The Da Vinci Code says ... Jesus is a great man or prophet in the earliest historical sources but was later proclaimed divine at the Council of Nicaea.
The Bible says ... Jesus is called “God” (theos) 7 times in the New Testament. He is called “Lord” (kyrios) in the divine sense numerous times. No serious historian argues that these texts postdate the Council of Nicaea.
The Da Vinci Code says ... The Dead Sea Scrolls along with the Nag Hammadi documents are the earliest Christian records.
History says ... The Dead Sea Scrolls are purely Jewish documents; there is nothing Christian about them. There is also no evidence any of the Nag Hammadi documents existed before the late second century A.D., with the possible exception of the Gospel of Thomas.
The Da Vinci Code says ... “One particularly troubling theme kept recurring in the [Gnostic] gospels. Mary Magdalene. . . More specifically, her marriage to Jesus Christ" (p. 244).
History says ... The Gnostic Gospels, a collection of anonymous writings that blended pseudo-Christian ideas with esoteric spirituality, say nothing about Mary and Jesus being married.*
The Da Vinci Code says ... “The royal bloodline of Jesus Christ has been chronicled in exhaustive detail by scores of historians” (p. 253).
The facts say ... Following this comment about “historians,” Dan Brown lists four books written by various authors: Margaret Starbird, Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, Henry Lincoln, Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince. But none of them are historians. Starbird has an M.A. in comparative literature and German. Baigent holds an undergraduate degree in psychology and is pursuing an M.A. in mysticism. Leigh is a novelist and short story writer. Lincoln gained notoriety as a BBC television personality and scriptwriter. And Picknett, along with Prince, is involved in occultism, the paranormal, and UFO studies.*
The Da Vinci Code says ... Leonardo Da Vinci made the following comments about the New Testament: 1) “Many have made a trade of delusions and false miracles, deceiving the stupid multitude”; and 2) “Blinding ignorance does misled us. O! Wretched mortals, open your eyes” (p. 231).
History says ... These remarks have nothing to do with Leonardo’s views on scripture. His first comment, in context, is about alchemists who claimed that they could change lead into gold. His second comment, in context, refers to the foolishness of what he called men’s “own opinions,” “lascivious joys,” and “[v]ain splenour.” Brown completely misrepresented Leonardo’s writings to make it seem as if the great artist detested the Bible.*
The Da Vinci Code says ... “The Jewish Tetragrammaton YHWH—the sacred name for God—in fact derived from Jehovah, an androgynous physical union between the masculine Jah and the pre-Hebraic name for Eve, Havah (p. 309).
History says ... YHWH was not derived from “JEHOVAH.” The term actually predates “JEHOVAH” by thousands of years. Brown, in fact, has it backwards—i.e., “JEHOVAH” was derived from YHWH. It is merely the sixteenth century Latinized form of YHWH with “a,” “o” and “a” (the vowels from adonai, “my Lord”) inserted between each consonant (Latinizing the word changed the “Y” and “W” to “J” and “V.”). As for the word Havah, there is nothing “pre-Hebraic” about it. This is simply “Eve” in Hebrew and it appears in the Old Testament.*
The Da Vinci Code says ... Constantine “commissioned and financed a new Bible, which omitted those gospels that spoke of Christ’s human traits and embellished those gospels that made him godlike. The earlier gospels were outlawed, gathered up and burned” (p. 234).
History says ... First, there was no “new” Bible commissioned by Constantine. The emperor simply requested that Eusebius (the Bishop of Carthage) make fifty copies of the already existing and widely accepted scriptures. Second, no evidence suggests that Constantine or anyone else “embellished” Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John. Third, there were no gospels burned by Constantine. Although some texts written by Arius were burned, none of them were gospels. Fourth, there were no gospels “earlier” than Matthew, Mark, Luke or John. Finally, as previusly noted, the gospels in our Bible clearly depict Christ’s “human traits,” which is consistent with the Christian teaching that Jesus was 100% deity as well as 100% human.*
The Da Vinci Code says ... Sexual union between man and woman through which each became spiritually whole had been recast as a shameful act by the Church to 'reeducate' the pagan and feminine-worshipping religions.
The Bible says ... The marriage bed is treasured and honored as pure (Heb. 13:4). Sexual activities and pleasure are normal, expected, and encouraged within a marriage. Sexual union is a divine moment for a husband and a wife -- a representation of the image of God that defines us. God established boundaries around sex to protect it and maximize its joy.*
The Da Vinci Code says ... “[A]ny gospels that described earthly aspects of Jesus’ life had to be omitted from the Bible” (p. 244).
The Bible says ... The gospels in our New Testament present many “earthly aspects” of Christ’s life such as his physical frailties (hunger, fatigue, death); emotions (anguish, outrage, love); and relational interactions (with his mother, friends, and followers).*
The Da Vinci Code says ... Leonardo’s worship of the goddess and the feminine can be seen in his Mona Lisa painting. That name comes from two Egyptian deities: the god Amon and the goddess Isis, whose “ancient pictogram was once called L’ISA. The title Mona Lisa, then, is really “an anagram of the divine union of male and female (p. 121).
History says ... Leonardao Da Vinci did not even name this particular painting. None of his works, in fact, were titled by him. The Mona Lisa was catalogud by author Giorgio Vasari in his book Lives of the Artists (1550). It was he who first called it the Monna Lisa, which in English was shortened to Mona Lisa. It simply means Madame Lisa, and refers to the likely subject: Lisa Gherardini del Giocondo, the wife of Francesco del Giocondo.*
* Excerpt from The Truth Behind The Da Vinci Code by Richard Abanes.
