Refuting the Da
Vinci Code Fable
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Refuting
the Da Vinci Code Fable
By Dr. Stan Fleming
The Da Vinci Code by author Dan Brown is a best-selling
novel with movie following in May, 2006.
The plot
undermines the essential beliefs about the origins of
Christianity.
Though it
poses as a fictional novel, it begins with a Fact page:
“All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents,
and secret rituals in this novel are accurate.”
Yet, many of
the descriptions are inaccurate, misleading, and
fabrications.
Below is a partial list of errors the book
purports along with brief refutations.
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1. The Louvre Pyramid has 666 window panes corresponding with
the number of Satan (p. 21). Not true. There are 673 and have
nothing to do with Satan.[i]
2. The Dead Sea Scrolls were found in the 1950’s, tell the true
Grail story, speak of Christ’s ministry in human terms, and
survived Emperor Constantine’s plot to destroy them (p. 234).
They were actually discovered in the 1940’s, say nothing about
the Grail story, confirm the authenticity of the Old Testament,
and had nothing to do with Emperor Constantine.
3. The Christian story of the Magi bringing baby Jesus gifts was
borrowed from from a Hindu story about Krishna (p. 232). Ancient
Hinduism has no such story.
4. The scientist Robert Boyle was a Grand Master of the Priory
of Sion, thus against formal and historical Christianity (p.
326). Rather, he was a devoted Christian. For instance he wrote:
“The Christian Religion brings mankind diverse positive
Benefits, such as are, more cleare and extensive knowledg of
God, and divine things; the Remission of Sins; the Favor of God;
several graces and virtues suitable to mens respective needs and
conditions; and above all, a happy Immortality in the Life to
come.”[ii] (Old English)
5. Leonardo Da Vinci was a flamboyant homosexual (p. 45).
According to most of his biographers, he was falsely accused of
this. DaVinci was celibate, non-sexual. None of his massive
writings indicate any sexual activity. He wrote, “Intellectual
passion drives out sensuality.”[iii]
6. The Last Supper painting by Leonardo Da Vinci supplies hidden
codes and Mary Magdalene sits next to Jesus (p. 243). The
painting is a scene from John 13:21-24. Da Vinci did not include
Mary Magdalene. John is youthful looking because he was the
youngest. Florentine artists of Da Vinci’s period often
characterized young, unmarried men with feminine facial features
to contrast with older, breaded men with rougher features. Da
Vinci’s painting of John the Baptist is similar.
7. Jesus’ marriage to Mary Magdalene is of historical record (p.
244), and they had a daughter named Sarah whom Mary bore in
France (255). They were not married and there is no such
historical record. The strong ancient tradition regarding Mary
Magdalene is that after Jesus’ death and resurrection she went
to Italy. There she witnessed to Tiberius about the resurrection
of Christ and preached the gospel throughout Italy. The legend
of her having a child in France did not emerge until the ninth
century. Tradition says Lazarus and his sisters Martha and Mary
went to France.
8. The Merovingian bloodline is from Christ and there are
descendents today named Plantard and Saint-Clair. The ancient
secret society of the Priory of Sion holds this knowledge (p.
257, 442). According to the early Church fathers (Clement,
Tertullian, Athenagoras, Methodius and numerous others) Jesus
was a virgin all of His life, never married, and had no
offspring. The ancient Priory of Sion was not secret and rather
unremarkable. In 1956 Andre Bohhomme and Pierre Plantard began a
new society. Plantard, who was a shady character in jail several
times, said he was descended from the Merovingian kings, thus
Jesus. Yet, under oath in September, 1993, before Judge Thierry
Jean-Pierre, Plantard admitted the whole thing was a scam and
made up.[iv]
9. 80 gospels were considered for the New Testament. Constantine
chose the four current Gospels in 325 AD. The others were
outlawed by him (p. 231, 234). Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John
were perceived as authentic from the beginning. They are
referred to early on by Clement of Rome (96 AD); Polycarp (160
AD); Justin Martyr (160 AD), etc. Tatian’s Diatessaron
harmonized the four prior to 170 AD. The Muratorian canon of the
mid-second century had only these four gospels. All others were
heresies. Constantine did not choose them and His Edict of Milan
in 313 gave freedom of religion.
10. Constantine never converted to Christianity. He plotted with
early Church Fathers in 325 to control the empire. He was forced
into baptism near the time of his death (231-235). Constantine
converted in 312 when he saw a vision in the sky during a battle
campaign. Only 10 percent of the population was Christian in 325
so there was no political advantage. He was baptized near death
as was the custom in those days in that part of the empire.
11. Thousands of ancient documents chronicled Jesus life as
merely a moral man (234). Where’s the proof of Brown’s claim.
Even many of the erroneous Gnostic apocryphal books revere Jesus
Christ as Lord and Savior (i.e. Gospel of Thomas, The Acts of
Peter and the Twelve Apostles, The Dialogue of the Savior).
12. Before the Council of Nicaea in 325 nobody thought Jesus was
God (233). From the beginning, Christians understood that Jesus
was the Son of God, thus God, “Immanuel – God with us” (Matthew
1:23). Clement, Aristides, Polycarp, Justin Martyr, Athenagoras,
Irenaeus, etc. all wrote in terms of Jesus being divine. Here is
Ignatius (110 AD) Epistle to the Ephesians:
“Both of Flesh
and Spirit;
Both made and not made;
God existing in flesh;
True Life in Death;
Both of Mary and of God;
First possible and then impossible,
Even Jesus Christ our Lord”.[v]
13. Jesus never claimed to be God (232). False, here is Matthew
26:63-64 in which the high priest was interrogating Jesus: “And
the high priest answered and said to Him, ‘I put You under oath
by the living God: Tell us if You are the Christ, the Son of
God!’ Jesus said to him, ‘It is as you said. Nevertheless, I say
to you, hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the
right hand of the Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.’"
Jesus also said, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who
believes in Me though he may die, he shall live. And whoever
lives and believes in Me shall never die.” (John 11:25-26).
14. YHWH was derived from Jehovah (309). YHWH is ancient Hebrew
for God. It came first. Jehovah is a 17th century Jacobean
rendering of Yahweh in the King James translation.
15. Thousands of documents and tens of thousands of pages of
Sangreal documents from the first few centuries chronicle Jesus
life as a mortal man and reveal His bloodline 234, 256).This is
a complete fabrication. Dan Brown, show us the proof?
16. Jesus’ death and resurrection were from a myth and his
followers knew he was only a mortal man (p. 232-233). Not true.
Here are two of his followers: Tertullian (207 AD): Against
Marcion “God lived with men as man that man might be taught to
live the divine life; God lived on man’s level, that man might
be able to live on God’s level: God was found weak, that man
might become most great. If you disdain a God like this, I doubt
if you can wholeheartedly believe in a God who was
crucified.”[vi] Clement (96 AD): 1st Epistle of Clement to the
Corinthians “Think, my dear friends, how the Lord offers proof
after proof that there is going to be a resurrection, of which
He has made Jesus Christ the first-fruits by raising Him from
the dead.”[vii]
Dr. Stanley Fleming is a member of Minister’s Fellowship
International, runs Gate Breaker Ministries and is senior pastor
of The House of the Lord in Oldtown, Idaho.
Footnotes:
[1] Glass on Web: www.glassonweb.com/articles/article/94/
[ii] Robert Boyle, http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/boyle/
[iii] http://www.adherents.com/people/pd/Leonardo_DaVinci.html
[iv] Priory of sion website. < http://priory-of-sion.com/>
[v] A compilation of thought from Early Christian Writings, 63,
and Ante-Nicene Fathers, 52.
[vi] Ibid., 122.
[vii] Clement, chapter 24, as recorded in Betty Radice, 33.
