The Book of Hiram: Freemasonry, Venus and the secret key to the life of Jesus - Tapa dura

Add one part heresy, one part detective story, and one part archaeology, and you get The Book of Hiram. Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas have concluded their 14 year quest for the historial Jesus, the roots of Christianity, and the origins of the Freemasons with this explosive new book.

In The Hiram Key, The Second Messiah, and Uriel's Machine, Robert Lomas and Christopher Knight set out to discover the mysterious origins of the Freemasons. What resulted was a fascinating mixture of archeological surprises, pre-historic science, conspiracies, and heretical Christology. Among their discoveries were:
· Freemasonry is in the possession of ancient esoteric secrets that go back to the time of King Solomon.
· Jesus was in possession of that knowledge.
· The Knights Templar rediscovered those secrets in their excavations of the Temple in Jerusalem during the Crusades.
· The ancient scrolls taken from Jerusalem by the Knights Templar are most likely buried on the premises of Rosslyn Castle.
· There were two universal floods (one of them described in Genesis). Pre-historic man developed a technology to predict those floods (e.g. Stonehenge).

The Book of Hiram both recapitulates their findings that appear in their previous books, expands on them, and presents new research that further bolsters their thesis that Freemasonry possesses ancient, albeit somewhat garbled and misunderstood wisdom.

The second half of the book is The Masonic Testament. Here, for the first time, is a comprehensive chronological collection of the rites of the Freemasons. Those rites – -combined with the authors' commentary – -represent a document analogous to the Old and New Testaments. It is a document that adds to our knowledge of ancient Judaism, as well as adding a strand of esoteric knowledge that appears nowhere else.

Knight has a degree in advertising and graphic design. For many years he has been a consumer psychologist involved in the planning of new products and their marketing. Previously a company chairman, he now divides his time between marketing consultancy and historical research.

Lomas hold a PhD in solid state physics. He worked on electronic weapons systems and has always had a keen interest in observational astronomy and the history of science. He currently lectures in Information Systems at Bradford University School of Management.

They are the authors of THE HIRAM KEY (Element paperback net sales: 50,000 plus; Barnes & Noble hardcover 160,000 copies); THE SECOND MESSIAH (Element 15,000 in hardcover; paperback sales unavailable; Barnes & Noble hardcover 50,000 copies) and URIEL'S MACHINE (Element 7,500 hardcover – it was published several months prior to the demise of Element).