The Da Vinci Code.

The book “The Da Vinci Code” and the film based on the book weave together a lot of fiction and a little fact in a very confusing way. There are several things which are presented as fact but which are not actually true at all. Some of these errors are on topics which are of great significance to us as human beings because they claim to tell us what is really true about life. And, of course what is really true about life has the potential to affect us for ever. This leaflet focuses on two major issues where Dan Brown has not told the truth. It refers to some other issues also.

“The Da Vinci Code” claims:

• 1. That there were Christian records (“Q”, the Nag Hammedi and Dead Sea scrolls) written before the Bible’s gospels that portray Jesus as only human thus conflicting with the Bible.
• 2. That the Bible, as we have it, was a political creation by the emperor Constantine in the 4th century in which the present 4 gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) were re-written to talk up the deity of Jesus while some 80 other “gospels” were not used.
• 3. And that today’s Bible has evolved through countless translations, additions, and revisions.

Answer:

• 1. “Q” is simply a theory of a possible original source; no copy exists. The Nag Hammedi texts are from a religious sect (Gnostics) and were written decades (sometimes centuries) after the New Testament texts. The Dead Sea Scrolls are not Christian records at all. They are Jewish, and do not even mention Jesus.
• 2. The kernel of the New Testament (the 4 Gospels and the 13 letters of Paul) was accepted by the church by around 130AD. 61 out of the 66 books of the Bible were already accepted as sacred 100 years before Constantine was born. It is accepted that the process of formally confirming the 27 books of the New Testament was not completed until around 393/397AD. However, this process simply recognised what the church had already received as divinely inspired on the basis of their apostolic authority.
• 3. There are about 5,700 early Greek New Testament manuscripts; the earliest around 130AD. We can be sure we have the original text.

“The Da Vinci Code” claims:

• 1. That Jesus is not the Son of God, and the earliest Christians didn’t recognise him as divine.
• 2. And that it wasn’t until a vote by bishops at the Council of Nicea in 325AD that he was recognised as divine.

Answer:

• 1. In the New Testament alone there are about 500 verses where it is taken for granted that Jesus is God. God took upon himself human flesh so that Jesus is fully God and fully human. Jesus directly claimed divinity. His life, miracles, and resurrection from death all proved it to be true. The 12 apostles and many other disciples all believed that Jesus was both fully man and fully God.
  Indeed, the evidence for the deity of Jesus was so strong, that parts of the New Testament deal with the error of believing that he was not fully human.
• 2. The Council of Nicea in 325AD was summoned by the emperor Constantine to deal with division in the church caused by a bishop (Arius) rejecting the deity of Jesus. The outcome was an emphatic confirmation of the New Testament teaching on the deity of Jesus with only 2 bishops out of over 300 not accepting the decision.

Other issues.

There is no evidence whatever that Jesus married and had a child. There is no evidence that early Jews and Christians worshipped God through ritualistic sex. Jesus honoured women, yet there is no evidence that he gave an apostolic role to Mary. There is no secret about Jesus that people have been conspiring to hide for 2000 years.

The key points.

The Bible, and the person and work of Jesus have been under attack countless times. The Bible is unique in its reliable revelation of truth. Jesus is unique as the man who is God, who died on the cross and rose again to bring us individually into a living relationship with God. Do read the Bible (start with one of the Gospels), and find out for yourself.