79 of 83 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very readable to people familiar with the subject, June 10, 2005
This review is from: The Magdalene Legacy: The Jesus and Mary Bloodline Conspiracy (Hardcover)
This book follows up on Mr Gardner's Bloodline of the Holy Grail, and Baigent, Lincoln and Leigh's Hold Blood, Holy Grail. The relationship of Jesus with Mary, and the bloodline of Jesus both through his brothers and sisters, and through offspring of Mary's marriage to Jesus.
The book claims to be a Stand Alone volume but in reality I would suggest certainly reading first one of the two books mentioned earlier, and also Barbara Thierings Jesus the Man. Without some background research this book hits you with a set of ideas which will quickly be dismissed by the casual reader concerning things like names relating to statuses, and how the same person is referred to under different names in different places, and how to know why they have undergone these name changes. It can be baffling to say the least, although a great example of how this still happens today is that a certain Joseph Ratzinger is now called Pope Benedict XVI.
What it also does is expand on how and why Mary Magdalene's name was suppressed, and then repressed, and who stood to gain from this. The politics behind it, and that's exactly what it is, shows that even back through the centuries the people in power were skilled manipulators of what the masses were told.
When it boils down to it, the bloodline theory is pretty much the same as many other theories about bloodlines, this version was given in the first book on this subject adequately enough, and the idea is used in the Da Vinci Code book which basically was a rewrite of the 2 books mentioned above. The break down of the artwork is also covered in a book exceptionally well called Tomb of God, by Richard Andrews and Paul Schellenberger.
Having read many books on this subject I found this easy to read, mainly because it was just covering old ground for me, and it refreshed points I already knew. However, I say again, if your reading this coming straight from Dan Browns work of fiction, I think to get a better feel of what's being told here, to grasp that this story is purportedly factual, you may well need other materials to traverse the gap and break through the ideas that have been drilled into people from birth by a culture still manipulated by religion today
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29 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Good writing but too many errors, April 11, 2007
Laurence Gardner is an excellent writer, and who doesn't like a good story, especially a conspiracy. The problem is that his latest book, The Magdalene Legacy isn't meant to be a novel, but an historical text. As such, it falls way short of even the most minimal standards. There are two main problems with Gardner's text: the plethora of errors and the theories that he presents as facts. Here's some examples:
* "In the NT Gospels, various female companions of Jesus are cited on seven occasions (p. 1)". Not true. The lists occur at Mark 15:40, 15:47, and 16:1, Matthew 27:55, 27:59, and 28:1, Luke 8:1 and 24:10, and John 19:25. That's 9 lists, not 7.
* "Magdala was a fishing town on the Sea of Galilee (p. 9)." By all accounts, there never was a city called Magdala. The city Gardner refers to had many names, including Magadan, Dalmanutha, Taricheae, and Migdal Nunaiya, but never Magdala.
* "She [Mary] anointed him with spikenard oil on two separate occasions (p. 16)." In fact there is only one anointing, described differently in all four gospels, but nonetheless only one.
* "They [the Hebrews] also objected strongly to the fact that Jesus wanted to share access to the Jewish God with Gentiles (p. 29)." Of course we can't be sure where Gardner gets this information, but his comment flies in the face of Matthew 10:5 ("Go not in the way of the Gentiles, and into the city of the Samaritans enter ye not"), Galatians 4:4 ("God sent forth his son...to redeem those who were under the law"), Matthew 15:24 ("...I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel"), etc.
* Talking about the Talpoit ossuaries, Gardner claims that "the ossuaries were individually inscribed...Mary...Joseph...and Mary (p. 33)." In fact these ossuaries were inscribed Marya, Yose, and MariamnekaiMara, and there is considerable opinion that none of the females refer to family members of Jesus, since they are not written in Aramaic, but instead in Latin and Greek.
* "Herod was an Idumaean Arab (p. 56)." Herod was a Jew from Idumea, not an Arab.
* "...the Essenes evolved from their Hasidic base to become a monastic, Egyptian-style healing community known as the Therapeutate (p. 57)." The Therapeuts were a completely separate sect, as Philo and Josephus both indicate. It's true that they had many similarities with the Essenes, but they were different.
Beyond these obvious errors, Gardner seeks to rewrite history to his own curriculum. For example:
* "...Nero, who had executed Peter and Paul (p. 22)." Of course it's possible, but it surely isn't history. We have no idea how Peter and Paul died, and while it is commonly believed that Peter perished in Rome, Paul is said to have died in Spain. Apparently Gardner has access to facts no one else has.
* "...in Antiquities of the Jews, Josephus refers to Jesus again...(p. 31)." Virtually every Josephus scholar agrees this is a later addition by Christians and not original to Josephus.
* "The Nazarenes were a sub-sect of the Essenes (p. 53)." That's certainly possible, but many scholars consider these two groups are separate groups.
* "...when the priestly caste of Hasmonaean Maccabees (Mary Magdalene's ancestors)...(p. 56)." No one knows who Mary Magdalene's ancestors were. This is Gardner's theory, but he presents it as fact, with no documentation.
* "The Essene community was referred to as Nazrie ha Brit and it was from this name that the term Nazarene derived (p. 53)." That's also possible, but there are a half dozen other theories about the origins of the term.
You get the idea. All these errors and the re-writing of history should not suggest that Gardner's book is completely worthless. There's lots of interesting information about ancestral lineage and artwork, and occasionally he gets it right about Mary Magdalene.
The book has excellent illustrations, many of them in full color. It has a long list of footnotes and a good reference list. In addition there is an appendix with lots of good material, although mostly about Jesus. And, of course, there is a genealogical chart.
Beginning students should steer clear of this book. It's too difficult for them to distinguish between the errors and the facts. But anyone with a good knowledge of the life and times of Mary Magdalene will be able to sort through the nonsense to get to some of the useful contributions that Gardner offers.
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20 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great source material for truth seekers, July 31, 2005
This review is from: The Magdalene Legacy: The Jesus and Mary Bloodline Conspiracy (Hardcover)
Sir Laurence Gardner does a commendable job in researching Christianity's most controversial secret. Building on his earlier "Bloodline of the Holy Grail", this book focuses on Mary Magdalene's pivotal role in bringing the Davidic bloodline to Europe.
Gardner bolsters the case for Jesus having been married by drawing upon the historical background of the Essene community, and using it to "decode" the Gospel accounts of the birth and life of Jesus. The result is a dramatically new picture of Jesus, integrated into a realistic historical context. Jesus emerges as a leader aware of his prophetic expectations, but radical in his determination to treat Mary Magdalene and other women as equals. The suggestion is made that this issue may have helped fuel the eventual split between Gnostic Christianity and the misogynic version which ultimately prevailed in Rome.
As one would expect, there are numerous footnotes, but there are annoying lapses where the author states a ground-breaking premise without any reference to back it up. The reader is left wondering if should be taken as pure speculation, or whether Sir Laurence is trying to "slip one past us" by stating his conclusion as an "obvious" fact. Other minor lapses include the assertion that the Catholic church continued to edit the Bible until a few hundred years ago (modern English translations are based on the oldest available manuscripts).
Another weak spot comes when he tries to force some rather curious interpretations on scripture, such as "the restitution of all things" in Acts 3:21 being taken to signify the end of a 3-year period of celibacy following the birth of Jesus' daughter. This may constitute an important new understanding of scripture, but it needs to be developed further.
Overall, Sir Laurence has done a creditable job in researching and presenting the material. He exploits his experience in art restoration to offer some background and commentary on the paintings highlighted in Dan Brown's "Da Vinci Code".
Traditionalist Christians may even find solace in the historical existence of Jesus being presented in a manner which weaves itself into the solid fabric of European history.
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