 First U.S. edition cover | |
| Author | Lynn Picknett andClive Prince |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Transworld Publishers Ltd (United Kingdom) Touchstone Books (United States) |
| Pages | 432 (U.S. paperback) |
| ISBN | 0-684-84891-0 |
| OCLC | 40159168 |
| Followed by | The Sion Revelation |
The Templar Revelation: Secret Guardians of the True Identity of Christ is a book written byLynn Picknett and Clive Prince and published in1997 by Transworld Publishers Ltd in Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand. It proposes a fringehypothesis regarding the relationship betweenJesus,John the Baptist andMary Magdalene, and states that their true story has been suppressed by theRoman Catholic Church through, among other tactics, the conscious selection of the texts that make up thecanonicalNew Testament, their campaigns againstheresy, and theirpropaganda against non-Christians.
While researching the life and works ofLeonardo da Vinci, including "his part in faking theTurin Shroud" which the authors wrote about in their bookTurin Shroud— In Whose Image?, they discovered a number of signs of unorthodox Christian thinking in the imagery used to portray some of the central characters in the New Testament, especially John the Baptist. Some paintings examined for their unusual choice of imagery include the two versions ofMadonna of the Rocks andThe Last Supper.
In the latter painting, they propose that the person in the painting seated, from a viewer's point of view, to the left of Jesus isMary Magdalene rather thanJohn the Apostle, as most art historians identify that person. Furthermore, they point out that their body angles form the letter M, a reference to the Magdalene, and that she and Jesus are dressed in similar but oppositely colored clothes, a negative image of each other. They also mention a number of other signs: a mystery knife pointed at one of the characters, that Leonardo da Vinci himself is in the painting with his face pointing away from Jesus, and that Jesus is confronted by an admonishing hand to his right making "the John gesture," an index finger pointing up.
In trying to understand the significance of these unusual images they conducted research into what they term a "thread of heresy" that reaches back over 2000 years. They claim to find evidence for thisoccult tradition in such assorted subjects asThe Knights Templar, theCathars,Gnosticism, theHoly Grail, and the legends connected with southern France, and in particular the town ofRennes-le-Château. They utilise the historical and biblical scholarship of such people asMorton Smith,Hugh J. Schonfield,G.R.S. Mead,Frances A. Yates, andGeza Vermes on which to build their claims.
Among their conclusions are the following:
The authors offer, but not claim, that perhaps Leonardo da Vinci was sending veiled messages through his art, which could be understood only by others who were open to their meaning. And while on the surface these paintings seem to be simple biblical depictions, they represent in fact his belief in the superiority of John the Baptist over Jesus.
CNN dismissed the authors' findings in their review, calling their viewpoints "upside-down" and criticizing their reliance on non-canonical sources. They concluded that the book's ideas "are based on the flimsiest of premises which are supported by the slimmest of indirect and circumstantial evidence".[1]
In a review forThe Newcastle Herald, Alfred Holland derided the book's findings, but praised its entertainment value, stating "for this reviewer it's all a load of manure, but if your scene is a tight, well-written romp pursuing bewitching and imaginative speculation through the byzantine corridors of history, and you want an escape from our present-day, equally byzantine, political magicians, then it's a thoroughly enjoyable read."[2]
Writing forThe Courier-Mail, Alison Coates similarly noted that "this is not a book for which serious academic claims can be made but it is not entirely without value, because it attempts (sometimes successfully) to put puzzling historical events into an understandable context and to raise important questions about the beginnings of the Christian church."[3]
