I found the following article both interesting and educational. It's a bit long, but for those with inquiring minds, it's well worth reading.
'The Da Vinci Code': Exciting New Novel, Tired Old Conspiracy Theories
by Greg Hartman
A cross-country flight by unfairly accused fugitives; international power brokers who answer to no one; intrigue, betrayal and murder at the highest levels
of government.
On those terms, Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code (Doubleday, 2003) is a thriller that belongs with the best of Robert Ludlum and John Grisham.
On another set of terms, however, The Da Vinci Code belongs with the most lurid anti-Catholic tracts and comic books: Jesuit assassins; secret societies
that pull governmental strings all over the world; a 2,000-year-old Vatican conspiracy to pervert the Bible.
Spoiler Warning
This isn't a book review, so I don't mind giving away Brown's story: Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene married and had children; the early Church enjoyed
sexual ceremonies in celebration of Mary's femininity and divinity. Jesus wanted Mary to lead the Church after His death, but the apostle Peter staged
a coup and took over instead.
After the Roman Empire became Christian under Constantine, church and government ruthlessly suppressed these "truths," first by persecuting believers who
didn't play along and later by controlling which New Testament books made it into the Bible. Da Vinci's code, hidden in his artwork, guards this secret,
along with Jesus and Mary's lineage. And the book's protagonists are running for their lives from those who would murder them to keep them quiet.
More simply put, Brown's novel is nothing more than groundless, centuries-old conspiracy theories. On his Web site (www.danbrown.com) Brown admits to believing
the "secret" in his book:
I chose this topic for personal reasons primarily as an exploration of my own faith and my own ideas about religion.
This may be the first time the secret
has been unveiled within the format of a popular thriller, but the information is anything but new. My sincere hope is that The Da Vinci Code, in addition
to entertaining people, will serve as an open door for readers to begin their own explorations.
Dan Brown, "The Da Vinci Code," www.danbrown.com
Brown's plot boils down to two accusations: That the books in the Bible were chosen by those in power to suit their own ends, and that the Gospels aren't
historically accurate.
What We Believe
Christians, of course, believe that the Bible gives a historically accurate portrait of Jesus and the early Church. But why do we trust the Bible? How do
we know it's true? Appealing to its claim of divine authorship does nothing to convince someone who doesn't already believe in God and His Word.
Who Chose the Books in the Bible?
Brown takes a postmodern approach to the Bible and history: There is no ultimate truth, only power. Therefore, those in power impose their "truth" on everyone
else:
Since the beginning of recorded time, history has been written by the "winners" (those societies and belief systems that conquered and survived).
Dan Brown, "The Da Vinci Code," www.danbrown.com
Therefore, Brown's novel says, the books in the New Testament were chosen by a power elite who wanted to hide the truth about Jesus and Mary having children.
In reality, scholars say, the Third Council of Carthage, which ratified the New Testament canon in A.D. 397, merely codified what everyone else had already
accepted:
[The Third Council of Carthage] did not confer upon [the New Testament books] any authority which they did not already possess, but simply recorded their
previously established canonicity.
F.F. Bruce, The Books and the Parchments
(rev. ed. Westwood, NJ: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1963), p. 113.
Canonicity is determined or fixed authoritatively by God; it is merely discovered by man.
Norman L. Geisler and William E. Nix, A General Introduction to the Bible
(Chicago, IL: Moody, 1968), p. 221.
The content of the canon was determined by general usage, not authoritarian pronouncement.
Donald Guthrie. "Canon Of Scripture."
The New International Dictionary of the Christian Church
(rev. ed. Ed. J.D. Douglas. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1974).
In short, the Church was not forced to accept the decisions of a small, powerful council. The Gnostic gospels and a number of other apocryphal writings
cited by Brown produced most of the mythology about Jesus marrying and having children and the reason these writings aren't in the Bible is because they
were widely rejected from the time they were written.
The Accuracy of the Gospels
Brown also calls into question the Bible's historical accuracy:
We still measure the "historical accuracy" of a given concept by examining how well it concurs with our existing historical record. Many historians now
believe (as do I) that in gauging the historical accuracy of a given concept, we should first ask ourselves a far deeper question: How historically accurate
is history itself?
Dan Brown, "The Da Vinci Code," www.danbrown.com
Here's the answer to that deeper question: Very accurate indeed. Historians and textual critics judge the historicity of ancient documents by two main criteria:
How many manuscripts exist?
How many years separate the oldest manuscript from the original?
Here's the manuscript evidence supporting a few of the world's best-documented works of ancient history:
Table with 5 columns and 5 rows
AUTHOR
COMPOSED IN
EARLIEST MANUSCRIPT
GAP
NUMBER OF MANUSCRIPTS
Caesar
100-44 B.C.
A.D. 900
1,000 years
10
Demosthenes
383-322 B.C.
A.D. 1100
1,300 years
200
Aristotle
384-322 B.C.
A.D. 1100
1,400 years
49
Aristophanes
450-385 B.C.
A.D. 900
1,200 years
10
table end
Many of these are critically important to historians. Caesar's Gallic Wars, for instance, is the only source for much of what we know about ancient Rome.
The world's second-best documented ancient book is Homer's The Iliad. It was written about 900 B.C.; the oldest manuscript is dated about 500 B.C., separating
it from the original by 400 years, and we have 643 manuscripts.
The best-documented ancient book of them all, though, is the New Testament. We have more than 24,000 manuscripts of the New Testament; the oldest, part
of the Gospel of John, is conservatively dated at A.D. 125 only 35 years after the original.
As history, it's not overstating matters at all to say that the Gospels are in a class by themselves. As many historians have pointed out, if we call the
Gospels into question, we must also reject the vast majority of what we teach as history.
Suspicious Minds
Raising vague suspicions to support conspiracy theories is hardly new. The Da Vinci Code does a better, more entertaining job than most writings on the
subject, but the mythology about Jesus being married, the alleged corruption of the Bible and all the rest is just that: mythology that fails in comparison
with history's real testimony. Christians need not worry about Brown's allegations they, like innumerable other attacks throughout history against the
Gospel, will be quickly forgotten.
Greg Hartman is a senior online editor at Focus on the Family.
Copyright © 2004, Focus on the Family. All rights reserved. International copyright secured.