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After 28 years of research, a Springville author has concluded that Jesus Christ was married and had children whose descendants took part in the formation of the LDS Church.
Dynasty of the Holy Grail: Mormonism's Sacred Bloodline, written by Springville resident Vern G.
Swanson, is being published by Cedar Fort Inc. in Springville. The hefty hardback pulls together information from a variety of sources including legends, LDS literature and scientific and historical writings.
Swanson has also based his conclusions on the 400 books written by scholars that he has read about the Holy Grail and the bloodline of Jesus. Dynasty of the Holy Grail is expected to be available online at / within a week and in bookstores by the end of November.
"This is an historical investigation into the many enigmatic threads that are complex and confusing and this is the most comprehensive study yet attempted and completed on the whole Holy Grail question," Swanson said.
Much of his life has been spent doing research for and writing his book, but Swanson said he never intended to publish it until the novel "The Da Vinci Code" came out and he was "angered by its reception." That novel discusses the bloodline of Jesus and the nature of the Holy Grail.
"Many people thought that that (novel) was true when it was so patently false and anti-Christian," Swanson said. "So I've written this book to promote the concept that Jesus is in fact the Christ and the savior of this world, not through just the blood that he shed, but through the blood that he shared."
A devoted member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Swanson said he believes in the doctrines of the church and does not believe that his book is doctrine. Swanson rejects the ideas that the Knights Templar, the Freemasons or Leonardo da Vinci had anything to do with the bloodline of Jesus. He also rejects the idea that the Priory of Sion existed, a purported organization of grail guardians.
After his years of research, Swanson has concluded that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene as well as Mary and Martha of Bethany. "I believe that the record will bear out that he was married to those three ladies and that he had children, how many we don't know, but at least of both sexes," he said.
Swanson said he found an extensive body of early Mormon literature that supported the idea that Jesus was married and had children "and that the (LDS) church leaders were direct descendants of those children."
Jesus was crucified for being king of the Jews, Swanson said, and as heirs to the kingdom, his children would also have to be killed. Therefore, it became necessary to hide the children. Swanson said after Jesus' crucifixion, his children were taken by Joseph of Arimathea to England where they were hidden in a town called Glastonbury in Somerset.
Swanson said "The Da Vinci Code" is based on the idea that the children went to southern France and stayed there. Swanson believes they landed there in a boat, but then continued to England. Why England? Swanson said according to legends, Joseph of Arimathea had tin mines in Somerset and took Jesus as a child to work in those mines. Also, the location would have taken Jesus' children comfortably outside the Roman Empire, an important consideration for their escape, he said.
"The idea that Christ's children were taken to England made sense since all of the (early LDS) church leaders had British heritage," Swanson said.
Swanson said he has concluded that Mary Magdalene was from the tribe of Ephraim, and that her marriage to Jesus represented a marriage between the tribes of Ephraim and Judah. "It's a strategic marriage between Ephraim and Judah epitomized in the persons of Mary Magdalene and Jesus Christ.... It's a strategic marriage so that, as Jeremiah says, Ephraim will not envy Judah and Judah will not vex Ephraim," he said.
The Holy Grail is the vessel for the bloodline of Christ, meaning a blood lineage that has coursed through the centuries until millions of people share it, Swanson said. However, in some ways the bloodline is kept separate as well.
Genetically, separate characteristics are passed down only from father to son, while other characteristics are passed down from mother to daughter. "The direct line through both is fairly rare," Swanson said, "and it comes down to one man who in 1820 went into a grove of trees and the reason why God the Father and the Son appeared to him was that he was the heir of the family.... Joseph Smith's bona fides rested partially on the fact, if it's a fact, on the presumed fact, that he was the most direct descendant of Jesus Christ," Swanson said.
His book promotes the idea that "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the inheritor of the inheritance, that Joseph Smith is the ascendant descendant, that his right to open the last dispensation rested partially upon this premise that he was the direct descendant of the chosen seed," Swanson said.
Swanson said another reason for writing the book is so he can correct the book and publish a later edition. He believes there are errors in his book and, in the book's introduction, he solicits responses, corrections and new sources of information from readers.
"I want criticisms," he said.
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