The Da Vinci Code: A Catholic Response

The facts behind the fiction of this best-selling novel

The Da Vinci Code, the best-selling novel by Dan Brown, has sold millions of copies and raised questions for many people. The Da Vinci "code" at the center of the novel refers to cryptic messages that the artist supposedly incorporated into his work. Leonardo, the story goes, was a member of an ancient secret society called the "Priory of Sion", dedicated to preserving the "truth" that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene and designated her as the leader of His movement, which is all about the appreciation of the "sacred feminine" in life. The "Code" claims that the legendary "Holy Grail" is really Mary Magdalene, the bloodline of the descendants she and Jesus produced and the "sacred feminine" that she represents.

Consider the Sources

The background assumptions of The Da Vinci Code are taken almost completely from other works. First there are books of pseudo-history (Holy Blood, Holy Grail, The Templar Revelation) from which every bit of the story connecting Jesus, Mary Magdalene, the Holy Grail-as-Mary, and the Priory of Sion are taken.

Incidentally, the "Priory of Sion", as Brown and these other books describe it, has been proven to be a fraud, as has its list of "grand masters", a fraud originated by a reactionary, anti-Semitic Frenchman in the 1950s.

Brown also depends on speculative and fictional works about Mary Magdalene (The Woman With the Alabaster Jar), from which he takes the notion of Mary as the designated leader of early Christianity.

Brown never refers to any book of the New Testament nor any of the writings or liturgies of the early Christian Church as he discusses Jesus' identity or what early Christians believed about Jesus.

Was the Son of God Invented?

In The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown asserts that early Christians viewed Jesus as merely a "mortal teacher" and that it was only at the Council of Nicaea in 325, under pressure from the Emperor Constantine, that belief in Jesus' divinity became official Christian teaching.

This is simply not true. The gospels, the letters of Paul, as well as writings and liturgies from the centuries preceding Nicaea give ample evidence that Christian faith was based on a belief that Jesus was the Son of God. They worshipped Jesus as Lord.

One of the earliest heresies that existed in the early church (second century) taught that Jesus wasn't a man at all, but only God. It was called Docetism and is never mentioned in The Da Vinci Code.

What Nicaea did was to correct the heresy of Arianism, the belief that Jesus was a highly exalted creature, but a creature, nonetheless who did not share in God's nature.

We repeat the council's affirmation of Jesus' human and divine natures when we say the Nicene Creed: "God from God, Light from Light, True God from True God." This was not an innovation. It was simply a more precise articulation of the truth about the Jesus we encounter in the gospels.

Is the Bible Reliable?

Dan Brown writes that at the time of Nicaea, there were "thousands" of texts documenting a very human life of Jesus. His story claims there were 80 gospels in circulation, 80 gospels that give the story of the "original Christ" that the Church later repressed.

The implication is that during the first three centuries of Christianity, there were many accounts of Jesus' life, all equally reliable, and that the selection of the canon - the books of the New Testament determined to be inspired by the Holy Spirit and to be used by the entire Church - was based on nothing but a desire for power.

This is not true. First, there were not "thousands" of such texts. There were certainly more than are contained in the Bible, but relatively few with any confirmed link to apostolic times. Further, by the middle of the second century, Christian writers regularly cited the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, as well as Paul's letters, as the most reliable sources of information about Jesus' life and the faith of the apostles. And, contrary to Brown's story, it wasn't under Constantine that the canon of Scripture was formally accepted. That happened at Church councils decades later, after a great deal of prayer and debate.

Was Jesus Married?

The story of The Da Vinci Code asserts that Jesus must have been married because that was the norm for Jewish men at the time and He wouldn't have been taken seriously as a religious teacher if He had not been married.

The gospels do not describe Jesus as being married. They describe and name His parents, other family members, and even women whom Luke says accompanied Him and the apostles:

"And the twelve were with him and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod's steward, and Susanna, and many others who provided for them out of their means." Lk. 8:2-3 (RSV)

The gospels describe Jesus' interaction with the people of His hometown. If Jesus had been married, given the frequency with which other relations are mentioned, the marriage would have been mentioned as well. There was no reason not to.

Secondly, being unmarried would not have diminished Jesus' authority as a Jewish teacher. Certain Jewish prophets such as Jeremiah were unmarried. During the first century, there was an entire community of Jewish celibates, called the Essenes, who lived near the Dead Sea. John the Baptist was unmarried, as was Paul.

Being unmarried would have been unusual for a Jewish man, but it would not be unheard of, especially for a man totally consumed by dedication to God.

What about Mary Magdalene?

Brown says that Mary Magdalene was of royal blood, of the tribe of Benjamin and Jesus' wife. According to the story, after the crucifixion, Mary, pregnant with Jesus' child, moved to France and became the root of the Merovingian royal family. He also says that Jesus intended for Mary to be the head of His church, but that Peter seized power from her, suppressed all evidence of Jesus' real intentions and set into motion a 2,000-year conspiracy to demonize Mary Magdalene.

Mary Magdalene is honored as a saint in the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, making it hard to take seriously the accusation that she's been "demonized".

Mary is honored in Christianity for her faithfulness to Jesus and her role as a witness at the empty tomb. Orthodox Christians call her "Equal-to-the-Apostles" for this reason. Legends from Western Christianity describe her as evangelizing southern France.

There is no evidence that she led any kind of alternative branch of Christianity in competition with Peter. If this were so, and if Peter's branch was so anxious to suppress her, one might wonder why they would retain the portions of the gospels describing her as the first to meet the Risen Christ?

Messages in the Paintings?

Brown claims that Leonardo Da Vinci communicated this "truth" about Jesus and Mary Magdalene in his work and gives several examples to make his point.

It is hard to believe what Brown says about this art, considering how regularly he incorrectly describes the content of the paintings and garbles the historical background behind them.

He writes, for example, that the John in "The Last Supper" is too feminine-looking to be a man (thereby concluding it is meant to be Mary Magdalene). It was traditional during the time when Leonardo painted "The Last Supper" to represent John as a young, attractive youth. Brown says that since there is no chalice or "grail", the grail must be Mary Magdalene. There is no chalice in the painting because it describes a scene from the gospel of John (13:21-25) in which the Institution of the Eucharist is not described and the Last Supper is not specified as a Passover Meal, hence, no central chalice.

More to the Story

There are many more errors in The Da Vinci Code, both small and great. Here are just a few:

• Brown writes, that as "the prophesied Messiah, Jesus toppled kings, inspired millions..." Jesus toppled no kings during His lifetime and preached to thousands, not millions.

• Brown states the Merovingian royal line of early medieval France founded Paris. Paris was founded in the 3rd century BC by Celtic Gauls.

• Brown asserts that the Dead Sea Scrolls, discovered in the 1950s, contain information about Jesus. The Scrolls were discovered in 1947, were the product of the Jewish Essene community and do not mention Jesus.

• Brown claims that Leonardo's "Madonna of the Rocks" painting was scandalous because in it, John the Baptist is blessing a kneeling infant Jesus. He's got his babies reversed. In the painting, it is clearly Jesus who is blessing and John who is kneeling.

There's a lot to learn about Jesus and Christian history, true. If The Da Vinci Code has piqued your interest, that's good. There are plenty of reliable articles and books out there explaining more of the novel's errors and pointing you in the right director for accurate information.

Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are waiting, too, ready to tell you a story - the story in which truth is, if not stranger, certainly more interesting and life-giving - than fiction.

(This article is exerpted from a new pamphlet produced by Our Sunday Visitor. It offers succinct, Catholic truth about the fiction of The DaVinci Code. More information regarding this pamphlet and other offerings available through Our Sunday Visitor can be found at their web site: http://www.osv.com/davinci.)