I wish to bring to the attention of fellow readers some observations that various scholars both secular and religious have made about the Da Vinci Code novel. This is a novel by Dan Brown that has taken the publishing world by storm. The book has been dubbed by Newsweek as the 'most popular – and controversial novel of our time'.
While the book may not have been read by many Africans a movie version of the film is likely to be viewed by many Africans since it also as popular as the book. From what we have read in the papers the movie has grossed over US$200 million in its first week on the big screen.
For the sake of those who are not aware of this book, the Da Vinci Code novel's key idea is that Jesus Christ was married to Mary Magdalene and that they had a daughter and that descendants of the daughter are still around.
The main danger of this book is that the author mixes fact and fiction together without saying so. This can easily deceive those who know nothing about the history of Christianity. For instance he speaks of a monk in the Catholic organization Opus Dei. The fact is there are no monks in Opus Dei since this organization is for the laity.
The heresy of Jesus Christ being married to Mary Magdalene has there for sometime. Dan Brown suggests that this idea is found in the Gnostic gospels. Unfortunately for him the all the Gnostic gospels that are available and those quoted by the early church fathers make no mention of Mary Magdalene marrying Jesus Christ.Even if we were to buy the idea that there might have existed some Gnostic gospels which talked of Jesus Christ marrying Mary Magdalene and had been destroyed by the church - the fact is that most of the Gnostic gospels were written 300 years after the death of Christ. In other words the Gnostic gospels were written after by people lived after Christ had died and who never interacted with Him In the case of the four gospels in our bible some manuscripts have been discovered that can be dated as early from 150 AD. I would rather trust the words of those who lived with Christ than the words of those who never saw Christ.
Even the idea that the Church has been hiding documents is without support. Any responsible author needs to have to have solid evidence before coming to this conclusion. Copies of the Gnostic gospels such as Gospel of Thomas are readily available on the internet and in some libraries all over the world. Another gospel that was quoted by the early church fathers and has recently surfaced is the gospel of Judas. You only have to read this gospel and others to understand why they do not form part of the Bible.
The heresy of Jesus Christ being married to Mary Magdalene has there for sometime. Dan Brown suggests that this idea is found in the Gnostic gospels. Unfortunately for him the all the Gnostic gospels that are available and those quoted by the early church fathers make no mention of Mary Magdalene marrying Jesus Christ.
Even if we were to buy the idea that there might have existed some Gnostic gospels which talked of Jesus Christ marrying Mary Magdalene and had been destroyed by the church - the fact is that most of the Gnostic gospels were written 300 years after the death of Christ. In other words the Gnostic gospels were written by people who lived 300 years after Christ had died and who never interacted with Him. In the case of the four gospels in our bible some manuscripts have been discovered that can be dated as early as 150 AD. I would rather trust the words of those who lived with Christ than the words of those who never saw Christ and claim to know more.
Gnostics were early christians who believed that christians needed to have special knowledge to understand scriptures. Their teachings were a mixture of greek myths and the Bible. The reason why their teachings are in the Bible is not beacuse of suppression or persecution rather they were not as popular as others would have us believe. The collection of books that comprise the Bible took place over a long period of time and you can clearly see the guidance of the Spirit when you read the other so called gospels and compare them to what we have in the Bible.
Even the idea that the Church has been hiding documents is without support. Any responsible author needs to have to have solid evidence before coming to any conclusion on a serious matter like this one. Copies of the Gnostic gospels such as Gospel of Thomas are readily available on the internet and in some libraries all over the world. Readers may wish to note that another gnostic gospel that was quoted by the early church fathers and has recently surfaced is the gospel of Judas.
Another point that the novel makes is that the Roman Emperor Constantine changed the Gospels by attributing divinity to Christ. There is literally no evidence to support this. So many things have been attributed to Constantine but not changing the scriptures. The concept of Christ divinity did not originate with anyone but Christ himself. He repeatedly asserted this fact to his disciples and others such as Pilate.Another point that Dan Brown makes to prove that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married is Leornado Da Vinci's painting 'The Last Supper'. He says that the figure to the left of Christ has feminine characters and must therefore be John the Apostle. No scholar worth his salt has ever come to this conclusion as John the Apostle was always depicted as a young person by painters from that period. If his point is true we may have to revise a number of pictures where John is present. In any case this painting was done 1500 years after the event and can therefore not be used to prove anything that happened during the time of Jesus.
In conclusion I see no reason why our faith in the Bible should be shaken by this novel since it is not based on any sound research as proven by various factual errors in the book. As most scholars agree no major teaching of the Bible has been affected by the centuries of copying the books by hand. Every time you hold the Bible in your hand know that it has stood the test of time.
