The Da Vinci Code

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Introduction
Matter of life death

• Major publishing phenomenon

Raises important issues
Opportunity for witness
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So Whats the Problem?
Claim 1 Jesus is not God
The Church did not recognize Jesus as divine
until the Council of Nicea (325 A.D.)
The Push to make Christ divine was a power play
by Constantine, who elevated Jesus to the status
of deity to unify the empire
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So Whats the Problem?
Claim 2 Jesus was married and had a child
church suppressed evidence of Jesus secret
marriage to Mary Magdalene and of the birth of
their daughter, Sarah
Jesus legacy was to be continued not through
Peter and the Church but through physical
bloodline, French Merovingian Kings
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So Whats the Problem?
Claim 3 The four Gospels Are not Reliable
The four Gospels were late in being accepted into
the canon
Matthew, mark, Luke, and John replaced earlier
and more reliable Gnostic Gospels because they
presented Jesus as Divine
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So Whats the Problem?
The Da Vinci Code Claim that Mary Magdalene
sat at Jesus right hand at the Lords Supper
Not John the Apostle
Leonardo Da Vinci depicts this in his painting,
the Last Supper
This proves that Jesus was married to Mary
Magdalene
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Mary Magdalene?
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More than just one book
Symptom of a larger trend in American Culture
Belief that truth is subjective, relative, and
always provisional
Christians must proclaim the truth to a culture
that has abandoned absolute truth
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Plot Summary

• The curator of the famous French museum, the
  Louvre, is discovered dead, the apparent victim
  of a bizarre, ritualistic crime. Robert Langdon,
  a Harvard expert in religious and other symbols,
  is called to decipher the mysterious codes left
  at the scene.

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Plot Summary

• He teams up with the dead mans niece, Sophie
  Neveu, in order to help the authorities to solve
  the crime. After a series of breathtaking
  adventures, the duo discovers that the crime was
  commissioned by a Roman Catholic elite troupe,
  called Opus Dei.

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Plot Summary

• This group, which is extremely loyal and reports
  directly to the pope, was seeking to wrest a
  carefully guarded secret from another
  clandestine society, the Priory of Sion, which
  counts among its members famous people such as
  Leonardo da Vinci, Isaac Newton, and Victor Hugo.

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Plot Summary

• What is the secret at the heart of the plot of
  The Da Vinci Code? It is Jesus marriage to Mary
  Magdalene, and the couples production of an
  offspring, a daughter named Sarah, who was to
  continue Jesus legacy through his bloodline,
  issuing in the French dynasty of the Merovingian
  kings.

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Plot Summary

• Jesus was not divine (he was only declared to be
  such in the fourth century for political reasons)
  but thoroughly human. He was married, had a
  child, and his career was tragically cut short by
  death.

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Plot Summary

• Christianity is thus based on a lie, and Jesus
  turns out to be rather different from who he was
  believed to be throughout church history. There
  are many more twists and turns in the plot, but
  this, in essence, is the basic premise of the
  story.

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Fact or Fiction?
More than a novel, a claim of historical accuracy

• Page 1 All descriptions of artwork,
  Architecture, documents, and secret rituals in
  this novel are accurate.

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Fact or Fiction?
His research is impeccable.
New York Daily News, cited on Dan Browns own
website, www.danbrown.com
Is it?
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Fiction, not Fact
Even much of non-biblical information is
inaccurate
Encoding of Symbols in Leonardo Da Vincis
paintings
Priory of Sion
Council of Nicea and the canon
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Anti-Christian Bias
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Anti-Christian Bias
Almost everything our fathers taught us about
Christ is False.
Teabing, One of the main characters in The Da
Vinci Code
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ISSUE 1 Is Jesus God?
Was Jesus pronounced divine by Constantine merely
for political reasons?
Is it true that Jesus never claimed to be God and
that no one believed he was God prior to the 4th
century A.D.?
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ISSUE 1 Is Jesus God?

• My dear, Teabing declared, until that moment
  in history i.e. Constantine, Jesus was viewed
  by His followers as a mortal prophet . . . a
  great and powerful man, but a man nonetheless. A
  mortal.

The da Vinci Code, 233
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ISSUE 1 Is Jesus God?

• Not the Son of God? Sophie Neveu
• Right, Teabing said.Jesus establishment as
  the Son of God was officially proposed and
  voted on by the Council of Nicea.

The da Vinci Code, 233
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Jesus Claimed to be God

• And the high priest said to Him, I adjure You
  by the living God, that You tell us whether You
  are the Christ, the Son of God.

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Jesus Claimed to be God

• Jesus said to him, You have said it yourself
  nevertheless I tell you, hereafter you will see
  the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of
  power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.

Matthew 2336-64
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Jesus Claimed to be God

• I tell you the truth, Jesus answered,
  before Abraham was born, I am! At this, they
  picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid
  himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.

John 858
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Jesus followers believed he was God
Simon Peter answered, You are the Christ, the
Son of the living God.
Matthew 1616

• Theirs the Jews are the patriarchs, and from
  them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who
  is God over all, forever praised! Amen.

Romans 95
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Jesus followers believed he was God

• Your attitude should be the same as that of
  Christ Jesus, who, being in very nature God, did
  not consider equality with God something to be
  grasped . . .

Philippians 25-7
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Jesus followers believed he was God

• But about the Son he says, Your throne, O God,
  will last for ever and ever.

Hebrews 18
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Jesus followers believed he was God

• In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
  with God, and the Word was God. (cf. 114, 17)

John 11
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The early church believed Jesus was God

• We must think of Jesus Christ as we do of God.

Clement of Rome, A.D. 100
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The early church believed Jesus was God

• God himself came among us in human form.

Ignatius, c A.D. 100
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Even Jesus opponents realized He claimed to be
God

• For this reason the Jews tried all the harder
  to kill him not only was he breaking the
  Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own
  Father, making himself equal with God.

John 518
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Even Jesus opponents realized He claimed to be
God

• Christians were singing a hymn to Christ as a
  God.

Pliny the Younger to Emperor Trajan, A.D. 112
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Conclusion (Issue 1)
Jesus claimed to be God
His followers believed he was God
The early church believed he was God
Even Jesus opponents realized he claimed to be
God
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Conclusion (Issue 1)
Jesus deity is emphatically not a 4th-century
A.D. invention by Constantine
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ISSUE 2 Was Jesus Married?

• Brown claims Jesus marriage to Mary Magdalene
  is a matter of historical record.

Is it?
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ISSUE 2 Was Jesus Married?
What does the New Testament say about Mary
Magdalene?
Mary (called Magdalene) had 7 demons exorcised by
Jesus

• one of a group of women who helped support Jesus
  out of their own means

Luke 82-3
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ISSUE 2 Was Jesus Married?
Not the same woman as the sinful woman who
anoints Jesus in Luke 7
Stood at the foot of the cross with a group of
women when Jesus died (John 1925)
Watched until body was taken down and wrapped in
linen and placed in a tomb (Matthew
2761)
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ISSUE 2 Was Jesus Married?

• One of the women who went to anoint Jesus on the
  third day

Mark 161
Encounters the risen Lord, who tells her not to
cling to Him
John 2013-17
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ISSUE 2 Was Jesus Married?
At this point Attempt to shift burden of proof
Argument from silence
If Jesus had NOT been married, The Gospels would
have mentioned it, so since they dont, Jesus
must have been married
True?
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ISSUE 2 Was Jesus Married?

• one particularly troubling earthly theme keeps
  recurring in the gospels, Mary Magdalene. He
  paused. More specifically, her marriage to Jesus
  Christ

Teabing, in The Da Vinci Code, 244
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ISSUE 2 Was Jesus Married?

• Langdon, too, says, Jesus as a married man
  makes infinitely more sense than our standard
  biblical view of Jesus as a bachelor.
• Why? Sophie asked.

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ISSUE 2 Was Jesus Married?

• Because Jesus was a Jew, Langdon said. . . .
  According to Jewish custom, celibacy was
  condemned, and the obligation for a Jewish father
  was to find a suitable wife for his son. . . .

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ISSUE 2 Was Jesus Married?

• If Jesus were not married, at least one of the
  Bibles gospels would have mentioned it and
  offered some explanation for His unnatural state
  of bachelorhood

The Da Vinci Code, 245
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Margaret Starbird, Author, Holy Blood, Holy Grail
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ISSUE 2 Was Jesus Married?
Celibacy was valued highly at Qumran and in
Judaism for people dedicated to God
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ISSUE 2 Was Jesus Married?
The argument from silence is inconclusive
To the contrary, if Jesus HAD been married,
scripture would have certainly mentioned it
The fact is, it does not
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What evidence is there?

• There were three who always walked with the
  lord Mary his mother and her sister and
  Magdalene, the one who was called his companion.
  His sister and his mother and his companion were
  each a Mary

Gospel of Philip 59910
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What evidence is there?

• And the companion of the Mary Magdalene.
  loved her more than all the disciples and
  used to kiss her often on her

Gospel of Philip 6334645
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Conclusion (Issue 2)

• No New Testament evidence that Jesus was
  married, or married to Mary Magdalene

No evidence from Gnostic Gospels, rightly
interpreted
Unimaginable that this would not be mentioned in
Scripture
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Conclusion (Issue 2)
God, being sinless, would not marry a sinful woman

• Jesus is spiritually engaged to be married to
  the Church in heaven

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Conclusion (Issue 2)

• Why is she identified in the Bible as Mary
  Magdalene rather than as Jesus wife?

Why mention Jesus mother, father, brothers and
sisters, disciples, wives of apostles, but never
mention Jesus wife?
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Conclusion (Issue 2)

• Not a shred of evidence from the Bible, or later
  sources, that Jesus was married, or married to
  Mary Magdalene

in none of our early Christian sources is there
any reference to Jesus marriage or to his wife
Bart Ehrman, UNC Chapel Hill, p. 153
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ISSUE 3 Is the Bible true?

• The Da Vinci Code says that Constantine
  commissioned a new bible which omitted those
  gospels that spoke of Christs human traits i.e.
  the Gnostic Gospels and replaced them with the
  4 biblical gospels because of their emphasis on
  Christs deity.

The Da Vinci Code, p. 234
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How Was the Canon Formed?
Pauls letters already considered Scripture by
Peter (A.D. 60s 2 Pet. 316)

• First impetus for canon heretic Marcion (A.D.
  140)

4 canonical Gospels recognized by Tatian (2d
century A.D.)
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Canon Formation
Irenaeus (c. A.D. 180) argued for 4-Gospel canon,
comparing it to the 4 winds

• Muratorian Canon (A.D. 190) includes only 4
  Gospels

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Canon Formation
4 Gospels foundational from the start
Based on church usage, apostolic origin

• Formed basis for evaluating and rejecting later
  Gospels

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The Canon Council of Nicea

• Brown says Gnostic gospels were removed from the
  canon and 4 Gospels added at the Council of Nicea

there was no discussion of canon at Council of
Nicea!
Rather, the Council discussed deity of Christ in
relation to God the Father
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Conclusion (Issue 3)
There was never a time when the 4 Gospels were
not included in the canon
Nor was there ever a time when the Gnostic
Gospels were included in the canon
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Summary
1 Is Jesus God?
Jesus claimed to be God
His first followers believed he was God
The early church believed he was God
Even his opponents realized he claimed to be God
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Summary
2 Was Jesus Married?
No New Testament evidence that Jesus was married
Not even the Gnostic Gospels say Jesus was married
Jesus was not married, to Mary Magdalene or
anyone else
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Summary
3 Is the Bible True?
The canon always included Matthew, Mark, Luke,
and John, and never the Gnostic Gospels
The Gospels are reliable
The real Jesus is the Jesus of the 4 Gospels, not
of the Gnostic Gospels
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Conclusion
The Da Vinci Code is a work of fiction, not facts.

• Dan Brown says that virtually everything we used
  to believe about Christianity is false.

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Conclusion
Virtually everything The Da Vinci Code says
about Christianity, Jesus, and the Bible is False.
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