Before the Da Vinci Code phenomenon there was The Passover Plot (1965) by Hugh J. Schonfield. Schonfield invented the hypothesis, that a mortal Jesus had planned his ministry and crucifixion according to the Old Testament prophecies to fulfill Judaism's messianic tradition. John Lennon explained his famous 'Beatles Are Bigger Than God' sound-bite with Schonfield: 'My views on Christianity are directly influenced by this book. The premise in it is that Jesus' message had been garbled by his disciples and twisted for a variety of self-serving reasons by those who followed, to the point where it has lost validity for many in the modern age' (Boston Globe newspaper, 12 December 1980)

"Schonfield's controversial bestseller argues that the fictional premise "used. . . by George Moore in The Brook Kerith and by D.H. Lawrence in The Man who Died"--that Jesus survived the crucifixion--really happened. To the task of proving this thesis, Schonfield brought a prodigious command of scripture, new insights (largely gleaned from the recently published Dead Sea Scrolls) into the Jewish sectarianism of first-century Palestine, and forty years' experience studying and teaching (at Oxford University) early Christian history. He also brought a conspiratorial worldview that prompted him to weave from all the ancient sources available to him a story that explained on entirely rational grounds all of the events mentioned in the Gospels. The miracles and mysteries that serve to establish Christ's divinity in the church's official narrative are to Schonfield telltale signs of a plot--masterminded by Jesus himself--the purpose of which was to prove that this son of a Galilean carpenter was the Messiah whose coming had been predicted by certain Jewish sects since about a century and a half before his birth.

Steeped from his youth in the religious ferment of his day, Schonfield's Jesus gradually becomes convinced that it was incumbent upon him to manifest his Messiahship by ensuring that his demise conformed to the prophesied pattern. To this end, writes Schonfield, Jesus minutely planned and orchestrated the events of Passion Week so they would culminate in his crucifixion on Friday afternoon. For the Passover Plot, timing is everything; delaying the Messiah's predicted ordeal until just before the Sabbath, writes Schonfield, would enable Jesus to survive crucifixion by faking his death. The custom of removing the bodies of the crucified from their crosses before the Sabbath meant that Jesus' time on the cross would be minimized, allowing him to receive quickly the medical attention he would need. And by appearing to die on his own Jesus would be spared having his legs broken, the usual means by which the Romans hastened the deaths of crucifixion victims.

Every conspiracy theory needs a leap of faith; Schonfield's is the precise means he thinks Jesus used to fake his death. Jesus' words "I am thirsty," writes Schonfield, were a signal to Joseph of Arimathea, who dispatched a servant with a vinegar-soaked sponge on the end of a twig of hyssop. But, says Schonfield, there was more than just vinegar in this sponge. Had this liquid consisted of the "the normal wine vinegar diluted with water," he writes, "the effect would have been stimulating. In this case it was exactly the opposite. Jesus lapsed quickly into complete unconsciousness. His body sagged. His head lolled on his breast, and to all intents and purposes he was a dead man" (191-2). As John Lennon might have said had he witnessed the scene as Schonfield drew it, 'He's drugged!'"

Quoted from "The Beatles, the 'Passover Plot,' and Conspiratorial Narrativity" by Matthew Schneider.

The Passover Plot disinfo-mini-site