in
Church or communit y, societ y.
I ndeed, t he Church' s own apost olic const it ut ions were compiled on t his
basis. They st at e, "We do not permit our women t o t each in t he
Church, only t o pray and t o hear t hose who t each. Our mast er, when he sent
us t he t welve, did nowhere send out a woman; f or t he head of t he woman is t
he man, and is it not reasonable t hat t he body should govern t he head?".
This was rubbish, but it was f or t his very reason t hat dozens of
gospels were not select ed-because t hey made it quit e clear t hat t here
wer e ver y many act ive women in t he minist r y of J esus. Mar y
Magdalene, Mar t ha, Helena-Salome, Mar y J acob Cleophas, J oanna.
These were not only minist ry disciples; t hey' re recorded as
priest esses in t heir own right , running exemplary schools of worship in
t he Nazarene t radit ion.
I n St Paul' s Epist le t o t he Romans, Paul makes specif ic ment ion of his
own f emale helpers: Phoebe, f or example, whom he called a sist er of
t he Church; J ulia; Priscilla, who laid down her net f or t he cause. The
New Test ament is alive wit h women disciples, but t he Church ignored them all.
When the Church' s precepts of ecclesiastical discipline were drawn up, t hey s
t at ed, "I t is not permit t ed f or a woman t o speak in Church, nor t o claim
f or herself any share in any masculine f unct ion". But t he Church it self ha
d decided t hat t his was a masculine f unct ion.
The Church was so f right ened of women t hat it inst it ut ed a rule of
celibacy: a rule f or it s priest s, a rule t hat became a law in 1138; a law
t hat persist s t oday. Well, t his rule has never been quit e what it
appears on t he surf ace, because, when one reads t he rule, when one
st udies hist ory, one can see t hat it was never, ever sexual act ivit y as
such t hat bot hered t he Church. The specific definit ion t hat made t his r ul
e possible was pr iest ly int imacy wit h women. Why? Because women become wives
and lovers. The very nat ure of mot herhood is a
perpet uat ion of bloodlines. I t was t his t hat bot hered t he Church: a
t aboo subject -mot herhood, bloodlines. This image had t o be separat ed
f rom t he necessary image of J esus.
But it wasn' t as if t he Bible had said any such t hing. St Paul had said in hi
s Epist le t o Timot hy t hat a bishop should be married t o one wif e and t hat
he should have children; t hat a man wit h experience in his own
f amily household is act ually f ar bet t er qualif ied t o t ake care of t he C
hurch. Even t hough t he Roman Church aut horit ies claimed t o uphold t he t ea
ching of St Paul in part icular, t hey chose complet ely t o
disregard t his explicit direct ive t o suit t heir own ends, so t hat J esus'
own marit al st at us could be st rat egically ignored.
But t he Church' s celibat e, unmarried image of J esus was f ully
cont radict ed in ot her writ ings of t he era. I t was openly cont radict ed in
t he public domain unt il t he perpet uat ion of t he t rut h was proclaimed a
punishable heresy only 450 years ago in 1547, t he year t hat Henry
VIII died in England.
It's not just the Christian New Testament that suffers from these
sexist rest rict ions. A similar edit ing process was applied t o t he J ewish-
based Old Test ament , and t his made it convenient ly suit able t o be
added t o t he Christ ian Bible. This is made part icularly apparent by a
couple of ent ries t hat bypassed t he edit ors' scrut iny.
The books of J oshua and 2 Samuel bot h ref er t o t he much more
ancient Book of J asher. They say it ' s very import ant , t he Book of
J asher. Where is it ? Not in t he Bible. Like so many ot her books, it was
purposely left out. But does it still exist? Yes. The nine-foot Hebrew
scroll of J asher still exists. It has been historically important for a
long, long t ime. I t was t he jewel of t he court of Emperor Charlemagne,
and t he t ranslat ion of t he Book of J asher was t he very reason t hat
t he Universit y of Paris was f ounded, in t he year 800. That was about a
cent ury before t he Old Test ament t hat we know was act ually put
t oget her.
J asher was t he st aff-bearer t o Moses. His writ ings are of enormous
significance. The account s relat e t o t he st ory of t he I sraelit es in
Egypt , t o t heir exodus int o Canaan. But t hese st ories dif f er
considerably f rom t he way we know t he st ory t oday. They explain t hat
it was not Moses who was t he spirit ual leader of t he t ribes who
crossed t he Red Sea t o Mount Sinai. The spirit ual leader was Miriam.
At t hat t ime t he J ews had never heard of J ehovah; t hey worshipped
t he goddess Asherah. Their spirit ual leaders were largely female.
Miriam posed, according t o t he Book of J asher, such a problem f or
Moses in his at t empt t o creat e a new environment of male dominance
t hat he imprisoned her; and t he J ewish nat ion rose against Moses wit h
t heir armies t o secure Miriam' s release. This is not in t he Bible.
So let ' s move t o where t he Christ ian st ory it self began. Let ' s look at
t he gospels t hemselves and, in doing t hat , let ' s see what t hey act ually
t ell us, against what we t hink t hey t ell us, because we have all learned t o
go along wit h what we are t aught about t he gospels in schoolrooms and church
es. But is t he t eaching correct ly relat ed always? Does it
conf or m wit h t he wr it t en scr ipt ur es? I t ' s act ually sur pr ising ho
w much
we t hink we know, but we' ve learned it just f rom pulpit s or f rom
pict ure books, not from necessarily st udying t he t ext s.
The nat ivit y st ory it self provides a good example. I t ' s widely accept ed,
and t he Christ mas cards keep t elling us t hat J esus was born in a
st able. The gospels don' t say t hat . There is no st able ment ioned in any
aut hor ised gospel. The nat ivit y is not ment ioned at all in Mar k or J ohn,
and Mat t hew says quit e plainly t hat J esus was born in a house.
So where did t he st able come f rom? I t came f rom a misint erpret at ion,
really, of t he Gospel of Luke which relat es t hat J esus was laid in a
manger-not born, but laid-and a manger was t hen, and st ill is, not hing
more t han an animal f eeding box. One only has t o st udy societ y hist ory
of t he t ime t o recognise t he f act t hat it was perf ect ly common f or mang
ers t o be used as cradles, and t hey were of t en brought indoors for that very
purpose.
So why has it been presumed t hat t his part icular manger was in a
st able? Because t he English t ranslat ions of Luke t ell us t hat t here was n
o room in t he inn. Must t hen have been in a st able! But t he pre-English t ra
nslat ions of Luke don' t t alk about any inn; t he manuscript of Luke does not
say t here was no room in t he inn. I n f act , t here were no inns in t he East
in t hose days. There are very f ew inns t here now; and if
t here are, t hey' re illegal! People lodged t hen in privat e houses. I t was
a common way of lif e. I t was called f amily hospit alit y. Homes wer e open
for travellers.
Come t o t hat , if we' re really going t o be precise about t his, t here were
no st ables in t he region, eit her. I n f act , "st able" is a wholly English
word and it specif ically def ines a place f or keeping horses; horses of a
part icular st able. Who on eart h rode around on horses in J udaea?
Oxen, camels; t he odd Roman of f icer might have had a horse, but even
t he mules and t he oxen, if kept under cover, would have been kept
under some sort of a shed or out -house, not in a st able.
As f or t he myt hical inn, t he Greek t ext act ually does not say t here was n
o r oom at t he inn. By t he best t r anslat ion it act ually st at es t hat t h
er e was no pr ovision in t he r oom. As ment ioned in Mat t hew, J esus was bor
n in a house and, as correct ly t ranslat ed, Luke reveals t hat J esus was
laid in a manger, an animal f eeding box, because t here was no cradle
provided in t he room.
I f we' re on t he subject of J esus' birt h, I t hink we ought t o look at t he
chronology here, because t his is import ant as well; because t he gospels, t h
e t wo gospels t hat deal wit h t he nat ivit y, act ually give us two completel
y different dates for the event.
According t o Mat t hew, J esus was born in t he reign of King Herod,
Herod t he Great , who debat ed t he event wit h t he Magi and ordered
t he slaying of t he inf ant s. Well, Herod died in 4 BC, and we know f rom Matt
hew that J esus was born before that. And because of that, most st andard concor
dant Bibles and hist ory books imply t hat J esus' dat e of birt h was 5 BC, bec
ause t hat is bef ore 4 BC and Herod was st ill
reigning, so t hat ' s a good dat e.
But in Luke, a complet ely dif f erent dat e is given. Luke doesn' t t ell us ab
out King Herod or anyt hing like t hat . Luke says t hat J esus was born while C
yrenius was Governor of Syria, t he same year t hat t he Emperor August us imple
ment ed t he nat ional census, t he census which J oseph
and Mary went t o Bet hlehem t o be a part of .
There are relevant point s t o ment ion here, and t hey are bot h recorded
in t he f irst -cent ury J ewish annals (such as The Ant iquit ies of t he
J ews). Cyr enius was appoint ed Gover nor of Syr ia in AD 6. This was t he
very year recorded of t he nat ional census, put int o operat ion by
Cyrenius and ordered by Emperor August us. As Luke t ells us, it was t he
f irst and only ever recorded census f or t he region.
So J esus was born bef ore 4 BC and in AD 6. I s t his a mist ake? No, not
necessarily, because in t he way it was originally port rayed we' re
act ually looking at t wo quit e specif ic birt hs.
Bot h gospels are correct . We' re looking at J esus' physical birt h, and we' r
e looking at J esus' communit y birt h. These were defined at t he t ime as t he
f irst and second birt hs, and t hey applied specif ically t o people of part i
cular groups and cert ainly t o dynast ic heirs.
Second birt hs for boys were performed by way of a rit ual of rebirt h. I t was
very physical: t hey were wrapped in swaddling clot hes and born again f r om t
heir mot her ' s womb. I t was a physical cer emony. S econd birt hs f or boys t
ook place at t he age of t welve.
S o we know t hat J esus was t welve in AD 6. Unf or t unat ely, t he lat t er -
day t ranscribers of Luke complet ely missed t he signif icance of t his,
and it was t heir endeavour t o somehow t ie in t his event about
swaddling clot hes and being born t hen, t hat led t o t his ment ion of t he
nonsense about t he st able.
So if J esus was t welve in AD 6, t his means t hat he was bor n in 7 BC,
which t ies in perfect ly well wit h t he Mat t hew account t hat he was born
during t he lat t er reign of King Herod.
But we now discover what appears t o be anot her anomaly, because Luke
says lat er in t he gospel t hat when J esus was t welve years old, his
parent s, Mary and J oseph, t ook him t o J erusalem f or t he day. They
t hen lef t t he cit y t o walk home f or a f ull day' s journey wit h t heir
friends before t hey realised t hat J esus was not in t heir part y. They t hen
ret urned t o J erusalem t o f ind him at t he t emple, discussing his fat her'
s business wit h t he doct ors. Well, what sort of parent s can wander f or a wh
ole day in t he desert , wit hout knowing t heir t welve- year-old son' s not t
here?
The f act is t hat t he whole point of t he passage has been missed. There was a
wealt h of dif f erence bet ween a t welve-year-old son and a son in his t welf
t h year. When a son, on complet ing his init ial t welve years- t hat is t o s
ay, when he was act ually on his t hirt eent h birt hday-was
init iat ed int o t he communit y at t he ceremony of his second birt h, he
was regarded as commencing his f irst year. I t was t he original root of
t he modern bar mit zvah. His next init iat ion, t he init iat ion of manhood
in t he communit y, t ook place in his nint h year , when he was t went y-one-
t he root of t he age-t went y-one privilege. Various degrees f ollowed,
and t he next major t est was in his t welft h year-at t he end of his
t welf t h year, at t he age of t went y-f our, on his t went y-f ourt h
birt hday. When J esus remained at t he t emple in his t welf t h year, he was a
ct ually t went y-four. Not surprising t hat t hey expect ed him not perhaps t o
be wandering around t he desert wit h t hem!
So his discussion wit h t he doct ors relat ed t o his next degree. He
would have discussed t his at t he t ime wit h t he spirit ual fat her, t he
fat her of t he communit y; and indeed, he did. I t was t he fat her' s
business he discussed; his fat her' s business. The fat her of t his era is
recorded. The spirit ual fat her of t he communit y at t hat t ime was
Simeon t he Essene, and if we look back a f ew verses in Luke we see
t hat it was exact ly t his man, t he just and devout Simeon, who
legit imat ed J esus under t he law.
So can we t rust t he gospels? Well, as we can see, t he answer is, yes,
we can act ually t rust t he gospels t o a point , but what we can' t t rust is
t he way t hat t hey' ve been convolut ed and dist ort ed, and t aught t o us by
people who don' t underst and what t hey act ually said in t he f irst place.
The present English-language gospels dat e back ef f ect ively t o t he
Aut horized Bible, compiled f or t he St ewart King J ames I of England in
t he early 17t h cent ury. This was published and set int o print no more t han
165 years bef ore America' s Declarat ion of I ndependence; only a few years bef
ore the first Pilgrim Fathers set sail from England.
The gospels of t he early Church were originally writ t en in second and
t hird cent ury Greek. Along wit h t he Bible as a whole, t hey were
t ranslat ed int o Lat in in t he f ourt h cent ury, but it was t hen t o be mor
e
t han a t housand years bef ore any English t ranslat ion was made.
Bible t ranslat ion was risky t hen, t hough. Fourt eent h cent ury ref ormer
J ohn Wyclif f e was denounced as a heret ic f or t ranslat ing t he Bible
int o English. His books were burned. I n t he early 16t h cent ury, William
Tyndale was st rangled as a f orm of execut ion, in Belgium, and t hen
burned, just in case he wasn' t dead, f or t ranslat ing t he Bible int o
English. A lit t le lat er, Miles Coverdale, a disciple of his, made anot her
t ranslat ion; and by t hat t ime t he Church it self had split up quit e nicely
,
so Coverdale' s version was accept ed by t he Prot est ant Church-but he
was st ill a heret ic in t he eyes of Rome.
The problem was t hat as long as t he print ed t ext remained obscure
(and it wasn' t just ordinary Lat in; t his was an horrendous f orm of
Church Lat in), as long as only t he bishops could underst and it , t hey
could t each what ever on Eart h t hey want ed. I f it were t ranslat ed int o t
he languages t hat ot her people could underst and and maybe read f or t hemsel
ves, t his would pose a problem because t he Church could be called t o quest io
n.
(to Part 2)
(to Part 3)
About the Speaker:
Sir Laur ence Gar dner , Kt St Gm, KCD, is an int er nat ionally known
sovereign and chivalric genealogist . He holds t he posit ion of Grand
Prior of t he Celt ic Church' s Sacred Kindred of Saint Columba, and is
dist inguished as t he Chevalier Labhràn de Saint Germain. Sir Laurence
is also President ial At t aché t o t he European Council of Princes, a const it u
t ional advisory body est ablished in 1946. He is f ormally at t ached t o t he
Noble Household Guard of t he Royal House of
St ewart , f ounded at St Germain-en-Laye in 1692, and is t he J acobit e
Hist oriographer Royal.
Editors' Notes:
¥ Correspondence should be addressed t o Laurence Gardner, Post
Of f ice Box 4, Ot t er y St Mar y EX11 1YR, Unit ed Kingdom. Email:
laur ence58@bt openwor ld.comW e b s it e : ht t p:/ / Gr aal.co.uk
¥ Laurence Gardner' s book, Bloodline of t he Holy Grail: The Hidden
Lineage of J esus Revealed, was published by Element Books in 1996
(I SBN 1-85230-870-2 h/ c), and is now available in paperback,
dist ribut ed by Penguin Books (I SBN 1-86204-152-0). I t was reviewed
in NEXUS 4/ 01.
¥ Copies of Laurence Gardner' s video present at ion can be obt ained
f rom NEXUS Of f ice in t he UK; and in t he USA, f rom Ramt ha' s School
of Enlight enment , PO Box 1210, Yelm, WA 98597, ph +1 (360) 458
5201, websit e,www.r a mt h a .c o m. Orders f rom Aust ralia and NZ should
be sent t o t he USA: AUD$ 46.00 inc. p&h, f or bot h t apes (specif y
PAL/ VHS ).
HOME PAGE| SUBS INFO| BACK ISSUES| PRODUCTS LIST| ORDER FORM
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