SOME "SACRED BLOODLINE" NONSENSE:

Is this woman the living 'Code'?
Updated 7/18/2006 3:47 PM ET

By Carol Memmott, USA TODAY
Is the world ready for a book and an author more controversial than Dan Brown and The Da Vinci Code?

Meet Kathleen McGowan, novelist and self-proclaimed descendant of a union between Jesus and Mary Magdalene. McGowan, who says she is from the "sacred bloodline" Brown made famous in his mega-selling novel, says she's ready to cope with people who think she's crazy or a heretic.

[...]

Much of the evidence for her claim seems to involve some visions she had.

Bart Ehrman was interviewed for this article and comments:

"People didn't keep genealogies like that in the ancient world. There are no records. We have no account of Mary Magdalene even going to France until the Middle Ages, and the legend about her going to France sprang up because there was a cult to Mary Magdalene in southern France and they used the story about her going there as a way to explain the origins of the cult."

One could add that if her notions (I refuse to say "theories") were true -- and they aren't -- at this late stage many millions of people would be descended from Jesus and Mary Magdalene and a great many people would have as much or more of the tiny fraction of genetic material she would have inherited from them.

Ehrman sums it up well: "It's completely bogus."

UPDATE: Look again at the Copper Scroll post immediately below for an update noting more errors.

Also, if you have tried to reach me recently via the e-mail address in the masthead, it has been having problems. I think they are resolved now, but it may take another 12 hours (from 10:30 am British time) before it's working properly.