Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Has The Holy Grail Been Found?

Two historians have published a book claiming that a goblet kept at the San Isidro Basilica in Leon, Spain includes the cup used by Jesus at the Last Supper, known as the Holy Grail.  According to these historians, the original Grail is a cup made of onyx, which was later incorporated into the chalice kept in Leon.  The onyx cup was taken from Jerusalem by Muslims, who gave it to Christians in Egypt.  Centuries later, in gratitude for aid given during a famine, it was given to king Fernando I of Castile.

The Holy Grail has been the subject of numerous legends including some involving the likewise-legendary British King Arthur, and over 200 drinking vessels in Europe alone have been asserted to be the Grail.  There is one theory, put forth in Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code and an earlier speculative nonfiction book Holy Blood Holy Grail, that the Holy Grail is not a drinking vessel, but a bloodline descended from Jesus, resulting from His purported marriage to Mary Magdalene and extending through the Merovingian kings of early France.  I believe that it is very possible that the cup used at the Last Supper may no longer be intact.  While the New Testament does not specify what material the cup was made of, over time metal can rust, pottery can break into shards, and wood can rot or catch fire.  On the other hand, stone such as onyx is more durable, but even stone can be crushed or broken.  If an onyx cup was taken by Muslims from Jerusalem, it may only be one that they thought was the Holy Grail, and the true cup of the Last Supper has been irretrievably lost.

Read the story at The Guardian, the New York Daily News, Fox News, Mail Online and Discovery News.

1 comment:

  1. I hate to disappoint them but onyx would not have been used by Jews during the Passover. Especially Jews that didn't spend money on the opulence. Jesus would have used ceramic or wooden cups. And used the money for charity to the poor.

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