Leonardo Da Vinci & John the Baptist

Leonardo Da Vinci was a huge admirer of John the Baptist. DaVinci's last painting was of John the Baptist, in which it shows him making the famous "John Gesture". This gesture can be seen in a few of his paintings, most notably The Last Supper. You can find the "John Gesture" in his unfinished painting Adoration of the Magi. This painting shows people worshiping baby Jesus in the foreground, but right behind the Virgin Mary and Jesus you can see that the focal point is the single tree. Right at the base of the tree is a person whom we can assume is John the Baptist making the "John Gesture". All around John are young and good looking people while all the followers and worshipers of Jesus look old and almost like ghosts. People also believe that Da Vinci included himself in the painting, which he was known to do. Leonardo is on the very bottom right looking away from Jesus. When he put himself in the Last Supper he also is facing away from Jesus.

Adoration of the Magi

Leonardo's Virgin of the Rocks is another strange painting that shows Jesus, the Virgin Mary and John the Baptist with the Angel Uriel. There were two paintings made, the original is in the Louvre and the second one is in London currently. The painting shows the Virgin Mary sitting and holding onto a baby whom is praying to the other baby. In 1483 Da Vinci’s was commissioned to paint the Madonna of the Rocks. A contract specified that the picture should comprise of the “Virgin and Child, two prophets, and angels.” Apparently the buyer was not happy with the result. Da Vinci featured John the Baptist as the prophet.

It was difficult to tell which child was Jesus and which was John. There was some confusion as to the meaning of hand gestures, such as the angel Uriel pointing at John. Da Vinci was ordered to paint a second version, this time with more clarity. John would hold a long reedy cross. Mary and Jesus would have halos over their heads. Uriel would not point. Now, in the painting John the Baptist kneels, gazing towards Jesus with his hands together in an attitude of prayer. The Jesus Child sits towards the front of the painting, supported by the angel Uriel, and raising his right hand in a sign of Benediction towards the kneeling John. The strangest thing about the painting is the fact that the original version had the angel pointing at John and looking knowingly to the viewer as if making a very important clue. Also: John is above Jesus, making John look superior.

Notice in the first version how obviously Uriel is pointing at John and how knowingly she looks at the viewer of the painting. In the second version Uriel does not point, but has a very ''die-away'' gaze at John. Also notice the penis-shaped rock in the background over Mary accusing her of adultery (probably with Zacharias, father of John – Mark Gibbs: The Virgin and the Priest).

Regarding the cave, here is a paragraph from the book "The Templar Revelation" by Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince:

„The contract (this is referring to the contract between DaVinci and the Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception which is a controversial matter because the group took DaVinci to court over the painting, in which 20 years later he painted the second version) also specified the theme of the painting. It was to portray an event not found in the Gospels but long present in Christian legend. This was the story of how, during the flight into Egypt, Joseph, Mary and the baby Jesus had sheltered in a desert cave, where they met the infant John the Baptist, who was protected by the archangel Uriel. The point of this legend is that it allowed an escape from one of the more obvious and embarrassing questions raised by the Gospel story of Jesus' baptism. Why should a supposedly sinless Jesus require baptism at all, given that the ritual is a symbolic gesture of having one's sins washed away and of one's commitment to future godliness? Why should the Son of God himself have submitted to what was clearly an act of authority on the part of the Baptist? This legend tells how, at this remarkably fortuitous meeting of the two holy infants, Jesus conferred on his cousin John the authority to baptize him when they were both adults. For several reasons this seems to us to be a most ironic commission for the confraternity to give Leonardo, but equally one might suspect that he would have delighted in receiving it - and in making the interpretation, at least in one of the versions, very much his own.“

You will notice in The Last

superiority; a heresy. The authors think that Leonardo was declaring John the Baptist to be the true Messiah, a belief held in the Mandaean faith; a long-suffering form of Gnosticism based in Iraq. Leonardo's alleged heresy was part of his supposed association with the mythical Priory of Sion, as described initially in 'The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail', and more recently by Dan Brown in his 'Da Vinci Code'. Heresy and controversy aside, one can agree that Leonardo's John the Baptist seemed to be getting in on the joke too. Perhaps that might finally explain his enigmatic smile.

Or take a look at Mona Lisa: Leonardo kept this painting until his death. He is said to have a very special relationship to it. In italian Mona is a short form of Madonna. Lisa is short for the Hebrew „Elisheba“. So probably „Mona Lisa“ refers as a code to „Madonna Elizabeth“, making Elizabeth – the mother of John - the true Holy Mother. There is definitely a connection made between both. You can see the proof of this claim if you compare the faces of both John and Mona:

Conclusion: If you care to look at the various Pseudegraphic and Gnostic texts (to which the Templars may have had unusual access), a curious story can be pieced together involving Jesus, his cousin John the Baptist, and his aunt, Salome. What it basically involves is Jesus trying to set himself up as the new King of the Jews by having Salome get John the Baptist out of the way. Jesus then "appropriates" the teachings of John, who was a real prophet and actually closer to the throne than Jesus. Jesus subverts the sayings, however, while also incorporating an unhealthy degree of sorcery, in order to position himself for political power. John the Baptist was a popular preacher and the true "Messiah" (even though he supposedly denied it - who can say, really?), with a message of transcendence and brotherly love. Jesus was a sorcerer and a politically ambitious descendant of Solomon who manipulated the situation to have John beheaded and took over his relatively large group of followers -- as well as some of John's message, at least outwardly -- in an attempt to create an army, rout the Romans, and establish himself on the throne. He went a little power mad, his plan went horribly wrong, and he ended up hanged for his trouble. But through the work of Saint Peter and some wild twists of history a lot of misguided people came to believe that he was the Son of God and Savior. The Jesus of Luke was certainly not one of peace. He was one of revolution and disruption. That's one of the clues that suggests he wasn't the Prince of Peace many people consider him to be. It all backfires on him and he fails miserably. Salome ends up crying at Jesus's cross and tomb.

John is the true sacrificial Lamb, and his symbol is the red cross that he carries as a staff.

Perhaps the Templars, and later the Freemasons, had documents that made this more specific.

In document Jesus was a Wicked Priest and John the Baptist was the True Christ (Page 180-186)