Phrased for what it is:
If Mary Magdalene was Salome, then the identity of Jesus Christ within the family of Herod was Aristobulus ("Good Counselor"), a grandson of Herod through his Hasmonian wife Mariamne. It was this Aristobulus that married Salome after the death of her first husband Herod-Phillip. Mary the mother of Jesus was then another princess named Mariamne, the granddaughter of Herod's brother Joseph.
Herod continued to love his wife Mariamne even after he had been persuaded to kill her and her sons for treason. He also realized that a male descendant of hers had the best chance of being accepted by the Jewish people as a legitimate king. The flight to Egypt of Mary and Joseph with the infant Aristobulus/Jesus was likely staged by Herod in order to typecast this child as a savior-figure, a "Horus" and rightful heir in Egyptian parlance. However, the favor of such a prince would naturally have evoked intense jealousy by other members of the royal family and merited a careful safeguarding.
- Charles Pope
I am 99.9% certain that this was (in 2004) the first identification of Aristobulus of Chalcis as Jesus Christ. Regarding the IDing of Salome as Mary Magdelene, I believe but am not certain that it is also one of the first identifications of Salome daughter of Herodias as Mary Magdalene (Holy Grail researchers are free to correct me if I am mistaken), wife of Aristobulus (Jesus).
Though I find the DomainofMan.com ancient royal families research website to be the most authorative source, other contributors to the dialogue include:
I came to Robert's work through my four decade study of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and I also find his work on the NT both fascinating and enlightening. Charles Pope of DomainofMan.com sometimes references him.
Joe Atwill, author of Caesars Messiah and its notion of a Roman conspiracy to invent Jesus. Although his research is often spectacular, his conclusions are usually weak; he seems to be reading only one layer in NT passages that often contain four to seven. His leaning to Titus as Jesus misunderstands the temporal nature of Vespasian and his son Titus. Even the NT book bearing the name of the latter may be in part an accomodation with this family, whose line was permanently superceded by those of Jesus and John, the twin dynasties that brought forth the era of the Five Good Emperors.
So far, I find his work quirky and sophomoric, designed to entertain and at times bordering on anti-Semitic (for example his assertion Romans were creating a religion to "fool the Jews", a total misunderstanding of how things worked then and now). He really doesn't get the Herodian typecasting and the intertwined nature of Egypt Rome, Greek and Persia, not to mention Briton, Germany, Gaul and Spain.
Even though Titus may have been a nephew of Jeshua Aristobulus, his reign was but a brief two years and he and his father were merely the transition to a brilliant theocracy. They were not the real thing. Joe Atwill is focused on a shooting star, but he overestimates the importance of this man.
If you want to catch up quickly on this stuff, perceive how the new chronology leaves no gaps and realize that everything happened more recently than we think. The Eighteenth Dynasty royals prominent in the Old Testament didn't live in 1200-1300 BC as thought, but more likely around 800-900BC.
Most of the events in the NT that were supposed to have happened in the first and second quarters of the first century, actually happened in the second and third quarters. As you begin to understand the familial relations of Aristobulus (Jesus), Salome (Mary Magdalene), John /Philip, Paul / Psaul, Timothy etc, the stories in the NT take on a beautiful, loving meaning like never before.
Wikipedia review of Jesus the Man: New Interpretations from the Dead Sea Scrolls, 1993 book by Barbara Thiering
(Consider that her first husband was Philip John, and that a royal woman in those days would write under the name of her late husband.)
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