Rating: 
Summary: This Book is an Eye Opener
Review: This book is an eye opener. The information is well documented, well researched and very comprehensive. In response to those reviewers who "poo-pooed" the "what if's"; those what if questions are based on DOCUMENTED FACTS! Those that refute the book only have the bible to go on and most arguments I've read on books of this nature, like the Da Vinci Code, never get to the point of the facts these books present. Simply put, these kind hearted fundamentalists can't really prove their argument with just the bible to go on, whereas in the other camp have information based on DOCUMENTED HISTORY. This book is a compelling read, though a bit long in the mouth, which is why I gave it 4 stars instead of 5. You have to get through at least 600 pages to see how it all connects. Fundamentalists will find this book disturbing but if you are open minded you may see that these theories do have some merit worth considering. I also recommend getting The Messianic Legacy along with this book. Both excellent and informative.
Rating: 
Summary: UNFATHOMABLY RETARDED
Review: If you read this stupid book you'll be going right to hell dummy! How would you like to feel the searing flames of Lusifer as you descend into the unbearable abyss that will be your eternal layer!? This book is constructed from the sinew and flesh and bone of sinners! You idiots have got another thing coming if you think there is no such thing as God and Jesus because guess what... THERE IS! I mean think about it, there HAS TO BE! I learned all about it in confirmation class, and priests arent allowed to tell lies because that would be a sin. The earth was created based on integrity and morals, and these are the ideals the church not only is founded on, but what they instill in each and every one of us God fearing Christians! Dont read this book, I know I wont.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting theories
Review: It is true that this book is full of suppositions, but so is the bible, and its good to have at least a different perspective of a story that has been perpetuated for the last 2 millenia without a proper historic base. This is the first time that I read about the life of Jesus from an historic perspective, and not from a religious perspective and I found it very interesting. Most of the theories explained by the authors actually make more sense that most of the bible's account of facts. When you read the bible without any preconceptions, you have to agree that most of the things actually do not make sense and that are many gaps among stories and contradictions to be believe they happened as they are described. The most important confirmation I obtained from this book is that the bible was definetely edited, modified and changed to safeguard certaing interests of certaing groups existing at that time. It is absolutly absurd that the bible totally exculpate the romans from Jesus' death, considering they were the rules at the time (and we all know how barbaric they were). Instead, the bible blame the jews for Jesus' death, changing history and perpetuating the anti-semitic sentiment that has made this world a less peaceful place.
Rating: 
Summary: THought Provoking and Valid Possiblity
Review: History and religion are basedon an interpretation fo facts. This is an interesting book, becuase it highlights a set of facts, and say based on these facts, this possibility exists. Namely the possibiility that Mary Magdalens and Jesus of Nazareth had different roles than the dominant Chritian churches ascribe to them through tradition. The new roles proposed in no was contradict any Bibilical stories; in fact that authors draw quotes from the Bible to support their allegations. The author's proposed views do not impact the core theological theory, since they do not challenge the content of Jesus's messages. I believe this is an improtant book, because it raises many questions that can not be answered, not only about Jesus and Mary, but about the development of tradition and the role that groups of power have in any society to influence what posterity embraces as "the official truth" or "the accetable" moral code by which we should all live. Part of this code, it should come to no surprise, is the role of leadership for women. Although these questions are placed in reference to Chritsian traditions in this book, they are applicable to most religious tradtions, and the book reminded me much fo Fatima Mernissi's investiatison into the leadership role that women played in early Islamic societies, and the centrality tht democrac once had to those same nascent society. It also made me wonde what why Moses sister Miriam in the old Testament has the title prphetess, as does Deborah, but Jewish trdation can tell us nothing definitive about what those titles meant to the role those women held in their communities. Thus, the issues in this book about questioning the accuracy of historical interpretation of figures who lived within religious communities are not limited to only Christian societies. I don't undertand why Amazon allowed the posting of negative reviews, by people who apear to be members of Christian right fiaths, who openly expressed chostility to the book's premise, while openly stating that they have not read the book.
Rating:
Summary: "A masterpiece of insinuation and supposition"
Review: From Laura Miller, "The Da Vinci Con," NY Times, Feb. 22, 2004: "'Holy Blood, Holy Grail' is a masterpiece of insinuation and supposition, employing all the techniques of pseudohistory to symphonic effect, justifying this sleight of hand as an innovative scholarly technique called 'synthesis,' previously considered too 'speculative' by those whose thinking has been unduly shaped by the 'so-called Enlightenment of the 18th century.'"
Rating: 
Summary: based on what?
Review: Although this book is grounded in the historical rather than the theological, it makes one rather risky assumption: that the reader has been eagerly awaiting their hypotheses.
I admire their seemingly tirelessly researched assumptions, but must assert certain thoughts of my own that will not allow themselves to be set aside.
Contrary to what the authors assume, I, the reader, do not want a human Jesus. I want a divine being experiencing a human body who was able to resist worldly temptations, perform miracles, and was able to persuade people with a power that went far beyond mere charisma.
In the end, there are too many gaps left for suppositions and assumptions that the authors take for granted to be their own truth. I cede that faith and fact are two seperate sides of the same coin, but you can't ignore that the coin is made by only one type of metal.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating theories that are gaining credence.
Review: This is a meticulously researched, cautiously presented work that presents some absolutely fascinating theories surrounding the life of Jesus, European history, and the true background and functions of the Knights Templar and the Freemasons. It can be a little hard to follow, as the authors do jump around in their subject matter, but definitely worth the effort. Their theory and research that the bloodline of Jesus can be traced to the present day are very persuasive, and there are a number of other research works around today that are in agreement with some of their theories (current read and recommend for additional research and info: "Bloodline of the Holy Grail" by Laurence Gardner). All in all, a very good read, but you must have an OPEN MIND to read it (or any other works on this topic, for that matter, so not recommended for those who believe the Bible is the literal word of God).
Rating: 
Summary: Tedious
Review: If I had but one word to describe this book, that word would have to be "tedious". Despite the highly provocative and controversial subject matter promised by the authors, wading through all of the disparate story lines, historical minutiae and random Biblical quotations / interpretations soon became a chore which I grew to dread more and more with each passing page. At 496 pages, the book is probably twice as long as it needs to be in order to adequately convey the authors' premise. Do yourself a favor - read the introduction and then skip ahead to the last 100 pages or so. Ultimately, this book doesn't really provide proof that Jesus escaped death on the cross to father children so much as it merely establishes that certain persons and secret societies down through the years MAY have subscribed to such beliefs. There's actually little in the way of objective, verifiable proof to be found in these pages. Instead, we're treated primarily to rank conjecture and inferential leaps of faith and logic that would make even the most dedicated conspiracy theorist blush. As one other reviewer below noted, most of the authors' arguments are based upon "ifs" founded upon "ifs" resting upon yet more "ifs". Entertaining at times, perhaps, but rarely convincing.
Rating:
Summary: Fun to read but unconvincing
Review: I just finished this book and I had to sit down and think about what I thought about it if that makes any sense. It should to anyone who has already read it. For someone who has not it is a good a description about what to expect from the book as anything else I can say. I love books like this actually. Ancient secrets, conspiracies, secret societies, suppressed documents, hidden truths all make for fascinating reading. This appears to be the book that inspired The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown. I have read that book and aside from Browns tendency to invent things and pass them off as truths is a bit excessive even for a novelist it is a good adaptation of this theory. But getting back to this book the authors obviously did a lot of research and include a lot of interesting history in the course of presenting their theory. The theory being essentially that Jesus Christ did not die on the cross, but somehow survived either by toughing it out or using a decoy - a man willing to sacrifice his life for Jesus. Which one. Obviously both could not have happened, but the research shows it could have been either. This in short
describes well the problems I have woth the book.The authors own theories have contradictions and they make little attempt to sort them out. According the authors, Jesus was married to Mary Magdalen or Mary of Bethany or both or they were the same woman or perhaps some other, agaion the "evidence" is unclear. Jesus was rich, Jesus was poor, which, well both and neither according to this book. Supposedly after the crucifixion, Jesus' wife and child escaped to Gaul (France) thereby continuing the royal bloodline through the Merovingians and even into the present day. They theorize that ancestors of Jesus are living today and may still have a claim to the Merovingian throne. These truths are speculated to be in the possesion of the Priory of Sion, a secret society dating back form the time of the Knights Templar. The authors produce evidence of this is the form the "Dossiers Secret" found in the French archives. Using this document as a base the researched the history of the Templars and the Priory and uncovered odd goings on through history. Giving the authors credit, there is little documentation available through conventional channels and they dug and researched to come up with a credible theory. Having a credible theory howeverin no way suggests they have uncovered the truth. The authors admit that they did a lot "reading between the lines". While this can be a legitimate research tool, anything determined by supposition should be backed up by some kind of evidence and just more supposition. Here is where they seem to be lacking. I am not saying that the theory is not true I
am certainly not qualified to make the determination, but I was not convinced. I noticed the authors getting stuck in several traps of fallacy.
The authors went to great lengths to show that much in the 4 Gospels of the New Testament is contradictory and open to debate. There is no question that the gospels are missing things or perhaps we suffer from a lack of context of the times. In any event they authors have decided that the gospels have been edited, massaged and manipulated over the centuries. The authors have studied works contempory to the gospels and found discrepancies. The biggest problem I noticed was they assumed anything not in the Gospels had to be more accurate than what was included in them. For example; the authors supposed that the Gospels were edited to make them more palatable to the Romans. Okay then why would another document necessarily be more accurate merely because was written to an Egyptian audience. If a Roman document was massaged to protect the sensibilities of the Romans why wouldn'y an Egyptian document be written so as not to offend Egyptians. They didn't apply the same standards across the board. It was if they assumed the Gospels were always in error whenever a discrepancy showed up. The authors use these leaps in logic to make an assumption, then expand on that assumption finding small bits of text that concur with the theory. They then continue on their merry way ignoring what doesn't support the theory, and grabbing any tiny shred based mainly on "what if". In all fairness I am not saying their theory is not true, but I take issue on the techniques they used. They have not proved their case or even convniced me they have a case. They have innundated he reader with historical minutae and I think confused the issue. I am guessing that someone could just about make any statement about happenings 2000 years ago and find evidence to support it. I could probably theorize that Jesus was an alien and find just as much supporting evidence as the authors have for their ideas. If you don't examine evidence that tends to dispute it you have only done half the job. The authors have only done half a job. I can recommend this book for anyone curious about these theories. These =stories and rumors are not new and are interesting to examine. I think the authors are on shaky ground here unless they examine and debunk competing evidence that does not support their theory. As I mentioned, the book is interesting and I did enjoy the history of the Templars, the Crusades as well as some insight to the ancient Holy Land. Parts were somewhat tedious where the authors recount bloodlines and marriages and relationships in great big paragraphs of this and that. Ohtherwise, the book is fun to read and stimulates the imagination. I am not however convinced by the "evidence" - there was none to speak of. This book is no threat to anyones faith, just interesting reading.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating Read
Review: Whether you believe the hypothesis or not, it is certainly fascinating. I am neither a conspiracy theorist nor a highly religious person, but the coincidences and connections throughout the book made for a very exciting story. Whether you believe their assumption in the end or not, it is still entertaining. While the evidence doesn't neccessarily prove their point, it certainly proves that SOMEONE believes it. When reading reviews of others that pan this book by only say "it's a far-fethced conspiracy theory". . . just simply ignore them. Truth be told, it COULD be a far-fetched conspiracy theory and it would still be enjoyable!
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