Hi, I'm Ferald Bryan. I wrote HENRY GRADY OR TOM WATSON for an academic audience, but many non-academics have found it useful. I am planning a sequel on southern oratory at the turn of the 20th century. I welcome all comments and criticisms. Thanks your your interest. FJB

Mr. Burr brings up some great points. Unfortunatly, many of the "contradictions" he lists are not contradictions at all. For example, one "contradiction" Burr lists in his book involves the genealogies of Christ. In the New Testament, there are two genealogies of Christ. One is in the book of Matthew, chapter 1, and another in the book of Luke, chapter 3. If you look at them, they look completely different. They don't even agree on Jesus' grandfather. The fact is, however, that these lists are not contradictory, but instead complementary. The genealogy in Matthew is Joseph's family line, while the one in Luke is Mary's.

There are many cases like these. The he doesn't back up his claims...

This book is basically a laundry list of contradicitons in the bible. I like the book, and thought it would make for a very good conversation starter the next time a religious group knocked on your door, but I really wish the author would have backed up the contradictions with some discussion and historical perspective.

An amazing little book, still raising eyebrows and upsetting fundamentalists 150 years after its publication. While the author is not a scholar and never claims to be, he offers a number of cases where the bible might contradict itself. No attempt is made to put things in context, or to put a spin on them. Just verse for verse contradictions. The Preface is an eye opener, and I have to say this little volume has aged very well. Thought provoking for those who can't be spoon fed their faith.

The entire time I was reading this, I felt like I was reading a sequel to a book I never read. Something is missing. I will keep the book on the shelf, but as of yet, I just don't get it. Unless you have some secret knowledge, don't buy this book!

This is an important book because it gives one a very good idea of the spiritual principles of a brilliant American statesman and what might be behind secret organisations who seem to rule the world.

On the subject of the crucifixion similar or different theories are found in books such as the Nag Hammadi library and Secrets of Golgotha by Dr Ernest Lee Martin. In addition the claim of the archaeologist and anaesthetist Ron Wyatt, who apparently found the ark of the covenant in a rock chamber underneath the place of crucifixion on Golgotha, with dried blood on the mercy seat, offers another perspective. All this can become quite confusing. Unfortunately the statements in The Book of the Holy Grail about the double crucifixion of Simon of Cyrene and Jesus Christ, and Christ's faked death, that contradict evangelical reports, are not proved substantially with footnotes, which makes it harder to believe this alternative story.

Jesus is reported to have rebuked people who put too much value on their biological descent from Abraham, and the Cathars and Waldensians rather believed in a purified and individualized spirituality. One gets thus the impression that this book is about a rather strange mixture of Christianity and Judaism.
The descriptions of the spiritual world and references to Melchizedek, Lucifer and Michael are interesting, but does not reveal much more than what a reader of the Bible already knows.

Perhaps we are really living in the times of the fulfilment of prophecies that were predicted in the Book of the Holy Grail, which would leave one with the hope that peace on earth might become more part of everyday reality.

I found this book by doing a search on Thomas Jefferson, and when I read the description of the book I went, "Right, as if." I think I've seen every possible conspiracy theory somewhere on the web, so the idea that there could be an unpublished manuscript by Joseph of Arimathea which was translated by, of all people, Thomas Jefferson, seemed simply ridiculous on the face of it. But ever since I read Holy Blood, Holy Grail, I've been addicted to reading just about every book that has to do with the idea that there was a secret bloodline originating with Jesus, and I couldn't stand not reading this one. To my surprise, I found it fascinating. The idea that Joseph of Arimathea is Jesus' father is, in itself, remarkable. It explains the legends of Joseph taking the young Jesus to Glastonbury, which wouldn't be possible if Joseph of Arimathea was just another of Jesus' disciples. I also love the metaphysics, the idea that the reason our world is so screwed up is that the imperfections were deliberately put in to give us something to struggle against--a self-improvement therapy on a universal scale--the earth as an enormous Role Playing Game, and we're all gods who are playing the game. Fits in perfectly with the whole Matrix concept. And, what other book says that God was married to Goddess, and we are their sons and daughters? Much less sexist than the traditional Judeo-Christian creation myth where all comes from a patriarchal God. This book is hard going and it doesn't surprise me that some of the other readers get turned off by the historical claims, but once you get past that, this is a wonderful book of wisdom. Considering that there isn't any more scientific proof for the authenticity of the gospels than is offered for this one, maybe that's enough.