“The Masks of Christ” contains Picknett's and Prince's fairly eclectic view of Jesus. They are drawing on the canonical Gospels, the Gnostic apocrypha, the controversial Secret Gospel of Mark and some lesser known texts to weave an entirely new and unexpected portrait of the Christian redeemer (if that is what he was). What I found refreshing is that the authors aren't bound to any particular school of thought, but use a rather free-wheeling approach. Since most skeptical approaches to the Search for the Historical Jesus has failed, why not eclecticism? Sometimes, the authors reach conclusions which are surprisingly “traditional”, such as postulating a connection between the synoptics and John, or claiming that the Gospels contain reliable eye-witness testimony. Of course, they spin this their own way. Some of their takes are intriguing. Thus, Picknett and Prince believe that Josephus originally *did* write a lot about Jesus, but that the Church censored most of it, since it was too revealing! They also claim that a certain scholar has located the original Hebrew version of Matthew. Yuge if true. I also note that while the authors accept the idea that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were spouses or lovers, they reject the Da Vinci Code-type conspiracy theories about “sacred bloodlines”, Merovingians or the Priory of Sion. So who was Jesus, according to our authors? In their opinion, Jesus was the second in command of John the Baptist's movement. Indeed, Jesus regarded John as the Christ! Originally, Jesus was a Galilean wonder-worker and magician, who probably incorporated some pagan magical practices in his work. After the death of John the Baptist, Jesus changed focus and took over John's movement, in effect becoming the new Christ. This led to a split, since some of John's followers refused to accept him, creating their own movement. (The small Mandean religion in southern Iraq is the last remnant of the John Movement sans Jesus.) Jesus was executed due to his cleansing of the Temple, an act which probably was intended to trigger revolutionary action in Jerusalem against the Romans. The resurrection never happened, the tomb being empty since Jesus' inner circle had removed the body unbeknownst to the disciples, who then proceeded getting ecstatic visions of their dead leader. In this scenario, both the John Movement and the Jesus Movement mixed Jewish and pagan elements. John carried out initiatory rituals in the so-called Cave of John the Baptist at Suba in Palestine. Likewise, Jesus carried out initiations. The “rising” of Lazarus is really a garbled description of such a ritual, not an actual miracle. This is further proven by the Secret Gospel of Mark. Communion is also a mystery ritual which long predates the Last Supper. John and Jesus belonged to the same ideological matrix as the Therapeutae, the Jewish Temple in the Egyptian town of Leontopolis, the Essenes, the Zadokites and Simon Magus in Samaria. Indeed, Simon's peculiar message was almost identical to the original creeds of John and Jesus. Or so the authors believe. The pagan-Egyptian and Samaritan-Gnostic elements didn't stop John and Jesus from actively resisting Rome and its Herodian stooges. This explains why both men believed in the Jewish concept of the Messiah as a military conqueror and political ruler, not some mystical redeemer or Gnostic proclaimer.
From 2008 at "Guardians of the Holy Grail", host Mark Amaru Pinkham, http://www.gnostictemplars.org/guardians.html
Watch: "Lynn Picknett - Jesus was a Usurper, John the Baptist was the True Christ. The Johannite Tradition." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iwuXeOd39c
Lynn Picknett, Clive Prince - The Templar Revelation. Secret Guardians of the True Identity of Christ
Lynn Picknett, Clive Prince - The Masks Of Christ. Behind the Lies and Cover-ups about the Man Believed to be God
Andrew Philip Smith - John the Baptist and the Last Gnostics: The Secret History of the Mandaeans
E.S. Drower - Secret Adam: A Study of Nasoraean Gnosis
!!! MUST WATCH - Psychic project on "Freedom from Soul-Loosh Harvesting"!!! https://odysee.com/@SergeantSchultz:2/Samsara-and-Rebirth:b
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