I'm not sure what exactly brought you here, but thanks for taking the time to check this page out.  Simply put, it's a brief collection of notes I took while reading through some books that were written to expose the myth of the Dan Brown novel, The Da Vinci Code.  Correctly filed on the bookshelves of stores everywhere under the category of fiction, this best selling book creates a storyline based on what the author claims to be historical fact.  The inherent problem to Christ followers is that many of these historical "facts" are actually not facts at all.  Thus, a dangerous web of half truths and deception call into question the authenticity of the Christian faith.  For people subject to doubt, or for unbelievers looking for a reason not to believe, this can be the difference between accepting Christ's death on the cross as the only atonement for sins, and rejection of God's Word as something that was manipulated by politics and religious strongholds of early times.  In holding strong to Paul's exhortation in 1 Peter 3:15 to "always be ready to give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you," I have taken on the task of studying a bit about what the Da Vinci Code claims are, and how we as Christians can be assured that these are nothing more than claims to create a stir and to make millions of dollars in book and movie sales.

 

The epidamy of this journey has led me to discuss the Da Vinci Code movie on 98.3 WOW FM, Des Moines' Big Talker with panelists from other faiths on Monday, May 22nd from 1:30-3pm on "Mac's World" with J. Michael McKoy.  See audio links to the radio program below.  Please excuse the brevity and apparant disconjoined flow of the notes here, it should be treated as exactly what it is, a collection of notes that I deemed appropriate from my readings of various books on the topic of the Da Vinci Code.  My references are listed at the end of this "Notebook."  Check them out, the ones I really recommend are bolded.  If you have questions in your own mind that are raised by skeptics like Dan Brown, I hope you will pursue the answers so that you can rest in the full assurance of your salvation that is realized by your faith in Christ and His grace.  If you have any questions or need further clarification, please don't hesitate to e-mail me at:  aaron@hornit.net. 

53% of Americans that read The Da Vinci Code surveyed said that the book helped them in their spiritual walk.

 

33% of Canadians that read The Da Vinci Code surveyed said that they now believe that descendants of Christ are still walking on earth today.

 

Many Christians, after reading The Da Vinci Code, believe that about 80% of The Da Vinci Code is true!

 

The Da Vinci Code is the Number 1 selling Adult Fiction Book of all time.

 

Jesus is not God; he was only a man.

Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene.

She is to be worshiped as a goddess.

Jesus got her pregnant, and the two had a daughter named Sarah.

That daughter gave rise to a prominent family line that is still present in Europe today.

The Bible was put together by a pagan Roman emperor.

Jesus was viewed as a man and not as God until the fourth century, when he was deified by the emperor Constantine.

The Gospels have been edited to support the claims of later Christians.

In the original Gospels, Mary Magdalene rather than Peter was directed to establish the Church.

There is a secret society known as the Priory of Sion that still worships Mary Magdalene as a goddess and is trying to keep the truth alive.

The Catholic Church is aware of all this and has been fighting for centuries to keep it suppressed. It often has committed murder to do so.

The Catholic Church is willing to and often has assassinated the descendents of Christ to keep his bloodline from growing.

 

Thanks to everyone that tuned in on Monday to hear the discussion on the Da Vinci Code.  I got some great feedback and I really think God answered the prayers of those that were asking that the truth of the gospel would be heard.  Of course, it's frustrating when you're in a small radio studio with 6 people around 2 microphones and everyone wants to talk, but I think that I was able to have the time and opportunity to say some of the most important points I had.  I prepared to tackle anything, but really only had to tackle a few of the major issues that seemed to keep coming up.  It's hard for me to relisten to this because I always think things like, "Oh, I should have said this, or I should have said that!" 

 

I agree with most people's assessment that the last part of the show was better than the first, so rather than just post the ENTIRE show as one big 135MB .mp3 file, I'll also post up 20 minute pieces (8 total).  If you are short on time, you might just skip the first two segments.  If this doesn't work for you and you really would prefer it on audio CD (actually, it takes 2 CDs since it's 2.5 hours long), just e-mail me at aaron@hornit.net and let me know and I can send it out to you that way.

 

Audio (mp3) Links:

 

Track 1 (First 20 minutes of the show)

Track 2 (Second 20 minutes of the show)

Track 3 (Third 20 minutes of the show)

Track 4 (Fourth 20 minutes of the show)

Track 5 (Fifth 20 minutes of the show)

Track 6 (Sixth 20 minutes of the show)

Track 7 (Seventh 20 minutes of the show)

Track 8 (Last 15 minutes of the show)

 

Coming Soon: ENTIRE SHOW (Note: This is 2.5 hours long and over 135MB, so only attempt this if you have a high speed broadband internet connection and time to wait.)

 

One of the "FACTS" listed in the front of the Da Vinci Code book by Dan Brown:

 

 

It was actually a hoax created by Pierre Plantard and was exposed in the courts as such.  BBC actually did a documentary on this in 1996.

 

It supposedly protected the secrets that Jesus was married to Mary Magdelene and they had a daughter named Sarah and the bloodline of Christ still exists today (anyone suprised that the royal bloodline includes Pierre Plantard?)  Brown claims that the mysterious parchments known as Les Dossieres Secrets were found in Paris' Bibliotheque Nationale in 1975.  However, no one regards these as genuine since investigators found that they were printed on the same press used by Plantard to print his radical newsletters.  In 1993, Plantard admitted that this was all a hoax.

 

You can read a lot more about this on Wikipedia at:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priory_of_Sion

Accused of eliminating goddess worship in the Roman Empire, collated the Bible, used Christianity for political gain, moved Christian worship from Saturday to Sunday, and decided that Jesus should be made into a deity.

 

In fact, most of the canon was well known and in use nearly two centuries before Constantine.  If the entire canon wasn't used in some churches before Constantine, it was only simply because they hadn't received a copy of the books yet.  Remember, all books were written by 95 AD.  After that, around 200AD, the Gnostic Gospels that were written under the pseudonym of disciples started appearing (Gospel of Phillip, Gospel of Thomas, Gospel of Mary, etc.)  THIS is why the church finally had to ratify the gospels.  So there was no confusion as to which ones were authoritative, and which ones were imposters claiming to be accurate accounts of Jesus's life, but were really trying to incorporate false doctrine into the church.

 

Constantine became a genuine Christian convert, repaid the church for its terrible losses during the persecutions, favored the clergy, built many churches throughout his empire, paid for the clergy to attend the first ecumenical council at Nicea, and desired baptism near death.

 

Christians were clearly meeting on Sunday before Constantine which was the day that He rose again.  It is in the New Testament, as well as in writings of early church fathers and even a pagan author.

 

Constantine and the Council of Nicea did not deify Jesus.  Even the New Testament speaks that he was considered God.  And the council didn't vote on whether he was divine, but whether he was coeternal with the Father (and that passed 300 to 2, not exactly a "close call" like the Da Vinci Code claims.)

 

There is no evidence for this.  Not in Scripture, not in early church father writings, not even in second century apocryphal gospels.  Just because it was Jewish tradition, it doesn't mean He was married.  Exceptions for bachelorhood were granted for the rabbis.  Many of the great prophets like Jeremiah and John the Baptist weren't married either.

 

The evidence Brown uses for the marriage comes from the Gospel of Philip and he filled in missing words like "spouse" and "kiss her often on the mouth" where it legibily only says "kiss her often on the ____."  Obviously hand or cheek could have been the next word, but Brown finds it fitting to use mouth.  It also said that the disciples spoke out against Jesus' favoritism towards her, which would be ludicrous if she was His wife.  The Gospel of Mary Magdelene (also a late arrival and is not considered credible) is also said to talk about their marriage, which it doesn't at all.

 

The actual text from the Gospel of Philip is fragmentary and damaged, so only some words can be made out as follows: “And the companion of the [...] Mary Magdalene [...] her more than [...] the disciples [...] kiss her [...] on her [...]”

In The Da Vinci Code, Teabing states that any Aramaic scholar will tell us that 'companion' means'spouse'. In reality, the document was written in Coptic, not Aramaic and the word for companion was borrowed from Greek and most likely means 'spiritual sister'. 'Wife' would have been 'gyne'.

 

Why did Paul use Jesus's brothers and Peter as examples of men with wives to defend the right to marry, but not Jesus in 1 Corinthians 9:5 "Do we not have the right to take along a believing wife, as do the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas [Peter]?"  He surely would have used Jesus as the ultimate example in that!

 

It's worth noting that marriage is certainly not a sin, so while it might not be a theologically bad thing if Jesus DID get married, the problem comes up when you look at one of the key functions of marriage.  Procreation.  Having a half God, half man bloodline walking around the earth would theologically pose many problems.  Plus, how could God be joined in marriage to a sinner, let alone someone previously possessed by demons (Luke 8:2)!

 

A supposed military-religious order created by the Priory of Sion to guard the secret of Jesus's marriage to Mary Magdelene.

 

They actually did exist and were founded in 1118 and amassed great wealth.  Brown claims they were suppressed by Pope Clement V because they were blackmailing him with the secret of the Holy Grail (which was supposedly Mary herself.)  It was actually King Philip IV of France who forced the Pope to suppress the Knights so the King could have their wealth, and the King burned some of them, including the Grand Master, at the stake in 1314.

 

A claim that patriarchal Christianity took away the goddess worthy of equal worship to God.  Brown claims the church "demonized sex" and that it should be a sacred ritual as a public "holy marriage" rite.  In fact, Christianity regards sex as one of God's greatest gifts, used in the proper context of marriage.

 

PS, anyone notice that in all the talk about how the Catholic Church and Christianity demeans women, he failed to talk about the way the Catholics honor and pray to the "Blessed Virgin Mary"?  Also, there are countless examples of Jesus himself giving women better treatment than was culturally accepted in that day.  He didn't treat women like second class citizens.  Women and men are equal spiritually, they just have different roles!

 

 

The New Testament has stronger manuscript support than any other work of classical literature, including Homer, Plato, Aristotle, Caesar, and Tacitus.  Only seven of Plato's manuscripts are in existence today, and there is a 1,300 year gap separating the earliest copy from the original writing.  The New Testament, however, has more than 5,000 copies of Greek manuscripts in existence.  The earliest documents can be cited all the way back to the second half of the first century!  The accuracy of the early documents to the late documents is amazing.

 

The Gospel accounts are eye witness accounts, not invented stories by others (2 Peter 1:16).  Many secular historians confirm events, people, places, and customs written about in the New Testament (Josephus before AD 100, Roman Tacitus AD 120, Roman Suetonius AD 110, and Roman governor Pliny the Younger AD 110.)

 

 

Many times, secular scholars have to revise their biblical criticism in light of solid archaeological evidence.  For instance, Daniel was dismissed because there was no evidence of a king named Belshazzar in Babylon during that period.  Later, they found evidence that king Nabonidus appointed Belshazzar as his coregent while he was away at war.  They also have archaelogical evidence to support the nailing crucifixion during the time of Christ and that Pontius Pilate and Caiaphas did exist and had the roles they were said to have.

 

 

Many Old Testament prophecies came true hundreds of years later, many of them down to an amazingly accurate detailed level.

 

Many prophecies of Christ, the Messiah, came true even prophecies that were beyond His ability to deliberately fulfill (being a descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; being born in Bethlehem; being crucified with criminals; the piercing of His hands and feet on the cross; the soldiers gambling for His clothes; the piercing of His side; no bones being broken at His death; and His burial among the rich.)

 

Jesus also made his own prophecies which came true (like His death and resurrection and the destruction of Jerusalem and the Jewish Temple.)

 

John 1:1

Colossians 1:16-17

Hebrews 1:8 and 10-12

Revelation 1:8

2 Peter 1 (Jesus is referred to as "our God and Savior Jesus Christ.")

 

 

Matthew 16:16-17

John 5:18

John 8:58 (Jesus refers to Himself as I AM, a clear reference to the God of Moses in Exodus 3:14.  The Jews considered this blasphemy and wanted to stone Him!)

John 10:30-33 (The Jews said that Jesus was claiming to be God and He never corrected them or said that they had misunderstood Him.)

Mark 14:61-62 (Jesus refers to himself as the one prophecied in Daniel 7:13-14.  A clear statement to the Jews that He was claiming that He would sit upon the throne of Israel's God and share God's very glory.)

 

Jesus also demonstrated the attributes of God:  omniscience (Matthew 26:34); omnipotence (John 11:43 and John 2:19); and omnipresence (Matthew 28:20).  He also forgave sins (Luke 5:20).  When Thomas said "My Lord and my God!" in John 20:28, Jesus responded with commendation rather than condemnation.

 

 

He was sinless (2 Corinthians 5:21, 1 John 3:5, 1 Peter 2:22, John 8:46).

He had supernatural authority over sickness (Matthew 4:23), nature (Mark 4:39), fallen angels (Luke 4:35), and death (John 4:50).

 

 

Certainly the faith of Christianity revolves around the resurrection of Christ.  This is what separates Christianity from other religions.  Did it actually happen?  We can quickly offer three pieces of evidence:

 

1) The empty tomb

 

No scholar denies the fact that the body of Christ was never found.  Obviously if it had been, it would have been waved all over to deny what the Christians were claiming and that would have been the end of the faith.  Further, it is actually an embarassment to the apostles that women were the first to discover Christ had risen.  This shows the Gospel writers faithfully wrote about the what happened, even if it was culturally embarassing at the time.

 

2) Christ offered proof

 

Jesus appeared to over 500 people and Paul wrote that many of them were still alive to talk about it when he wrote to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 15:6.

 

3) The resurrection spawned a reaction unmatched in history

 

In a matter of a few hundred years, a small group of men and women managed to turn an empire upside down.  They faced torture and death to speak about what they knew to be true.  Why would they undergo such misery for something they knew to be a lie?

 

Peter went from someone who denied he knew Christ when Christ was alive to someone who boldy proclaimed Christ and was crucified upside down because he didn't feel worthy to be killed in the same manner as Christ.  Jesus' brother James hated everything Jesus stood for until after the resurrection when James claimed he was a "bondservant of Jesus Christ."  He became the leader of the Jerusalem church and was martyred for his faith.

 

Paul went from being a Jewish persecuter of Christians, to one of the most outspoken followers of Christ. 

 

Not only these three, but over 10,000 Jews at the time of Christ turned against their traditions to follow the One they were convinced was their Redeemer.

 

The resurrection changed many traditions that were deep seated for thousands of years, practically overnight.  Sabbath moved from Saturday to Sunday in rememberance of the day Christ rose.  Sacrifices were no longer recognized as necessary.  Passover was replaced by the Lord's Supper.  Baptism was no longer done in the name of the God of Israel, but in the name of Jesus Christ.

 

The Gnostics were people who didn't believe in the deity of Jesus.  They believed in many things, but one of which was that salvation can be obtained within yourself.  Everyone can become like God, who is neither male or female.  They also believed that these revelations only happened to "the enlightened."

 

It is important to note, that not even extremely liberal scholars thing that the Gospel of Thomas was actually written by the Thomas of the Bible or the same can be said for the Gospel of Philip or Mary Magdelene.  They are attributed to these people to make it feel like credible early Christianity, but they are dated well past the dates of those people (the earliest is AD 150, but most are in the third and fourth centuries.)  The church instantly disregards any gospels written in a pseudonym just to get credibility.  This was happening even in Paul's time (1 Thesselonias 2:1-2.)  The canonical gospels were all written by AD 70.

 

The writings of the Gnostics are very non historical.  Historic proofs were unimportant, so nothing of chronology or places are written about.  On the contrary, we see at the beginning of Luke that he painstakingly researched the accuracy of what he wrote.  He interviewed eyewitnesses to Jesus and made sure he accuractly documented the facts.  He wanted to set the record straight for his friend Theophilus.  Modern archaeologists are often thoroughly impressed with the historical accuracy of Luke's work (including the book of Acts.)

 

People wanted a way to access God without needing the mediation of Christ, so the Gnostic Gospels grew in popularity.  Americans often have this same appetite for mystic spirituality. 

 

In Luke 8 we learn that Mary a few other women travelled with Jesus and actually supported the ministry financially.  This would have been unheard of to allow women to travel with men in that time, but Jesus allowed it.  She wrapped Jesus' body and was the first to discover His missing body and see Him in person, risen. 

 

Did the early church give women their proper role in ministry?  No.  But Jesus broke cultural taboos regarding women and didn't make them second class citizens (Jesus often spoke with women when it wasn't customary to do so - see also: the woman at the well.)  Women in Scripture are equal with men, but their roles are different.

 

Gnostics believed that Mary was a priestess and was annointed by Jesus by a sexual ritual!  Could the Jesus of the New Testament that said if you look lustfully after a woman, you've committed adultery with her in your heart, have approved of and participated in occult sexual ritual?  Hardly.

 

Was Jesus married to Mary?  Funny how we don't hear about it from Matthew or John, the ones that knew Jesus best.  Also, Paul might have mentioned SOMETHING when he wrote that marriage was good as Peter and Jesus's brothers were married in 1 Corinthians 9:5.  Wouldn't he have used Jesus as an example had Jesus been married?

 

 

These books were agreed upon by the Jewish leaders of the people of Israel right after they were written to be inspired by God and to be included in the "Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms."  Luke 24:44.  They stop 400 BC and the time between Malachi's prophecy and Christ is often called the Four Hundred Silent Years.  Our Old Testament is based on the same Hebrew canon established by the Jews. Jesus frequently referred to this canon as the Unbreakable Word of God.  A council did meet to ratify the canon of the Old Testament in Jamnia in AD 90, but they simply agreed on the canon that the Jews had established 500 years earlier.

 

 

There were several criteria for inclusion in the New Testament canon:

 

1) Apostolicity - Written or sanctioned by an apostle.

2) Conformity with the rule of faith - Consistent with the Old Testament prophets and the New Testament apostles.

3) Widespread and continuous acceptance - Councils only ratified what the church had already done; no council imposed books on churches that were not already accepted by them.

 

Some letters were regarded as Scripture even within Scripture!  Peter writes about the works of Paul as Scripture in 2 Peter 3:15-16.  Jude is quoted as Scripture from Peter and Paul cites Luke as Scripture (1 Timothy 5:18 referring to Luke 10:7.) 

 

In AD 135, a heretic named Marcion came out with his own version of the Scriptures, which is why the church had to acknowledge an official list of accepted books as authoritative.  Yes, in AD 367 the complete list of 27 accepted books appeared in the writings of Athanasius (this is our earliest found complete list), but this was just a representation of what had already been accepted in the church as authoritative for over 250 years!

 

How can we evaluate the credibility of the New Testament since none of the original documents exist?  The earliest copies we have are AD 250!

 

 

In terms of accurate copies of manuscripts, the time of the original writings and the manuscripts we have today is miniscule compared to other writings regarded as accurate.  Most other manuscripts we have today are 1200 years older than the originals they reference (Sophocles, Aeschylus, Aristophanes, Thucydides, Euripides, Demosthenes, and Plato included!)

 

We have other earlier writings by people that include writings from the New Testament from AD 125, which means they referenced Scripture no more than 50 or so years after the New Testament was originally composed.

 

It is important to note, that while there is some debate over misspellings and copy mistakes, no doctrine is affected by differences in spelling, word order, or the addition of an explanatory word or phrase.

 

 

Do they claim to be eyewitnesses, or at least get their material from credible sources?  Many books of the New Testament were written when witnesses were still alive.  In 1 Corinthians 15:6, Paul points out that witnesses were still around to be questioned.

 

 

Archaeology every year turns out new evidence that the Old and New Testament are verifiable by other discovered documents that reference the same events in history.