The Last Supper

'The Last Supper' is Leonardo Da Vinci's painting of Jesus with His disciples at the moment that Jesus was about to announce how one of them would betray Him.

Everyone is told that it is a painting of thirteen men, but if you pay particular attention to detail, you will realise that not all the characters are men. In fact, seated at the right hand of the Lord, is a woman.

Examine the figure to Jesus' immediate right. If you study the person's face and body you will notice that the individual has flowing red hair, delicate folded hands, and the hint of a bosom. It is, without a doubt...female.

Many of the photographs in art books were taken before 1954, when the details were still hidden beneath layers of grime and several restorative repaintings done by clumsy hands in the eighteenth century. But now the fresco has been cleaned down to Da Vinci's original layer of paint.

This woman is said to be Mary Magdalene. Some people tend to think that Magdalene was a prostitute, but that unfortunate misconception is the legacy of a smear campaign launched by the early Church. The Church needed to defame Mary Magdalene in order to cover up her dangerous secret - her role as the Holy Grail.

The early Church needed to convince the world that the mortal prophet Jesus was a divine being. Therefore, any gospels that described earthly aspects of Jesus' life had to be omitted from the Bible. Unfortunately for the early editors, one particularly troubling earthly theme kept recurring in the gospels. This was Mary Magdalene... and more specifically, her marriage to Jesus Christ.

It is a mattter of historical record, and Da Vinci was certainly aware of that fact. The Last Supper practically shouts at the viewer that Jesus and Magdalene were a pair. Notice that Jesus and Magdalene are clothed as mirror images of one another. Jesus is wearing a red robe and blue cloak; Mary Magdalene is wearing a blue robe and red cloak. The clothes are inverse colours, yin and yang.

Venturing into the more bizarre, note that Jesus and His bride appear to be joined at the hip and are leaning away from one another as if to create this clearly delineated negative space between them. If you trace the contour, you will see the indisputable \/ shape at her focal point of the painting. This symbol represents the Grail, the chalice and the female womb.

Finally, if you view Jesus and Magdalene as compositional elements rather than as people, you will see another obvious shape leap out at you. A letter of the alphabet. Glaring in the centre of the painting is the unquestionable outline of an enormous, flawlessly formed letter M (although I am sure that this is clearer on a larger copy). Conspiracy theorists will tell you it stands for Matrimonio or Mary Magdalene. To be honest, nobody is certain. The only certainty is that the hidden M is no mistake.

The Marriage of Jesus and Mary Magdalene is part of the historical record. Moreover, Jesus as a married man makes infinitely more sense than our standard biblical view of Jesus as a bachelor. This is because Jesus was a Jew, and the social decorum during that time virtually forbade a Jewish man to be unmarried. According to Jewish custom, celibacy was condemned, and the obligation for a Jewish father was to find a suitable wife for his son. If Jesus were not married, at least one of the Bible's gospels would have mentioned it and offered some explanation for His unnatural state of bachelorhood.

The Nag Hammadi and Dead Sea Scrolls, are the earliest Christian records. Troubingly, they do not match up with the gospels in the Bible. Read the Gospel of Philip: And the companion of the Saviour is Mary Magdalene. Christ loved her more than all the disciples and used to kiss her often on her mouth. The rest of the disciples were offended by it and expressed dissaproval. They said to him, 'Why do you love her more than the rest of us?'

Although that passage does not actually say that they were married, the word companion in those days, literally meant spouse. There are many other passages that clearly suggest that Magdalene and Jesus had a romantic relationship. There is even a gospel existing in Magdalene's words. This is from the gospel of Mary Magdalene: And Peter said, 'Did the Saviour really speak with a woman without our knowledge? Are we to turn about and all listen to her? Did he prefer her to us?' And Levi answered, 'Peter, you have always been hot-tempered. Now I see you contending against the woman like an adversary. If the Saviour made her worthy, who are you indeed to reject her? Surely the Saviour knows her very well. That is why he loved her more than us.'

The woman they are speaking of is Mary Magdalene. Peter is jealous of her. Not only because Jesus preferred Mary. The stakes were far greater than mere affection. At this point in the gospels, Jesus suspects He will soon be captured and crucified. So He gives Mary Magdalene instructions on how to carry on His Church after He is gone. As a result, Peter expresses his discontent over playing secong fiddle to a woman. I daresay Peter was something of a sexist. This is Saint Peter who I am referring to. He is known as the rock on which Jesus built His Church. Except that according to these unaltered gospels, it was not Peter to whom Christ gave directions with which to establish the Christian Church. It was Mary Magdalene.

Jesus was the original feminist. He intended for the future of His Church to be in the hands of Mary Magdalene. And Peter had a problem with that, you can see that Da Vinci was well aware of how Peter felt about Mary Magdalene. If you look at the painting, Peter is next to Magdalene, and is leaning menacingly toward her and slicing his blade-like hand across her neck. Also, if you look at the disciples near Peter you will see a hand wielding a dagger. Stranger still, if you count the arms, you will see that this hand belongs to... no one at all. It is disembodied. Anonymous.

Interesting, is it not? If you would like to learn more about Mary Magdalene being the Holy Grail, click on the picture.

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This has been taken from Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code"