A Bible conspiracy theory is any conspiracy theory that posits that much of what is believed about the

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts ...

is a deception created to suppress some secret, ancient

truth Truth is the property of being in accord with fact or reality.Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionarytruth 2005 In everyday language, truth is typically ascribed to things that aim to represent reality or otherwise correspond to it, such as belie ...

. Some of these theories claim that

Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label= Hebrew/ Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religiou ...

really had a wife and children, or that a group such as the

Priory of Sion The ''Prieuré de Sion'' (), translated as Priory of Sion, was a fraternal organization founded in France in 1956 by Pierre Plantard in his failed attempt to create a prestigious neo-chivalric order. In the 1960s, Plantard began claiming that ...

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 ''The Da Vinci Code'' is a 2003 mystery thriller novel by Dan Brown. It is Brown's second novel to include the character Robert Langdon: the first was his 2000 novel ''Angels & Demons''. ''The Da Vinci Code'' follows symbologist Robert Lang ...

'', 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 Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

were created by members of various

secret societies A secret society is a club or an organization whose activities, events, inner functioning, or membership are concealed. The society may or may not attempt to conceal its existence. The term usually excludes covert groups, such as intelligence a ...

, 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. 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.

Church suppression of reincarnation conspiracy

Some

New Age New Age is a range of spiritual or religious practices and beliefs which rapidly grew in Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise definition difficult. Although many scholars consi ...

believers consider that Jesus taught

reincarnation Reincarnation, also known as rebirth or transmigration, is the philosophical or religious concept that the non-physical essence of a living being begins a new life in a different physical form or body after biological death. Resurrection is ...

but the Christian Church suppressed it. Geddes MacGregor in ''Reincarnation in Christianity'' (1978) suggests that

Origen Origen of Alexandria, ''Ōrigénēs''; Origen's Greek name ''Ōrigénēs'' () probably means "child of Horus" (from , "Horus", and , "born"). ( 185 – 253), also known as Origen Adamantius, was an early Christian scholar, ascetic, and theo ...

's texts written in support of the belief in reincarnation somehow disappeared or were suppressed.

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 A disciple is a follower and student of a mentor, teacher, or other figure. It can refer to: Religion * Disciple (Christianity), a student of Jesus Christ * Twelve Apostles of Jesus, sometimes called the Twelve Disciples * Seventy disciples in t ...

, but this was suppressed by the early Church. * 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. ''

The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail ''The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail'' (published as ''Holy Blood, Holy Grail'' in the United States) is a book by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln. The book was first published in 1982 by Jonathan Cape in London as an unoffic ...

'', by

Michael Baigent Michael Baigent (born Michael Barry Meehan, 27 February 1948 – 17 June 2013) was a New Zealand writer who published a number of popular works questioning traditional perceptions of history and the life of Jesus. He is best known as a co-author ...

, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln (1982) is seen by many as the source of that plotline in ''

''.

Books

* '' The Jesus Papers: Exposing the Greatest Cover-Up in History'', Michael Baigent (2006) * '' Jesus the Magician: Charlatan or Son of God?'', Morton Smith (1978) * ''

The Jesus Dynasty ''The Jesus Dynasty'' is a 2006 book written by James Tabor in which he develops the hypothesis that the original Jesus movement was a dynastic one, with the intention of overthrowing the rule of Herod Antipas; that Jesus of Nazareth was a royal ...

'',

James Tabor James Daniel Tabor (born 1946 in Texas) is a Biblical scholar and Professor of Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where he has taught since 1989 and serv ...

(2006) * '' Jesus the Man: New Interpretations from the Dead Sea Scrolls'', Barbara Thiering (1993) * ''

The Jesus Scroll ''The Jesus Scroll'' is a best-selling book first published in 1972 and written by Australian author Donovan Joyce. A forerunner to some of the ideas later investigated in ''The Da Vinci Code'', Joyce's book made the claim that Jesus of Nazaret ...

'', Donovan Joyce (1972) * '' Holy Blood, Holy Grail'', Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln (1982) * '' The Templar Revelation'', Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince (1997) * '' The Jesus Mysteries: Was the "Original Jesus" a Pagan God?'', Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy (1999) * '' The Jesus Conspiracy: The Turin Shroud and the Truth About the Resurrection'', Holger Kersten and Elmar R. Gruber (1994) * ''History of the First Council of Nice: A World's Christian Convention, A.D. 325; With a Life of Constantine'', Dean Dudley (1880)

References

External links

''History of the First Council of Nicea: A World's Christian Convention, A.D. 325; With a Life of Constantine''
by Dean Dudley, via

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

. {{Conspiracy theories Christian Bible Conspiracy theories