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(Note to the reader: If you are planning on reading the novel The Da Vinci Code you may prefer to read the book before reading the thesis below. The Da Vinci Code is a mystery, and while this thesis does not reveal the mysteries of the novel, it does build upon some of the ideas that unfold during the course of the novel. If you have no current plans to read the novel, or if you have already read it, then I hope you will find these further revelations exciting and that you will enjoy reading them as much as I enjoyed creating them and that no one takes offense.)
In Origins
of Family Name Discovered in Middle-East,
www.mayoff.com/originofname.html, we explored possible origins of the Mayoff
family name, tracing the name back almost three millennia to approximately
800 B.C.E. Even more entrancing, in the footnotes to that article
we were able to trace our lineage back even further, to Benjamin
and Abraham, and then even further back than that. All the way
back to the original father and mother. Now additional information
about a branch of our family, a branch long hidden, must be revealed
to Mayoffs, Mayoff-wannabe's, and to those we love and who love
us.
In the early 1980s publication of Holy Blood,
Holy Grail, (ISBN: 0-440-13648-2) began to reveal our secret
to the modern world. In 2003 publication of The Da Vinci Code
(ISBN: 0-385-50420-9) further undermined our family secret. If
you've read The Da Vinci Code you know that it unravels
secrets hidden within secrets hidden within secrets. But even
with all of those secrets unraveled, there are still more secrets
that the book continues to hide. Secrets that are apparent to
a Mayoff, but still hidden in plain sight from the rest of an
unsuspecting world. Here, for the first time, another layer
of secrets is untangled.
As documented in Origins of Family Name Discovered in Middle-East, the earliest traceable form of our family name is Mayrov (variant Merov). A variation of the name Merov appears in western Europe as early as the 5th century C.E. The first family to unite what is now modern-day France is well documented to be the Merovingians, and Merovingians made Paris their capitol in the 5th century C.E. www.parisur.com/parishistgb.htm, http://www.crystalinks.com/merovingian.html. The Merovingians take their name from their progenitor, the semi-legendary Mérovée (aka Merovech, Merovius). We can't be sure how the family name traveled from ancient Israel to France, but we can explore an intriguing possibility.
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Mary (Miriam) Magdalene is a name familiar to us because of her major, but contested, role in the foundation of Christianity. Less well-known is that suddenly, in the 13th century, it is claimed that Mary (Miriam) Magdalene is a descendant of the tribe of Benjamin. It is very difficult to find any substance for this claim, but it is possible that the claim is true. Virtually all the Jews at the time that Miriam Magdalene lived were descendants of either the tribe of Judah or the tribe of Benjamin. In Origins of Family Name Discovered in Middle-East we have already demonstrated that Mayoffs are descendants of the tribe of Benjamin, so presumably Miriam holds a place as a cousin on our family tree. Pregnant at the time of the crucifixion of her husband, Miriam left Israel after the crucifixion. The Greek Orthodox church argues that she emigrated to Ephesus. Located in modern day western Turkey. But is more widely believed that she fled further and settled in Gaul, which later became France.
Why is that important to the Mayoff legends? Because it is also claimed by some authorities that Mérovée, the founding Merovingian, is a descendant of Mary (Miriam) Magdalene! It is at this point, in the 5th century, where the blood lines joined. An unknown descendant of Merov married an unknown descendant of Mary (Miriam) Magdalene and her husband who was crucified. The couple had a son, Mérovée, ruler of France, with Paris as its capital.
A large painting
of a seder, by a 15th century artist named Leonardo Da Vinci,
is discussed at length in The Da Vinci Code. You can
view an image of the painting at http://www.artchive.com/artchive/L/leonardo/lastsupp.jpg.html. The book points out the large, unmistakable
M formed by the central characters in the painting. The book suggests
an interpretation for the letter as a reference to Mary (Miriam)
Magdalene. Wisely it stops there -- to preserve our family secret.
But like so many things in the Code, we know there is more than
one meaning to the image so carefully and subtlely crafted by
the skilled artist. It is one of most prominent examples of one
of our family legends (or myths) being acknowledged and proclaimed,
while remaining hidden in plain sight!
