Holy Bloodline

Many alternative theorists suggest that Jesus lived on after his crucifixion, through the children that he bore with his wife, Mary Magdalene. Although the theories differ, they both conclude that after Jesus' death, Mary fled for fear of persecution, and that she ended up in modern-day France, where her children carried on the Holy Bloodline as nobility.

One theory links the Jesus family bloodline through the St Clairs (or Sinclairs, as they are also known), whom they say were actually memebrs of the Knights Templar, and therefore concealed this secret through time, although they did leave encoded messages for their followers.

Another like-minded theory suggests that Mary's children eventually became united with the Merovingian Dynasty, who ruled ancient Gaul from the first to the fifth century. Some assert furthermore that this family line did not die off, as was assumed, but rather was carried on in secret.

The Da Vinci Code

According to The Da Vinci Code, Mary Magdalene was not the repentant prostitute so often portrayed by the Church, but rather Jesus’ wife. Moreover, Brown’s story asserts that it was with Mary that Jesus had a child who would for centuries carry on the Holy Bloodline, which itself is actually the Holy Grail. This child, the Code says, was named Sarah.

Knights Templar

According to such theorists, it was the Holy Grail that the Knights Templar were really trying to “recapture” during the Crusades. The church, sensing their increasing power and fearing the revelation of their knowledge, subsequently persecuted them with the objective of destroying all evidence of the Grail and the secret knowledge that the Order possessed. Little did they know that the knowledge would be carried on in secret, known only to a very privileged few.

What exactly this knowledge was, however, still remains somewhat of a mystery. Some assert that the Holy Grail contained knowledge surrounding trade between the Old and New World that dated as far back as the Neolithic Era, while others say that the Grail was something else – something far more lucrative to the church.

Literature

As has been popularized by many works of fiction, including the Da Vinci Code, Foucault’s Pendulum and Holy Blood, Holy Grail, this theory asserts that the Holy Grail was a person – namely, Mary Magdalene. They say Mary was actually Jesus’ wife, and moreover she was the mother of his children, whom she raised in secret in France. It was this knowledge, they state, that the Knights had to keep secret, as its revelation would have posed a huge threat to the validity of the Church.

Present Day

The most controversial ossuary pulled from the Tomb of the Ten Ossuaries was undoubtedly the one inscribed “Judah, son of Jesus,” the ossuary of a child. If indeed the tomb uncovered in East Talpiot in 1980 is that of Jesus and his family, and if indeed Jesus of Nazareth had a son, this ossuary contradicts dramatically nearly 2000 years of Christian tradition.