An amazing work full of new and plausable ideas and theories.Kudos to authors Rabbi Benjamin Blech and Roy Doliner.Their research and proof opens a new dimension into the mind and genius of Michaelangelo.My students were awed by the insight and messages that were never seen by Pope Julius or the millions of humans who walked into the Chapel and looked up!This is truly a gift from the past that can now be accepted.

Happening upon a major discovery regarding the backgound, motive ---and actions--of an angered Mchelagelo, authors Blech and Doliner did what only the very finest historians do: they followed the evidence wherever it led, honestly, honorably--and with extraordinary personal courage.

The Sistine Secrets not only is historical analysis of the highest order--it is one gripping read which grabs you on page 1--and never lets go.

A First-rate effort in every way!!

The book is fascinating, and offers insights into the work of Michelangelo as a scholar and artist. It includes logical and understandable interpretations of the ceiling art in the Sistine chapel, but also includes conclusions that are somewhat speculative. Altogether, worth reading and thinking about it.

This book is very interesting because it goes into the culture and background of why Michelangelo spurned the pope with his art. I recommend it.

The book is a "Michelangelo Code" of sorts, but like Dan Brown's novel, it offers no documentary evidence and nary a footnote to back up its claims.

As someone who has led many a tour in the Sistine Chapel, the first thing that struck me about the book was how the claims of Blech and Doliner revolve around the most frequently asked questions by visitors to the chapel.

Why is there so much Old Testament imagery in a Christian chapel, many query as they see the cycle of Moses on the walls and Genesis, painted by Michelangelo across the ceiling.

The authors declare that Michelangelo changed his original commission from the Twelve Apostles requested by Pope Julius II to the Genesis cycle out of a secret sympathy for Jews. But Pope Sixtus IV, the uncle of Julius, had already hired the finest painters in Florence 25 years earlier to decorate the lower panels with the stories of Moses paralleling the life of Christ.

As art historians and theologians know, the point of these images was to represent the seamless flow from the Old Testament to the New Testament, the fulfillment of God's covenant with man through the coming of Christ. As a consecrated chapel where the Pope would celebrate the Eucharist some 40 times a year, the theme of God's plan for man's salvation starting from the origins of our need to be saved was an apt choice for the ceiling.

But for Michelangelo, the subject of Genesis offered the possibility of accomplishing a feat never done before: Painting a narrative 60 feet off the ground and making it readable from the floor through his unique sculptural painting.

Doliner and Blech insist that Michelangelo learned about Kabala, a form of Jewish Gnosticism, in the garden of Lorenzo de Medici in Florence, when at 15 the young artist went to study sculpture there.

They hypothesize that Pico della Mirandola was the origin of Michelangelo's interest in Kabala.

Pico, a philosopher and humanist, had formed a syncretistic theory of all ancient thought from Plato to the Arab writings of Averroes to Kabala and the Bible. Like Thomas Aquinas' "Sententiae," Pico dreamed of defending his thesis before an international congress of scholars, but many of his theses were condemned as heretical and ultimately Pico retired to Florence.

Pico, at the time Michelangelo met him, was closely tied to Giacomo Savonarola, the famed Florentine Dominican preacher. By then Pico had already recanted his heterodox theories.

The authors overlook that Michelangelo was a third order Franciscan, like his hero Dante, as well as the fact that while Michelangelo never mentioned Pico, he often recalled the sermons of Savonarola throughout his life.

But what they conspicuously neglect is that Michelangelo was taking a hammer and chisel into his hands for the very first time and embarking on the greatest love affair of his life, with the art of sculpture. Michelangelo's messages would not be interesting to us if his art were not so powerful, and that richness of his works comes from the ceaseless practice of his art. We honor him today for his extraordinary talent, which he knew was God-given.

So how do Doliner and Blech turn him into a propagandist with crypto-Jewish sentiments and an anti-papal agenda?

Drawing on Dr. Frank Meshberger's 1990 article in the Journal of American Medicine, where he proposed that the cape of God in the creation of Man was shaped like a cross-section of the human brain, the authors seize on the idea, speculating that it is the right side of the brain, which according to Kabala contains secret God-given knowledge.

Even if Meshberger's theory were correct, one would only have to look at the Gospel of John 1:1, "In the beginning there was the Word," a source with which Michelangelo was certainly more familiar, to find the idea of God as Logos.

Many tourists over the years have wondered why God, in the creation of the sun and moon, is so prominently featured from the back.

In the hands of these authors, the tired old tour guide joke that this was the origin of the term "mooning," becomes the basis of their anti-papal theory. They claim that Michelangelo made God "moon" the Pope, because he was so angry about having to paint the chapel instead of work on the sculptural commission he had been promised.

From here they extrapolate that Michelangelo was disgusted with the corruption of the papal court, as well as the Church's treatment of the Jews and added figures making other obscene gestures at the Pope. Besides the fact that these other gestures are nowhere to be seen, it is ironic that two writers purporting to be familiar with the Hebrew Scriptures missed the most obvious scriptural reference to God's "back parts," when Moses in Exodus 33 asks to see God's glory and is denied because no one can see God's face and live.

God, to show his favor of Moses, allows him to look upon His "back parts." The Christian understanding of this event is that in the Old Testament man cannot see God, but with the Word made flesh, everyone could finally look upon God's face.

This theological point, which justifies Christian art, explains why Christians have a visual culture and why Michelangelo could dare to paint God.

The reason why Doliner and Blech have a chapel to study is because the people who gathered in that space and the man who painted it believed that God descended among men as Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, and in that space during the Mass, we could relive the encounter with the living God.

Ultimately, the authors claim that Michelangelo, gainfully employed and greatly respected within the Vatican walls, was betraying the trust placed in by the Pope and theologians of the court, to advertise his own interests on the walls of the Sistine Chapel.

It is perhaps not surprising that this idea occurred to co-author Roy Doliner, who despite a lack of any formal education in art history or theology has been able to earn a living giving tours at the Vatican Museums. He hangs his own agenda on isolated images from the chapel without any consideration of the chapel's meaning and function as a whole.

The book is redolent with anti-papal sentiment, despite lip service paid elsewhere by Blech to Pope John Paul II and the "good Pope John XXIII."

According to these authors, the Pope, his court and the endless stream of theologians, historians, saints and philosophers who have meditated on the chapel, were blind to this "code"; only the wisdom of Doliner and Blech could see to the mind and heart of Michelangelo. Gnosticism at its best.

In the end, Doliner and Blech's interpretation of the chapel mirrors others that see the chapel as a sort of Protestant manifesto, and is only slightly more plausible than another recent theory that the chapel contains encrypted messages from aliens.

Gender studies, psychologists, gay activists and thousands of others have seen themselves reflected in the ceiling and have co-opted Michelangelo for their own agendas over the years.

Bottom line: If everyone can find him or herself reflected in the ceiling of the chapel, it makes Michelangelo pretty universal. And isn't that the definition of Catholic?

* * *

I would like to tell Rabbi Bleich and Mr. Doliner that the naked men
on the cover are inappropriate.I don't care if it's "art". There is no excuse for such a lack of tzniut (modesty). How do I bring such a book into my home? I have to glue a piece of cardboard over the cover???

Like the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (and the Last Judgment fresco on the wall at the alter end), this book is wonderful at many levels.

First, it will help people understand a lot about one of the great philo-Semitic periods of history. Together with Britain in Victorian times, surely wonderful to see the Italian Renaissance and the period of Lorenzo di Medici (The Magnificent) was a time of great interest in Jewish learning on the part of non-Jews and a sense of Jewish-chic.

Second, a great deal of Kabbala theory will be found here. The first author being a professor of Talmud at Yeshiva U., he also presents quite a drosh on Talmudic and Midrashic issues as they touch on the images in Michelangelo's work.

Third, an enormous amount of "insider" history of the period esp, about the papacy and Italy is presented. To call this "juicy" would hardly do it justice! Vast amount of historical fact (all right, call it "gossip").

Finally, this is a book about great, if familiar art. It will help you enjoy Michelangelo's entire work (not just the Vatican masterpieces). There are many hidden messages within Michelangelo's work and many of these are based on his grasp of Jewish sources. If not all the observations seem convincing to all, a great many surely do.

Highly recommended for people who love the real stories within history. By the way, the writing is as good as the best New Yorker articles.

This work got lots of press -- that it doesn't deserve. The best feature is the innovative fold out book jacket that turns into the entire ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Other than that, it is written for biblical scholars, not those interested in the ontology of the painting. Very few pictures, generally very poor quality. Not casual reading.

The authors have produced an important work of art historical scholarship that is also a delightful book to read. They take their readers on a tour of the intellectual and social world in which Michelangelo's attitudes were formed. They explain that he had "a very special education" that gave him great sympathy with freethinking, even heretical, writers. They also reveal his knowledge of the Midrash, the Talmud, and Kabbalah.

Michelangelo and other Renaissance artists embedded coded messages into nearly all their works. It delighted European elites who gained enormous social cache from their ability to interpret complex images. It also served as a way to express "censored" ideas.

In the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo took the opportunity to fill the space with "hidden messages of his passionate loves and his righteous rages, along with mystic symbols of divine justice and divine mercy" (306). His motives remain difficult to discern. But there can be no doubt that he intended his work to be read--not hidden from posterity.

The authors help us to "read" Michelangelo's images by providing the tools used by sixteenth-century humanists. They walk us through the chapel as if they were tour guides, pointing out some very extraordinary features, for example, the depiction of two putti "giving the fig" to Pope Julius's portrait (136). They also show us details that recently came to light after the Sistine ceiling was cleaned, a process that started in 1980. Most notable is the figure of Aminadab (a distant ancestor of Jesus Christ) wearing the yellow badge of shame required by the Fourth Lateran Council. He makes the "devil's horns" with his fingers and points towards the ceremonial canopy over Julius's papal throne (154).

Wow.

This book is so much fun to read.

PS-I recommend the hardcover version because the dust cover opens up into a mini-poster of the Sistine ceiling.

This is an important book. Don't miss it. Despite its flaws, I give it five stars and thumbs up!

However, it is a pity that the authors did not take a more dignified, quasi-scholarly approach. There was no need to hammer each point home; a subtle touch would have been more effective.

The discussion of Michelangelo's education in the de' Medici household is fascinating. The authors claim that the Corpus Hermeticus is the work of an ancient Egyptian master. However, recent scholarship dates the work to the early centuries CE. It is stated that Picco della Mirandola, one of Michelangelo's tutors and famed in his own right, was heavily influenced by Jewish mysticism and had the largest library of Judaic and Kabbalistic writings. There is no reference for this claim, which is so important for the book's thesis.

The claim is made that few Christians in Michelangelo's time, or in this time, would suspect that the Tree of Knowledge was a fig tree, rather than an apple tree. I think that now, many people recognize that it was a fig tree. It would have been better for the authors to more carefully support their claim that in Michelangelo's time few had this understanding. Their treatment of the two angels of our nature in this panel is fascinating.

I hope that this book provokes discussion and further study. The tale is generally told well and provides stimulating food for thought. Sadly, one can imagine how a thoughtful Christian, and especially a genius such as Michelangelo, would have felt when faced with the corrupt and quite unchristian behavior of the popes and cardinals. The point is pursuasive that the secrets had to be well-hidden. Thanks goodness the ceiling was so high and inaccessible or we might not have this masterpiece with us today.

The book turned out as it promised. It was an interesting read and did in fact portray many of the mesages that were left in the paintings.

Where to begin? Let's begin with this book's end chapter where the authors wonder why the Sistine Ceiling has no unifying name. In this absence, the authors sense conspiracy, Michelangelo's last laugh at the Vatican. Well - the reason "The Last Judgement" has a title, as other frescoes used by way of comparison, is because it deals with a specific moment. The ceiling, on the other hand, has no unifying title, dealing as it does with so very many episodes from the Old Testament - but each individual fresco does! ('Creation of Adam', etc.) No forbidden message here! Let me scattershot, because the book is a hodge-podge of supposed revelations of "Forbidden Messages" with not a single, solitary footnote to aid in our astonishment. Shoddy scholarship - especially given the authors' prestigious credentials. But...maybe the lack of footnotes contains, in itself, some secret, coded, Kabbalistic message???? Did you know that Michelangelo invented pointillism, while most poor slobs think it was Seurat! The authors base this absurd claim on the restored face of Mary in "The Last Judgement" - simply because it - out of hundreds of faces in the giant fresco - is painted in a pixelated fashion by the Maestro. Well, who knows - maybe the restorers botched the clean up? Maybe Time wrought its defects on this one face! But to say that Michelangelo - whom I consider the greatest artist to have ever lived - invented pointillism is simply absurd. Just as is the authors' claim that Michelangelo purposefully left several of the statues for Pope Julius' tomb unfinished as he perfected his "non finito" style - and thus presaged (consciously, mind you) the Impressionists and Picasso and Rodin all by his lonesome - when, in fact, the plain truth is that he did not finish the works because there were only so many hours in a day and so many years in a life! If he was, indeed, at this time perfecting his "not-finished' new, revolutionary style...why then did he polish and perfect the contemporaneous Moses? Oh, and did you know that the Moses has NO horns? How do we know this - because the authors say so...again with no footnote to back up the claim. They say the alleged horns are actually a special effect - like something out of Hollywood - that Michelangelo purposefully created them to catch the light and make the horns look like beams of light shooting out of Moses' head. The trouble is, once the statue was not to be placed in an elevated position - and once the window that Michelangelo purposefully cut in the San Pietro Church was walled up by the ominous Church powers-that-be (trying to diminish Michelangelo's hidden Moses-message)....why then didn't he chisel off the horns-which-aren't-horns? And despite daylight beaming off the projections out of Moses' head - what were people to think of the "horns" on cloudy days or at night when viewing the statue? We are told he re-sculpted the entire face once he realized the statue would be placed ground-level (something I never heard of before in all my studies of Michelangelo!).....so why not chisel off the horns? Because, Truth be told, they ARE horns and they come from a mistranslation of the Vulgate which Michelangelo was acquainted with. In the Vulgate, it says "Moses had horns." But to acknowledge that Michlenagelo succumbed to Latin Vulgate mistranslation would unravel the basic premise of this book: and that is that Michelangelo was deeply initiated into Kabbalistic mysteries and Talmudic messages. Maybe he was maybe he wasn't. Maybe he took some advice from a variety of Biblical and Talmudic scholars. The fact is - no one knows for certain who decided on the final theme of the ceiling's frescoes in the first place (see Ross King's excellent book about the ceiling, etc.) I could go on. The authors tell us that 'The Last Judgement' was painted on a restructured wall that Michelangelo purposefully and secretively structured to look like the traditional shape of the tablets of the Ten Commandments! Yet you will see these same arches in an illustration of the Chapel's interior prior to even the ceiling's being painted! Plus...if these are the traditional shapes of the tablets and Michelangelo was knowledgeable about this hidden, coded message - why then are the tablets in the Moses sculpture traditionally squared off? The authors go on to point out that Mary in this same fresco is looking at a woman who is the portrait of the famed Vittoria Colonna herself! How do we know this? The authors say it is so, simply that. Just as Michelangelo's great love is also portrayed in the fresco - Tommaso dei Cavalieri is (no doubt about it!) the only person in the painting in eye-to-eye contact with Christ who is actually the Belvedere Apollo! The bottom line is this: the authors assume too great an entry into the mind of Michelangelo. They turn their assumptions into facts, like ancient alchemists trying to transmute base metals into gold. Much of what they are doing when revealing to us the secrets of the Sistine frescoes is nothing other than....seeing images in clouds. Did you know that God in the Creation of Adam scene is floating on a dissected brain? How do we know this is a fact, unalterable and inviable? Because the authors tell us so! This book also wastes plenty of space (that could have been devoted to footnotes!) to reproducting the same pictures in the text and in the insert, needlessly. And a picture we would have liked to see - the self-portrait of Michelangelo set above the Moses - we only see in a blurred, distant shot. So - this book is slipshod, didactic in the extreme and....it doth protest too much! It tries TOO hard to push its agenda. The book's subtitle is sure to make the book fly off the shelves - yet there is really nothing outstanding here, except for alot of speculation. We all know that Michelangelo was well-versed in the Old and the New Testaments and drew his inspiration from many, many sources. But the authors hammer their Kabbalistic points home on virtually every page of this book that, as a reader, I felt like a block of marble being pounded and chiselled by Michelangelo himself. One other point: the authors make much of Michelangelo's flying bridge construction that allowed him to paint on the ceiling for four and a half years - yet provide no illustration showing what such a structure may have looked like. And yet by the book's end, the Bridge theme becomes central. By-the-way, did you know that the Mona Lisa has been positively identified? I didn't! I do now, though.....because the authors told me so!!!!!! Only there is no footnote further elucidating how her identity has been finally revealed. The Devil...is in the details, friends.

I had hoped that the sensationalist subtitle of the book ("Michelangelo's Forbidden Messages in the Heart of the Vatican") was not indicative of the book as a whole - alas, I was wrong. The authors basically argue that Michelangelo hid many Kabbalah-influenced symbols in the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel to thumb his nose at the Church. That's an intriguing and plausible premise, is it not? Unfortunately, they leap to such a conclusion based on the flimsiest of premises. A sample from page 69 in which they point out that the tree in the Garden of Eden is depicted on the ceiling as a fig tree: "According to the Midrash, the tree of Knowledge was a fig tree, since a compassionate God had provided a cure for the consequence of their sin within the self-same object that caused it. It is hard to imagine any Christian being aware of this, either in Michelangelo's era or even today. Only someone who had studied the Midrash could have known such a thing."

Actually, the Bible records the fruit only as that, a fruit, and almost every Biblically-literate person believes the tree to have been a fig because (a) apples are relatively rare in the Middle East, and, more tellingly, (b) Adam and Eve immediately cover themselves with, you guessed it, fig leaves. Now if by "it is hard to imagine any Christian being aware of this" the authors mean that the Midrash mentions a fig tree, they may be right, but they are clearly arguing that Michelangelo's use of a fig tree proves a Jewish influence, which hardly follows.

There are other examples, such as the serpent possessing limbs. Again, it's clear from the Bible alone that the serpent had limbs, because God's curse that he shall henceforth crawl on his belly is nonsensical if he's on his belly to begin with. The authors, though, once again, see this as proof of Kabbalistic influence.

Finally, I find their knowledge of Catholicism at about the high school level. For example, they laud the Talmud on page 70, saying "it conditions us to see the universe and to think in a multilayered way, as opposed to the Church's uncritical, linear and unanalytical approach." Sorry Thomas Aquinas et all...

The book has an intriguing premise and some cool artistic observations, but it's really not that far above The Da Vinci Code despite its academic language.

Rabbi Benjamin Blech has his work cut out for him after writting this book. Move into the Vatican and annex Europe as part of Israel.

There are 19 footnotes in this book. All the amazing discoveries are italicized. The comparison to the Dan Brown books is appropriate as the claims in the book are appropriate to fiction. It was a good read on the flight from San Francisco to Tokyo once it became clear it was a work of wish fulfillment.

I am not going to spoil this mysterious book for all "you" readers out there, but I would like to explain that this book is meant to become the greatest "secrets" of all time...

I just read this in the LA Times:

[..]


LA TIMES BOOK REVIEW

'The Sistine Secrets: Michelangelo's Forbidden Messages in the Heart of the Vatican' by Benjamin Blech and Roy Doliner

The inclusion of unorthodox symbolism in Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling
May 11, 2008

MICHELANGELO studied the Kabbalah and Talmud? It's all right there, above our heads, as Benjamin Blech and Roy Doliner demonstrate in their fascinating study of the Sistine Chapel, "The Sistine Secrets" (HarperOne: 336 pp., [..]). I understand the desire to reach Dan Brown's audience with the book's provocative subtitle -- "Michelangelo's Forbidden Messages in the Heart of the Vatican" -- but this book is hardly a "Da Vinci Code" knockoff. The authors, both experts on Judaica, scoured Michelangelo's work and found many oddities, raising such questions as: Why does the serpent in Eden have arms? Why, in that scene, is the Tree of Knowledge a fig tree instead of an apple tree? And, hey, why does the shape of "The Last Judgment" resemble the tablets of the Ten Commandments?

The Florence of the Medicis, the authors explain, was a community receptive to the Jews in a time of tumult and intolerance elsewhere. Jewish philosophy and thought filtered down to the young artist through master tutors, such as Pico della Mirandola. It was the search for an all-embracing religious philosophy, the authors suggest, that led Michelangelo to draw on alternative sources for his biblical subjects and to "brilliantly hide inside these works antipapal messages more in keeping with his true universalistic feelings." Like the best art historians, the authors give us a fresh context for the times, never hesitating to make contemporary parallels: The Medicis, for instance, gave to Florence "the feeling of a new golden age, comparable in many ways to the popular spirit . . . when the Kennedy family brought the feeling of 'Camelot' to Washington." This is a stimulating exploration that makes familiar masterpieces seem strange and new.

-- Nick Owchar

A composite of history, art, and religion..Obvoiusly, well-researched. The authors, Rabbi Benjamin Blech and Roy Doliner have collaborated on their own work of art, The Sistine Secrets. Fact and fiction are clearly delineated, most often with explanation. Those who read and find this book a stretch of the truth may only be limited by their own fear of the unknown, thus being close-minded. Accepting the integrity of the authors, I welcome their refreshing approach and open-mindedness. Truly a collboration of perspective, belief, and research. The Sistine Secrets is an enjoyable and informative read for the scholar and novice alike. Kudo's to all involved in this endeavor!

I didn't like it. I would have liked for the authors to announce in the title or cover that the book is about how their theory of the kabbalah/judaism influenced Buonarrotti, sometimes in a really far-fetched manner. It's really more a history of Judaism revised with the excuse of the artwork. For a more balanced historic view I prefer Ross King's "The Pope's Ceiling".

Just as the Sistine Chapel was a piece of art so too is this piece by Benjamin Blech in uncovering century old secrets. Between the book's progression and its shocking depiction of the secrets behind a timeless masterpiece, this work is without a doubt one of the most important prints of the decade.

I have recently finished "The Sistine Secrets" and find it to be artfully crafted, intelligently written and accurate in its research. The writers have something of import to say and they say it well. Unlike the Da Vinci Code this book inspires the reader to think of "treasure" in terms of truth seeking rather than gold. Yet it captures the imagination with as much excitement. I particularly find the tie-in to Deaf cultural studies and the references to the refined gestural communication of their language to be a fascinating angle for analyzing the images in question. The ability to combine such a range of disciplines into a cohesive "map" for the reader to follow the research is brilliantly done and will have appeal to both the serious scholar and the gentle reader of more popular fare. These authors are able to take abstract images and compellingly suggest concrete reasons for the artistic positional/gestural choices, historical context, personal artists' perspective, political impact and much more. You may be excited, angered, thrilled, humored or shocked by the revelations in this book but as the authors say at the end of the last chapter:
"All the world is a very narrow bridge - the point is this - to have no fear."
The exploration of truth requires a lack of fear for what it might expose.

Luane Davis Haggerty Ph.D.
Leadership and Change through the Arts, Antioch University
Assistant Professor of Creative and Cultural Studies
National Technical Institute of the Deaf at Rochester Institute of Technology

I just finished reading this book - and now I know the answer to what perplexed me when I read some of the previous reviews on Amazon.

This book is BRILLIANT, entertaining, very erudite - as per the approbation by the great Michaelangelo scholar Enrico Brushini who wrote a very complimentary forward - and highly readable. So how come some reviewers trashed it in the most disrespectful manner, even as a slew of others gave it 5 stars?

Because this book is an eye-opener and goes against traditional interpretations, so people with an ax to grind who are close-minded of those with a specific agenda, who believe, wrongly, that this book in any way criticizes the Church of today feel that they have to condemn it. That is assuredly the face of a controversial book that dares us to view a famous work of art in a fresh and startlingly new manner.

I challenge any reader who comes to this book with an open mind not to be overwhelmed and ultimately convinced of its remarkable new insights. Do not be swayed by reviewers who in passing happen to mention that they wrote their own analysis of the Sistine - and of course anyone else who offers a different interpretation is guilty of a "debacle."

Read it for yourself. You are in for an incomparable treat!

I was at first skeptical about yet another Dan Brown type art-history revisionist document, but was tempted by the Bruschini rave review to give it a try. Definitely not a Da Vinci Code knock-off. This is not a "whodunnit" novel. It's a very well written innovative expose. I was simply amazed by some of the insights that never occurred to me before. I am not an academic, but I still learned quite a bit from this book and strongly recommend it. Of course, the pictures are fantastic.

I love the history of art and I am often fascinated by both the psychology of the artists in renaissance Italy as well as intricate geopolitical backdrop in which this particular work was ensconced. The authors do an incredible job of painstakingly detailing the historical veracity of their claims, which to be honest I was skeptical about before reading the book.

Their discoveries are enlightening, entertaining and not the least bit shocking. I applaud them for tackling such a controversial topic with scholarly aplomb. To the critics who harp on minor points or site comparisons to the Da Vinci Code, I would firstly recommend actually reading the book, and second I would point out that this work sites references for all claims which can, with a bit of time and effort on your part, be easily corroborated. Its easy to throw stones from the peanut gallery, a bit more challenging to open your mind to these new and exciting ideas.

A most thoroughly enjoyable and enlightening read.

I have read all of the reviews on Amazon. None of them attack the factual accuracy or historic background contained in this book. The insights and evaluations are precisely delineated. Opinions are clearly separated from facts. The scholarship and erudition shown cannot be put down as passing off "a fantasy as history". It is disingenous to denigrate the book as an attempt to duplicate The Da Vinci Code formula. This book contains an enormous amount of accurate historic background that is not generally known but derived from intense, careful research. It is a page turner as well. Kudos for the excellent pictures. The eye sees what it sees. Pointing out that the right side of the brain is accurately reflected in the image of the creation is a stunning observation. There are many more illustrations that bear out the accuracy of the text. Instead of putting this masterwork down as a hoax it should be studied and enjoyed by all who want to understand the Sistine Chapel Ceiling and its creator more fully.

I saw the 20/20 Special and was intrigued.

The scholars interviewed seemed open to at least some of the ideas. (And where they weren't, or expressed doubt, I thought the evidence could go either way).

Since I also felt the authors came off well, I spent Sunday reading the book.

Time well spent.

It was smart, insightful, and eye opening.

You don't have to agree with every conclusion to walk away convinced of many, and having learned a lot.

It's a fascinating book and topic and I would encourage everyone to read the book and draw your own conclusion...the summaries, mine or anyone else's, don't nearly do this book justice.

The authors have done a fantastic job presenting material-whether one agrees or disagrees-that is both eye-opening and informative. The cross-section of art and religion is well-known but this book takes it to another level. Read the book and draw your own conclusions. The book cover is spectacular!

What makes a book a work of art; a "classic?" A lot of things, but one is the book's ability to never grow "old" and to always be able to be seen in a new light.

Michael Angelo's Sistine Chapel is a classic. And "The Sistine Secrets" sheds new light on the subject. The recent resoration of the Sistine Frescoes combined with the recent studies of Kabbalah, provide a new and exciting perspective on the Biblical messages that make the Sistine Chapel ceiling not only a great work of art, but a source of religious teachings that now have a new glow for 21st century viewers and readers.

Benjamin Blech and Roy Doliner are to be applauded for the contribution their book makes to art and religious history. It is said that when Michael Angelo completed his sketch of Moses, he hit the knee of the statue and shouted, "Why don't you speak to me?" Because of Blech and Doliner, the Sistine Chapel now speaks to us.

This book is easily one of the poorest excuses for scholarship that I have ever encountered. The authors blatantly engage in the single biggest sin for a historian -- interpreting historical events through a contemporary (and biased) lens, and make laughably absurd claims, ranging from reading an innocuous hand position in a fresco as an obscene gesture aimed at the pope to declaring the depiction of another figure's backside as Michelangelo "mooning" Julius II.

There's a reason why this book has been uniformly dismissed as frivolous nonsense by authorities in the fields of both Renaissance history and art history; namely, there's not even the slightest shred of historical or artistic substantiation for the authors' fanciful hypothesis that Michelangelo included secret symbols in the frescoes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel insulting the pope, promoting Jewish mysticism (i.e., the celebrity fad known as "Kabbalah"), and encouraging "bridge-building" to the Jewish faith. The authors, who happen to be Jewish themselves, flagrantly project their own twenty-first century attitudes onto Michelangelo's work of art from 500 years ago, leading them to interpret it based on what they wish it to represent rather than what it actually does.

The fact of the matter is that the authors here shamelessly and transparently attempted to capitalize on the runaway success of "The DaVinci Code" by co-opting the formula for Dan Brown's novel (Renaissance artist + famous work of art + esoteric symbolism involving Church-related controversy) and simply swapping Leonardo and his Mona Lisa with Michelangelo and his Sistine Chapel. Brown at least had the intellectual integrity to limit his imagination to the world of fiction. The hacks who authored this work of pseudo-scholarship disgracefully and dishonestly try to pass off their fantasy as history.

Brazenly unheedful of the historical method, lacking substantiation and truth, derivative of a premise stolen from a novel, and utterly ridiculous in every conceivable way, this book is beneath contempt and not worth the paper it is printed on.