Discussing Da Vinci
(Brief notes fro a 15 minute discussion introduction)
The Da Vinci Code suggests that there are two versions of the message of Jesus, there is the official version, promoted by the church for twenty centuries, and there is the real version, suppressed by Christians throughout history. Let me quickly outline the two stories for you. I want to stress that tonight is basically a discussion, so in a few moments I will hand over to you for questions, clarification or the chance to express your point of view. I thought it would be helpful to start with a Christian perspective on the Da Vinci Code before we get going.
Version 1 of the Christian message – Let me quote you a section of the Bible itself:
Acts 2:22-24 & 38-40
That is pretty clear – a supernatural Jesus is the source of a supernatural salvation through his death on the cross and his resurrection.
Version 2 of the Christian message – the gospel according to Dan Brown and, before him, Baigent and Leigh in “Holy Blood, Holy Grail”.
Jesus was an unusually good man and a great teacher. He was married to Mary Magdalene, had a child called Sarah. He was crucified, and his followers, who always resented Mary, made sure that she could not take on leadership of the Church. This misogynist crew took over and Mary had to flee to southern France with Sarah. The church later branded Mary a prostitute to blacken her memory.
The Holy Grail of Christian legend is not a drinking cup, it is this secret. Guarded by her followers, Mary became a focus of the worship of the sacred feminine. Her blood line leads through the Merovingian kings of France right up to the present day. The secret is guarded by a shadowy group called the Priory of Sion, members of which have included Leonardo Da Vinci, and Sir Isaac Newton. Their enemies are the Catholic Church, who have sought their extinction for twenty centuries.
So which version is true? Well, let’s apply two standard historical tests to the stories: first, what is the evidence and second, how reliable are the sources?
Does it matter? The Da Vinci Code is fiction, but has pretentions to being based on history. The noxious work of pseudo-history, Holy blood Holy Grail claims to be meticulously researched history.
Lets look at the key elements of both books one-by-one
Jesus of Nazareth - married Mary of Magdala, they had a child called Sarah. After the crucifixion Mary and Sarah fled to France. There is no evidence for this at all. We know nothing of Jesus relationships with women other than his profound respect for them. The gospel of Philip only implies that Jesus and Mary might have had a relationship.
The Bible - contains four gospels, but there were originally far more accounts of the life of Jesus. Once they selected the four canonical gospels The church suppressed the rest after the council of Nicea in 325 AD. Actually, the Bible acknowledges that there were a plenty of written accounts of the life of Christ [see Luke 1:1-4]
Dan Brown, like Baigent et. al. before him badly misrepresents Nicea. This council was called to discuss the controversy over the deity of Christ. Bagent et. al. report that the bishops of Nicea voted by a narrow majority to affirm the doctrine of Christ’s deity. Actually, the vote was 218 to 2 for the deity of Christ – narrow margin! It is clear that these two books are clueless as to what Nicea was really about and what happened there.
NT documents were affirmed and not decided – Nicea merely recognised what was already settled in most churches. Non-canonical books were not burnt or suppressed; they just fell out of use. That is why, today, you find small numbers of them in ancient land-fill sites. The early church voted with their pens and only copied enthusiastically those books that shared two characteristics. Firstly, they had to be closely connected to an apostolic team. Secondly, they had to be spiritually nourishing. The gospels of Philip, Judas, Thomas, Mary etc, etc, impressed nobody and were discarded gradually over time.
The Knights Templar – it is claimed that The Knights Templar discovered the ‘secret’ in the 1120’s and this knowledge made them incredibly wealthy. Eventualy, Philip IV of France and Pope Clement V destroyed the KT to hide the ‘secret’. In reality, the Knights templar are not in the least bit mysterious, this order of warrior knights was founded in 1118 to protect pilgrims travelling to Jerusalem. Financially, they hit the jackpot – they were a popular charity enjoying freedom from taxes and tolls. In addition they they invented international banking for their wealthy clients. By the early 1300’s the Knights Templar were arrogant and rich; Philip IV and Clement V destroyed the Templars to get their hands on the money.
The Priory of Sion – was, it is claimed , ounded in 1099 to preserve the ‘secret’. Baigent and Leigh found tantalising references in documents in France. In fact, they were completely bamboozled by a hoax created by Pierre Plantard and his friend Philippe de Cheritsey. These two Frenchmen deposited a series of forged documents at the Bibliotheque National, in Paris. The documents were intended to create the impression that the Priory was a medieval secret society. In fact, The Priory did exist, but it was founded in 1956
The gospel according to Dan Brown – is really about supposition, guesswork and wishful thinking – it is history on acid.
The gospel according to the first Christians – is reliable; the historical details check out when you cross reference them with other sources, and they record with utter integrity information that was embarrassing to the first Christians. In addition, the first Christian homed in on these four because they found them spiritually nourishing. We still do!