Recent specials on TDC regarding religious conspiracy

Don't know if anyone caught these, but last night, the Discovery Channel had at least three EXCELLENT specials on the True Cross, The Spear of Destiny, and the Holy Grail.

I suspect there's probably one on the Ark of the Covenant as well, of this same series.

Anyhow, they were truly amazing. I was surprised to learn (and see it) that there may actually be an authentic titulus (the placard above Jesus on the cross), and about the history of possible recovery from the Golgatha, by Helen, mother of Constantine.

Also, they dated the spear (and showed it repeatedly), and learned that it was definitely not a Nazi fake, but had even been modified over the centuries. It was split (likely 7th century) and the oldest part is of the 7th century (so not the actual spear that pierced Jesus). However, it was split so that a nail was entwined in the center, said to be of the true cross, commissioned by Helen to protect Constantine. This is the spear carried by Charlemagne, St. Morris, and even Hitler.... The nail itself was inconclusive, due to odd other bits of metal (speculation is that perhaps bits of the true nails were hammered into the actual nail in the center), They dated when the silver sheath and the gold sheath were added, and the story of it throughout history was certainly amazing, true spear or not.

The Grail special was ok, but had one very redeeming highlight. I had head of each story, but was unfamiliar that the Pope, in 1982, actually blessed and acknowledged the Santo Caliz cup. All evidence points to it being of a much later date, but the blessing is interesting at least, and it was nice to hear something I didn't know surrounding the Grail story. (I'm a huge Arthurian buff). I felt they kind of were too quick to dismiss Joseph of Arimethea coming to Glastonbury though, as there's a lot of evidence for it, in my opinion.

[edit on 12-9-2005 by Gazrok]

its a shame folks missed these.... I'm sure they'll air again soon... look for them...

I saw the Spear of Destiny one, very interesting to get to see it in such detail. Didn't see the other too, I'll have to keep an eye out for them. There's also a decent history channel production called 'unlocking the davinci code' or some such title that is nicely done too, the host tries to 'understand' the stuff from the book, and goes to the sites and discusses lots of the stuff with 'experts' for the sites. I didn't see any new information, but it was interesting to see it all put together as a show.