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Cracking the DaVinci Code, Part 1
May 21st, 2006
So, how many people here have read the DaVinci Code? How many have seen the movie? Well over the next four weeks we’re going to take a good look at the many claims made by the book.
- Now, I realize that some of you are wondering why I’m going to spend four weeks addressing statements made in a fiction novel.
- So what I’d like to do this morning is to explain why what we’re doing here in this series is so important… and then cover some of the smaller “issues” raised in the book so that in the next few weeks we can get into what is fact and fiction in the DaVinci Code.
- But first, let me give you an overview of the story…
The DaVinci Code opens with renowned curator of the Louvre being murdered in its famous Grand Gallery. But what we later discover is that he wasn’t simply the museum’s curator… he was the Grand Master of a secret society known as the Priory of Sion.
- Meanwhile, Robert Langdon, a Harvard professor and expert in esoteric symbolism, is in Paris giving some lectures.
- The French police (Lt. Jerome Collet, Judicial Police) find Langdon and ask him to come with him to the Louvre to interpret a strange symbol the curator had drawn on himself and around his dying body.
- Once there, a young cryptologist named Sophie Neveu arrives pretending to be sent by the police. Instead, she was there to privately warn Langdon that he is the prime suspect in the murder… causing them both to flee the scene of the crime.
Now, prior to his death, the murder victim had left clues to help Langdon and Sophie understand what they should do next. While running from the police, they manage to decipher his coded instructions… and begin to realize that the murder is linked to the legendary search for the Holy Grail.
- In fact, the DaVinci code is ultimately about the search for the Holy Grail… you know, King Arthur, Knights of the Round Table… Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Monty Python and the Holy Grail stuff…
- Up until the DaVinci code, the legend was that the cup or chalice that Jesus used at the Last Supper was the same cup that caught his blood at the Cross.
- So, to find this cup and drink out of it is supposed to give you eternal life… perpetual youth… clear up acne, take away wrinkles… that kind of stuff.
But now, instead of the Holy Grail being a cup, in the DaVinci Code it’s actually a person… a person whose identity has been covered up and protected for centuries by an organization called the Priory of Sion, over which the murdered curator was Grand Master…
- An organization, Brown references in the beginning of the book an actual organization… a secret society that began in Europe in 1099.
- We’re told that members of this organization include Leonardo Da Vinci, Isaac Newton, and Victor Hugo.
- Still running from the police, Langdon takes Sophie to the home of an old friend who is an expert in the Holy Grail… Sir Leigh Teabing.
Teabing goes on to cite the Gnostic Gospels, which are ancient documents he believes give more reliable accounts of Christ's life and teachings than the New Testament we know today.
- From those texts, he not only asserts that Jesus was only a man… but enthusiastically explains how the real meaning of the Holy Grail unravels all of Christian doctrine and history… arguing that the Holy Grail was, in fact, the remains of Jesus’ wife, Mary Magdalene.
- We’re told on page 249 that “Not only was Jesus Christ married, but He was a father… Mary Magdalene was the Holy Vessel. She was the chalice that bore the royal bloodline of Christ.”
- And that after Jesus' crucifixion, Mary and their daughter, Sarah, went to Gaul, where they established the Merovingian line of French royalty.
Now, you might say that this is just a lot of fiction… well, it is fiction. But listen to what Brown said in an interview with the Washington Post, “’I was skeptical, but after a year and a half of research I became a believer,’ says Brown. ‘As soon as people understand that the few Gospels included in the bible are not the only versions of the Christ story, they begin to sense contradictions. Magdalene is most obvious. Her role, he says, was deliberately distorted, a smear campaign by the early church fathers.”[i]
- On page 245 of the hardcover, Brown claims that “the marriage of Jesus and Mary Magdalene is part of the historical record” and then he quotes from one of the Gnostic Gospels called the Gospel of Mary Magdalene, which we’ll get into later.
- According to the DaVinci Code, not only was Mary Magdalene the true "cup" of Christ, but she was also considered the “apostle to the apostles,” set apart by Jesus to lead His church.
But, of course, the Apostle Peter had a problem with that. So, to discredit her, Mary was declared a prostitute (which is the story we’ve been handed down in Luke 7) and cut out of the role of leadership.
- According to Brown's book, the church did this because it wanted a celibate MALE savior who would perpetuate male rule and keep women in their proper subservient place.
- Both Langdon and Teabing exlained to Sophie just how this was “the greatest cover-up in history"… and how the real story about Mary, has all been preserved in carefully hidden codes and symbols in order to avert the wrath of the Catholic Church… who themselves created a secret society called the Opus Dei whose purpose was to destroy any remnants of this cover-up…
- And so, with lots of money at their disposal, the Opus Dei is ready to use whatever means necessary, including assassination, to hide the truth…
- And so they begin killing the leaders of the Priory in order to find the map leading to the Grail’s Location… the remains of Mary Magdalene…
- Because, if the truth were to get out of who Mary really was, Christianity as we know it would be destroyed.
Now, of course, there’s a lot more… but that should give you a sense of how the book plays out. But again… it’s just a book… a fiction book at that. So why should we focus on it on Sunday morning? Let me share three reasons with you…
1. Because even though it’s Fiction… a lot of people believe it!
In spite of the incredible accusations the DaVinci Code makes against the core beliefs of Christianity… claims that we’ll see have no way of standing up against any kind of scrutiny… the truth is, the way Dan Brown cleverly blends fact with fiction have caused many people to buy into his allegations.
- According to a Barna poll, over half of American readers, 53%, said the book has been helpful in their “personal spiritual growth and understanding.”
- In fact, another poll taken in Canada by National Geographic revealed that one out of three Canadians who have read the book now say that they believe its premise that there are descendents of Jesus walking among us today.
- Even the media have bought into it. USA Today said the book consists of “historical fact with a contemporary storyline.” A popular journal described it as a “compelling blend of history and suspense.”
- In an interview with ABC, Dan Brown said, “I began as a skeptic. As I started researching the DaVinci Code, I really thought I would disprove a lot of this theory about Mary Magdalene and holy blood and all of that. [But then] I became a believer.”
2. A second reason to deal with this novel is because of its huge popularity
There’s no arguing that the DaVinci Code has been on the top of the bestseller lists of The New York Times and Amazon.com lists for 150 weeks. It has become one of the best selling novels in history and continues to be a worldwide bestseller.
- I don’t know about you, but I hear people talking about this book pretty much everywhere I go.
- Especially with the release of the movie a few days ago, more and more people are wondering, "Is this correct? Did it really happen like this instead of the way I've been taught all my life?"
We’re told in one scene of the DaVinci Code (p.235) that “everything our father’s taught us about Christ is wrong.” Well… people are wondering if that is true or not.
- Plus… in our culture where religious diversity is revered above absolute truth… many people WELCOME the teachings of this book and are drawn to it.
- Time magazine had an article on Brown's book and it refers to all this saying, "There is a lot of interest in early Christian diversity...Many people who have left the church-and some who are still in it-find this book appealing because they are looking for another way of being Christian."
- In essence… they’re looking for a way to be Christian without Christ.
3. A Third reason to deal with it is because of the opportunity it affords us to interact with others about spiritual things.
I mean, the great success of this book really can be one of those times when something that was intended for harm is used by God for good. This book has a lot of people talking about their own faith… what it is they believe. For example…
- Are there other ancient documents about Jesus besides what we have in the New Testament? Are they more reliable than what we have in the Scriptures?
- Was Jesus married? Was his wife Mary Magdalene? Did they have a child?
- Was Leonardo DaVinci part of a secret organization that knew about this?
- Do we know why the New Testament includes the books that it does? Was Jesus human or divine?
- What was the Holy Grail, really, and how much time will it take for us to sort all this out?
- There really are answers to these questions, and, in case you need to leave early they are, “Yes. No. No. No. No. No. Yes. Both. Who knows?” and “fifteen more minutes.”
Just remember, the allegations made in the DaVinci Code don’t require a PhD to refute… most of them are almost funny. Just on a very superficial level…
- Brown makes a point that there are 666 panes of glass on the glass pyramid at the Louvre in France… wanting make the connection between the number 666 and Satan. But the truth is that there are 673 panes of glass.
- When speaking about the Dead Sea Scrolls, Brown explains how this discovery, made in the 1950s, proved the existence of the Gnostic Gospels.
The problem is that the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in 1947 and only contained copies of the Old Testament and some documents related to the Qumran Community there.
- In other words, the Dead Sea Scrolls predates anything from the New Testament era including the Gnostic Gospels (which we’ll talk about another time).
- There isn’t a real scholar alive who wouldn’t disagree with Brown… but nonetheless, he makes the point in his book that the Dead Sea Scrolls contained documents saying the Jesus was a mere human being… even though they pre-date Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem!
Some of his allegations are even more obscene. For example, on page 309, he explains how early Jewish tradition involved ritualistic sex in the temple… and that God resided in the Holy of Holies with His powerful female equal named Shekinah!
- Honestly… just read Deuteronomy 23 and then tell me if you buy that one. The Jews believed so strongly in monotheism that they didn’t even have a word in their language for “goddess.”
- So do you have to be a PhD to refute the assertions made in the DaVinci Code? No… you just need to be aware of what the issues are… and that’s what we’re doing here.
Now keep in mind that in the beginning of his book, on a page he entitles, “FACT,” Brown asserts that “All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate.”
- But as we’ve seen, there’s a lot more fiction here than facts. In fact, promising that “all descriptions of artwork” are accurate, Brown wrongly describes DaVinci’s Last Supper as a fresco. But guess what? It’s not!
- Ok… this isn’t a big deal… especially since painters of the day would typically paint frescos, which meant that they’d paint on wet plaster so that as the plaster dried, the paint would sort of intermingle with it… making it permanent.
- But instead, DaVinci used Tempura, which combined egg yolk, vinegar, and oil paint on dry plaster… which turned out to be a disaster.
Now I understand that I’m not an art historian… but neither is Dan Brown… so I feel pretty comfortable addressing his claims that the Last Supper depicts Mary Magdalene as the character to Jesus’ right.
- Of course, that fits his premise… that Jesus was not only married to Mary Magdalene but intended for her to lead the church.
- For Brown, the clue is the fact that this person, whom art historians have traditionally viewed as the Apostle John, is in reality very effeminate…
- But look at several other apostles in this same painting… same thing. Truth is, it was not uncommon to depict John, whose Gospel describes as “the One whom Jesus loved”, as fair skin with light or red hair.
- (*See DaVinci’s St. John the Baptist- Slide)
And, if that is, in fact, Mary Magdalene… then one of the twelve disciples is missing. Why would he leave out one of the twelve? It doesn’t make sense… it certainly wouldn’t have for the person who paid a ton of money to commission DaVinci to paint this for them.