The Marian Conspiracy (Hb) [Hardcover]

Graham Philips (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 24, 2000

In 1929, the Holy Inquisition seized a secret communique sent from a senior bishop to the Roman emperor when Christianity first became the state religion of the Roman Empire in 325 AD, and locked it away forever in the Vatican's most sealed files. It is said to contain startling evidence of a very different story of the historical Jesus than that told of the Bible, along with the life of the Virgin Mary. The author of this book has linked together the pieces of this puzzle and argues that there was an extrordinary conspiracy, whereby the machinations of the Vatican have shielded the truth from believers. His research has led him to identify who the earliest Christians really were and that the resting place of Mary may lie in a corner of Ancient Britain.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"'Phillip's reasoning sounds positively sane' The Independent 'Phillips is a seeker of the truth, a questor...an extraordinary exploration into ancient history' The Universe" --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Graham Phillips is the author of the five acclaimed books in this genre. His most recent book was Act of God: Moses, Tutankhamun and the Myth of Atlantis. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Sidgwick & Jackson (March 24, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0283063416
• ISBN-13: 978-0283063411
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,004,665 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Extraordinary Exploration, December 8, 2005

By 

Debra Morse (Southern California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Marian Conspiracy (Paperback)

What happened to the Virgin Mary after the crucifixion of Jesus? This mystery has existed for essentially two thousand years. True, there is the widespread belief that she ascended bodily into heaven. However, this `belief' was never put forth until well after the alleged events themselves, when Pope Pius XII decreed the Assumption Dogma. Indeed, even the term "virgin", describing Mary the Mother of Jesus , may, Author Graham Phillips suggests, be a poor translation of the Hebrew `almah': `a young woman'. Phillips offers an alternate theory to the standard account: after Jesus' crucifixion, his mother Mary escaped to England with other Christians, and found her final earthly resting place in Anglesley, surrounded by the earliest Christian community in the British Isles.

Through archeological evidence, historical documents, and logical, albeit subjective, conjecture, Phillips begins his complex and fascinating story with the assertion that the Mary we know as The Virgin was in reality the daughter of a high priest, and therefore of considerable social standing. In accordance with this stature, she married Antipater, the eldest son of King Herod. Through the machinations of his sinister sister Salome, Herod decided he wanted his younger son Philip, and not Antipater, to succeed him to the throne. Antipater and his family were subsequently murdered in order to extinguish that bloodline and any claims to Herod's power base. Mary, by now pregnant with Antipater's child, somehow escaped into Egypt. She was escorted and protected by the elderly Joseph, who eventually married her. Enraged that a legitimate heir to his throne (Jesus, at this point arguably King of the Jews) may have escaped the carnage, Herod, acting on faulty intelligence, ordered all infants in Bethlehem to be slaughtered. Of course, his grandson escaped, and the world was changed forever.

And that is just the start! The plot thickens, as it were, to document the post-crucifixion flight of Joseph of Arimathea, accompanied by Mary, who is by that time under his protection, from Palestine to the area of the northern-most reaches of the Roman Empire. Establishing a Christian community in Britain, Joseph built a chapel later attested to by St. Augustine in 597. Augustine writes to the Pope describing the chapel, where some of Jesus' original disciples worshipped; a chapel that was `sacred to Mary, the Mother of God'.

This is a fantastic and intricate read. It is a real life detective story that takes the reader from Vatican archives to Roman ruins in Ephesus; wanders through Arthurian legend to rest amidst ancient ruins on a "holy" island in Britain. It questions the most basic of Christian traditions about the origins and birthright of Jesus, and yet in no way desecrates the teachings of Christ or the most basic of that enlightened being's wisdom. I have read some of these theories as put forth by other authors and scholars, but none have written so convincingly, or with so much tangible authority as exists in the prehistoric and other records.

Highly recommended to anyone who is interested in Biblical archeology and Grail mythology, and who has an open mind.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unique and fresh..., November 19, 2004

By 

Sandy (Illinois, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Marian Conspiracy (Hb) (Hardcover)

I have recently become a fan of Mr. Phillip's books, and this book is no exception to why that may be. The Marian Conspiracy is a `unique and fresh' perspective on a story that we all think we know so well. Again he takes the reader on a journey of self-discovery, laying out theory after theory that we can accept or not; but those insights are certainly one to deeply consider on the level of one's belief. We so readily accept our faith without question, but it is ever more interesting to view the human side of the reality it may hold.

I highly recommend this book for any reader, for it brings the symbolisms of religion to life.

4.0 out of 5 stars first edition of the story, December 18, 2011

By 

KidFlash2008 (Chicago) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Marian Conspiracy (Paperback)

This is the first edition of the book. It was re-released as The Virgin Mary Conspiracy five years later with added material. If one wants to read this book, get that title instead. My full review is on that book, but I will give a sampling here.

Author Graham Phillips delves into the great mystery of who the Virgin Mary is. There is so little written of her in the Bible, and the Catholic Church created most of the stories of her life. Mr Phillips goes on an odyssey to find out the truth by interviewing theologians and archeologists. The journey itself is quite fascinating along with the information found.

I recommend the book The Virgin Mary Conspiracy as it is the updated version of The Miriam Conspiracy. If one is going to get the book, it might as well be the more complete one.