The Hiram Key. Pharaohs, Freemasons, and the Discovery of the Secret Scrolls of Jesus

When Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas, both Masons, set out to find the origins of Freemasonry they had no idea they would find themselves unravelling the true story of Jesus Christ and the original Jerusalem Church. As a radically new picture of Jesus and his ultra-Jewish sect started to emerge, the authors came to the controversial conclusion that the key rituals of modern Freemasonry were practiced by the sect as a means of initiation into their community. Rigorously analyzing and comparing ancient Egyptian records, the Old and New Testaments, early Christian and rabbinical texts, the Dead Sea Scrolls and the rituals of Freemasonry, the authors have been able to reconstruct the lost story of Jesus and his brother James and describe their struggle to establish the "kingdom of heaven" upon earth using Masonic-style rituals. The establishment of the Christian Church is shown to be a political invention that has little connection with the man we call "Christ."--Adapted from dust jacket