Category:Jesus Bloodline (subject)

This page was created and is edited by Gabriele Boccaccini, University of Michigan, USA

Jesus Bloodline refers to a series of fictional speculations about the existence of Jesus' descendants from his marriage with Mary Magdalene (or other woman).

Cf. also Married Jesus, and Jesus Cloning.

Overview

The idea that Jesus fathered children (from his marriage with Martha and Mary), first appeared in O teleutaios peirasmos (1951 Kazantzakis), novel, as part of the last temptation Jesus had to reject on the cross. In the novel marriage and fatherhood were ideal possibilities, not incidents in the actual life of Jesus.

In the early 1970s, The Jesus Scroll (1972 Joyce), arch-fi connected the already established fictional notion that Jesus survived the crucifixion and was married, with the notion of his fatherhood. Joyce claimed to have found evidence in a lost scroll that Jesus survived the crucifixion, was actually married with Mary Magdalene and had a child. Jesus and his family eventually perished in the siege of Masada.

The notion of Jesus' marriage and parenthood provided ground for speculations about his descendants, according to two different trajectories. On one hand, Andreas Faber-Kaiser claimed that Jesus Bloodline developed in India where Jesus spent the last years of his life and married a Kashmir woman. On the other hand, Holy Blood, Holy Grail (1982 Baigent/Leigh/Lincoln), arch-fi introduced an elaborated fictional scheme revealing the hidden presence of a Jesus Bloodline in France (from his marriage with Mary Magdalene) and the eternal struggle between the Church and the Priory of Sion to suppress/defend the truth, until contemporary times. This was the Holy Grail--not a cup but the secret of Jesus Bloodline.

In the following years, arch-fi authors such as Jean Markale, Margareth Starbird, Laurence Gardner, and Graham Simmans largely expanded the "French" narrative, offering more details about the circumstances which led the royal descendants of Jesus to Rennes-le-Château, France and the trouble they had to experience to protect the secret of their existence.

The international success of The Da Vinci Code (2003 Brown), novel popularized the "French" narrative, and drew attention on the arch-fi authors on which the novel was based. The public interest led to the publication of new revised and expanded editions of their works. The latest version of the "French" narrative is offered by Bloodline (2008 Burgess), arch-fi documentary.

The Lost Tomb of Jesus (2007 Jacobovici), arch-fi documentary signaled the return to a more "primitive" version of the narrative. Jacobici announced the discovery at Jerusalem of the burial place of Jesus and his family, including the remains of his "wife" Mary Magdalene and their child, cutting short any speculations about the permanence in history of a Jesus Bloodline.