10-15-2007, 10:41 PM
By Adam Forrest
Scots author denies he is an ââ¬Ëattention-seeking lunaticââ¬â¢ for publishing astonishing claims.
A SCOTS author claims to have gone one better than Dan Brown in solving history's greatest conspiracy theories. Jack Lawson has promised the publication of his own novel will reveal the true secret behind the Da Vinci Code - that Jesus had a "twin brother" who was crucified in his place.
Though he is prepared to be derided as an "attention-seeking lunatic", the Glasgow-based writer professes to have verifiable proof that explains why Jesus was able to avoid the crucifixion and have children with Mary Magdalene.
Lawson alleges his last book, Moonlit Messiah, written prior to The Da Vinci Code but rejected by publisher Transworld, contained remarkable similarities with the Dan Brown novel that went on to sell 50 million copies.
"One Sunday morning I turned on the radio and they were taking about the plot of a new novel," he said. "I honestly thought it was my book, then they said it was something called The Da Vinci Code. I went to the bookshop and saw it at the top of the bestsellers. I was shocked, then I became angry. Legal action crossed my mind, but I thought better of it. I became flattered, actually."
Now, with The Joseph Secret, 57-year-old Lawson believes he has cracked the ultimate code.
He said: "There's a difference between the ideas and the expression of ideas. If Brown was influenced directly or indirectly by my work, then he's perfectly entitled to use these ideas. I like to think of him as a friendly rival who got one over on me, and I hope, this time, to have got one over on him."
The book is the result of a 40-year obsession with the Church's alternative history, and uses information from Rennes le chateau, in the Languedoc region of France, where a 19th century priest called Francois Berenger Sauniere discovered parchments suggesting the bloodline of Jesus and Magdalene was the real Holy Grail. As featured in The Da Vinci Code, their descendants were protected by the Knights Templar and the Priory of Sion.
One of Sauniere's documents encodes the phrase "Poussin holds the key". Poussin's The Sacrament Of Ordination, which hangs in the National Gallery of Scotland, shows a disciple in white with Magdalene on his right, looking at what appears to be the central Christ figure holding a key aloft. Lawson claims the disciple, who appears identical to the central figure, is actually Jesus, and the key-holder is the brother who died on the cross at Calvary.
"It's a very provocative idea," said Lawson. "Some people will say, This guy's a genius.' Others will say, He's an attention-seeking lunatic doing it for the money.' But I wouldn't make the claim unless there was real proof."
He added: "Any idea I'm diminishing Jesus is very far from the case. When I discovered this, I was terrified, and I walked away for a while. I didn't want to be the messenger of this. But reading the gospels again, they so clearly express the secret it became unavoidable. I felt encouraged that it had been reported in the Bible."
Lawson plans to write a non-fiction account of his research but, for now, he feels that "presenting this secret in a novel can bring the ideas to a much wider audience".
http://www.sundayherald.com/news/heraldn...cified.php
Scots author denies he is an ââ¬Ëattention-seeking lunaticââ¬â¢ for publishing astonishing claims.
A SCOTS author claims to have gone one better than Dan Brown in solving history's greatest conspiracy theories. Jack Lawson has promised the publication of his own novel will reveal the true secret behind the Da Vinci Code - that Jesus had a "twin brother" who was crucified in his place.
Though he is prepared to be derided as an "attention-seeking lunatic", the Glasgow-based writer professes to have verifiable proof that explains why Jesus was able to avoid the crucifixion and have children with Mary Magdalene.
Lawson alleges his last book, Moonlit Messiah, written prior to The Da Vinci Code but rejected by publisher Transworld, contained remarkable similarities with the Dan Brown novel that went on to sell 50 million copies.
"One Sunday morning I turned on the radio and they were taking about the plot of a new novel," he said. "I honestly thought it was my book, then they said it was something called The Da Vinci Code. I went to the bookshop and saw it at the top of the bestsellers. I was shocked, then I became angry. Legal action crossed my mind, but I thought better of it. I became flattered, actually."
Now, with The Joseph Secret, 57-year-old Lawson believes he has cracked the ultimate code.
He said: "There's a difference between the ideas and the expression of ideas. If Brown was influenced directly or indirectly by my work, then he's perfectly entitled to use these ideas. I like to think of him as a friendly rival who got one over on me, and I hope, this time, to have got one over on him."
The book is the result of a 40-year obsession with the Church's alternative history, and uses information from Rennes le chateau, in the Languedoc region of France, where a 19th century priest called Francois Berenger Sauniere discovered parchments suggesting the bloodline of Jesus and Magdalene was the real Holy Grail. As featured in The Da Vinci Code, their descendants were protected by the Knights Templar and the Priory of Sion.
One of Sauniere's documents encodes the phrase "Poussin holds the key". Poussin's The Sacrament Of Ordination, which hangs in the National Gallery of Scotland, shows a disciple in white with Magdalene on his right, looking at what appears to be the central Christ figure holding a key aloft. Lawson claims the disciple, who appears identical to the central figure, is actually Jesus, and the key-holder is the brother who died on the cross at Calvary.
"It's a very provocative idea," said Lawson. "Some people will say, This guy's a genius.' Others will say, He's an attention-seeking lunatic doing it for the money.' But I wouldn't make the claim unless there was real proof."
He added: "Any idea I'm diminishing Jesus is very far from the case. When I discovered this, I was terrified, and I walked away for a while. I didn't want to be the messenger of this. But reading the gospels again, they so clearly express the secret it became unavoidable. I felt encouraged that it had been reported in the Bible."
Lawson plans to write a non-fiction account of his research but, for now, he feels that "presenting this secret in a novel can bring the ideas to a much wider audience".
http://www.sundayherald.com/news/heraldn...cified.php