Expert: Kerry Gray - 6/7/2009

Question
Is it true that Joseph of Arith. procurred the blood of Jesus in the chalice-called as Holy Grail and then delivered it to Britain and maintain people to keep it safe- the wikipedia story? or is Dan Brown's story sensible?
Thanks a lot!

Answer
Hello Sharon

No the "Holy Grail" and Dan Brown's Book like the Holywood film is clever fiction.
With all these movies like The De Vinci Code and it's sequel people tend to think that these are based on fact when in fact they take real places and religious groups and use them in a work of fiction.

Brown consistently tires to commit historical forgery by showing his lack of knowledge for historical dates and texts. To the unlearned it sounds real convincing but to the real historians and theologians it stands out like a sore thumb! For example ; he states that the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in the 1950's! The fact is they were found in 1947! This may seem trivial but if he can't get a simple date right how can he be trusted with other data?

He states the Scrolls as being the earliest Christian records along with the Gnostic documents. The fact of the matter is the Scrolls are nothing to do with the gospel or Christianity and are purely Jewish documents and the gnostic documents were written before the late 2nd century AD anyway.

Other fictitious claims are the disputes of Christ’s divinity where he claims that Christ never claimed to be divine,but was added by the Council Nicea which is false! Jesus is called God (Theos) seven times in the NT and referred to as Lord in the divine sense several times. The reason the Jews wanted Christ dead was because he was claiming to be God! Everyone knows the texts of the NT predate the Council of Nicea in 325 AD.

He also claimed that Christianity was borrowed from the pagan religion Mithraism and that the deity Mirtha was called the son of god and his death, burial and resurrection was identical to Christ’s.
These are out right lies. Fact: Nowhere is Mithras ever referred to as “the son of god” anywhere, and according to the followers of Mithraism , never died! Mithras was however born on the 25th of December but then so what, real Christians don’t believe Christ was ever born on that that date anyway. The papal system moved the date forward to cover another pagan holiday never learning from history that you won’t get rid of the pagan festival rather the two mingle and then we end up with hybrid religions.
This moving the birth of Christ over December 25th was to hide the mid-winter festivals, including Saturnalia.

The NT never mentions Jesus being married…having kids etc
Brown uses one of the Gnostic the gospel, that of Philip (58-59) to show this. Philip 63:33-36.  Philip seems to indicate a kiss on the lips. In 1Cor.16 , Paul mentions this kind of kiss of fellowship, and is likely what is assumed here. In Browns book we have the statement…”companion” in this verse means spouse because that’s what the Aramaic word means. Do they think no one realizes that this document wasn’t even written in Aramaic??? It was written in Coptic. The word used for companion is ‘koinonos' and it means ‘companion’, NOT spouse.

Dan Brown's books and films is okay for a sci-fi/Drama perhaps, but it is not grounded in the realms of true doctrine and contradicts the Bible which is the final authority in doctrine and truth for any genuine Christian.

Most of the "holy grail" legend is all mythology and superstition.

The blood of Christ was shed once on the cross for the salvation of mankind, even if someone managed to keep some of Christ's blood it wouldn't have any magical qualities, the blood was shed on a paticular day, for a paticular purpose, and Christ's death was the penalty paid once for all time.

So from a Christian point of view, if it isn't mentioned in the Bible then it isn't worth worrying about.

A lot of people believe in much of these extra-biblical stories, but really, stories is all they are, clever tales, that are written to make the reader curious about some mysterious behind the scenes events. Remember don't believe everything you read on Wikipedia.

Hope this has been of some help atleast.God bless and take care.

Kerry