Xenograffiti

Xenograffiti by Robert Reginald Page A

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Authors: Robert Reginald
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subject, and the political realities of the time, irrespective of any religious considerations. Jesus was a major threat to the political and religious establishment, which were intertwined under the Roman procurators. Although the Romans had a large occupying force in Judea, and a Roman governor made (or carried out) all the major decisions for the province, the Jews were actually allowed a considerable amount of freedom in running their own affairs; the High Priest and the Sanhedrin (in effect his religious synod) also had political and judicial authority over the Jews in their area. If a Jew committed a crime, the religious bodies were allowed to deal with it, with exceptions; they were even allowed to invoke the death penalty, although the sentence had to be approved by the Roman procurator. Christ threatened the hegemony of the Jewish High Priest, and therefore he had to be removed from the scene permanently. The Romans were relatively indifferent to his death, but approved it to avoid unnecessary trouble. All of this rings true politically. As the Fanthorpes point out, Jesus would not have abandoned his religious career prematurely; this would have been completely out of character with the man depicted in the New Testament. Had he survived his supposed crucifixion for any length of time (beyond the fleeting glimpses we see of him during the forty days of his resurrection), the Sanhedrin would certainly have pointed to the fraud, arrested him again, and made certain of his execution the second time. They would have been doubly outraged at his first escape, and would have publicized it extensively as a sign of his duplicity.
    There is no evidence in the Bible that states directly whether Jesus was ever married; the fact that others, including Simon Peter, are cited as having families would lead one to think, however, that such a fact would have been recorded if indeed he had a wife, and that such a person, given his character, would have played a major role in his ministry. In fact, celibacy is consistent with the person portrayed in the surviving gospels; here is a man devoted only to his mission in life, a mission that, in my estimation, precludes other preoccupations. I should mention here that I have no religious axe to grind, being an agnostic myself, as is Baigent; as a researcher, though, I must look at the New Testament in the same way I would examine any other historical document—and as a document, it stands up very well. The inconsistencies cited by Baigent are minor compared to the major consistencies between the four surviving accounts of Christ’s life. The apocrypha mentioned by Baigent do exist, but tend, on the whole, to be much less consistent, either with themselves or the gospels or other apocrypha; obviously, this is one reason they have not been accepted by Christians as true accounts. Church authorities could not have suppressed documents that had widespread popular appeal.
    One must apply in both cases the old philosophical rule, Occam’s Razor, which holds that the simplest explanation for a particular problem is usually the best. The simplest explanation for the mysterious treasure of Rennes-le-Château is that Saunière found gold, jewels, or other precious artifacts in his church, which he then sold off at the highest price he could get; some of these artifacts may have had political or religious significance to his Church or to the Habsburgs, for whatever reason, and these he may have pawned directly to those most interested in them. The simplest explanation for the supposed later lineage of the Merovingians is that it did not exist, or at least cannot be demonstrated historically. The simplest explanation for Christ’s existence is given by himself, presumably in his own (remembered) words, in the gospels; one may believe them or not, as one chooses, but one cannot easily deny their power, consistency, and simplicity. As for the Priory of Sion, if it exists, one can say very little about

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