The Da Vinci Code, directed by Ron Howard and starring Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou, is a fascinating intellectual thriller. Based on the beststelling novel of the same name by Dan Brown, the story is part action, part mystery. Robert Langdon (Hanks), a professor who is in Paris for a conference, becomes swept up in a murder, religious intrigue, and a hunt for clues in the Louvre, the famous Paris museum. As he and Sophie Neveu (Tautou) escape from the Louvre and follow more clues, they meet Sir Leigh Teabing (Ian McKellen) who tells them they're on the trail of one of the most ancient coverups ever perpetrated by the Church: the true nature of Jesus and the Holy Grail.
According to Teabing, the Grail secret is that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene and still has royal descendants today. And, Teabing says, the Church has been wrong all along about who Jesus really was. Jesus' marriage shows that he was a mere human being after all. No one believed Jesus was divine, Teabing says, until the Roman emperor Constantine, in order to bring peace to the Empire, called the council of Nicea in A.D. 325 in order to make Jesus the divine Son of God. Religious wars and witch hunts were perpetrated by the church to suppress the role of women in church leadership. As the action progresses, Robert, Sophie and Sir Teabing find out just how far the Church will go to hide its secrets.
Has the Church covered up the truth about Jesus? Dan Brown claims that it has. In an interview on NBC's Today show in 2003, Brown claimed, "Obviously, Robert Langdon is fictional, but all of the art, architecture, secret rituals, secret societies-all of that is historical fact." The secret societies, of course hid the truth about Jesus and his bloodline. But is this what really happened? Did Jesus really marry Mary Magdalene and have children? Was he a mere human being, or was he the divine Son of God? The answers to these questions are about more than mere intellectual curiosity. How we answer the question about who Jesus was can have a tremendous impact on us and change our lives forever.
It turns out that very little of The Da Vinci Code is based on history. For example:
Instead, it turns out that the New Testament is the most reliable history we have about Jesus and early Christianity, and it does say remarkable things about Jesus' words and deeds. Not only does it claim that Jesus was a wise teacher, and respected by many, it claims he did miracles and that he believed he was divine. It also claims that he was crucified, but then rose from the dead. The New Testament goes on to claim that Jesus can give us new life. And you can have new life through Jesus today. Check out the articles below to explore these topics about who Jesus was, and how he can impact our lives now.
Da Vinci Code Movie: Checking the Facts
Mark Hansard
The movie makes a number of claims about Jesus and Christianity that do not stand up to historical scrutiny. The film is briefly analyzed here in Q&A format. Questions are answered about Jesus and Mary Magdalene, the relationship between paganism and Christianity, the history of the Crusades and witch hunts, as well as Constantine and the divinity of Jesus.
Da Vinci Code: FAQ on the novel
Answers to the most Frequently Asked Questions about Dan Brown's Da Vinci novel by authors Dr. Ron Rhodes, Dr. Darrell Bock, and Sandra Miesel. Questions such as, "Was Jesus made divine in a vote for political purposes?" "Is Christianity Rooted in Paganism?" "Did the Priory of Sion hide a secret about Jesus and Mary Magdalene?" "Was Jesus Married?"
Crash Goes The Da Vinci Code
Dr. Ron Rhodes
Master apologist and recognized author Dr. Ron Rhodes painstakingly deconstructs the major errors of The Da Vinci Code novel in a question and answer format. Includes direct quotations and page numbers from the hardback. Very comprehensive.
Mary, Mary, Extraordinary
Ben Witherington III
The Da Vinci Code has resurrected an old debate about whether Mary Magdalene was an intimate disciple of Christ's, even his wife. Biblical scholar and seminary professor Witherington writes, "She was an important disciple and witness for Jesus, but there is no historical evidence for a more intimate relationship."
Was Jesus Married?
Dr. Darrell Bock
Seminary professor and writer Dr. Darrell Bock writes that "all the available evidence points to the answer 'no'."
Interview with Dr. Darrell Bock, author of Breaking The DaVinci Code
Darrell L. Bock, author of Breaking the Da Vinci Code, answers questions about The Da Vinci Code, the Bible, and the historical Jesus.
Dismantling The Da Vinci Code
Sandra Miesel
Miesel delivers on her title, dismantling the supposed history of The Da Vinci Code novel. She delves into the sources Brown cited, scrutinizing his pick-and-choose methodology. She critiques his information about Jesus, built upon Gnostic texts and mistaken information about the Council of Nicea. She briefly dissects Brown's view of Mary Magdalene and his use of Gnostic extra-canonical gospels, as well as his understanding of The Knights Templar and Leonardo Da Vinci.
Podcasts of Josh McDowell's Da Vinci Code: A Quest for Answers
Josh McDowell
The Da Vinci Code: A Quest for Answers by Josh McDowell has been dramatized and split into 10 minute podcasts. Download is free. The book follows two college students who read The Da Vinci Code and attempt to find out if it is really true. They dialogue with professors who answer their questions about Constantine, Jesus, Mary Magdalene, Opus Dei, and the Priory of Sion (opens on a separate site).
Movie Review: The Da Vinci Code
Peter T. Chattaway
Peter Chattaway of Christianity Today reviews the Da Vinci Code movie. Chattaway summarizes some of the differences between the novel and the movie, and concludes that, even though the the makers of the movie claim it is fiction, they went out of their way to correct some of the errors in the novel, giving the movie a more "serious" tone and attempting to give it historical credibility (which it still lacks). (Opens on a separate site).
Deciphering the Da Vinci Code: A Symposium (audio, slide shows)
Dr. Darrell Bock, various others
Dr. Darrell Bock and a supporting cast of speakers from a three-night symposium on all aspects of The Da Vinci novel: Mary Magdalene's relationship to Jesus, the biblical canon, sex, goddess worship, The Jesus Seminar, oppression, "The Church, the Academy and the Culture," spiritual trends in America and more. A full array of lectures and Q&A sessions via streaming audio and PowerPoint slide shows (opens on a separate site).
Core to understanding and believing the Bible is assessing its reliability. But how does one know that it or any other work of antiquity is trustworthy? And how did we get our Bible? Why and how were certain texts chosen and others rejected for the Canon, the list of authoratative books included in the Bible?
The Christian Canon
Don Closson
This essay gives the reader an introduction to how the Bible came to include the books currently recognized as canonical.
The New Testament: Can I Trust It?
Rusty and Linda Wright
"How can any well-educated person believe the New Testament? It was written so long after the events it records that we can't possibly trust it as historically reliable." This is a common question and deserves an honest answer. The Wrights provide three tests: internal, external and bibliographic.
Are the Biblical Documents Reliable?
Jimmy Williams
We can trust that the Bible we hold in our hands today is the same as when the various documents were written. This essay provides evidence for the trustworthiness of the biblical documents. Includes a particularly helpful chart on extant New Testament manuscripts as compared with other works of antiquity.
Q&A on the Gospel of Judas with Dr. Clinton Arnold
Professor and author Dr. Clinton E. Arnold answers questions about the newly released Gospel of Judas, including questions such as: Does it contain actual historical information about Jesus or Judas? When is it dated and what does it contain? Will it redefine Christianity? Arnold concludes it is not historical, nor will it significantly affect Christian belief.
Are The Gospels Mythical?
Rene Girard
Are the Gospels based on pagan mythology, or are they historical accounts? It is often said that the Gospels were based on Greek and pagan mythology, and The Da Vinci Code declares this as well, alleging that Jesus' story is based on dying and rising gods of pagan origin. This article from First Things compares the Gospel story to pagan myth to see if there is a connection.
The Da Vinci Code popularizes several conclusions of radical scholars that are not agreed upon by the majority of today's New Testament professors. Radical scholarship of this kind includes "The Jesus Seminar," a group of scholars attempting to redefine the historical Jesus. The resources below can help sort through the claims of these scholars, including their conclusions on which Gospels should be included in the New Testament, and historically, when Jesus was considered divine.
Recommended Books (courtesy Apologia Report).
Chapter 6: Christ: The Man Who is God
Dr. Alan K. Scholes
From his book (online in its entirety here) What Christianity is All About. Scholes' clearly written chapter critiques the "historical Jesus" quest and the Jesus Seminar. This provides background for assessing the presumptions of The Da Vinci Code about the early Church's claim to Christ's divinity.
The Jesus Seminar
Jimmy Williams, Founder, Probe Ministries
An analysis of the Jesus Seminar findings in light of five critical areas: purpose of the Jesus Seminar fellows, philosophical presuppositions, Canonical Gospels, chronology and Christological differences.
Rediscovering the Historical Jesus: Presuppositions and Pretensions of the Jesus Seminar
Dr. William Lane Craig
In this first part of a two-part article, the presuppositions and pretensions of the Jesus Seminar are exposited and assessed. It is found that the principal presuppositions of (i) scientific naturalism, (ii) the primacy of the apocryphal gospels, and (iii) the necessity of a politically correct Jesus are unjustified and issue in a distorted portrait of the historical Jesus.
The Evidence For Jesus
Dr. William Lane Craig
Five reasons are presented for thinking that critics who accept the historical credibility of the gospel accounts of Jesus do not bear a special burden of proof relative to more skeptical critics. Then the historicity of a few specific aspects of Jesus' life are addressed, including his radical self-concept as the divine Son of God, his role as a miracle-worker, his trial and crucifixion, and his resurrection from the dead.
Historical Creeds of the Christian Faith
Actual texts of the Apostles' Creed (c. 700, earlier forms from c. 200 A.D.) and Nicene Creed (325, 381 A.D.).
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