QUOTE (Orcseeker @ May 6 2008, 06:05 AM)

the knights templar may have adopted the symbol?
I haven't studied any of the detail of whether Dan Brown used "proper historical research" to pen his fiction, but several things struck me from the book (and also from Holy Blood Holy Grail): 1) the concept that Magdala actually meant "the ones who anoint;" 2) that Ieshueh was probably not from Nazareth [because Nazareth (a hick town) had not existed in Ieshueh's time - it arose later] - Ieshueh was probably a Nazrene (or Nazarite - I can't remember) (holy man chosen from birth ala Samuel or Samson (can't shave his hair, mustn't drink alcohol etc.); 3) that Ieshueh, according to the Gospels, was of the line of David - and hence had claims on the throne of Judea; 4) the concept that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute is never mentioned in the bible, and the concept only arose in the misogynistic Roman Catholic Church after several centuries (and I cannot remember the name of the Pope who started that rumor); 5) it would have been socially accepted - and almost required - that Ieshueh, a proper Jewish male following Jewish custom, should have been married (and if he wasn't married by the age of 30, society would think that there was something wrong with him); 6) Ieshueh probably spent time with the Essenes at Qumran - where the devotees' families were in attendance as the males studied and purified themselves; and etc.
I'd prefer to believe that Ieshueh was married. And I'd like to believe that he had offspring. Christians should not let these positions interfere with Ieshueh's teachings, spiritualism, or Divine messages. In fact, in my view, this imputes even more humanity onto Christos - that he lived a full life AND STILL showed an example of non-violent protest (at least according to the myth)...
1st Edit: I may be wrong or slightly wrong on some of these points as I am writing from memory. I have not gone back to check the history of Nazareth, for example, but in the past, I had come across this information in books written by bonafide historians.
2nd Edit: About Nazereth (From Wikipedia
Nazereth:
"However, excavations conducted prior to 1931 in the Franciscan venerated area revealed "no trace of a Greek or Roman settlement" there,[12] and according to studies written between 1955 and 1990, no archaeological evidence from Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Hellenistic or Early Roman times have been found.[13] [14]
Bagatti, the principal archaeologist at the venerated sites in Nazareth, unearthed quantities of later Roman and Byzantine artefacts,[15] attesting to unambiguous human presence there from the 2nd century AD onward.Emmett also claims that "homes and tombs built of stone masonry with back rooms of natural or rock-hewn caves were also found that date to the Roman era (63 BC to 324 AD)."[16] However, this familiar claim that the Nazarenes were troglodytes (cave dwellers) is impossible, for "the caves of Galilee are wet or damp from December to May, and can only be used during the summer and autumn."[17]
...
Finally, Emmett claims that "In light of the archaeological data, there is speculation that Nazareth's first inhabitants could have been Canaanites, then Israelites and Galilean Jews."[16] Indeed, the Bronze-Iron Age inhabitants must have been Canaanites (pre-Israelite inhabitants of the land), but lack of archaeological evidence from Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Hellenistic or Early Roman times (see above), at least in the major excavations between 1955 and 1990, shows that Israelite presence in the basin is unsubstantiated."
<End Wiki Quote>
Basically it seems that Nazareth, as described in the New Testament, was not where it should have been (i.e. an Israeli town that would have been influenced by a Greco-Roman world). The Greco-Roman Nazareth only cropped up in the later 1st Century CE.
3rd Edit: Scratch that point 1 above about Magdala meaning "one who anoints." Magdala means "tower" or "fortress." -Can't remember where I got the annoint thing. Just been in my head for years...