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Answers to questions about The Da Vinci Code
The following points are meant to stimulate discussions about the issues raised in the book and movie. Although a fictional murder mystery, the book claims that all descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals are accurate. There are also serious claims that Christianity is essentially an elaborate hoax covered up by the Church for 2,000 years.
While these issues obviously offend Christians, they should be considered opportunities for interaction with friends, co-workers, neighbors, and family. Rather than being confused or angry about the allegations, we suggest being prepared in the spirit of Ephesians 6:10-18. We also believe you will be considered a more reliable resource if you have actually read the book or seen the movie.
Statements from the book:
- In 1099 A.D. a French king created a secret brotherhood in Jerusalem called the Priory of Sion to hide documents the Church wanted destroyed. The military arm of the Priory became commonly known as the Knights Templar. (p. 157-158)
- Some hold that the Priory of Sion was founded in 1956 by Pierre Plantard, a French con artist who created its imaginary history. Plantard was imprisoned at least three times.
- Others find evidence for an Order of Sion created sometime in the 12th century. There does not seem to be any connection, however, between Godefroi de Bouillon (mentioned in the book as the founder of the Priory of Sion), the Order, or the Knights Templar. De Bouillion was de facto king of Jerusalem during the First Crusades.
- The Templars began in 1118 A.D. as eight knights under Hugh de Payens of Champagne.
- A real Abbé Saunière existed and there is a good bit of confusion about his connection to the conspiracy theories surrounding Mary Magdalene. From 1885 until he died in 1917 he was a priest at Rennes-le-Chateau. While renovating the church he supposedly found parchments with coded messages.
- The Bible is a product of man and history has never had a definitive version of it. (p. 231)
- Early believers accepted most of the Bible as it exists today. (See #s 6 & 7.) A definitive version was accepted within 200 years of Jesus’ death and resurrection.
- Christians have always believed that the Bible was inspired by God and that, although it takes on the personalities of its human writers, it is much more than a product of man.
- Nothing in Christianity is original but rather is taken from various pagan religions. (p. 232)
- The church often used visual symbols from the surrounding culture and appropriated customs from paganism that did not contradict the essentials of Christianity. This continues today in our use of things like Christmas trees and wreaths. By giving familiar symbols and festivals a Christian meaning, believers found a way to connect with others in their culture.
- There are pagan religions that speak of a resurrected god. Unlike Christianity, they do not have hundreds of eyewitnesses to the event. Many saw and spoke with Jesus after he was resurrected—and were willing to die for their beliefs.
- “Nothing” is a pretty slanted claim. The Trinity, the giving of the Holy Spirit, and the pure power of Christ to change lives and change history is evidence of the significance and uniqueness of Christianity. The gospel was a revolutionary belief in the first century and it remains so today.
- The book says of Constantine “He was a lifelong pagan, baptized on his deathbed, too weak to protest.” (p. 232)
- It was a common practice of Christians in the fourth century to delay baptism. People waited because it was believed that once you were baptized you could only commit one “unpardonable sin. This was considered especially difficult for rulers like Constantine.
- Constantine appears to have made a sincere conversion to Christianity.
- Lactantius, tutor to Constantine’s son, said “We believe Him (Jesus) to be God.” (304 A.D.)
- A relatively close vote at the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D. established Jesus’ divinity (p.233)
- Over 300 bishops attended the council; all agreed that Jesus was divine and human. Two bishops did not believe Jesus’ divinity was equal to God’s. This is the exact opposite of a “relatively close vote.”
- Councils like Nicaea were considered important ways of dealing with heresies and preventing the spread of false doctrine. The book of Acts speaks of councils.
- Bishop Alexander of Alexandria declared Arius a heretic in 321 A.D. (four years before the Council of Nicaea) for teaching that Jesus was a created being. The issue was hotly debated throughout the church and Constantine called the Council of Nicaea to have the bishops settle the issue.
- Until the Council of Nicaea (325 A.D.) Jesus was viewed by his followers as a mortal prophet.
- The Gospel of Mark (written possibly as early as the late 50s or by 70 A.D.) calls Jesus the “Son of God” and includes Jesus’ conviction for blasphemy. Mark 14:61-63
- The Gospel of John (written no later than 85 A.D.) says Jesus is God and all things were made through him. John 1:1-4 John 1:14 says Jesus became flesh.
- Paul wrote Romans before 50 A.D. and says God sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful man. Romans 8:3
- Romans 9:3-5 points to “…the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all.”
- Colossians (circa 60 A.D.) clearly speaks of Jesus’ divinity—“for in him all things were created.” Col. 1:15-20 The first chapter of Hebrews and (written before 70 A.D.) also speaks of Jesus’ divine nature.
- Early church leaders also wrote of Jesus as “God himself [was] manifested in human form.”
- Ignatius of Antioch, 105 A.D.
- Justin Martyr, 160 A.D.
- Irenaeus, 180 A.D.
- Tertullian, 200 A.D.
- Origen, 225 A.D.
- Cyprian, 304 A.D.
- Conclusion: Immediately following his resurrection, Jesus’ followers considered him divine and human.
- The Bible as we know it today was collected by the pagan Emperor Constantine [who lived from 285-337 A.D.] (p. 231)
- By 170 A.D. Iranaeus considered the four gospels (Mathew, Mark, Luke, John) firmly and widely accepted. Iranaeus studied under two of the apostle John’s students. Iranaeus’ book Against Heresies quotes from all the current books of the New Testament, except a few of the shortest letters.
- By the late second century 23 of the final 27 New Testament books were accepted as canon, including the four gospels.
- 22 manuscripts and fragments of the gospels, written on papyrus, exist from before Constantine’s time. Comparing them with texts from after Constantine’s time shows no evidence of tampering.
- See #4 regarding Constantine’s faith.
- The Emperor Constantine commissioned a new Bible that omitted the Gospels that spoke of Jesus’ human traits. (p.234)
- The entire New Testament speaks of Jesus’ human traits!
- Origen in 200 A.D., a century before Constantine, said “Among all these we have approved solely what the church has recognized, which is that only four gospels should be accepted.”
- The earlier gospels were destroyed.
- At this point in history there was no centralized authority in the Christian church that would have been able to collect and destroy these Gnostic gospels. The Roman Catholic Church as we know it today did not exist. Instead, regional churches acted autonomously and councils were convened to deal with issues of doctrine. Local and regional groups did destroy documents they considered heretical.
- Some of the gospels Constantine attempted to destroy survived, such as the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Coptic Scrolls found at Nag Hammadi. (p. 234)
- The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered between 1947 and 1956 in cliffs along the Dead Sea. They consist of thousands of fragments of biblical and early Jewish documents dating from 200 B.C. to 68 A.D. The product of a Jewish community considered similar to the Essenes, they include fragments and commentaries on books in the Old Testament, not the New Testament.
- The Nag Hammadi discovery was made in 1945 in Egypt and contains a large number of Gnostic scriptures that were thought to have been destroyed. From these texts come most of the ideas about Jesus and Mary Magdalene expressed in The Da Vinci Code. These texts also shed light on Gnostic beliefs.
Gnostism is hard to define but includes the conviction that individuals can receive secret knowledge through inner, intuitive, personal experience. It also accepts duality, believing there is a creator god who is evil and a higher, true god who is beyond all created matter.
One group of Gnostics asserted that they had received a secret tradition from Jesus through James and Mary Magdalene, who they said was Jesus’ consort. They prayed to the divine Mother and Father and considered Mary the most beloved of all Jesus’ disciples. The differences between the Gnostic texts and the biblical texts are striking and make it clear why Gnostic beliefs were considered heretical.
- Almost everything our fathers taught us about Christ is false. (p. 235)
- This statement assumes that the Gnostic texts are more reliable than the Bible, which begs the question, “Why do you think so?”
- The Holy Grail, believed in legend to be the cup Christ used at the Last Supper, is actually an ancient symbol for a woman. Because the “sacred feminine” was a threat to the rise of a predominantly male Christian Church, it was demonized. Man, not God, created the concept of “original sin” and made woman the enemy.
- The Holy Grail became part of popular romance fiction between 1190 and 1240 A.D.
- “Grail” literally means dish or cup.
- While pagan society did worship goddesses and fertility cults, the status of woman in these societies was very low. The New Testament elevated the position of women and spoke of equality. Galatians 3:28 “There is neither Jew not Greek, slave nor free, male or female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” This was a revolutionary thought for the times.
- The Christian church was not predominately male but appealed greatly to women and others on the fringes of society.
- Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene and they had a child Sarah whose descendants are alive today.
- Because Jesus was believed to be fully human there would have been no biblical problem with him being married. The Bible speaks of the apostles’ wives and certainly could have mentioned a wife if Jesus had been married. There is no such statement in the Bible. Marriage, while common, was not universal. Many, including apparently John the Baptist, viewed singleness as appropriate to their dedication to God.
- At his death Jesus asks the apostle John to take care of his mother. Mary Magdalene is also present but he makes no provision for her. This would be an odd thing for a husband to do.
- Leonardo Da Vinci’s famous painting The Last Supper shows a woman sitting in the place of honor next to Jesus.
- Leonardo was a genius who liked to inject controversy into his paintings. The well-known painting of the Mona Lisa for example has two different landscapes in the background. Leonardo was also fond of mirror writing (backwards writing that could only be read using a mirror).
- The Last Supper was restored in 1999 and the result was greatly criticized. It is true that the individual to the right of Jesus looks feminine to our eyes. It is hard to say if the restoration emphasized this or if this was another of Leonardo’s jokes. Since Leonardo was not actually present at the last supper with Jesus, his painting is, in the end, only an artist’s rendition. Leonardo was born in 1452 A.D., over 1400 years after the Last Supper took place.
- Dan Brown’s book (p.231) also quotes Leonardo (“Blinding ignorance does mislead us. O! Wretched mortals, open your eyes!”) and uses this to debunk the Bible. However, in addition to being an artist, Leonardo was a scientist and an inventor. In a day before painstaking scientific observation was common, Leonardo minutely examined life around him. His quotes therefore apply more broadly to the unscientific atmosphere of his age.
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