"I, Joseph of Arimathea, took the body of Jesus, the Nazarene, from the tomb where it was first laid and hid it in this place."
A press report on this discovery just outside Jerusalem says: "There now seems no shadow of doubt that the disappearance of the body of Christ from the first tomb is accounted for, and the Resurrection as told in the Gospels did not take place. Joseph of Arimathea here confesses that he stole away the body, probably in order to spare the Disciples and friends of the dead Teacher, with whom he was in sympathy, the shame and misery of the final end to their hopes."
This is proof, welcomed by many, that Jesus was not who he claimed to be, the Son of God, but was nothing more than a good teacher who was treated cruelly by those in authority. Churches quickly empty. Over a year, society begins to break down around a world with no traditional standard to live by.
A young curate, a journalist, and a music hall singer who is the mistress of a famous man, put their lives in danger as they set out to discredit the discovery, believing that a wealthy, militant atheist could be responsible for the hoax -- if indeed it is a hoax. This story by popular fiction writer Guy Thorne was first published in 1903. Dan Brown was definitely not the first writer to imagine the Christian faith under threat from archaeology!