The Tomb of God : Body of Jesus and the Solution to a 2, 000 Year Old Mystery

I am writing a third favorable review of "The Tomb of God" (others -- 05/24/00 and 09/01/98), because after studying the geometric method used by the authors to solve the puzzle of the parchments and the paintings of the Rennes-le-Chateau mystery, I have applied their "Teniers Method" to the paintings of J. Vermeer (1632-1675), a famous Dutch master painter. The fact that this method uncovered for me the concealment of a secret geometric map of Jerusalem and southern France in at least 8 of Vermeer's masterpieces is testimony to the reliability and credibility of the authors..."Tomb of God" is a difficult book for anyone who expects light reading. Appreciating it hinges on the reader's ability and determination to follow geometric analyses of ancient parchments and paintings. Those who were unable or unwilling to do so dismiss the book in the harshest terms; many who verified the geometry for themselves -- or who trusted the authors' expertise -- were rewarded with a stunning discovery, and they rated this book the 5 stars it deserves. This is a controversial book because the authors refute the claims of other investigators. I am in agreement with these refutations, for I am familiar with the refuted work. This is an ultracontroversial book because the authors have jumped to a conclusion about Jesus Christ that few are able to share -- myself included. This book is important enough that the BBC of London devoted a documentary to the discrediting of the authors -- a sure sign that the book touched a sensitive nerve. This book is worth the attention of serious students of many disciplines: history of maps, paintings, Christianity, Judaism, the Crusades, Knights Templars, Rennes-le-Chateau, Freemasonry, and the Holy Grail legends and romances. Highest recommendation.

I wrote a favorable review in September of '98 and have not changed my opinion. Let me say that I agree that the geometrical arguments are difficult -- this is not light reading. I doubt that the reviewers who dismiss this book out of hand have patiently spent the time required to digest the analyses presented. I have gone over this book in detail several times since my first review. I have laboriously checked the authors' diagrams, and they are what they purport to be: a geometrical solution to the mysterious "parchments" that are in reality a treasure map and not simply biblical passages in latin. (I have taught geometry in high school and have designed and built sundials involving geometric calculations.) I do not necessarily agree with the religious and historical conclusions the authors draw. However, this book presents a genuine contribution to the history of painting -- something that other reviewers have missed. I and others have found other ancient paintings (not mentioned in this book) which also are laid out on the "sacred Platonic geometry" hidden in those parchments that are the center of the Rennes-le-Chateau mystery. The color reproductions and careful illustrations in this book alone make it worthy of consideration. One must realize that this book was written in part to refute Henry Lincoln, (Holy Blood, Holy Grail, etc) author of competing books with his own solutions to the Rennes-le-Chateau mystery. Mr. Lincoln was at one time a writer for the BBC, and seems to have failed to decipher properly the geometric code hidden in the parchments, which made a poor French priest go from rags to riches in the 1890's. Tomb of God is a scholarly work with sixteen pages of research notes that can be checked; explanatory appendices; an extensive and useful bibliography; a good index; excellent color plates including reproductions of the paintings analysed and a photograph of the solution site. It includes the analysis of a Templar map of Jerusalem from the 1300's. The paintings cannot be forged for they are in museums -- and the analyses are far from arbitrary -- an observation that could only come from one who was unable to follow them. It is unfortunate that the authors (one a civil engineer) did not have a better editor. To their credit they checked the position of churches and castles in S. France with satellite-derived Global Positioning Instrumentation to establish that the geometry hidden in Poussin's "Et In Arcadia Ego" paintings was confirmed on the landscape of Southern France. One reviewer calls attention to a TV documentary that attacked this book. It is so easy for a TV documentary to criticize a book . . . while it would be next to impossible to defend properly on TV the complicated arguments involved. To me, it is evidence of the book's importance and quite commendatory to the authors that a TV documentary attacking their Tomb of God was aired in the first place. I

This book has a great deal for the Thinking Man and Woman: Buried Treasure maps disguised as Old Master Paintings and Ancient Parchment Texts. Shadowy figures with roots in ancient history -- The Priory of Sion, The Rosicrucians, The Gnostics, The Cathars, The Freemasons, The Knights Templar, The Celestines, The Merovingians, The Visigoths, The Romans, The Earliest Christian-Jews -- all with profound secrets to hide. All with religious and political axes to grind. A theory of the burial of the remains of Jesus Christ! and the relocation of his bloodline through Mary Magdalene in the Languedoc region of Southern France. A poor village priest suddenly made wealthy by his discoveries: perhaps with hush-money, and perhaps by blackmailing the Church. The Languedoc where Pontius Pilate and the descendants of Herod the King were exiled in dishonor: the region that has harbored heretics ever since the adoption of Christianity by the Roman Empire. What else from the tunnels under Jerusalem's Temple of Solomon is buried there in France at the rediscovered "Site" on the Rose Line -- a line of longitude passing right through Paris. Is the tomb of Jesus on a mountainside near the notorious Visigoth mountain village of Rennes-le-Chateau? All this in the Tomb of God and more. This is one of the few books I've read for the second time -- right after the first. For those who are geometry buffs, the authors explain in detail how they analysed paintings and texts for hidden map geometry -- "The Geometry" -- known for centuries only to the cognoscenti, supposedly those descended from refugees from the Holy Land who migrated to S. France after Jesus was crucified. However, the geometric arguments are quite involved and best skimmed over for the first reading, until the reader gets a handle on the enormous scope of the secrets revealed in this book. I have spent many pleasant hours studying the geometric arguments which lead to the stunning revelation of an enormous Star of David laid out on the map of the countryside of S. France -- all defined by the building of ancient churches, chateaus, and stone crossses -- all in conformance with "The Geometry" which is contained in its ealiest manifestation in a "map within a map" -- that of the Jerusalem of the Knights Templar in the 1300's. At the center of it all? After three years' research the authors are convinced that they have located the buried remains of Jesus, and they call for the immediate excavation of "The Site" -- a colossal undertaking of mining engineering that will require the sanction of the government of France among others. Now that there is no fear of being tortured and burned at the stake by an Inquisition, all this is coming out -- beginning quiety in the 1890's and culminating recently in a miniseries on BBC and a number of books of which this is arguably the best. The authors propound a religious approach to Christianity in conflict with the rece

The only reason I don't rate this book a 10 is that the opening chapters, while very interesting, and well written (considering what they contain) are not easy to get through, due to the extreme complexity of the subject. I shudder to think what a casual reader who had never read anything before about the mysteries surrounding the little village of Rennes-le-Chateau in southern France (the works of Henry Lincoln, especially) would make of them. But if you have read any of Lincoln's books, or seen any of his TV documentaries on the subject, don't miss this book. The authors, an archeologist and an engineer, make Lincoln look like a bumbling amateur by deftly maneuvering through a complex mine-field of clues, real and false, that led Lincoln far down the wrong trail. In several chapters of detailed detective work, they demonstrate with geometric logic (pun intended) that the real treasure of Rennes-le-Chateau (or that general area) is not Templar gold, or some vague ancient Holy Place, but the tomb of Jesus, its existence and location kept secret by some few initiates over the centuries because denial of the physical resurrection and assumption of Jesus was grounds for the most excrutiating punishments of the Catholic Inquisition. The closing chapters are much easier to follow, and explore the question of how the body of Jesus came to be buried in a secret location in what was then Gaul and who was responsible for keeping the secret all these centuries, in encoded paintings, parchments, gravestones, and landmarks. (Here it helped that I had just recently read Bloodline of the Holy Grail and The Hiram Key, q.v.) Unfortunately for those of us who would like to see the authors' thesis put to the ultimate test, the site the authors show to be indicated by all these clues is on private land and not likely to be excavated. But even if human remains were to be found there, it would be impossible to prove whose they were. Jesus left no fingerprints or DNA samples on file anywhere to compare them to. ! But the authors make an extremely convincing case. If you're interested in the origins and true nature of Christianity, or just love a good (true) mystery, you'll find this book well worth the effort it takes to follow the evidence.

On a whim, I picked up this book at Heathrow for casual inflight reading (it's a national best-seller in the UK), and was immediately engaged. It's a truly fascinating scientific and secular investigation into a highly controversial Christian (especially Catholic) subject. Sort of a "what the Pope doesn't want you to know" examination exposing a two thousand year old cover-up. A treasure hunter's dream, detailing the clues and solutions to the mystery in parchments, maps, paintings, gravestones, architecture, etc. If you have an interest in Western cultural or religious history, or just like a good mystery explained, I highly recommend this book.