IS THIS THE TOMB OF JESUS OR A DANGEROUS DEMONIC DECEPTION?

(Before It's News)

IS THIS THE TOMB OF JESUS OR A DANGEROUS DEMONIC DECEPTION?

Let me start this article with a riddle:

WHO IS THE GREATEST, RICHEST, AND MOST POWERFUL MAN ALIVE TODAY AND HOW IS HE RELATED TO THIS SUBJECT?

ANSWER WILL BE AT THE END.

IS THE TOMB OF JESUS DEPICTED IN A PAINTING BY NICOLAS POUSSIN?

Painting “The Shepherds of Arcadia” Wikimedia Commons

In the book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, the authors claim that Jesus did not actually die on the cross, that he married Mary Magdalene, had one or more children, and that they moved to what is now southern France.They claim that the Merovingian dynasty came from Jesus’ decendants.They also say that this blood line, with its claim on the throne of France, has been protected by a secret society called the Priory of Sion and that the legendary Holy Grail is really just a symbol for the womb of Mary Magdalene and the sacred royal bloodline.

They based their claims in large part on the pseudo-historical Dossiers Secrets at the Bibliothèque nationale de France which turned out to be a forged document written by Pierre Plantard and Philippe de Chérisey under the pseudonym of “Philippe Toscan du Plantier”.

This false theme was later picked up by Dan Brown in the novel The Da Vinci Code

In their book they claim to have found what may actually be the tomb of Christ.

“I AM HERE, EVEN IN ARCADIA”

” Et in Arcadia ego” is a Latin phrase that appears as the title of two paintings by Nicolas Poussin (1594–1665). They are pastoral paintings depicting idealized shepherds from classical antiquity, clustering around an austere tomb. The translation of the phrase is “Even in Arcadia, there am I.

In The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, Baigent, Leigh, and Lincoln, under the false impression that “et in arcadia ego” was not a proper Latin sentence, proposed that it is an anagram and suggested that the tomb contains the remains of Jesus. That He “was there, in Arcadia”. They claimed that Poussin was privy to this secret and that he depicted an actual location.

But, Poussin actually had an earlier painting with this same subject but depicting a different tomb. This, of course, was not mentioned in their book. Art historians dismiss the views of the authors of The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail.

Richard Andrews and Paul Schellenberger, developing these ideas in their book The Tomb of God. Ignoring the rules of Latin, they translate “et in arcadia ego sum” as an anagram for “I touch the tomb of God — Jesus”.

THE REAL STORY OF THE TOMB AND THE PAINTING

The tomb depicted by Poussin is different from the one located in the book. The tomb located in the book was actually built in 1903 by Jean Galibert, who buried his wife and grandmother there in a simple grave. Their bodies were exhumed and reinterred elsewhere after the land was sold to Louis Lawrence, an American from Connecticut who had emigrated to the area. He buried his mother and grandmother in the grave and built the stone sepulchre. Adrien Bourrel, Lawrence’s son, witnessed the construction of the sepulchre in 1933 when he was a young boy.

THE REAL MEANING OF THE PAINTING

Arcadia was celebrated as an unspoiled, harmonious wilderness by the Greeks. In this painting Poussin is saying that even in this idyllic pasture land there is death. It hangs like a sword over all our heads. No matter where you go or who you are it is there.

Arcadia Wikimedia Commons

THE SHUGBOROUGH INSCRIPTION AND THE REAL THEME OF POUSSIN’S PAINTING

 Wikimedia Commons

The Shugborough inscription became widely known after being mentioned in The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail. It is a sequence of letters – O U O S V A V V, between the letters D M – carved on the 18th-century Shepherd’s Monument in the grounds of Shugborough Hall in Staffordshire, England, below a mirror image of Nicolas Poussin’s painting, the Shepherds of Arcadia.

 THE SHUGBOROUGH INSCRIPTION Wikimedia Commons

One suggestion offered for this cryptic phrase is that the letters stand for a new Latin translation of the phrase “Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher; all is vanity.” (Ecclesiastes 12:8). This interpretation would be in harmony with the theme of this painting and another work by Poussin.

ASHES OF PHOCION AND THE REAL THEME OF POUSSIN’S PAINTING

Landscape with the Ashes of Phocion is a 1648 painting by Poussin. Wikimedia Commons

Phocion, an Athenian general, was falsely condemned and executed, and his unburied corpse banished, and taken to the outskirts of Megara where it was burnt. At the very front his faithful widow gathers up his ashes. The majestic symphony of the city continues undiminished in the background.

People are born and die but for the most part the world never even notices. We are soon forgotten.

If this life is all there is we are all to be pitied.

VANITY OF VANITIES

Poussin was actually depicting a profound theme found in Ecclesiastes 7: 2&4 NLT:

“Better to spend your time at funerals than at parties.

After all, everyone dies—

so the living should take this to heart.

A wise person thinks a lot about death,

while a fool thinks only about having a good time.”

MOMENTO MORI

Poussin’s painting is just an example of a memento mori : (Latin ‘remember that you will die’) an artistic or symbolic reminder of the inevitability of death; a theme that was popular in 16th-century Venice.

GUERCINO’S VERSION WITH THE SAME MOTIF

Wikimedia Commons

In Guercino’s version (one of other examples I could show) we find the same motif, and the same inscription with the added force of a skull in the foreground, beneath which the same words are carved.

THE ONLY TOMB THE LORD JESUS HAS IS AN EMPTY ONE

The New Testament is a record of witnesses to the fact that the lord Jesus actually died and rose from the dead. Pilate sent a centurion to make sure that not only was Jesus dead but that he had been dead for a considerable time. Mark 15: 44 Pilate marveled that He was already dead; and summoning the centurion, he asked him if He had been dead for some time.

The centurion went out and pierced Jesus side with a spear and a mixture of separated blood cells and plasma came out. (blood and water) This was absolute proof that Jesus was dead and had been dead “for some time”.

See my article on the Mystery of the Blood and Water here: /prophecy/2013/03/the-mystery-of-the-blood-and-water-2445536.html

NO MORE FEAR

Jesus’ followers, who were terrified and in hiding after His death, suddenly came out of their closed rooms and began to shout everywhere that Jesus was alive. Their fear was gone because they had actually seen the risen Christ.

LUKE A LEGAL BRIEF

The Gospel of Luke is written like a legal brief to a prominent official named Theophilus. Luke’s carefully documented facts could have actually been verified in that day.

Luke painting a portrait of Mary Wikimedia Commons

Luke was a doctor and a very careful historian. He probably interviewed many of the people he mentions including the Lord’s mother. Luke says: “Many people have set out to write accounts about the events that have been fulfilled among us…With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus,’ 1:1&3

The Resurrection was first preached in the very place where the Crucifixion had occurred. If the Jews, who were so desperate to stop the spread of the Gospel, could have produced a body, Christianity would have stopped then and there. They could not.

A DANGEROUS DEMONIC DECEPTION

Yes, books like these and movements like Zeitgeist continue to try to turn people away from the Gospel with their easily debunked false claims.

THE ONLY HOPE WE HAVE IS IN THE RESURRECTION

Poussin reminds us that we are all going to end up in a tomb. The only hope we have is in one who has power over death and proved it by the Resurrection.

John 11:25 Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:

Revelation 1:18 I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.

Noel Coypel – The Resurrection- Wikimedia Commons

THE ANSWER TO THE RIDDLE

THE GREATEST, RICHEST, AND MOST POWERFUL MAN ALIVE TODAY IS THE LORD JESUS

HE IS ALIVE REV. 1:8 I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore…

HE IS A MAN 1 Timothy 2:5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; HE IS THE GOD-MAN

HE IS THE RICHEST He owns everything. Col. 1:16 all things were created by him, and for him:

HE IS THE MOST POWERFUL Matthew 28:18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

Phil. 2:10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;

HE IS WORTHY

Rev. 5: 12 Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing.

Thank God that he will one day “remove the cloud of gloom,

the shadow of death that hangs over the earth.” Isa. 24:7

HALLELUJAH, HE IS RISEN INDEED

Mike Clinton, Hiawassee, Ga. Oct. 27, 2013

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