Christianity

What if everything you think you know about Jesus is wrong? In The Jesus Papers, Michael Baigent reveals "the truth" about Jesus’s life and crucifixion. Previously, Baigent has captured readers' imaginations with his provocative non-fiction work "Holy Blood, Holy Grail," in which he claimed Jesus was married. Now, while in the middle of a highly-publicized lawsuit with the publishers of "The Da Vinci Code" for copyright infringement, Baigent has an even more controversial premise that challenges much of what we know about Jesus: What if Jesus survived the crucifixion?Chapter one: Hiddendocuments: My telephone rang.

It was about 10:00 a.m. I remember the sun dappling the wall before me. It sparkled. It was the perfect day to be in English country village. “Can you get the next train to London? Don’t ask why.” I groaned silently: wall-to-wall cars. Scarce taxis. Noise, pollution, crowded subways. A day spent either inside rooms or traveling between them, the sun a distant memory. “Sure,” I replied, knowing that my friend would never have made such a request unless it was important. “And can you bring a camera with you?” “Sure,” I replied again, vaguely bemused. “And can you hide the camera?” Suddenly, he had my attention. What was up? Myfriend was a member of a small and discreet group of international dealers, middlemen, and purchasers of high-value antiquities – not all of which carried the required paperwork permitting them to be traded on the open market. I put a camera and some lenses in a standard-looking briefcase, threw in plenty of film, and jumped in my car for the drive to the station. I met my friend outside a restaurant in a famous London street. He was an American, and with him were two Palestinians, a Jordanian, a Saudi, and an English expert from a major auction house. They were all expecting me, and after brief introductions, the expert from the auction house departed, apparently not wishing to be involved in what was to happen. The rest of us walked to a nearby bank, where we were quickly led through the banking hall, alonga sho......

Popularly associated with saintliness, stigmata refers to the wounds of Christ's crucifixion supposedly reproduced spontaneously on the body of a Christian. Following the death of Jesus, about a.d. 29 or 30, the phenomenon waited nearly twelve centuries to appear (putting aside a cryptic Biblical reference to St. Paul [Galatians 6:17]). St. Francis of Assisi (1182-1226) is credited with being the first "true" stigmatist (after a man with the crucifixion wounds was arrested for imposture two years earlier). Following St. Francis, a few hundred people have exhibited stigmata, including several saints-most recent Padre Pio (1887-1968). He wascanonized in 2002, although not for his stigmata, the Catholic Church never having declared the alleged phenomenon miraculous (D'Emilio 2002; Tokasz 2003).

Indeed, in addition to its copycat aspect, stigmata is suspect on other grounds. It appeared in mostly Roman Catholic countries, notably Italy, until the twentieth century. Also, the form and placement of the wounds has evolved. For example, those of St. Francis (except for his side wound) "were not wounds which bled but impressions of the heads of the nails, round and black and standing clear from the flesh" (Harrison 1994, 25). Subsequently, stigmata have typically been bleeding wounds, albeit with "no consistency even remotely suggesting them as replications of one single,original pattern" (Wilson 1988, 63). It is well established that many stigmatics were engaging in trickery. For instance, Magdalena de la Cruz confessed, during a serious illness in 1543, that her stigmata had been faked. In 1587, Maria de la Visitacion, known as the "holy nun of Lisbon," was caught painting fake wounds on her hands. Pope Pius IX privately branded as a fraud Palma Maria Matarelli (1825-1888), stating that "she has befooled a whole crowd of pious and credulous souls." And more recently, in 1984, an Italian court convicted stigmatic Gigliola Giorgini of fraud (Wilson 1988, 26, 42, 147). The twentieth century's two best-known stigmatics-Theresa Neumann and Padre Pio-were suspected of deception. AProfessor. ...

Remarkable prophecies by and about Popes.When Pope John Paul II entered the hospital in late February, 2005, many wondered if he'd live to say another Mass. Suffering from a severe case of the flu, the Pope was in fragile health, due in part to his age, Parkinson's disease and acute arthritis.It was the second time he had been hospitalized in as many months. And although the faithful prayed for his recovery, they also feared for his life. Some priests and nuns in Rome weren't as worried at that time, perhaps. They were sure the Pope would live.Why? Because a stone carvingon a monument to Pope Sylvester II remained dry.

The Catholic clergy at the Basilica of Saint John Lateran in Rome, where the monument stands, say that the carving “weeps” when a Pope is about to die. They say it's happened several times in the past. "It sweats when the death of a Pope is approaching," one of the Italian nuns told the press. "There are people who have seen it," another added. But the carving that is said to prophesy the fate of the Holy Father was dry, and so he will survive this most recent illness. (When Pope John Paul II died in early April, 2005, there was no word on whether or not the carving "wept.") Being the earthly head of one of the world’s largest religions, it's not surprising that the Pope, and previous Popes, have been the subjects of prophecy and even the authors of prophecies.

Nostradamus According to Nostradamus - New Meanings, the famed French prophet of the sixteenth century may have predicted the death of Pope John Paul. John Paul became Pope in 1978 and died just a few months later, some say under mysterious circumstances. The Nostradamus quatrain attributed to this prediction says: When the tomb of the great Roman is found,a new Pope will be elected the following day:he will not be approved by the Senate,his blood poisoned in the sacred chalice.(Century 3, Quatrain 65) The “tomb of the great Roman” is thought to refer to St. Peter, whose bones wereo......

You would think that the Vatican's Secret Archives would be some dumb conspiracy theory. I mean, it sounds ridiculous. The Vatican's Secret Archives. Let it roll off your tongue. Surely, we're into serious conspiracy weirdness here.Except, of course, that there really is such a thing. And it's pretty much exactly what you think it is.

There are a lot of reasons for an organization like the Catholic Church to have Secret Archives. After all, they've been in the conspiracy business for millennia longer than Majestic-12. They've been in the disinformation business for about 18 times as long as Donald Rumsfeld has been alive. They were taking secret vows when the Masons were just a bunch of architects. And they have more to hide that Richard M. Nixon on his worst day. The Catholic Church first officially started keeping a library around the fourth century. Formed at the height of the first great heresy craze, the contents of this library included a lot of attacks on heretical branches of Christianity and the documents and scriptures used by these heretical branches (which the Church fathers admitted to having read). The entire contents of the pre-eighth century archives, presumably including all these fascinating heresies, mysteriously disappeared, according to the Vatican's official account of the library's history, "for reasons not entirely known."The library was strictly closed to the public until around the 15th century, when the church decided to open its contents for the masses. OK, not all of the contents. Starting in the fourth century, the Catholic Church, in a position of political power for the first time, had been ruthlessly suppressing what it saw as heresy:

"Theodosius is said to be the first (Roman emperor) who pronounced heresy a capital crime; this law was passed in 382 against the Encratites, the Saccophori, the Hydroparastatae, and the Manichaeans. Heretical teachers were forbidden to propagate their doctrines publicly or privately; to hold public disputations; to ordain bishops, presbyters, or any other clergy; to hold religious meetings; to build conventicles or to avail themselves of money bequeathed to them for that purpose...