HOLY BLOOD HOLY GRAILGenre Pioneer, Writer Henry Lincoln
by Jennifer Reif Host adverts may not represent the author's views.
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There is absolutely no telling what can result when one takes a vacation.
While on a holiday in southern France in 1969, writer Henry Lincoln picked
up a book for, as he says, “a little holiday relaxation.” The book that Lincoln found
was titled Le Tresor Maudit by author Gerard de Sede. It included the
mystery of an “accursed” treasure in the French village of Rennes-le-Château.
The story relayed information about certain century’s old parchments
found by the church’s priest, Berenger Saunière,
in the latter part of the nineteenth century. The book peaked Lincoln’s interest.
Copies of some of the actual parchments were included in La Tresor Maudit, and it
was in a copy of one of these parchments in the book, that Lincoln discovered a coded message.
The code was based on the irregular placement of certain letters.
The subject matter of this strange story had taken hold of Lincoln and
he would not let go. Later he was able to confirm the coded message with the author,
de Sede, but that only led to more questions and more mysteries. Lincoln wrote
several series for the BBC: The Lost Treasure of Jerusalem,
The Priest, the Painter and the Devil, and The Shadow of the Templars.
It was the latter that was concerned with Rennes-le-Château.
Lincoln knew that the subject matter was greater than the time the documentary
allowed for, and so he accepted
the challenge to continuing to research the subject. One thing led to another and after
much work he and his fellow writers, Baigent and Leigh, came to a particular hypothesis,
one that would turn commonly held beliefs about Mary Magdalene upside down.
Over time, Lincoln, Baigant, and Leigh,
arrived at a theory that Mary Magdalene might have been the wife of Jesus. The bloodline that
might have been the result of their union, was tracked through many generations by the authors.
Without Henry Lincoln’s curiosity, awareness, and willingness
to follow a storyline objectively, where ever it led,
the bloodline theory would not have generated many other works about Mary Magdalene and Jesus.
Many more would not have discovered an interest in reading the
the Gnostic Nag Hammadi scriptures, and thousands worldwide would not have made
the personal journey into the faith, believing that Mary Magdalene was the wife of Jesus.
Article "Holy Blood Holy Grail," copyright Jennifer Reif, 2007, All rights reserved.
HOLY BLOOD HOLY GRAIL
Genre Pioneer, Writer Henry Lincoln