David Ovason

Ovason is such a strange character. He's obviously smart. He has obviously done extensive research (I'm sure his personal library is amazing). His hypotheses are intriguing.

But his execution is utterly lacking. He never proves his contentions, and, indeed, his examples and evidence are often completely misconstrued in his attempt to confirm his points. His book on Nostradamus, The Secrets of Nostradamus, for instance, promises grand new insights into Nostradamus's prophecies, but only offers a new way of interpreting them, not THE way to interpret them (i.e., it is not the key to Nostradamus, but just another way to look at them no different than anyone else's other way to look at them).

Here the contention is that there were two different Jesuses. Based on the differing genealogies in Matthew and Luke, he says that there was a "Solomon Jesus" and a "Nathan Jesus." Out of these two Jesuses, the Solomon Jesus eventually gave his power (?) to the Nathan Jesus, who was then made into the Christ only at the baptism. Ovason also points to the weird double of Jesus that is in the Pistis Sophia, a Gnostic text.

The rest of the book basically tries to show that the two Jesus children are depicted in artworks (illuminations, paintings, sculpture, etc.) from the late classical period through the medieval era to the Renaissance. The problem is that even though Ovason does show some oddities in many obscure works of art, by and large most others can be explained away by conventional means. For instance, medieval illuminations in manuscripts that try to depict two incidents happening over the course of time are interpreted as depicting two separate events happening at the same time, and thus two Jesues. This is just lazy thinking. Conventional images of John the Baptist and Jesus as children are made over into evidence of the conspiracy: they must be two different Jesuses. Worst, artworks depicting putti (the fat babies, sometimes winged, sometimes wingless that are often mistakenly called "cherubs") Ovason tries to make into evidence of the two Jesus children.

Ovason fills his work thick with literature and art that may depict two Jesus children, but never once makes a convincing case. Why you would need two Jesus children in the first place, if only one was to become THE Christ, is never adequately explained. Why Matthew would talk of a "Solomon Jesus" and Luke a "Nathan Jesus" (their differing nativity stories, like their differing genealogies, are evidence, to Ovason, of two different Jesus children) and then devote the rest of their gospels to one Jesus Christ is never adequately explained. The that the person Jesus only became Christ at his baptism, the heresy of adoptionism, is never adequately explained. What conspiracy would lead to hosts of artists over the course of centuries to depict two Jesus children but never ever write about it is never adequately explained.

That, and Christian apologists have, to my mind adequately explained away the supposed contradiction between the genealogies of Matthew and Luke.

Aside from the dust jacket, there are no color images. Most of the images are ink-lined redrawings of the works discussed, there are some standard black-and-white reproductions. The work is copiously footnoted, with some interesting digressions. There is no bibliography and no index.

Parts of it are interesting and parts of it make you think, but, in the end, Ovason discusses a lot and proves little.… (lisätietoja)

If you've ever read a doctoral dissertation - and like it - you're going to love this book - Otherwise run away - Bravely! No this is not for the hat-in -the -cat crowd. Or the spoonerism thereof. Why read it? Because it reveals some very profound secrets - not conspiracy theories - but real secrets that put more flesh on the dry bones of our nation's capital. It's more than you think! I will never go to DC (and I live in the environs) without looking at the sculptural symbols and understanding why they are there, who put them there and why one day in August brings the whole picture into focus. Frankly I hated the reading of the book and loved the information. If you are interested in history of this nation give this book a look, then go to DC in August and watch the sunset. You will never see things the same again!… (lisätietoja)