The Da Vinci Load - of Rubbish!

A review by Brendan Munro

Almost everywhere you look - from riding the Underground to waiting in bus queues - people have got their noses buried in the latest publishing sensation - Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code". The book has stormed the bestseller lists for nigh on a year, has sold more than 6 million copies world wide, has been translated into 40 languages and is being made into a film. This Christmas they're even selling large hard back collector's editions complete with fancy script and colour pictures.
I have read the book and I can tell you two things straight away: from a secular viewpoint, it is a ripping good read, a real page-turner, as entertaining a book as you're likely to read in a long time; from a sacred viewpoint, it's the biggest pile of piffle, the most deceitful and dishonest attack on Christianity and the person of Jesus that I've read in many a year.
Attacking Christianity is nothing new, and Dan Brown is not offering any new research or insights, rather just a rehash of age old, unfounded myth and legend. The difference is that the book, while obviously fiction, claims in the prologue to be based on fact. But the "facts" that it is based on, are actually falsehoods. The result is that the reader is beguiled into thinking that the assertions and allegations made through the mouths of the main characters in the book have been researched, and are accurate, plausible, and probably true.
Dan "Hash" Brown's blasphemous claims will present no problem to the average Christian with even a minimal knowledge of the overwhelming historical and scientific evidence and research in support of the Bible and the person of Jesus. It's more of a problem to the spiritual "floating voters" - those who know little or nothing about Christianity and/or Jesus, but will swallow this garbage hook, line and sinker. It is perhaps for this reason that it is worth your while being prepared to give an answer when the inevitable discussions about this book arise with your work colleagues, neighbours and friends.
There's simply too much nonsense in the book to deal with in this brief article, but a few key points bear mentioning.

The assertion that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and had children is not only blasphemous, but completely and utterly unsupported by all the Biblical and extra-biblical evidence. There is not one line anywhere in all of ancient literature, sacred or secular, to support such a wild claim. Not the early church fathers, not even the rogue apocryphal spurious "gospels" of the second and third centuries, make even a hint of such a thing. Yet "Hash" Brown speaks of it as an established fact!

To get around the problem of there being not a shred of supportive evidence, Brown resorts to typical American "conspiracy theory" techniques. He simply says that the church deliberately destroyed and suppressed all the evidence, in other words, it's all a cover up! Using such flawed and deceitful logic, people can, and do, make the most ridiculous of claims. When you point out there's no evidence to support their claim, they simply say that's because those in charge destroyed the evidence so that they could remain in charge! It's laughable.

The only "hard" evidence that Brown cites is the painting of "The Last Supper" by Leonardo Da Vinci (hence "The Da Vinci Code"). He asserts that the disciple sitting to the right of Jesus, traditionally accepted to be the apostle John, looks too effeminate to be John, and is in fact Mary Magdalene! Brown reckons that Da Vinci was sending a coded message to the world that Mary Magdalene and Jesus had been an item, that Jesus had intended Mary to be the head of the church, and that the truth of the "divine feminine" (that God is really a woman) had been suppressed by the church so that men could remain in charge. It's true that in the painting, John does look less "manly" than the others, but that could be a reflection of John's youth, or it could be saying much more about Da Vinci's own personal problems (it was alleged that he had a homosexual affair with one of his models). Remember too that Da Vinci is painting some 1500 years after the event and without any historical indication or record as to what John, or any of the disciples or even Jesus for that matter, actually looked like. Maybe Da Vinci was having a laugh - it might even explain Mona Lisa's enigmatic smile! One thing's for sure, Brown's highly imaginative speculations on the basis of a 500-year-old painting turn his book into more a tour de farce than a tour de force for the serious enquirer.

Then there's the "Priory of Sion". Brown prologues his book with a list of "facts" that the story is supposed to be based on. One such concerns the existence, supposedly since 1099, of a shadowy secret society called the "Priory of Sion" that has guarded the truth of the holy grail for close to a thousand years (the so-called truth being that the holy grail is not the cup from the last supper, but the bloodline descendents of Jesus and Mary Magdalene). The only problem is that the "priory of sion" is a hoax. An anti-Semitic Frenchman by the name of Pierre Plantard (who had spent time in jail for fraud in 1953), together with three friends, started a small social club with the name "The Priory of Sion" in 1954. They took the name from a local mountain. The purpose of their club was to call for more low-cost housing in France, but the club dissolved in 1957. Plantard however hung on to the name, and throughout the 1960's and 70's, he fabricated a series of documents purporting to prove the existence of a bloodline descending from Mary Magdalene, through the kings of France, down to the present day, to include (surprise surprise) Pierre Plantard! He took on the name Plantard de Saint-Clair and claimed the Saint-Clairs were direct descendents of Jesus and Mary. In 1993 Plantard's name surfaced in a political scandal involving a close friend of the then French President Francois Mitterand. He eventually had to give evidence in court and was forced to admit under oath that he had made up the whole Priory story. A police search of Plantard's house revealed documents in which he claimed to be the true King of France! The judge gave him a stern warning and dismissed him as a harmless crank! But Plantard's hoax lives on and books like The Da Vinci Code help turn his fantasy into so-called "fact".

I could go on and on about the rubbish in this book, but time and space are limited. There are two or three books on this subject in our church Resource Room if you would like to research further. No Christian should be worried or unsettled in any way by the totally unfounded drivel that "Hash" Brown has served up. Indeed, it should prompt us to be even better acquainted with the truth and with the historical record and with the person of Jesus that we might give a good answer when called upon. I want to conclude with a couple of quotes to ponder.

The first from Hank Hanegraaff:

"When Mel Gibson produced The Passion of the Christ - a movie that substantially follows the contours of the New Testament accounts of Jesus' death - he became the immediate subject of controversy. Leon Wieseltier, the literary editor of The New Republic, called The Passion 'a repulsive, masochistic fantasy, a sacred snuff film' that is 'without any doubt an anti-Semitic movie'. Maureen Dowd, writing in The New York Times, accused Gibson of 'courting bigotry in the name of sanctity'. And Andy Rooney of 60 Minutes fame characterised Gibson as 'a real nutcase' whose ulterior motive was making money. Conversely, when Dan Brown released The Da Vinci Code - a novel that characterises the New Testament Gospels as 'fabrications' and the deity of Christ as a fable - he was immediately lauded as a brilliant historian. Library Journal characterised his work as 'a compelling blend of history and page-turning suspense,' a 'masterpiece' that 'should be mandatory reading. Publisher's Weekly called it 'an exhaustively researched page-turner about secret religious societies, ancient cover-ups and savage vengeance.' And best-selling author Nelson DeMille christened The Da Vinci Code 'pure genius'. Why is The Passion excoriated and The Da Vinci Code extolled? Why are Gibson's motives denounced and Brown's dignified? Why is Christ's passion referred to as a 'repulsive, masochistic fantasy' and his supposed marriage to Mary Magdalene touted as a researched material fact? The answer may surprise you. It is not just that in our increasingly secularist culture it has become politically correct to cast aspersions on Christ and the church he founded. It is because of a great reversal of values. Fiction - such as the notion that Christianity was concocted to subjugate women - is being cleverly peddled as fact, while fact - such as the deity of Christ - is being capriciously passed off as fiction."

And from Paul Maier, in the same booklet "The Da Vinci Code - Fact or Fiction"

"A vast double standard overhangs Western society today that is totally deplorable - namely, you dare not attack any of the religious systems of the world….except for Christianity. To criticise the polytheism and caste system in Hinduism or fault Gautama Buddha for leaving his wife and son to meditate in the forest provokes immediate charges of intolerance and bigotry. To question aspects of the prophet Muhammed's life is not politically correct in a pluralist society - and can even be dangerous. To identify any Jewish role whatever in the Good Friday trial of Jesus raises instant charges of anti-Semitism. But skewer Christianity? Caricature Christ and present falsehoods about the church he founded? No problem! Join the crowd! It's the 'in' thing - politically very correct and high fashion to boot!"