The Da Vinci Code
Falsehood in Fiction

"Almost everything our fathers taught us about Christ is false.
Many have made trade of delusions and false miracles, deceiving the stupid multitude…"

Introduction

In the pattern of other historical novels, Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code is an adventure of intrigue and mystery (for the record, YES - I have read the book and I enjoyed the story). While it is certainly a work of fiction, many do not realize its fictional extent. This is not to be blamed wholly on the reader, for the fiction begins before the first page of the story. In the book's prologue, which admits to the fictional nature of the book, the author lists several "facts" which he assures his reader are absolutely true. Many of these "facts" represent the latest version of a low-grade conspiracy theory that is dismissed by serious scholars of several fields (60 Minutes did an expose on Brown's atrocious handling of art history). Brown's ideas are not even very original (in fact, Brown was sued for plagiarism).

Synopsis of the Code

The basic gist of the novel is that the Church (read: roman Catholicism) has been hiding the truth about Christianity for the last 2,000 years. Included in the description of this absurd conspiracy theory are the following "facts": Jesus Christ was nothing more than a common prophet who made no claims of divinity, was married to Mary Magdalene (whom He picked to lead the church), and had a daughter who grew up in hiding in France. The whole thing was really meant to be a form of worship of the divine feminine. The reason no one knows about this (other than hundreds of "credible scholars", the Masons, the Knights Templar, the Priory of Sion, the Papacy, Leonardo Da Vinci, Isaac Newton, etc.) is, of course, that the evil patriarchal church covered it all up, made Mary out to be a whore, and changed the church's "true" pagan teachings into the singular worship of Jesus. Fortunately, the Knights Templar kept some untainted gospels, the bloodline of Christ, and the "Holy Grail" (which is really Mary's womb) in hiding until the unveiling of the Age of Aquarius (I'm not making this up). In more modern times these secrets passed to Isaac Newton, Victor Hugo, Botticelli, Leonardo Da Vinci, Walt Disney (again - I'm not making this up). By looking through their works as well as the "code" left by the protectors of this secret, the "true" grail can be deciphered and the truth revealed.

None of this - whether presented as fact or fiction - is supported by historical fact.

While everyone loves a good conspiracy theory (as the book's characters often admit), The Da Vinci Code makes for a bigger problem. Many people are forming their opinions about art history, Jesus, and Christianity based on this fictional novel. Ignorant reviewers sometimes act as though Brown's research is impeccable. Brown, through the mouths of the characters (especially Teabing, a supposedly reputable historian), makes so many false and inaccurate statements that it's difficult to know where to begin. So many books have already been written exposing these falsehoods that I don't want to reinvent the wheel (see below). However, with the movie coming out soon I'm sure someone will still ask, so here is a small sample.

THE BIBLE

Falsehood: The Bible is the product of man which has evolved through countless translations, additions, and revisions.

Fact: This subject has been covered so comprehensively that Brown's misrepresentation of the facts is inexcusable. Knowledgeable textual critics would never make such assertions. If we throw out the Bible we should be consistent and throw out all of ancient history - for none of it is recorded with more accuracy and multiplicity than the Bible.


OVER 80 GOSPELS

Falsehood: More than eighty gospels were considered for the New Testament which was finally collected by Constantine.

Fact: The Church collected the manuscripts and they accepted them as they went along. Councils were called when heretical disputes arose. Constantine had nothing to do with it. The question about which books to include was not done through the sort of process Brown alludes to - as if there were all these comparable works lying around and one or a few men simply picked their favorites. While there is near universal acceptance of the four canonical Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) by the middle of the second century, none of the non-canonical Gospels were even close in date of composition, breadth of distribution, or proportion of acceptance. As for the Coptic Scrolls found at Nag Hammadi that Brown mentions elsewhere, these are Gnostic heretical writings that were not even around when the canon of Scripture was formed. Oddly, Brown makes no mention of the most famous alternative gospel: The Gospel of Thomas. Why this is so is quite clear: it ends with an admonition by Jesus that women must "become male" in order to find salvation! Needless to say, this would not fit in with Brown's tale of seekers after a feminine divine.


THE "Q" GOSPEL

Falsehood: 'Q' is a book of Jesus' teaching, possibly written in his own hand

Fact: The "Q" document doesn't exist. There is not a single scrap of manuscript evidence for a "Q" document. Some believe that Matthew and Luke got their information from a previous document source because of some similarities between their writings, and so these folks conjured up the possibility of a "Q" document. Further, even if there was a single tradition that some borrowed from nothing in it would support Brown's bizarre theory.


THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS

Falsehood: The Vatican tried to suppress the release of these Scrolls because they contained damaging information.

Fact: There is no reason the Vatican would suppress these documents since The Dead Sea Scrolls did not contain any "gospels" or anything else mentioning Jesus! They were all written before His time! Biblical manuscripts at Qumran are limited to Old Testament books, the rest are internal documents for the Qumran community. There is nothing in the Dead Sea Scrolls that promotes either traditional or deviant Christianity. Instead, the texts of the Old Testament preserved among the Dead Sea Scrolls provide us with verification that the Old Testament preserved by Jews and Christians throughout the centuries after Christ was an accurate rendition of what was known to Jews of Jesus' day.


THE DEITY OF CHRIST

Falsehood: At the Council of Nicea "many aspects of Christianity were debated and voted upon - the date of Easter, the role of the bishops, the administration of sacraments, and, of course, the divinity of Jesus . . . until that moment in history, Jesus was viewed by His followers as a mortal prophet . . . a great and powerful man, but a man nonetheless. A mortal." (233)

Fact: Jesus' claims to deity and His supernatural activity to prove those claims are thoroughly obvious in the earliest and best documents about His life. In fact, the earliest heresies were those that made Jesus out to be only deity! The Council of Nicea was not formed to stop a Christian war that threatened to tear the empire apart - Christian persecution had only recently been stopped! Nor was Christ's deity a "close call" - only 2 out of 300 bishops at the council did not sign the statement affirming the full deity of Christ.


JESUS' MARRIAGE

Falsehood: "Jesus as a married man makes infinitely more sense than our standard biblical view of Jesus as a bachelor…Because Jesus was a Jew…the social decorum during that time virtually forbid a Jewish man to be unmarried. According to Jewish custom, celibacy was condemned, and the obligation for a Jewish father was to find a suitable wife for his son. If Jesus were not married, at least one of the Bible's gospels would have mentioned it and offered some explanation for His unnatural state of bachelorhood." (245)

Fact: Nothing in the New Testament or any other "gospel" asserts that Jesus was married. Brown is committing the classic fallacy of argument from silence - one cannot affirm something simply because it is not specifically denied. It would not have been as unusual as Brown would like his readers to think for Jesus to remain unmarried. Individuals who were allowed or expected to be celibate were prophetic figures, this is found throughout Jewish history (Jeremiah, Banus, John the Baptist, etc.). Mary Magdalane is never referenced with any special notice in Scripture - and her title shows that she was not married.


THE ROYAL BLOODLINE OF JESUS

Falsehood: In Chapter 60 (253+), Brown makes an attempt to offer us a research bibliography. His historian character says that "the royal bloodline of Jesus Christ has been chronicled in exhaustive detail by scores of historians."

Fact: These "historians" (Brown lists only four - not "scores") are certainly not historians in any scholarly sense. None possess academic degrees in these subjects or publish in peer-reviewed journals. What expertise they do have is not even in history.

  • The Templar Revelation is authored by Picknett and Prince who are, by their own admission, "writers, researchers, and lecturers on the paranormal, the occult, and historical and religious mysteries." Their other writings include The Stargate Conspiracy: The Truth About Extraterrestrial Life and the Mysteries of Ancient Egypt and The Mammoth Book of UFOs. Impressive scholarship indeed!
  • The Woman with the Alabaster Jar by Starbird and Sweeney. Starbird holds a BA and MA from the University of Maryland where she concentrated on German, comparative literature, and medieval studies. She attended classes at Vanderbilt Divinity School without any degree awarded.
  • Holy Blood, Holy Grail by Baigent and Leigh (from which Brown got the name "Leigh Teabing"), was a great influence on Starbird, which also calls her worthiness to be called a scholar into question. Baigent's sole credential is a degree in psychology. These authors ended up suing Brown for stealing their ideas.

Moreover, the fact that Brown thinks that Jesus having a child would "bring the church to its knees" only betrays his lack of understanding regarding Jesus' nature - or rather, natures. There is no problem in affirming that Jesus, as a full human being, could procreate. I think the pragmatic problems resulting from Christ having an "heir" so-to-speak probably kept it from happening, but it would in no way threaten His divine nature any more than His rising from the dead threatened His human nature.


DA VINCI'S MONA LISA

Falsehood: Brown presents the Mona Lisa as an androgynous self-portrait.

Fact: The portrait is of the Madonna Lisa, wife of Francesco di Bartolomeo del Giocondo. The name is not an anagram of two Egyptian fertility deities (Amon and L'Isa).


DA VINCI'S LAST SUPPER

Falsehood: The Last Supper contains a coded message that reveals the truth about Jesus and the Grail. Brown points to the lack of a central chalice on the table as proof that the Grail isn't a material vessel.

Fact: Da Vinci's painting specifically dramatizes the moment when Jesus warns, "One of you will betray me" from John 13:21. Communion was not instituted yet (the bread is not shown either - what does Brown make of that???) The person sitting next to Jesus is not Mary Magdalene but the apostle John, portrayed as Da Vinci's "effeminate youth" - which is comparable to his St. John the Baptist portrait.


GOD WAS WORSHIPPED ALONG WITH A FEMALE DEITY NAMED SHEKINAH

Falsehood: "Early Jewish tradition involved ritualistic sex" in the Jewish Temple, and YHWH was worshipped along with a female consort named Shekinah (Ch. 74).

Fact: The word Shekinah refers to God's glory. The tetragrammaton (YHWH) actually derives from the Hebrew verb for "to be" and is an indication of God's eternal nature, not any gender or gender mixing.


ORIGINAL GODDESS WORSHIP

Falsehood: Religion was originally matriarchal (female centered) and then was changed to be patriarchal (male centered) by the Jews and perpetuated by later Christians. The tomb of Mary Magdalene contains secret documents which contain the "true" gospel which includes goddess worship.

Fact: This theory is simply not true. There is no evidence that any significant religious movement, including early Christianity, ever had dominant female deities - they were always linked to their male counterparts, and usually in a subservient role.


MITHRAISM

Falsehood: "The pre-Christian God Mithras - called the Son of God and the Light of the World - was born on December 25, died, was buried in a rock tomb, and then resurrected in three days." "Christianity honored the Jewish Sabbath of Saturday, but Constantine shifted it to coincide with the pagan's veneration day of the sun." (232-233)

Fact: Neither of these titles is noted by Mithraic scholars. There is "no death of Mithras" in Mithraism - which means, there can be no burial or resurrection of Mithras. When the Christian Church chose December 25 as the birthday celebration for Jesus Christ, they did so in direct opposition to the pagan midwinter festival of Saturnalia, not because they believed Jesus was born on that date. Christianity was honoring Sunday immediately after the resurrection of Christ, centuries before Constantine.


OTHER FALSEHOODS

  • The Merovingians did not found Paris.
  • The Knights Templar had nothing to do with the building of cathedrals.
  • The Olympics were originally held to honor Zeus, not Aphrodite.
  • There are no monks in the Opus Dei Catholic organization.
  • The "Immaculate Conception" is not referring to Christ's virgin birth, it refers to Mary's alleged sinless conception.
  • The Pyramid of the Louvre is composed of 673 panes of glass, not 666.
  • The church did not burn 5,000,000 witches in Europe: first, the "witches" were not all condemned by the Church (many were politically motivated), second the condemned were not all burned, and third - the number was between 50,000 and 100,000.
  • Wicca is not an ancient religion of goddess worship - it began in the 1950's.
  • The pentagram has many meanings - there is no "original female symbol."

Conclusion

What is surprising is that our culture is so ill-equipped so as not to be able to discern fact from fiction, misinformed about Christianity, woefully ignorant of history, art, and clueless about the Bible - its origin, composition, preservation, and translation. This novel is based on such flimsy fabrication that if it were to be used in any other setting - an ethnic neighborhood, a police investigation, an environmental conservation movement - no one would be able to suspend disbelief long enough to enjoy the story.

NOTE: Be sure to read Richard Abanes' book The Truth Behind the DaVinci Code which has even more falsehoods exposed. See also: