Biblical conspiracy theories posit that much of what is believed about theBible is a deception created to suppress a secret or ancient truth. Suchconspiracy theories may claim thatJesus actuallyhad a wife and children, or that a group such as thePriory of Sion has secret information about the true descendants of Jesus; some claim that there was a secret movement tocensor books that truly belonged in the Bible, etc.
This subject should not be confused with deliberately fictional Bible conspiracy theories. A number of bestselling modern novels, the most popular of which wasThe Da Vinci Code, have incorporated elements of Bible conspiracy theories to flesh out their storylines, rather than to push these theories as actual suggestions.
Some proponents of theJesus-myth or Christ-myth theory consider that the whole of Christianity is a conspiracy. American authorAcharya S (Dorothy Murdock) inThe Christ Conspiracy: The Greatest Story Ever Sold (1999) argues that Jesus andChristianity were created by members of varioussecret societies,mystery schools, and religions, that these people drew on numerous myths and rituals which existed previously, and that the church then constructed these ideas into Christianity by suppressing the originally intended understanding.[1][2] In the 1930s British spiritualistHannen Swaffer's home circle, following the teachings of the native-American spirit "Silver Birch", also claimed a Jesus-myth.[3]
SomeNew Age believers consider that Jesus taughtreincarnation but theChristian Church suppressed it.Geddes MacGregor inReincarnation in Christianity (1978)[4] suggests thatOrigen's texts written in support of the belief in reincarnation somehow disappeared or were suppressed.[5]
Jesus had an intimate relationship with Mary Magdalene which may or may not have resulted in marriage or children; their continued bloodline is then said to be Christianity's deepest secret.[6]
The Gospel of Afranius, an atheistic Russian work that came out in English in 2022, proposes politically motivated gaslighting as the origin of the foundational Christian belief in theresurrection of Jesus.[7]
^Bennett, Clinton (2001).In Search of Jesus: Insider and Outsider Images. p. 208.A New Age contributor One recent proponent of the Jesus-myth theory, Acharya S, who also sees Christianity as an ongoing conspiracy, argues that there was an ancient global civilization in which ideas and hero myths circulated freely
^Austen, A. W. (1938).The Teachings of Silver Birch. London: The Spiritualist Press.
Atwill, Joseph (2005).Caesar's Messiah: The Roman Conspiracy to Invent Jesus. Berkeley, Calif.: Ulysses.ISBN1-56975-457-8.
Bushby, Tony (2001).The Bible Fraud: An Untold Story of Jesus Christ. PacificBlue Group.ISBN978-0-9579007-1-4.
Cooke, Patrick (2005).The Greatest Deception: The Bible UFO Connection. Oracle Research Publishing.ISBN978-0-9724347-3-7.
Doherty, Earl (2005).The Jesus Puzzle: Did Christianity Begin with a Mythical Christ? Challenging the Existence of an Historical Jesus. Age of Reason Publications.ISBN978-0-9689259-1-1.
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