Baigent believes that the Bible also offers some clues that could prove this point.
And while Baigent considers himself an investigator bent on exposing the truth, critics argue that the tale he weaves is fiction: fantasy, rather than fact.
The following is a 'Dateline interactive': Of the following Gospel passages, can you guess the clues that lead Baigent to believe that Jesus may have lived after the crucifixion?
Click the 'Launch' button below.","Thank you for participating in this 'Dateline' interactive.
Baigent reconstructed the story of the crucifixion and arrived at a different version of events.Click here to send thoughts, comments and questions for author Michael Baigent.
Learn more about 'The Jesus Papers,' on Dateline Sunday, April 2, 7 p.m. on NBC.
");
dtl_jesuspaper_2.sCorrect = "Yes, according to Baigent.";
dtl_jesuspaper_2.sIncorrect = "Not according to Baigent.";
dtl_jesuspaper_2.headHeight = 40;
dtl_jesuspaper_2.copyHeight = 600;
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dtl_jesuspaper_2[1] = new Array();
dtl_jesuspaper_2[1][0] = new Array("John 19:28-30
\"After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a spunge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth. When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.\"
According to Michael Baigent, why does this Gospel open up the possibility that Jesus lived after the crucifixion?
");
dtl_jesuspaper_2[1].answer = "According to the assertions in \"The Jesus Papers,\" a sponge soaked in vinegar would have revived Jesus, not cause him to lose consciousness and die so soon after.
In Baigent's alternative plot, for Jesus to have survived, he would have had to have been sedated -- through that sponge, so that he looked dead. After being taken down from the cross, he was revived.
The possibility has been raised before, in a 40-year-old book called \"The Passover Plot.\" Rendering Jesus unconscious, Baigent believes, would reduce the trauma, enable the person to be taken off the cross quickly, and improve the chances for survival.
However, according to most New Testament scholars, all of the Gospel accounts agree that Jesus was crucified and died. \"Had he not died, that would have been enormous good news for his followers,\" says Craig Evans of Acadia Divinity College. ";
dtl_jesuspaper_2[1][1] = new Array("Vinegar was not typically used to nourish the thirsty
",'',0);
dtl_jesuspaper_2[1][2] = new Array("A sponge-soaked in vinegar would have revived Jesus, not cause him to lose consciousness
",'',1);
dtl_jesuspaper_2[1][3] = new Array("It would have been physically impossible to hold up a soaked sponge up a long reed ",'',0);
dtl_jesuspaper_2[2] = new Array();
dtl_jesuspaper_2[2][0] = new Array("Mark 15: 43-45
\"Joseph of Arimathaea, an honourable counsellor, which also waited for the kingdom of God, came, and went in boldly unto Pilate, and craved the body of Jesus. And Pilate marvelled if he were already dead: and calling unto him the centurion, he asked him whether he had been any while dead. And when he knew it of the centurion, he gave the body to Joseph.\"
What in this Biblical passage is a clue according to Baigent?
");
dtl_jesuspaper_2[2].answer = "The clue? That Pilate seemed suprised that Jesus is already dead.
Normally, a person lingered on the cross for three days. According to the Gospels, Jesus died within hours.
Of course, there is another widely accepted explanation for Jesus's quick death: He had been beaten, stabbed, in addition to being crucified.
";
dtl_jesuspaper_2[2][1] = new Array("That Joseph asked for Jesus' body
",'',0);
dtl_jesuspaper_2[2][2] = new Array("The presence of a centurion ",'',0);
dtl_jesuspaper_2[2][3] = new Array("That Pilate is suprised that Jesus is already dead ",'',1);
dtl_jesuspaper_2[3] = new Array();
dtl_jesuspaper_2[3][0] = new Array("John 19: 39-40
\"And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight.\"
The passage above tells of what happened after Jesus died. What according to Baigent, is a clue in the Bible that Jesus survived the crucifixion?"); dtl_jesuspaper_2[3].answer = "The spices that Nicodemus brought, aloe and myrrhm weren't embalmbing spices. Myhrr in fact, has been known to stop bleeding.
Nicodemus action could also be interpreted as Jesus's friends giving him immediate medical attention and reviving him.
However, many religious scholars, including Craig Evans disagree: \"Bodies were spiced because of the smell. That's what they were doing, not to treat his wounds or revive him.\""; dtl_jesuspaper_2[3][1] = new Array("That Nicodemus \"came by night\"",'',0); dtl_jesuspaper_2[3][2] = new Array("The spices Nicodemus brought",'',1); // END editorial data