"The Toilet Papers" Is a Better Title

"Taking us back to sites that over the last twenty years he has meticulously explored, studied, and in some instances excavated for the first time, Baigent provides a detailed account of his groundbreaking discoveries, including many never-before-seen photos. The evidence he has uncovered has lead him to make shocking new assertions that threaten the conventional account of Jesus's life and death and shake the very foundation of Western thought, based as it is upon the assumption of Jesus's divinity. Ultimately, his investigation raises the hope that we may gain a new understanding of Jesus.."

Even people who like what Baigent has to say are heaping it on him over at Amazon.com for this one, which is just a more personalized version of his Holy Blood, Holy Grail goofiness. It's filled with errors in scholarship to beat the band (notably, dating the Zealots far too early, and other errors associated with the trial and crucifixion of Jesus) and also shows that Baigent depends heavily on secret meetings and lost doucments conveniently outside scrutiny by peer reviewed scholarship. He appeals to the story of Abbe Sauniere, who was debunked in The Da Vinci Hoax as a credible source, but no one told Baigent. (See comments here.) He makes the Dead Sea Scrolls into Zealot documents [36] -- maybe the Zealots do his laundry, too. He makes original Christianity into a politically correct movement that was ruined by the intolerant [70]. The usual rap about the canon [78] that has never heard of Metzger. The claim that the Council of Nicea deified Jesus [101 -- it didn't; both sides there agreed he was divine, they disagreed on whether he was eternal or not]. Jesus was married (see it debunked here). Use of 1 Cor. 14:34-5 to show that Paul hated women [109]. Snore. Yawn. Asks why a "good Jew" [110] would want to found a "church" (Matt. 16:18), never mind that the word used means an assembly of people like a synagogue would be too (Baigent seems to think the word means a typical eg Southern Baptist church complete with choir loft and bells). Jesus survived the crucifixion. Soma vs. ptoma. Jesus went to Egypt. Blah blah blah. Secret Gospel of Mark (oops, missed the debunking of that, did we?). Bibliography with Koester and Pagels but no Witherington or Wright. Phooey.

You know it's bad when even the ideological friends say this was a moneymaking exercise, and the poor scholarship and use of canards that have been answered and outdated for years just adds to reasons to give this one a pass.