Cracking the Da Vinci Code

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Cracking the Da Vinci Code
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History vs. Faith-story

• What tonight is NOT About
• Debunking the historical falsehoods of the DVC
• Attacking Dan Brown or Defending Opus Dei
• Convincing anyone that they should or shouldnt
  see the movie or read the book

• What tonight IS About
• Debunking the religious falsehoods of the DVC
• Looking at the theological issues the DVC raises
• Talking about the FAITH questions the DVC poses

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An Overview

• Jacques Saunière, curator of the Louvre
  murdered crime scene filled with mysterious
  symbols
• Robert Langdon, symbologist called in to
  aide the murder investigation
• Langdon meets Sophie Neveu, cryptologist and
  Saunières granddaughter
• Langdon realizes that the symbols at the crime
  scene are a code, left by Saunière

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Overviewcontinued

• Langdon and Neveu begin to follow the clues they
  find in Saunières code
• The coded clues lead Langdon and Neveu to a Swiss
  bank on the way to the bank Langdon fills Neveu
  in on the Priory of Sion, the Knights Templar,
  and the Sangreal documents
• Their search leads Neveu Langdon to seek the
  help of Sir Leigh Teabing who reveals the truth
  of the Holy Grail that it is the bloodline
  descended from the children of Jesus and Mary
  Magdalene
• Interwoven is the story of the Opus Dei monk
  Silas, and Opus Deis struggle to keep the truth
  about the Holy Grail a secret

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What IS Gnosticism?

• n. The doctrines of certain pre-Christian pagan,
  Jewish, and early Christian sects
• that valued the revealed knowledge of God
• and of the origin and end of the human race
• as a means to attain redemption for the
  spiritual element in humans
• and that distinguished the Demiurge from the
  unknowable Divine Being.

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What do Gnostics believe?

• Profound DUALISM
• all that is spiritual (the divine spirit
  present in each person) is good and created by
  the unknowable God
• all that is earthly (creation, creatures, the
  body, bodily desires, etc) is evil and created
  by the demiurge
• Spirit Good Body Bad
• Prayer Good Sleep Bad
• Food, Sex, Material Possessions, etc, because
  they are of the body, are all necessary evils,
  but evil none the less
• Mankind is trapped in this evil, material world
  and must seek to escape it through the secret
  Knowledge

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What do Gnostics believe?

• Salvation comes through SECRET KNOWLEDGE (Gr.
  Gnosis) of God
• Secret Knowledge comes through knowing oneself,
  looking inside through prayer and meditation
• Gnosticism rejects the claim that there is a
  single truth that can be known by all, in favor
  of the individuals truth i.e. what is truth
  for me may not be truth for you.
• The only answer is what you believe (S. Neveu
  in the DVC)
• Seeking God becomes more important that following
  any particular moral code Gnosticism is
  sometimes known as the Seekers Path

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What does Gnosticism say about God and Jesus

• The Divine is completely other
• Some Gnostics go so far as to teach that The
  Divine had nothing whatsoever to do with the
  creation of the world or of humanity
• The Spiritual element of humanity is, however,
  understood to be of the divine therefore,
  theres a little God in all of us
• Since all that is earthly (including the body) is
  of the Demiurge the incarnation would not make
  sense
• Jesus, therefore, was a wise teacher, a sage
  but definitely not God

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Gnosticism from Then to Now

• Gnostic notions pre-date Christianity
• Pagan and Jewish beliefs gave rise to Gnostic
  ideas before Christ
• Many scholars agree that organized Gnostic sects
  began to come together sometime between 70 and
  135 AD
• Modern Gnosticism has been fueled by the
  discovery of the Nag Hammadi texts in Egypt in
  1945
• Gnostic concepts are prevalent in many modern
  New Age traditions Neo Paganism, Wicca, etc

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Small Group Reflection

• What is it about Gnosticism that makes it so
  popular?
• What is it about the world we live in, our modern
  culture, that makes it so prone to accept Gnostic
  ideas?

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Jesus, According to the Code

• Jesus was a mortal propheta great and
  powerful man, but a man nonetheless.
  A mortal.
• Leigh Teabing, DVC

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According to the Code

• The divinity of Jesus was first raised and
  established at the council of Nicea in AD 325
• Prior to that time, no one not even Jesus
  followers believed Jesus was anything more than
  a moral prophet and great man. No one believed
  that Jesus was the Son of God until that
  momentous event.
• This belief was proposed and voted into existence
  (by a relatively close vote) at the Council of
  Nicea, endorsed by Emperor Constantine for the
  purpose of solidifying his power and the power of
  the new Vatican power base of the Catholic
  Church.
• The DaVinci Hoax C. Olson, S. Miesel

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According to the Code

• The divinity of Jesus was first raised and
  established at the council of Nicea in AD 325

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The Council of Nicea

• Convened in 325 to answer the question of the
  Heresy of Arianism
• Arianism was the belief that God the Father and
  God the Son were not co-eternal, but rather that
  God the Father created God the Son therefore,
  while still in fact God, God the Son was not
  equal to God the Father
• The Bishops present at the Council rejected
  Arianism and affirmed belief that God the Father
  and God the Son are Homoousious or of one
  substance.
• The question put to the Council was not IF Jesus
  was divine, but what was the NATURE of Jesus
  divinity.

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Other Issues addressed at Nicea

• Date for the celebration of Easter
• Miletian schism
• Validity of baptism by heretics
• Lapsed Christians

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According to the Code

• Prior to that time, no one not even Jesus
  followers believed Jesus was anything more than
  a moral prophet and great man. No one believed
  that Jesus was the Son of God until that
  momentous event.

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What did Jesus followers believe?

• Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the
  cloud there came a voice, "This is my Son, the
  Beloved listen to him!
• Mark 97, written c. AD 65 (260 years before
  the Council of Nicea)
• Now when the centurion and those with him, who
  were keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake
  and what took place, they were terrified and
  said, "Truly this man was God's Son!"
• - Matthew 2754, written c. AD 85 (240 years
  before the Council of Nicea)
• These are only 2 of MANY examples of Jesus
  followers demonstrating an understanding of his
  divinity

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According to the Code

• This belief was proposed and voted into existence
  (by a relatively close vote) at the Council of
  Nicea, endorsed by Emperor Constantine for the
  purpose of solidifying his power and the power of
  the new Vatican power base of the Catholic
  Church.

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Constantine and the Council

• Emperor Constantine writing to two key players in
  the debate over Arianism
• "This contention has not arisen respecting any
  important command of the law, nor has any new
  opinion been introduced with regard to the
  worship of God but you both entertain the same
  sentiments, so that you may join in one
  communion. It is thought to be not only
  indecorous, but altogether unlawful, that so
  numerous a people of God should be governed and
  directed at your pleasure, while you are thus
  emulously contending with each other, and
  quarrelling about small and very trifling
  matters."

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Constantine and the Council

• Of the estimated 250 318 bishops present, 2 are
  reported to have voted in favor of Arianism
• a relatively close vote indeed
• In 325 AD the Vatican was a swamp
• There was no Papal residence at the Vatican until
  the 5th Centaury

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Small Group Reflection

• What does it REALLY mean to say that Jesus is
  true God AND true Man?
• Not just the theological construct what does it
  mean for our FAITH?
• How would life be easier if it were one OR the
  other?
• What would it mean for our Faith if it were one
  or the other?

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According to the Code

• Jesus, a wise teacher, but not God, married Mary
  Magdalene, who was pregnant with his child at the
  time of the crucifixion
• Following the crucifixion Mary fled to Europe,
  where she gave birth
• That childs descendants live on to this day
• The Holy Grail is actually the Sangreal, or Holy
  Blood the descendants of Jesus and Mary
  Magdalene

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Evidence?

• The DVC points to three main sources to back up
  the claim of a marriage between Jesus and Mary
  Magdalene
• The Gnostic Gospels
• The Priory of Sion and Les Documents Secret
• The Artwork of Leonardo Da Vinci

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According to the Code

• Books that did not support the version of
  Christianity imposed by Emperor Constantine at
  the Council of Nicea were destroyed by the Church
• These Gnostic Gospels clearly indicate that Mary
  was Jesus spouse and that he favored her over
  the other apostles

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The Gnostic Gospels

• The New Testament Cannon of the Bible that we
  have today was established at the Ecumenical
  Councils of Laodicea (c. 360), Rome (382), Hippo
  (393), and Carthage (397)
• There was a four fold test that was used to
  determine whether a book should be included in
  the Cannon
• Was the book authored by an Apostle or someone
  close to an Apostle?
• Did the content fit with the teaching of the
  Apostles and their successors?
• Was the book already being read in Churches?
• Was their a significant history of this book
  being used?

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The Gnostic Gospels

• Most Gnostic Gospels failed the tests used by the
  council fathers on multiple counts
• Most were written more than a centaury after
  Jesus death and resurrection
• Few, if any, were widely accepted in the Churches
  at that time

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According to the Code

• Leonardo Da Vinci was a grand master of a group
  called the Priory of Sion, established to protect
  the heir of Jesus and Mary Magdalene
• Da Vinci hid clues to the truth about Jesus and
  the Holy Grail in his artwork

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According to History

• The first historical reference to the Priory of
  Sion doesnt occur until 1956
• Les Document Secret supposedly contains a list
  of Grand Masters of the Priory of Sion, and
  evidence which links the heir of Mary Magdalene
  and Jesus to the French monarchy
• Pierre Plantard, the man who invented Les
  Document Secret, and subsequently planted them
  in a Paris library, admitted that they were a
  fraud in a French court in 1993

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According to the Code

• The Last Supper contains the following clues
  about Mary Magdalene and Jesus
• The figure to the left of Jesus is not John the
  beloved disciple, but Mary Magdalene
• The center of the painting is a V shape between
  Jesus and the person on his right (our left)
  this V is the original symbol for woman and the
  origin of the word grail
• There is no wine cup on the table the grail is
  the womb of Mary Magdalene

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See for Yourself
Jaume Serra1370 - 1400
Domenico Ghirlandaioc. 1486
Philippe de Champaigne1630
Jaume Baço Jacomartc. 1450
Da Vinci, 1498

• Because he was significantly younger than the
  other disciples, John is almost always depicted
  as a fair skinned, long haired teen

The figure to the Left of Christ John or Mary?
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See for Yourself
Who is at the center?
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How Many wine glasses are there?
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Small Group Reflection

• Why do you think this particular novel has become
  so popular at this time in history?
• What do you think the proper response of the
  Christian Community should be to such a work?
• How can we, as Catholic Christians, use this as
  an opportunity to share the Good News with the
  world?

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Cracking the Da Vinci Code
Created by Chris Weber Coordinator of Youth
Young Adult Ministry Muscatine Catholic
Community Muscatine, Iowa