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The Secret Supper
Javier Sierra
Simon & Schuster
£10.99
Two years before Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code appeared, Javier Sierra had begun work on what appeared as The Secret Supper. Sierra's website has a picture of him kneeling at the grave of Leonardo Da Vinci, at whose feet, he says, he laid down this work.
Sierra's The Secret Supper is about Da Vinci and the magnificent and sensationalised painting of Jesus at the Last Supper, into which he works the secret teaching of Christ, passed on and preserved through generations. How and why he transforms the 12 disciples while all around him there is intrigue, murder and a deadly chase for a treasure. This is the tale of how Da Vinci's 12 disciples become other than they who are not what for several hundred years people believed they were seeing.
This religious thriller has all the right ingredients, story, plot, pace, language, suspense, in the right measures. Have no doubt this book will keep you riveted.
Buy it!
The Gospel of Judas
National Geographic
£19.25
The Gospel of Judas ends with "And he received some money and handed him over to them"; of course he is handing over Jesus to those who will eventually crucify him, but the Judas in this gospel is not the one we have known. The Gospel of Judas completely reverses our understanding of Judas Iscariot as the "betrayer"; here Judas is the beloved disciple and dear friend, who agrees to `betray' Jesus in order that he may fulfil his destiny in the world. This reversal is crucial in many ways, for one, Judas is given the secret teaching, after which he is told, "Look, you have been told everything. Lift up your eyes and look at the cloud and the light within it and the stars surrounding it. The star that leads the way is your star."
As a gnostic text of great antiquity, The Gospel of Judas is an invaluable link in an understanding of early Christian gnosticism. Like The Gospel of Thomas, which came out in the 1970s, The Gospel of Judas too is incredibly beautiful and lyrical. This is the first time that an English translation (Rodolph kasser, Marvin Meyer and Gregor Wurst) of the original Coptic is available.
Don't think twice; buy it.
Labyrinth
Kate Mosse
Orion
£9.9
A gripping grail story, Kate Mosse's Labyrinth has women holding and guarding the knowledge of the grail. The women in Labyrinth are strong, unfailing and filled with such a string and sustained sense of direction that it takes you by surprise. The narrative moves between past and present in Carcassonne, once a stronghold of the Cathars, who were supposed to follow in the line of gnostic faith from the earliest disciples of Christ who had knowledge of the secret teaching.
Great reading, Labyrinth has all the qualities of a terrific thriller, while at the same time remaining quite unambitious in terms of its interpretation of the grail legend: Labyrinth seems content to accept it as a material-magical thing that can extend life beyond human proportions.
Absolutely riveting.
The Lost Gospel: The Quest For the Gospel of Judas Iscariot
Herbert Krosney
National Geographic
£23.60
A thrilling read, this is an account of the discovery and the further adventures of The Gospel of Judas, after it was found, entirely by chance, by people who had no clue of its immeasurable value, till its appearance in the translation published by the National Geographic. Herbert Krosney tells the cloak-and-dagger story of The Gospel of Judas over the 26 years following its finding, with an eye for detail and a nose for adventure.
Great reading. A copy of this along with The Gospel of Judas would be great.
KALA KRISHNAN RAMESH
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