The Da Vinci Code is supposedly marketed as a semi-factual historical novel which has just enough truth to make the fictional aspect of it believable for the unsuspecting audience. Those that have enough faith to be converted in believing this scandalous mystery have been brainwashed to follow in the steps of yet another cultish movement. The only real conspiracy here is the marketing strategy to sell just another fictional novel by capitalizing on a religious theme.
One of the main actors that did not show up on the big screen is Pierre Plantard whose criminal background along with Dan Brown’s imaginative writing has contributed to making this a best seller.
Pierre Plantard’s name is appropriate as he and his accomplice were responsible for planting these documents that were found in 1975 which contained this privileged and secretive information. Pierre admitted latter in a French court that these documents were fraudulent and forgeries and that it was all a hoax. The BBC did a documentary of this back in 1996 that supposedly Mr. Brown was unaware of.
The DaVinci Code seems to me like a spin off between the “Last Temptation of Christ” and “National Treasure” but more precisely there is another publication that more closely resembles this work which is the 1982 book “Holy Blood, Holy Grail” which is very close to certain aspects of the Da Vinci Code.
This scheme reminds me of many of the shows that air on the History and Discovery channels which have the appeal of expertise when left unchallenged. They may be convincing to the unaware jurors until the defense has had their turn. Unfortunately, the defense is rarely ever given any air time. So it makes me wonder if truth is the real objective to these shows or is it just a matter of sensationalism which adds to the funding and sponsorship of marketing these programs. To hear something novel is a money making opportunity in motivating the action behind the scenes as just another Hollywood production which is selling an illusion as fact resulting in intellectual dishonesty.
This book is as phony as were the superficial props that Ron Howard used to mimic Westminister Abbey. At the outset of the book it states that much of the information contained therein is factual and truthful yet upon closer observation much of it is just lies.
For instance the details of Rosslyn Chapel which was supposedly built by the Knights Templar who were not even around at the time that the Chapel was constructed in 1446. Also the Magen David that was supposedly located on the floor of the Chapel is no where to be found when you look under the carpets.
Another discrepancy is Leonardo’s “Last Supper” which is supposed to contain Mary Magdalene as being at the right hand of Jesus and yet based on Leonardo’s preliminary sketches regarding the painting it shows the names of each disciple as it should appear which identifies the figure as the Apostle John. Not only this but if there is twelve apostles according to the biblical record and there are twelve represented in the painting then it doesn’t take a math expert to realize the correlation. Also if the church was the conspirator in hiding the facts of Mary Magdalene then why did Leonardo put it in a public place on behalf of the church knowing full well that they would have not allowed for such as erroneous depiction of the Last Supper?
These special messages which are supposedly hidden in Leonardo’s works reminds me of those who are dissecting the bible numerically by using computers to find special Bible Codes.
Some people are like the Gnostics who desire to hold to a special knowledge or insight by finding an identity by being “in the know” in acting as if the bible doesn’t plainly say what it means and therefore they are looking for mysterious clues from numerological and artistic data. So whether people are looking within or outside of the bible this research is given over to controversy and speculation not science.
Another error is the date assigned to the finding of the Dead Sea Scrolls which He claims were found in the 50’s when actually it was in 1947. Also he claims that this is one of the suppressed gospels when the Dead Sea scrolls had nothing to do with Christianity as much of this work predates Christianity.
Also there is the misinformation regarding early church history which has Constantine deciding upon which gospels to keep and which to eliminate when in reality He was never involved in confirming or denying the canon which was already established 200 years prior to this by the early church fathers and it wasn’t until the council of Carthage which was over 50 years after his death that the canon was made official in order to protect against heretical groups.
It was also said of Constantine that He decided the divinity of Jesus when the New Testament documentation, which is pre-constantinian, depicts both the humanity and the deity of Christ and this doctrine was confirmed as the early church fathers were depicted as being worshipers of Christ
Also what was discussed at the council of Nicea was primarily over the co-eternality of Jesus with the Father in which Brown indicates was a close vote when in actuality it was quite the opposite with an outcome of 300 to 2 in favor of this doctrine.
Anyway I wrote a couple of previous blogs about the divinity of Jesus and the reliability of the scriptures which may be of interest to you in regards to these subjects.
jesusandjews.com/wordpress/2009/10/16/the-divinity-of-jesus/
jesusandjews.com/wordpress/2010/02/03/is-the-bible-reliable/
Additionally the notion that the ancient church was anti- feminine is contrary to the belief and practice of some Catholics today who portray to a fault Mary, the mother of Jesus, as Co- Redemptrix.
The bible does differentiate between the roles and responsibilities of women but is does not devalue human life or diminish womanhood as stated in Galatians 6 otherwise we would have women leaving the church in droves.
Another discrepancy is the legitimacy of the Gnostic gospels which are quite old yet they were not produced until the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th centuries which was long after these people were already gone unlike the dating of the New Testament canon which is first century.
In addition to this there is no evidence to the idea that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene and this is not supported by either the canonical gospels or these pseudo gospels of which Brown added his own inspirational idea of Jesus kissing Mary on the mouth and then interprets the word companion as a reference to marriage by citing it as an Aramaic word when these documents were written in the Coptic language, nevertheless the meaning in either language can also refer to friendship.
If these Gnostic manuscripts are gospel then they cannot just be manipulated or used partially to prove some points and therefore the notion of the Gnostics was that they believed Jesus to be only divine and that his physical appearance was merely an aberration or phantom like therefore denying Him any identity as being human contrary to the position of the Da Vinci Code.
I find these Gnostic documents no different then the contemporaneous cults of our times like Mormonism which has added their complementing view of the bible by an extended version of revelation.
So whether it is 2nd century or the 19th century timeframe there are those who will try to discredit or deface the biblical Jesus by making a religion after their own image.
The Muslim sees Jesus as no more than a glorified human prophet; for others He was just a good man or perhaps even an angel and yet to some He has been demoted to some sort of demented madman or liar who deluded a group of followers.
If Jesus were asking you today, as He did to His disciples, what His identity was what would your response be and what motives would be behind your premises.
Also would you have a tendency to believe the Da Vinci Code over against the biblical account? If so, is it because of fear or just selfishness in wanting God to somehow be reduced to a fairytale or a myth as well as Jesus being portrayed as a mere man? Is it because you equate or project the scandals in the church towards the sacred text of the church? Were you perhaps hurt or offended by someone who called themselves a Christian? Is it because you don’t understand the nature of Jesus and in order to make Him manageable you opt to believe in something coherently tangible to your own experience? Maybe it’s because you have a pluralistic world view of complete tolerance and when you hear Jesus say that He is the way, truth, and life it seems arrogant, bigoted, dogmatic, and narrow-minded to you. What is your story and in which way if any do you find this fallacious plot to be attractive in contrast to the gospel narrative?
Also maybe you take a position of passivity on the matter or perhaps you are agnostic in your viewpoints which may really just prove to be a decision for willful ignorance in seeing ignorance as bliss. It’s difficult to ignore Jesus as if He will just disappear. You can not hide from His presence which is felt and seen in much of the world. To dismiss or trivialize the most influential person to ever live and not take seriously His person would be an oversight of great importance. To diminish Jesus and not recognize His mission is to neglect the benefit of His greatness as the one who removes sin and guilt. The world would have you strenuously exercise your religious muscles of self effort or follow the beliefs of the self help gurus while others would have you deny the reality of guilt altogether yet Jesus deals straight on with this problem in resolving the human dilemma of sin and its consequences through forgiveness and reconciliation resulting in a new nature.
Jesus said in Matthew 11:28-30:
28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
In conclusion if you want to call Mr. Brown a marketing genius that is one thing but to refer to him as a historical genius is a misnomer. He did a good job in playing upon the ignorance of those who have just enough religious knowledge to make them dangerously unaware of all the facts.
So my final question is will you base your eternity on the ideas of a fiction novelist? Will you entrust your soul to someone who made “bank” by exploiting others into believing a falsehood? Can you ultimately trust someone who benefited from this transaction or would you rather look towards someone whose benefits are transferred to you?
Jesus laid down His life in service to you in giving His life as a ransom for many. You are the benefactor and primary beneficiary here as the one who profits in this spiritual transaction.
I guess in the final analysis this blog really wasn’t entirely about Dan Brown or the Da Vinci Code but rather I was more concerned about representing and defending the “Real Jesus” against the mythological Jesus of the Gnostics or the demythologizing agenda or anti-supernatural sentiments of the Jesus Seminar and the conclusive findings of this book
You know I thought there ought to be a sequel to this book and movie showing the conspiracy of this material yet I don’t think it would sell as well because some people really don’t want to know the truth but they would rather be entertained instead.
It reminds me when we are temporarily caught up in the moment of a fictional movie and like a dream we trick ourselves into believing the drama and subconsciously we forget that is just the acting out of a storyline and then when we are awakened to that fact we find ourselves being disappointed at that very moment of realization by remembering that it is just a movie or perhaps a book.
In closing, I hope that after awakening you through the content of this blog that it hasn’t disappointed you but rather I hope it has made you realize that this was not a real portrayal of Jesus and in turn unlike the actors of this movie I hope it causes you to be motivated to do real research without a bias and agenda in hopefully discovering the Jesus which is within plain sight.
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