A Bible conspiracy theory is any conspiracy theory that posits that much of what is believed about the Bible is a deception created to suppress a secret or ancient truth. Some such theories claim that Jesus really had a wife and children, or that a group such as the Priory of Sion has secret information about the true descendants of Jesus; some claim that there was a secret movement to censor books that truly belonged in the Bible, etc.

This subject should not be confused with deliberately fictional Bible conspiracy theories. A number of bestselling modern novels, the most popular of which was The Da Vinci Code, have incorporated elements of Bible conspiracy theories to flesh out their storylines, rather than to push these theories as actual suggestions.

Common theories

Jesus-myth theory

Some proponents of the Jesus-myth or Christ-myth theory consider that the whole of Christianity is a conspiracy. American author Acharya S (Dorothy Murdock) in The Christ Conspiracy: The Greatest Story Ever Sold (1999) argues that Jesus and Christianity were created by members of various secret societies, mystery schools, and religions, that these people drew on numerous myths and rituals which existed previously, and that the church then constructed these ideas into Christianity by suppressing the originally intended understanding.[1][2] In the 1930s British spiritualist Hannen Swaffer's home circle, following the teachings of the native-American spirit "Silver Birch", also claimed a Jesus-myth.[3]

Church suppression of reincarnation conspiracy

Some New Age believers consider that Jesus taught reincarnation but the Christian Church suppressed it. Geddes MacGregor in Reincarnation in Christianity (1978)[4] suggests that Origen's texts written in support of the belief in reincarnation somehow disappeared or were suppressed.[5]

Jesus, Mary Magdalene and the Holy Grail

Some common hypotheses are that:

  • Mary Magdalene was one of the apostles of Jesus, possibly even the only disciple, but this was suppressed by the early Church.[6]
  • Jesus had an intimate relationship with Mary Magdalene which may or may not have resulted in marriage, and/or children; their continued bloodline is then said to be Christianity's deepest secret.[6]

The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln (1982) is seen by many as the source of that plotline in The Da Vinci Code.

Resurrected Jesus as an impostor

The Gospel of Afranius, a "Nature"-praised atheistic Russian work that came out in English in 2022, proposes politically motivated gaslighting as the origin of the foundational Christian belief in the resurrection of Jesus.[7]

Books

See also

References

  1. ↑ Acharya S. "The Origins of Christianity and the Quest for the Historical Jesus Christ". Archived from the original on May 8, 2006.
  2. ↑ Bennett, Clinton (2001). In Search of Jesus: Insider and Outsider Images. p. 208. A New Age contributor One recent proponent of the Jesus-myth theory, Acharya S, who also sees Christianity as an ongoing conspiracy, argues that there was an ancient global civilization in which ideas and hero myths circulated freely
  3. ↑ Austen, A. W. (1938). The Teachings of Silver Birch. London: The Spiritualist Press.
  4. ↑ Theosophical Publishing House 1978
  5. ↑ "Reincarnation". Catholic Answers. Archived from the original on June 28, 2011.
  6. 1 2 Biema, David Von (August 11, 2003). "Mary Magdalene Saint or Sinner?". Time. Archived from the original on March 13, 2005.
  7. ↑ Mina, Mikhail (1998-04-30). "In retrospect by Mikhail Mina". Nature. 392 (6679): 884. Bibcode:1998Natur.392..884M. doi:10.1038/31855. ISSN 1476-4687. S2CID 35300944.

Further reading

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