MORE ON THE BOOK OF NAMES: Karen Tintori and Jill Gregory ran across PaleoJudaica and have e-mailed the following:

We were researching current info on the Temple Mount on your site when we stumbled across the comments about THE BOOK OF NAMES. How fun!

We are the authors (and Jewish) and enjoyed reading the comments on your blog.

All of the Jewish content in the book is based on fact, and the manuscript was vetted by two rabbis to ensure accuracy. The gemstones on the High Priest's breastplate come directly from the Torah and the similarities between Kaballah [Kabbalah] and Tarot are also true.

The legend of the Lamed Vovniks indeed comes from the section of the Talmud Stephen Goranson mentions in his reply to your blog entry. Lamed Vovniks is the Yiddish term for the Tzadikim Nistarim, which is the Hebrew name for these 36 righteous souls of every generation. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamed_Vav_Tzadikim)

The Gnoseos are indeed fictional -- we created them as an offshoot of the ancient Gnostics, since Gnosticism parallels Kaballah in some ways.

We loved researching this book and spent two years writing and researching it -- and a dozen years before that trying to figure out a way to identify the Lamed Vovniks, because their identities are known only to God, not even to themselves.

We are currently researching our next thriller for St. Martin's, which involves the Temple Mount.

Watch out Dan Brown.