Okay, I haven't actually read a book called
Rewriting the Bible, but that title would be appropriate for several I've recently read. All of these books are under the guise of fictional literature, although some of the authors claim in commentary in the book or in interviews on the book(s) that the contents aren't just fictional but have a true basis in reality.
The most famous of the books taking this turn at holding the hand of god to speak as an oracle is the controversional
The Davinci Code by Dan Brown. Brown's other book called
Angels & Demons likewise rewrites some of the tennants of history, albeit with a less outrageous take. The other books within this genre that I'm going to call
Biblical Conspiracy Theorists are the following:
Map of Bones by James Rollins
The Expected One by Kathleen McGowan
What does each book have in common? Each in turn holds the ideal that the Catholic Church throughout history has a grand conspiracy to hide information from us all, vital information that would devastate the church and/or re-shape the history of Christianity for all time. The major theme in 2 of these books (The Davinci Code, The Expected One) revolves around the grand scheme to hide the marriage of Mary Magdalene to Jesus Christ along with the child or children they had as a couple. This idea was supposedly a major revelation of huge impact for the original readers of
The Davinci Code audience, all of whom must never have seen the farce/parody film
Dogma where the same information is revealed a mere 4 years prior (1999 compared to Brown's 2003 release date). Maybe they just didn't like Ben Affleck and passed on the film, thereby losing the 4 year timespan to find out this juicy carrot before their other brethern.
The most major contention about such books concerns the use of fictionalized characters to pass details, details which are then used to come to conclusions without any historically documented or sound resources (unless one considers folklore or word of mouth or even visions of the author to count as being sound).
Next, each book has a massive number of secret societies with famous members involved in either concealing the conspiracy or hiding the information to protect it. In Brown's book, DaVinci is the good guy who provides the famous clues in his painting,
The Last Supper. In McGowan's book, DaVinci is a bad guy in a cult for John the Baptist which believed Jesus wasn't the Messiah, so his painting of the last supper instead details his hatred toward Jesus who is the false Messiah usurping the true Messianic message of John the Baptist, the true Messiah. One of the apostles in the painting is also supposedly showing a sign of John, which indicates that it is John, not Jesus, who that apostle follows.
Another amazing artifice of these books revolves on how these famous denizens of history are typically related to each other or of royal blood or knew each other in a historical game of "Six Degrees of Separation from Kevin Bacon" (or, more aptly, Francis Bacon in this scenario). I must admit it is a profoundly interesting capability to interconnect so many diverse people through time to each other and to re-interpret the same details to fit the pattern the author wishes to argue.
In the long run, the sad part about such books is that they are more readily interesting to read than the New Testament itself for a modern audience with their puzzles and games, their action and romance. As such, people who might not have read the Bible recently or understood it may instead be swayed into believing fictionalized content from an author with an agenda. Quotes on the back of the book by McGowan, a book where the author herself comments at the end and beginning she believes herself in essence to be the Expected One to tell the truth of Mary Magdalene's gospel and marriage to Jesus, are from a producer of a film and a Reverend. The producer's quote is the following:
"Captivating...controversial...enchanting...courageous...Kathleen McGowan delivers the truth against the world!"
- Betsy Chasse, Producer,
What the Bleep Do We KnowI'm not sure what the bleep I really know concerning truth, but it's highly possible that my path is a lot more grounded than some in reality.
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I've missed having your writings from time to time