Holy Blood, Holy Fraud:
What happens when you mix a tourist trap, a pro-Nazi con artist, and a credulous public
With the emergence of the much-publicized "Gospel of Jesus' Wife" in the past week, it may be helpful to review some of the facts surrounding the Holy Blood Holy Grail/Da Vinci Code hoax.
For the record, as a Valentinian Christian I am favorably disposed towards the idea that Jesus was married, likely to Mary Magdalene. Unlike some other Gnostic schools, the Valentinians had a very favorable view of marriage; the Gospel of Philip says "Great is the mystery of marriage! For without it, the world would not exist", and refers to the Magdalene as the "companion" of Jesus, whom he used to kiss frequently.
And to be fair, Professor Karen L. King has made a point of distancing her find from the pseudo-histories and conspiracy theories found in HBHG and the Da Vinci Code. But with this story in the headlines, many will view it as a vindication of these tales, so I wanted to take the opportunity to re-post excerpts from a piece I wrote during the height of the the Da Vinci Code craze:
The "Priory of Sion"
The purported organization behind this hoax is the Priory of Sion (Prieuré de Sion), which was founded in 1956 by Pierre Athanase Marie Plantard, who was born in Paris in 1920, the son of a butler and a cook. The creation of the Priory followed earlier attempts by Plantard to create secret societies, which largely existed only in his head.
