Michael Baigent

What if everything you think you know about Jesus is wrong? In The Jesus Papers, Michael Baigent reveals the truth about Jesus's life and crucifixion. Despite -- or rather because of -- all the celebration and veneration that have surrounded the figure of Jesus for centuries, Baigent asserts that Jesus and the circumstances leading to his death have been heavily mythologized.As a religious historian and a leading expert in the field of arcane knowledge, Baigent has unequaled access to hidden archives, secret societies, Masonic records, and the private collections of antiquities traders and their moneyed clients. Using that access to full advantage, Baigent explores the religious and political climate in which Jesus was born and raised, examining not only the conflicts between the Romans and the Jews, but the strife within the different factions of the Jewish Zealot movement. He chronicles the migrations of Jesus's family, his subsequent exposure to other cultures, and the events, teachings, and influences that were most likely to have shaped his early years. Baigent also uncovers the inconsistencies and biases in the accounts of the major historians of Jesus's time, including Josephus, Pliny, and Tacitus. The enduring influence of these accounts in forming our most common conceptions of Jesus reveals that spin is not a new phenomenon.Taking us back to sites that over the last twenty years he has meticulously explored, studied, and in some instances excavated for the first time, Baigent provides a detailed account of his groundbreaking discoveries, including many never-before-seen photos. The evidence he has uncovered has lead him to make shocking new assertions that threaten the conventional account of Jesus's life and death and shake the very foundation of Western thought, based as it is upon the assumption of Jesus's divinity. Ultimately, his investigation raises the hope that we may gain a new understanding of Jesus.

In a series of different chapters Michael Baigent examines a number of enigmas surrounding such ancient mysteries as Atlantis and the Pyramids. He investigates such questions as whether there were ancient contacts between Europe and America,and whether a great catastrophe hit the planet around 10000 BC. And in the process he calls into question much of today's orthodoxy on such subjects.

Explores the information uncovered in mysterious parchments unearthed in a small French church that reveal new insight into the mystery of the Holy Grail.

Discusses the conspiracy of religious extremists in the Holy Land and their efforts to bring about the end of the world in the current timeline.

The authors explore the reasons why much of the content of the Dead Sea scrolls has remained concealed from the general public, arguing that the scrolls offer an alternative version of the origins of Christianity.

"Startling new evidence about Jesus Christ and a secret society still influential today"--Cover subtitle.