Answering The Da Vinci Code
Edited by Massimo Lorenzini
This article
is adapted with permission from Stan Reeves, "The Da Vinci Code FAQ,"
http://www.ccwonline.org/dvfaq.html.
Why is this important? The Da Vinci Code raises the important question
of who Jesus is and the integrity of the Christian Bible. Regrettably, The Da
Vinci Code is full of historical blunders and directly contradicts the best and
closest historical evidence available in the New Testament.
Isn’t The Da Vinci Code just fiction? Yes, it is! But author Dan Brown
doesn’t think so. On the first page he says, “All descriptions of artwork,
architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate.” Many
people are convinced the historical background of the story is true and
Christianity is based on a lie. Therefore, the errors in this popular work
should be pointed out.
What is the story about? A murder at the Louvre leaves clues that point
to an ancient society entrusted with guarding a secret—a secret that if
revealed would demolish the very foundations of the Christian faith. This
secret surrounds the location and identity of the Holy Grail. In the process of
uncovering clues and breaking the secret code, we learn that Mary Magdalene and
Jesus were sexual partners and had a child together. Hints of this secret,
according to the story, can be found hidden in paintings and drawings
throughout history.
What is wrong with a married Jesus? Jesus himself affirmed the goodness
and beauty of marriage by his teaching and his attendance at a wedding.
However, Jesus taught that his own purpose was not to start a physical family
but to be the head of a spiritual family with his true bride being the church
(Matthew 12:48-49; Ephesians 5:22-23). There is no mention in any Scripture
about Jesus having a wife at any time. The reference to Jesus’ attraction to
Mary Magdalene is from the heretical Gospel of Philip, a document that dates
from the late 3rd century, far from the time of Jesus and not part of the New
Testament. The Gospel of Philip was never considered by Christians as a
trustworthy account of the life of Christ. Furthermore, this gospel is a
heretical Gnostic writing.
What is Gnosticism? Gnostics (from the Greek word gnosis meaning “to
know”) were a heretical group that developed after the Christian Church and the
New Testament were established. They had no direct eyewitness access to the
life and teaching of Jesus Christ. They believed they had a secret knowledge that
could lead them to salvation which to them amounted to escaping the physical
realm. Gnosticism was a completely different religion that believed in the
dualism of matter being evil and spirit being good. They denied the continuity
of the Old and New Testaments, believing the OT god who created the physical
universe to be a lower, evil god and Christ didn’t have a physical body.
What is the difference between the Gospels of the New Testament and the
“Lost Books of the Bible”? The so-called Lost Books (also known as
pseudepigrapha, “false writings”) date from the late 2nd and 3rd centuries and
never were regarded as authoritative Scripture by early Church leaders. They
were written far too late to have been written by the named authors. This in
itself makes them untrustworthy and false. They often contradict the beliefs
taught in the earlier gospels of the New Testament. All four of the New
Testament Gospels are found in compiled lists of Scripture as early as A.D. 115
and were frequently quoted by Church leaders.
How does this all relate to the Gospel of Judas? The Gospel of Judas is
yet another of the Gnostic gospels, reflecting a line of thinking that did not
arise until late in the 2nd century, far too late to have been written by
Judas. It was known to the early church leaders and was criticized by them for
its errors. It is of interest only in learning about the false religion of
Gnosticism, but has no value in discovering the history of Jesus’ life and
ministry.
Does the Holy Grail have any religious significance? The Holy Grail is
said to be the cup that Jesus used at the Last Supper. The Gospels, however,
say very little about the cup and place no significance on it at all. The first
legends concerning the grail appear in the 12th century and are later merged
with the Arthurian legends.
Could Mary Magdalene be the Holy Grail? The grail (cup) has no
significance in reliable accounts of Christ’s life. Mary Magdalene is portrayed
in these accounts as merely a faithful friend and follower of Christ. There is
no historical evidence to connect Mary Magdalene or “the sacred feminine” to
the concept of the grail.
Do the New Testament Gospels present a low view of women? Not at all.
Christianity brought a radical transformation to the status of women in society.
Even ancient Roman scholars agree that Christianity ushered in a new era for
the freedom and dignity of women.
What sorts of historical inaccuracies appear in The Da Vinci Code? For
one, the central organization in the book, the Priory of Sion, is claimed by
Dan Brown to be a real organization (on page 1). Just recently on the CBS news
program “60 Minutes,” reporter Ed Bradley’s investigation uncovered the fact
that the only “evidence” for this organization is an unreliable document known
as the “secret file” in the French National Library. That document, which
reports the establishment of the Priory of Sion in Jerusalem during the
Crusades and names the various Grand Masters in history, was deposited in the
1960s by Pierre Plantard. The following is from the 60 Minutes transcript
(aired April 30, 2006):
Historian Claude Charlot, who is director of police archives [in Paris],
says there’s a file on Plantard, who died in 2000, showing that during World
War II he was investigated by the secret services. So what was their
conclusion? "The investigation said, 'He is a young man whose mind — as we
say in French — is cloudy. He is a fantasist; he is not a serious
person,'" Charlot said, with the help of a translator.
One of Plantard's fantasies was to set up right-wing, anti-Semitic
organizations, similar in style to medieval orders of chivalry. But in reality
these organizations existed only on paper. "I noticed that in one of the
police reports it was noted that his organization 'French National Renewal' was
described as a ‘phantom group.' That he claimed it had 3,000 members and the
police found it had only four," Bradley remarked. Charlot says it was a
pure invention.
After the war, Plantard moved to the small French town of Annemasse. In 1953 he
was given a six-month sentence for fraud — but three years later, he was again
setting up a new organization. Under French law, it’s necessary to deposit the
statutes of every new association with the authorities. That’s how a government
official there was able to give us information about it. It was called
"The Priory of Sion," named not for 12th-century Jerusalem, but for
the local mountain close to where he lived. Ten years later and now back in
Paris, Plantard gave the Priory of Sion a fictitious pedigree by drawing up
that list of Grand Masters and depositing it in the Bibliotheque Nationale.
Charlot says that apart from that list, no historian has found any evidence
that the Priory of Sion existed before Plantard set up his version in 1956.
"In other words, all that Plantard tells us, or what other people tell us
about the Priory of Sion — that the Grand Master was Victor Hugo or Leonardo Da
Vinci — is sheer invention," says Charlot.
The Priory of Sion, says Charlot, was just another figment of Plantard's imagination.
(You may read the rest of the 60 Minutes transcript online at cbsnews.com,
search “The Priory of Sion”).
If this is the
kind of “fact” The Da Vinci Code is based upon it becomes quite clear it is
untrustworthy. The fact that Dan Brown would mislead his readers this way
regarding the Priory of Sion should tell you that he’s not going to be very
concerned about the truthfulness of other “facts” he presents.
The Da Vinci Code also significantly misrepresents the Council of Nicea called
by Constantine in A.D. 325. The council did not create a new belief system, as
The Da Vinci Code claims. Rather, it clarified what the church already
believed. The council responded to the false teaching of Arius who taught that
Jesus was a created being and not God. The council denounced Arius’ teaching as
heresy and affirmed that Christ was co-eternal and co-equal with the Father as
the New Testament teaches.
How can I learn more about who Christ really is? The best source of
information is the four Gospels of the New Testament. They contain the earliest
and most reliable testimony to the life of Christ and his mission. You may find
reading these source documents to be a refreshing exercise.
Here’s a sample:
No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the
Son of Man. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man
must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever
believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send
his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands
condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only
Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness
instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates
the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be
exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be
seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God” (John 3:13-21,
NIV).
How can I find
more answers to The Da Vinci Code or learn more about Christianity? We recommend the following:
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