Question: I read
The Da Vinci Code about a year ago. I did not understand it or like it very much. I know it caused some bad feelings among certain religions. Now that it is being released as a movie, more people seem to be upset. Would you please explain what all the fuss is about? Margie, Roswell, Georgia.
Answer: Margie, I have not read
The Da Vinci Code but I still think I can answer your question. I have read some brief parts of the book and am somewhat aware of some of the historical aspects of the story. First, and perhaps most importantly, this book is a novel. About 20 years ago, a non-fiction book was written using pretty much the same theme. The authors of that book sued the author of this book for plagerism and lost. The primary reason they lost is because this book is a novel. It is "make-believe." It is not written to be believed as real. Suppose I told you that I was going to write a novel and I gave you a brief summary of the story. I told you that a young man was driving down the road with three sexy college coeds. The one is the front seat leaned over and whispered in his ear, "I'm horny." The two in the back seat heard what she had said and they both agreed that they two were horny. The young man smiled. Suddenly a beam of light transported them through space to other planet in the galaxy. The people on this planet looked like humans from Earth but wore very little clothes. In order to fit in, the four Earth people had to also go around almost naked. Their were dragons on this planet that could fly. Using their wits and a lot of luck, the four Earth people were determined to return to Earth. Margie, you might say that is a totally unbelieveable plot. I could act surprised by your response and say, "what part do you find unbelieveable?" You could say, "that all three of those college girls would be horny at the same time." In any case, the book would be fiction. It might be a fun read but it would not be something anyone should believe. The same is true for
The Da Vinci Code.
In this book, the author makes several mistakes of fact. He also has Jesus Christ married. That is, in my view, simply poor taste. But his "facts" are easy to expose. He says that "Shekinah" was the powerful female consort of the male Yahweh and that there was ritualistic sex in the Jerusalem Temple. This is enough to make Jewish people upset with the book. Shekinah refers to the glory that attends Yahweh. Yahweh is never described as being either male or female but spirit. There is absolutely no historical evidence of any ritualistic sexual activity in the Temple. But perhaps the author's biggest factual errors involve the events surrounding the Roman Emperor Constantine's Council of Nicea in 325 A.D. The book says that the Council passed by a very narrow vote a resolution affirming the divinity of Jesus. Totally not true. It never happened. The deity of Jesus had been affirmed from the earliest writings and was never a question. According to the book, the Council voted to move the day of worship from Saturday to Sunday. Not true. No such vote ever took place. Sunday was the original day of worship for early Christians (Acts 20:7 and I Corinthians 16:2). The book says that the Council voted to make the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John the only "acceptable" gospels and all others were to be excluded. Again, not true. No such vote was ever taken. The four traditional gospels had pretty much been accepted by 200 A.D. Another big error of fact in this book is that it states that the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Nag Hammadi documents both proved that assertions in the Bible are wrong. The book also says that the Vatican has supressed these documents. The Dead Sea Scrolls contain no Christian documents. They do not mention Jesus. They are a library of Jewish literature from the Essenes. They do contain parts of the Old Testament but there is nothing really controversial about them. The Nag Hammadi documents were found in Egypt and are considered Gnostic information. They contain nothing to do with the New Testament gospels. They contain nothing about a grail story as this book states. The Vatican has absolutely no control over either these documents or the Dead Sea Scrolls. Regarding Jesus being married to Mary Magdalene, the book says it is "a matter of historical record." Not true. The book bases this on the Aramaic word "komonos." This book translates that word as "spouse" and says that is proof that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married. However, all scholars translate komonos as "associate" or "friend." There is never any translation that is means "spouse." Despite being able to show that the book uses factual errors to make its points, we need to remember that it is just a novel. You didn't enjoy it but I'm sure many others did. I'm sure many will enjoy the movie. But remember, Margie, it is a work of fiction. It is like going to watch
Forrest Gump. It may be a good movie, but it is all fiction. I realize this is a long answer but I hope you can see why Protestants, Catholics and followers of the Jewish faith would all be offended by the statements in this book. At the same time, there are a lot of things "out there" that are in poor taste. We should not allow them, Margie, to upset us. This is one reason it is so important to know what is real historical fact and what is not. This book may provide many with an excuse to do some research of their own to find genuine factual information.
