Powdered Gold: Templars and the American Ark of the Covenant (Templars in America Series Book 3)

In the introduction to this book Brody says “Please be forewarned that this book contains themes that may be offensive to readers with strong Christian, Jewish or other religious beliefs.” Well, thanks for the warning, David. I count myself among those that he has warned, but for anyone to have their confidence in the Bible shaken by the tissue of conjectures (mixed with some outright falsehoods) that Brody sets forth, they would have to be pretty badly grounded in their own faith to begin with.One of his first missteps was to identify the Albigensians as venerating “the sacred feminine”. These people (also known as Cathars) did not fall within the bounds of historic Christianity, but their heterodoxies were a belief in two gods – and evil god who is described in the Old Testament who ruled the material creation and the good god described in the New Testament whose realm was spiritual. This is a far cry from veneration of “the sacred feminine”. The Wikipedia on the Cathars also tells of a minority view within Catharism and according to this view, “…the history of Jesus would have happened roughly as told [in the Bible], only in the spirit realm. The physical Jesus from the material world would have been evil, a false messiah and a lustful lover of the material Mary Magdalene.” This, in itself, pretty well blows Brody’s thesis out of the water, since he seems to place a great deal of faith in the heresy that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene.One of Brody’s characters, Cam, said “The truth is that God is part man and part woman.” This is a bold assertion that it hardly behooves a man painted as a scholar to say. My response is “Really?! That’s the truth, huh? WHOSE truth?” Certainly not Bible truth.Here is another brassy and totally unsubstantiated claim. “Male leaders of the ancient church wanted to keep power for themselves so they changed their story to make Mary Magdalene be a… bad person”. Most male leaders of the ancient church were martyred for their faith. So is this Brody/Cam’s idea of keeping power for themselves? The masses of martyrs in the ranks of the early church are, in fact, one of the strongest evidences for the veracity of the biblical accounts of the life of Jesus. Does Brody imagine that they were all willing to die to perpetuate a myth they had made up?“…the church calls itself the bride of God and the Mother Church”. This little clause sets some kind of record in that it contains three errors in just twelve words. The church doesn’t call itself the bride of God. The New Testament calls the church the bride of CHRIST. So both the caller and the one called are misidentified here. As for the “Mother Church” that is a claim of the Romanists that has no biblical basis.At one point the story mentions the utter lack of archeological evidence in support of the Mormon narrative, yet throughout the book new discoveries made by the protagonists are often compared favorably to Mormon claims.Here are two of the outright false claims made by Cam/Brody in a single sentence. “Moses ordered the gold to be baked into bread and put into the ark.” There is nothing in the Bible to support this wild claim. This is what the Bible says in Ex. 32:20: “…he [Moses] took the [golden] calf which they had made, burned it in the fire, and ground it to powder; and he scattered it on the water and made the children of Israel drink it.” No mention of bread. The only bread put into the ark was the “manna” that God caused to drop out of the sky. As far as Brody’s efforts to conflate the manna with “powdered gold”, I’d like to see him explain how the powdered gold would rot and breed worms if anyone tried to store it overnight.The claim is made that Bezaleel, the prime builder of the Ark of the Covenant, was Azazel, a fallen angel. This is another bald-faced assertion for which there is no evidence. To the contrary, the origin of Bezaleel is given in plain terms in Ex. 35:30: “Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah”The book contrives an extremely far-fetched naturalistic pseudo-explanation of how the Ark of the Covenant could have been a charged capacitor that zapped those who touched it. I think the only people who could find this credible are atheists and desperate for a way to take God out of the equation of the Ark. For one thing, every capacitor self discharges through leakage. Simply putting “powdered gold” inside the ark could do nothing to keep it charged.In his notes at the end of the book Brody gives two references to substantiate the existence of “powdered gold” as derived from sand. I have not consulted the book he references, but the web article is full of errors. I say this as someone who has an earned doctorate in Electronic Engineering. Im’ just going to give one example here: “A superconductor does not allow any voltage potential or any magnetic field to exist within itself; it is a perfect insulator.” While the first half of the statement is correct, the second half is the exact opposite of the truth. A superconductor is not only NOT a perfect insulator. It is a perfect conductor, which is the exact opposite of an insulator. That’s why it is called a SUPERconductor!At one point the book makes mention of “the whole original sin idea taught in the Catholic Church”. Well, this is one thing the Catholics got right, but they surely did not invent it. Original sin is taught from Genesis 3 to the end of the Bible.Reference is made to one Lilith who is claimed to have been made a demon by God. God did not make anybody a demon. They chose that path for themselves when they rebelled against God.Reference is made to Moses trying to sell himself to the children of Israel as their God-appointed deliverer. It is said he had a “tough sell”. Not really. Moses was aware of the potential difficulties in being accepted so before he undertook the assignment he asked God how he could authenticate himself as God’s messenger to the people and God gave him a couple of preliminary signs – signs that turned out to be pretty insignificant compared to the signs that God wrought on Egypt through Moses.At one point the Ten Commandments are referred to as “the bloody Ten Commandments”. I guess Brody considers them bloody because they FORBID murder, stealing, lying etc.Another blatantly false claim is that Bezaleel made the priestly garments of Aaron and his sons. I wonder whose extra-biblical revelation this was.Hopefully enough examples of factual errors have been given that the author’s reference to the Exodus account as “far-fetched” should be applied instead to his fabrications. He himself says “The writer cannot simply make things up, fabricating history to suit his or her needs.” As Sir Percy Blakeney says in “The Scarlet Pimpernel”, “Sink me! I couldn’t agree more.” But that is exactly what Brody has done in service to his alternate story of the origins of the Ark of the Covenant and the Exodus.Ordinarily I would give a one star rating to someone whose writing so markedly failed to square with history. But I’m giving it two stars for two reasons. The first is that the ancient artifacts that so motivate Brody are an interest of mine also. For anyone interested in the subject I would recommend the book “America BC” by Barry Fell. He gives many more examples of strange artifacts in America but without trying to weave a story around them.The second reason for the augmented star rating is that the action line, while marginally believable, does move along nicely with some unexpected twists.

In my humble opinion, the character development and plotline rose into the high 3 star range, but the research notes at the end pushed it to a 4. It is well-written with well developed characters, but I found it a little slow for the first third. It has been criticized for triggering those of a more fundamental Christian faith and for critiquing the Mormon faith. I come from a strong Catholic background and was not offended -ultimately it is FICTION. It does challenge the allegories told by nearly all faiths. I had read THE THIEF ON THE CROSS and I intend to read others in this series. If you are a fan of Steve Berry or James Rollins, you may find this a bit drier, but still enjoyable.

I had a couple of storyline problems with this one but overall it was worth reading. Keep in mind most Christians won't agree with the story based on their beliefs. But if you can set that part aside its worth reading. Looking forward to reading the next book in the srries.

I like Brody's writings. Stories are fast paced and full of action. I love all the archeo-history of our country t hat is going on. Brody must be a friend of Wolten - star of the "America Unearthed." show of H2 TV. You visit the same places or is he the the model for the geologist in the story. Thank you for telling the reader what is fact and what is writer's imagination. As a diabetic I don't know how Cam manages it. If he is bad enough to have a n insulin pump, the amount of activity he does has to drop him in his tracks. I mean the more activity - the lower your blood sugar. He would need more than a power bar. As a member of the Third Order of ST. Francis of Assisi - I do not like the slight out lord gets in Brody's book. You are hinting at is that the writers of the gospels and all the witnesses of the day were lying. Some of the disciples of Christ were followers of John the Baptist and left him to follow the Messiah. The disciples did not go willingly to horrible deaths for a 'Thief of the Cross." Still, I read all the books in the series so far.It is fun to see in the mind of a lawyer.

Decent story. It held my attention. As the author stated in the beginning of the book, Don't read it if it bothers you or goes against what you believe. I read it and liked it. I did disagree in certain spots, but kept reading. I would have rated it higher if I weren't distracted by the spelling, grammatical errors, and words where they shouldn't be. All in all, a decent story.

I really liked that the author had so much research on the objects and particularly that he listed it at the end of the book. Very readable and it engages you in the story pretty quickly. If you like a mystery and history you will like this book.

I chose because I found the characters to be well grounded. If you consider the feds to be the bad guys of the story the one agent truly liked William and pulled strings so that Violin could spend time with his son. The story was actions packed . the story presented an alternative history of America and interpretation of religious relics and history. I would recommend this book to anyone willing to consider an alternate interpretation of the Bible and the history of America. I wound not recommend this to anyone with strong religious beliefs or a strong patriotism as they may be offended by the beliefs put forth by the characters in this book.

David Brody weaves his history into his story very well! Most are unaware of the history of the Templars, the church and how the French king owed them too much money.

This is the third book in this series that I've read and it will probably be the last. It was very similar to the previous two, with a plot that only barely managed to hang together and with numerous holes in it, characters that acted in strange or unusual ways and an overall lack of cohesion. The good thing was that there were very few grammatical errors in this book, unlike the previous two, so I assume the publisher has now managed to find a copy-editor whose first language is English. But there was one glaring error: part of the plot involves people of the mediaeval period having to sail across the Atlantic in search of copper, this being one of the triggers to them exploring the New World. In reality, this could never have happened - not the Atlantic crossing because that's entirely possible - but the search for copper. There's so much copper on Cyprus that the name of the island is actually derived from the Greek world for the metal. So whatever reasons mediaeval explorers had for braving the Atlantic waves, looking for copper certainly wasn't one of them.

This is another story in the Templars in America series that challenges popular thinking about when America was discovered. Because it backs up some of the story with photos so you know what is being said is based on fact, it also makes you want to visit the places that are mentioned. The book is also very informative and you can learn a lot along the way e.g. I had never heard of the Baghdad battery before. It also challenges thinking about characters in the Bible (I won't say more here because I don't want to spoil the story for you!) All in all, this was a very enjoyable read.

Cam Amanda and Astarte are once again drawn into a hunt for historical information, people been drawn in unexpectedly without realising the impact it has on more than one person but a group of like minded. A good read and once again it shows the interpretation of some reality of life may not be what it seems but keep open mined. Recommended

This is a really good story , an adventure through history. It covers the Bible stories of Moses leading his people to thePromised land, the Egyptian pharaohs, the Nights Templar, the Mormon religion, and many more ideas from history and religious stories.Throw in a husband and wife team trying to solve ancient mysteries, a radioactive sand that kills people by zapping them and you have book that is a real page turner. Loved it.

Sorry to say that I didn't really like or empathise with any of the main characters, maybe I just dont know enough about why the 'feds' are bad, why everyone should be a survivalist and the intricacies of the Mormon faith. I gave it 3 stars because it did me make me look up at the 'artefacts' mentioned and find out about Arizona... results of which just made me say 'why on earth set it there?' (yes, I know...the 'artefacts') ...sorry Arizona, but you didn't tempt me with your temperatures and I really doubt that templars would have enjoyed the 1000+ mile hike to get there. If you're American, suspend disbelief and enjoy.