The Family of Jesus:
There are many good scholarly works including those by Rabbis and Jewish scholars that can deal factually with the nature of Paul and the Gospels. He was a Roman who falsely claimed to be a Pharisee and probably engineered the assassination attempt on James. He reported to the Sadducees for a long time. They reported to Herod who reported to Rome just as Josephus later wrote for Rome along with other propagandists. Joseph of Arimathaea was the Roman Minister of Mines and a member oof the Sanhedrin. After his part in the stoning of St. Stephen he may always have reported to them, but eventually his Roman managers thought he got too big for his britches. In his Epistles to Timothy there are many ways to show he stood against the teaching of Jesus and his desire to see women get a more equal role in society. He says things like ‘man is the head of women?who ‘should not be heard in church? You could say Paul was a double agent at best. I recommend Vatican II and a study by Mary Rose D’Angelo on the historicity of Jesus and his views on women and the priesthood. The Pharisees were well respected as defenders of the rights of people, no matter what station or gender, throughout the Parthian and Roman Empires.
Dr. Norman Golb is a leading authority on the Dead Sea Scrolls. He has made an impassioned plea for an end to the politics associated with the Scrolls. Some would like us to believe there was only some sect known as Essenes who were at Qumran, but Golb makes it clear there was a united front including Pharisees and zealots. Indeed this became a repository for much of the literature of the region because everyone knew the Roman penchant for destroying culture as part of the propaganda and control of conquered peoples. The Romans always tried to buy the leaders in a region they wished to take over. It is a good way to expand the Empire and a better way to cut the heart out of the opposition. The Druids would not do this in the main. I think the ‘arch-tectons?who designed the Great Pyramid were against Rome in the same way. It may not make them Druids in the matter of Abaris and his education of Pythagoras but there is a lot of Verbal Tradition (Qabala) and esoterics in the family of Jesus.
The matter of Mary Magdalene is fraught with all kinds of ‘possibilities? The issue of her being a Therapeutae leads me to suspect she and her friends could have given Jesus the potions to cause a death-like state, and of course he was an adept in these matters too. Digitalis and belladonna might get one off the crucifix and allow a revival. Isn’t that a bad thing to suggest? Whoa, Nellie! I can imagine how many eyebrows would hit the proverbial roof, at the mere suggestion of this. But the Therapeutae are associated with the Great White Brotherhood of Master Craftsmen and I do believe Sir Laurence Gardner is right about them being a part of what ultimately is a Hermetic Brotherhood of esoteric schools in many civilizations throughout time. To have her as an equal or mortal wife of the Son of God had to be expunged from the Gospels as arranged by Rome, with Paul and all the other Gospel writers who wrote long after the death of Jesus.
Baigent, Leigh and Lincoln and then just Baigent and Leigh in the Dead Sea Scrolls Deception are a necessary resource to consider. I find rabbinical scholars like Silver and Maccoby are even more instructive to the intrigue that surrounds the Roman plot to blame the Jews; to start a religion based on hatred and keeping people divided was their goal. It is far better for Empire; rather than what the Pharisees or Jesus would have liked to have seen happen. If we had learned to think of Jesus as a mortal and someone we too could aspire to emulate, the world would be a far better place. Jesus knew ‘We are all the children of God?(or as John 10:34 says ‘Ye are all gods?) and that it was possible to ‘Be Still, and Know, that I AM (YHVH)? The ‘I AM?consciousness in all things that connects us is of paramount importance yet it has been diminished and marginalized along with the soul. Thus when Jesus is quoted as saying ‘I AM the way…etc?he most likely is speaking about YHVH or “I AM?and referring to the way to the Oneness by actually saying something properly translated as ‘I AM is the Way…’
Mary Magdalene or Mary of Magdala was also Mary of Bethany. These are two of the homes of her father Joseph of Arimathaea according to many scholars. The very place of Arimathaea is not clear in the Bible or its attendant dogma and study, but Robert Graves (in The White Goddess) tells us that it is Almathea. I see a Dryad or Greek oracle (The Romans called these female Druids by the handle Sibylls and despite the proscription of Druids they still valued their insight and predictions or divinations.) with that name or something akin to it, in the historical record. Linguistics was one of the best clues in archaeology at one time and it is refined and far better today but still is not enough proof or evidence, by itself. So much coded information exists in the language and symbols of ancient people, that it is hard for most people to accept it.
The legendary Nuil and Scota are fine examples of the guesswork or probing insight that is part of real history and archaeomythology has been able to add a great deal to the uncovering of ancient cultures, once thought mere legend. Nuil is Irish for ‘blood?and the name of the River Nile is taken from it. The lifeblood allegory to the River Nile and its dark earth is a vital part of esoteric knowledge and thus I think Nuil is really not as important for what ever some person of that name might have done as it is important for the code of the vital starting ingredient for the Philosopher’s Stone. The virgin earth and the Black Madonnas in the Gothic Cathedrals are connected to this same virgin earth which once could be found in meteoric material. But this book really isn’t about the alchemists or ‘peryllats?and Cabiri of the Druids, and I have gone into these details in more depth elsewhere.
If one reads the wedding at Canae where Jesus turns the water into wine, it is evident there is no bridegroom but the father of the bride is talking to Jesus much as you might expect the man who later took the body of Jesus to his family crypt would do. Pilate would not have released the body unless to a relative, by the nature of the law. It is also true that any teacher or Rabbi in Israel has to be married and is encouraged to have children in order to better give advice. This is the law of Mishnah and even if it was not in writing at that point in time (as some say) it was the law of the Jews. Does it not seem odd if Jesus and Mary were not married that she traveled with him? So there are many who trace Mary and the family of Jesus to Southern France and the Merovingian dynasty that resulted. Joseph of Arimathaea and his staff lead to the Glastonbury Thorn tree which is a botanical anomaly to say the least. It is a Palestinian Thorn Tree, in England near where his business often took him for the Phoenician long-established tin trade.
Author of Diverse Druids, COlumnist for The ES Press Magazine, Guest writer at World-Mysteries.com