The following early work (published in 1980) was the product of research during the decade of the 1970s, reflecting a popular approach to the subject by an enthusiastic, young writer in that period. Appearing shortly after the widely publicised books of conspiracy theories, The Passover Plot (Schonfield, 1965) and Jesus ou le Mortel Secret des Templiers (Ambelain, 1970), as much as appearing before The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail (Baigent, Leigh and Lincoln, 1982), or the more recent novel The Da Vinci Code (Brown, 2003), it became temporarily a Greek bestseller, creating waves of criticism in the Greek media and the Orthodox Church. But since then many things have changed and the recent edition (2007) includes a substantial new introduction (about 17,000 words) discussing some of the reactions to the book, while revising older views and briefly updating part of the evidence now towards an academic direction.