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Pure Fiction?
by Nicky Gumbel

The Da Vinci Code is one of the fastest-selling books of all time-but it raises many questions about the truths of the Christian faith. How should Christians respond?

It is the "biggest selling adult hardback fiction book of all time," according to The Daily Telegraph. The Da Vinci Code, published in April 2003, has sold millions, been translated into dozens of languages, is currently being turned into a film, and has made Dan Brown a multi-millionaire.

The New York Times described it as a "riddle-filled, code-breaking, exhilarating, brainy thriller." There has been some debate about its literary merits. One critic concedes it is "a superb thriller." Others have been less flattering. One book describes it as "pretentious, posturing, self-serving, arrogant, self-congratulatory, condescending, glib, illogical, superficial, and deviant."

While there may be debate about its literary merits, there is no doubt about its impact. One member of our congregation wrote down some of the comments people had made to her about The Da Vinci Code.

One friend who was unsympathetic to Christianity said, "It shows that the Bible can't possibly be accurate and that the text was changed." One of her Christian friends said, "It nearly made me lose my faith." Another said, "It made me think I don't have any real facts to back up my faith."

How can a novel-a work of fiction-have such an impact?
It is a thriller presented as a historical novel. It is fiction and yet it seeks to convince the reader that it is based on fact. In the words of Cardinal George, Archbishop of Chicago, it is "preposterous, but for many it is persuasive."

So what is it all about? We need not trouble about the plot. In many respects that is irrelevant to the theological assertions.

This is not the place to examine the accuracy of the descriptions of the various places mentioned (e.g., Chateau de Villette near Paris, the Ritz Hotel, the Louvre museum, the Temple church, and many others). Although their mention has led to an increase in tourism and visits to these sights, the accuracy of the descriptions has sometimes been doubted. Nor do we have the space for side issues: Knights Templar, The Priory of Sion, the works of Leonardo Da Vinci, attacks on the Catholic Church ("The Vatican"), and Opus Dei. (Much of this material comes from The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, published in 1982, and Dan Brown is facing the threat of legal action from its authors Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln.)

The root and the foundation of the book is theological. In fact, it is Christological. The whole edifice is built on a theory about Jesus. All the rest only becomes relevant if there is anything in this theory.

1. What is the central premise of The Da Vinci Code?
Through its characters, The Da Vinci Code asserts that "almost everything our fathers taught us about Christ is false." The Catholic Church has kept the facts hidden through force and terror. Jesus was in fact married to Mary Magdalene (who was the head apostle).

The Holy Grail is not the chalice used at the last supper, but the womb of Mary Magdalene, who bore Jesus' daughter, whose name was Sarah. Their descendants became Kings of France.

Jesus was not the Son of God. He was a mortal prophet, a great and powerful man of staggering influence who inspired millions to a better life. He was also a radical feminist. He was a good man who was deified by the pagan emperor Constantine in A.D. 325. Prior to that, no one believed Jesus was divine.

At the Council of Nicaea in A.D. 325, Constantine upgraded him into a deity. He became the son of God by a narrow vote. This turned Jesus, the mortal prophet, into a deity. Constantine's motive was to give power to the Roman Catholic Church.

How on earth does he get to this conclusion?
The argument is that the earliest Christian records do not match up to the Bible. It was Constantine who collated the Bible as we now have it.

Constantine commissioned and financed a new Bible, which omitted those gospels that spoke of Christ's human traits and embellished those gospels that made him god-like. Constantine rejected dozens of other "gospels" and rewrote the four that are in our Bibles. Thousands of gospels were burnt or outlawed, but some survive: e.g. Q, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the Nag Hammadi documents.

The church has been hiding the real truth about Jesus. This is the greatest conspiracy and cover-up of the last 2000 years.

Rumors of this conspiracy have been whispered for centuries in countless languages-art, music, and literature-and most dramatically in the paintings of Leonardo Da Vinci. The secret remains protected to this day by a clandestine brotherhood of which Da Vinci was a member. Christianity as we know it is a gigantic fraud.

2. Does Dan Brown himself believe all this to be true?
Here there is a certain ambivalence. The novel starts with a "fact page," which ends by claiming "all descriptions, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate." Presumably this includes the New Testament documents and the other documents that refer to Jesus. It is possible that some readers might interpret this to mean that the conclusions he comes to about Jesus also have some basis in "facts."

Dan Brown's website states that it is his "belief that the theories discussed by these characters have merit." He does not actually state that they are accurate or true, but he disagrees "with those who attempt to disprove The Da Vinci Code."

He describes himself as a Christian, but distinguishes himself from those who accept "the Bible as immutable historical fact." He says, "We're each following our own path of enlightenment. I consider myself a student of many religions."

3. What is his evidence? Is there any evidence for an earlier version of Christianity than the one that we have in the New Testament?
The Da Vinci Code cites three sources. These are described together as "the earliest Christian records." The book says,

"Some of the gospels that Constantine attempted to eradicate managed to survive. The Dead Sea Scrolls were found in the 1950s, hidden in a cave near Qumran in the Judean desert. And, of course, the Coptic Scrolls in 1945 at Nag Hammadi. In addition to telling the true Grail story, these documents speak of Christ's ministry in very human terms..The scrolls highlight glaring historical discrepancies and fabrications, clearly confirming that the modern Bible was compiled and edited by men who possessed a political agenda-to promote the divinity of the man Jesus Christ and use his influence to solidify their own power base."

Q. The Da Vinci Code describes this as "the legendary 'Q' Document-a manuscript than even the Vatican admit they believe exists. Allegedly, it is a book of Jesus' teachings, possibly written in his own hand."

There is nothing new here-except a suggestion that Q was written by Jesus. Q is the hypothetical source of those passages of the synoptic gospels where Matthew and Luke show a close similarity to each other, but not to anything in Mark. It consists largely of sayings of Jesus. These came to be referred to by German scholars as Quelle ("source"). In the twentieth century, the Q hypothesis was the basis of nearly all serious study of the origin and development of the gospel traditions.

Whether or not it exists as a document is, to some extent, irrelevant. The whole point is that we know, roughly speaking, what was in Q from the gospels of Matthew and Luke. So there is nothing new here and certainly there is nothing to shake our confidence in the documents, which we already have in the New Testament. Q adds nothing to, and certainly does not contradict, the gospels we have.

The Dead Sea Scrolls. These were found from 1947 onwards near Qumran. They contained three things:

. All of the Old Testament biblical books except Esther. For example, there was the oldest copy of Isaiah by 1000 years.

. Biblical commentaries, psalms, and hymns.

. Sectarian material belonging to the community itself.

It is true that delays in publication led to conspiracy theories that the Scrolls contained information that would undermine Christianity. However, it is no longer possible to assert that as there is no textual evidence to support the claim.

All the Scrolls are now published in English and can be purchased at any good bookshop. These are not gospels at all; there is no mention of Jesus, Paul, or John the Baptist. It contains very interesting background information about the New Testament, but it bears no direct relationship to it. Far from being the earliest Christian records, they are not Christian records at all.

The Nag Hammadi documents. In 1945 two peasant farmers in Upper Egypt came across a jar as they were digging. They smashed the jar thinking it might contain gold. Inside they found papyrus codices.

One of them, Muhammad Ali, wrapped the books in his tunic, got on his camel, and carried them back to a tiny hovel in his hamlet. When the documents eventually came to light, they were found to be fourth century Coptic papyrus manuscripts. There were twelve codices and eight leaves from a thirteenth codex.

They contained 45 separate titles written in Coptic and translated from Greek. They provide a gnostic library which is the most important single contribution towards our knowledge of gnosticism.

Gnosticism is a very difficult movement to define. Rather like the New Age Movement today, it was esoteric, decentralized, and eclectic. It was the greatest challenge to the fledgling Christian faith of the second and third centuries. There were endless varieties, but at heart there was a radical dualism between the spiritual and the material. The material realm was regarded as evil.

From the unknowable Supreme Being proceeded a series of emanations or "aeons"-exalted spiritual beings capable of a measure of communication with the Supreme Being.

One of the lower ones of the aeons, who had no direct contact with the Supreme Being, was responsible for creation. Thus, the creation, if not positively evil, was, at least, clumsy and ignorant-a sphere from which human beings must escape.

The only way of escape was "gnosis"-the secret knowledge of the true God. Salvation is about overcoming ignorance through self knowledge.

The function of Christ was to come as an emissary of the Supreme God, bringing "gnosis." As a Divine Being, he neither assumed a properly human body, nor died. He either temporarily inhabited a human being, Jesus, or assumed a merely phantasmal human appearance.

Our knowledge of gnosticism was greatly increased by the discovery of the Nag Hammadi documents.

There is no "secret" about what was found at Nag Hammadi (as implied by The Da Vinci Code). Again, they can be bought at any large bookshop.

The definitive translation of the gnostic scriptures of The Nag Hammadi Library was edited by James M. Robinson in 1977 (published by Harper San Francisco). These are not really gospels at all. The gnostic "gospels" are nonhistorical and even anti-historical with little narrative or sense of chronology.

They were written generations after the facts whilst claiming direct, secret knowledge about them. Much of it is pseudepigraphy, which is at best a literary device, and at worst a fraud.

In other words, they claim to have been written by the apostle Thomas when they cannot possibly have been so written as he had probably been dead for decades, if not centuries by the time they were written.

The Da Vinci Code cites three of the "gospels" especially as evidence:

. The "Gospel" of Thomas. This is a Coptic version written around 400 A.D., translated from the original Greek (probably written around 150 A.D.). It is not like the canonical gospels. It is historical in form, but consists of a series of pithy sayings and parabolic discourses of Jesus (e.g., parable of the sower, mustard seed, tenants, lost sheep, and various sayings from the Sermon on the Mount). In addition, it includes other sayings, which show signs of gnosticism.

. The "Gospel" of Philip. This is another gnostic treatise found at Nag Hammadi. It contains no narrative, but only a few incidents and sayings attributed to Christ. It may well have been written as late as the second half of the third century. This "gospel" contains the passage on which The Da Vinci Code relies for the suggestion that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene.

It stated: "And the companion of the [.] Mary Magdalene. [.] loved her more than all the disciples, and used to kiss her often on her mouth. The rest of the disciples [.]. They said to him, 'Why do you love her more than all of us?'"

. The "Gospel" of Mary. This again belongs to the genre of the gnostic dialogue. It was originally written in Greek sometime in the second century.

The passage which The Da Vinci Code relies on is on page 333: "And Peter said, 'Did the Savior really speak with a woman without our knowledge? Are we to turn about and all listen to her? Did he prefer her to us?' And Levi answered, 'Peter, you have always been hot-tempered. Now I see you contending against the woman like an adversary. If the Savior made her worthy, who are you indeed to reject her? Surely the Savior knows her very well. That is why he loved her more than us.' From these a conclusion is drawn that 'According to these unaltered gospels, it was not Peter to whom Christ gave directions with which to establish the Christian Church. It was Mary Magdalene."

4. Is there any evidence that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene?


There are at least a dozen references to Mary from Magdala (a town on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee) in the four gospels. Even the gnostic gospels taken at face value do not suggest that he was married. Nor do they mention a child.

Indeed, it is interesting that while The Da Vinci Code suggests that these "gospels" were earlier than the New Testament documents, the "Gospel" of Philip actually quotes from the New Testament chapter and verse (e.g. 1 Corinthians 8:1, 1 Peter 4:8, Matthew 15:13). This surely is conclusive proof that the "Gospel" of Philip was written after the New Testament and not before.

5. Is there any evidence for this "earlier form of Christianity" when "no one believed Jesus was divine"?


The suggestion of the book is that prior to 325 A.D. no one believed Jesus was divine.

Constantine commissioned and financed a new Bible, which omitted those gospels that spoke of Christ's human traits and embellished those gospels that made him god-like. The earlier gospels were outlawed, gathered up, and burned.. Fortunately for historians.some of the gospels that Constantine attempted to eradicate managed to survive. The Dead Sea Scrolls were found in the 1950s hidden in a cave near Qumran in the Judean desert. And, of course, the Coptic Scrolls in 1945 at Nag Hammadi. In addition to telling the true Grail story, these documents speak of Christ's ministry in very human terms.

In fact, the very opposite is the case. The gnostic gospels tend to be docetic and omit Christ's human traits and embellish to make him more "god-like."

The New Testament assumes the full humanity of Jesus. He had a human body; he was sometimes tired and hungry. He had human emotions; he was angry, he loved, and he was sad. Also, the New Testament writers dealt very firmly with anyone who suggested that Jesus was not fully human.

Therefore, the facts are the very opposite to those that The Da Vinci Code suggests. Further, it is not true to say that "prior to 325 A.D. no one believed Jesus was divine." Analysis dates the orthodox gospels in the first century and indicates that they are far earlier than the gnostic forgeries.

The epistles of St. Paul are even earlier than the gospels. And he writes, for example, "One Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came" and "He is the image of the invisible God. By him all things were created." Also, numerous church fathers speak of the divinity of Christ.

The Da Vinci Code fails to produce a shred of credible evidence of an earlier form of Christianity in which "no one believed Jesus was divine." The historical evidence is all to the contrary.

6. What happened at Nicaea and what was Constantine's role?


Jesus's establishment as "the Son of God" was officially proposed and voted on by the Council of Nicaea, meaning Jesus' divinity was the result of a vote and "a relatively close vote at that."

It is true that Constantine summoned the Council of Nicaea in A.D. 325. However, it is not true that "he was a lifelong pagan who was baptized on his deathbed, too weak to protest."

Constantine's policy was to unite the Christian church to the secular state. He did his best to conciliate both pagans and Christians. It is difficult to say when he was converted. It is true he was not baptised until shortly before his death-but the deferment of baptism was common in those days.

His policies were strongly Christian from the first. Constantine summoned the Council of Nicaea primarily to end disunity caused by the Arian controversy.

Arius taught that although Jesus was the Son of God, he was less than the Father. He was a lesser god (the nearest equivalent might be the Jehovah's Witnesses today).

The Council was probably attended by 220-250 bishops. The Arian Creed was rejected. They produced the Nicene Creed with four anti-Arian anathemas attached. This was accepted by all but two of the bishops (i.e., over 99 percent in favor). They declared that Jesus was the son of God "begotten not made, of the same substance (homousios) as the Father."

Jesus had been regarded as the son of God from the very beginning. The discussion at Nicaea was not about whether he was the son of God, but whether he was the same substance as the father or a lesser God.

The vote was not "relatively close," but an overwhelming majority in favor of the orthodox creed. Nor is it true to say that "the Bible, as we know it today, was collated by the pagan Roman emperor Constantine the Great." The emperor Constantine had absolutely nothing to do with fixing the canon of Scripture. The canon was pretty well fixed by the fourth century.

The gnostic gospels were never among the books considered for the canon by the early church. They were written a century too late to be written by the people they name (e.g., Thomas, Philip, or Mary Magdalene). Even the gnostic second century leader Marcian did not list these as part of his canon, but only the books found in our current New Testament. This is the strongest possible evidence that the so-called "gnostic gospels" did not exist at that stage.

The Da Vinci Code does not produce a shred of evidence for an earlier form of Christianity to that which we find in our New Testament.

If The Da Vinci Code only claims to be a novel, that is fine. If it claims to be based on scholarship, it is fanciful, absurd, and in the end, ridiculous. It is another myth. It is a twenty-first century gnostic myth.

7. What is the truth?


The New Testament presents the facts about the person of Christ rather than any attempted explanation of them. The gospels indicate that the historical Christ himself claimed to be both God and fully human.

The Gospels, Acts, and the Epistles make it clear that the earliest Christians believed as such. The task of the early church was to work out and to express in precise terms the theological truth implied by these facts.

The apostle Paul and the earliest Christian writers were more concerned to insist on the reality of both the godhead and the manhood of Christ than to attempt to interrelate them.

It was only when one-sided distortions of the truth came into being-such as the gnostic view that there was no real assumption of humanity-that the apologists of the second century began elaborating on the implications of the incarnation.

The early controversies were finally settled at the Council of Chalcedon in 451 A.D. with the formulae: "one and the same son.the same perfect in godhead and the same perfect in manhood, truly God and truly man.like us in all things except sin."

This has been accepted as the classical definition of orthodox Christian belief.

The truth is that Jesus did die for our sins and that forgiveness is possible. He rose again from the dead and death is defeated. These facts transformed the lives of the early Christians. It was a message for which many of the apostles and thousands of others were willing to suffer, to be tortured, and to die.

It was a message that transformed the ancient world and continues to transform our world.

8. How are we to respond?
"In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the Word, be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage-with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all duties of your ministry" (2 Timothy 4:1-5).

These may be some of the last words spoken or written by the apostle Paul-certainly some of the last to have survived.

First, we should not be surprised.

For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths (vv. 3-4).

There have been myths from the earliest days and from time to time a new version arises. The Da Vinci Code is another myth.

Secondly, be prepared. "Be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke, and encourage-with great patience and careful instruction" (v. 2). It is worth having some of the facts at our disposal so that we can point out some of the inaccuracies and illogicalities-not with rudeness, but with patience.

Thirdly, we should keep being involved in ensuring that the truth gets out. The answer to darkness is light. So the apostle Paul says "preach the word" (v. 2) and "do the work of an evangelist" (v. 5).

The truth about Jesus is so much more wonderful and exciting than the myths. The myths do not have the power to change lives. Only the message of orthodox Christianity has the power to set people free from heroin addiction and excess alcohol, to reunite husbands and wives, fathers and sons, and to change communities.

The myths are so deadly dull in comparison with orthodox Christianity. As G.K. Chesterton put it: "People have fallen into a foolish habit of speaking of Orthodoxy as something heavy, humdrum, and safe. There never was anything so perilous or so exciting as Orthodoxy. It was sanity: and to be sane is more dramatic than to be mad..To have fallen into any of those open traps of error and exaggeration which fashion after fashion and sect after sect set along the historic path of Christendom-that would indeed have been simple. It is always simple to fall; there are an infinity of angles at which one falls, only one at which one stands. To have fallen into any one of the fads from gnosticism to Christian Science would indeed have been obvious and tame. But to have avoided them all has been one whirling adventure."

Nicky Gumbel is the rector of Holy Trinity Brompton Anglican Church in London and the author of the Alpha Course. Alpha International / Holy Trinity Brompton, London. First published 2005. All rights reserved. © Alpha International, Holy Trinity Brompton, Brompton Road, London, SW7 1JA. The booklet The Da Vinci Code - A Response by Nicky Gumbel is available from http://alphacourse.org/runningacourse/publications/.



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