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Enjoying (but not falling for!) The Da Vinci Code

by Taylor Burton-Edwards

Background

The Da Vinci Code has been one of the bestselling books in recent history, and with good reason. It is a fast-paced novel filled with rapid action sequences, an ever-twisting plotline, and an intriguing conspiracy theory that, if it were true, could shake the foundations of western culture and religious practice for centuries to come.

The heart of the novel's argument is the claim that the Roman Emperor Constantine called a major church council at a town in Asia Minor (modern day Turkey) called Nicaea in 325 AD. Such a council was called, and it was the first time that Christian bishops from all over the world had met to discuss and decide upon major issues of common concern.

The novel's argument goes further, though. It states that Constantine called this council to (a) create the list of books that would be recognized as Christian Scriptures and (b) make sure that Jesus would thereafter be recognized as divine, rather than mortal.

The facts are these:

1. Nicaea did not decide the list of books that would be included as Scripture .
2. Christians everywhere already agreed that Jesus was both human and divine, but differed in how they related the two natures.

The creed that the Council issued was the primary way it addressed the relationship between the divine and human natures of Jesus Christ. The Council's other major actions included setting a common date for Easter and decisions on twenty other matters related primarily to church discipline. After the Council was over, the Emperor Constantine issued three general letters: one to announce the common date for Easter; another to call for the burning of all works by Arius; and a third to call for fifty additional copies of the existing Christian Scriptures to be copied so that new churches that were going to be built could have copies available. (Learn more about the Council of Nicaea from fifth-century church historian Theodoret, the scholarly British website debate.org.uk, or The Proceedings of the First Council of Nicaea posted at the Internet Sourcebook, Fordham University).

Point by Point: The Da Vinci Code Claims and the Historical Record

The Mediterranean basin in the first century included a diverse set of cultures that used the written word extensively for letters, contracts, and legal documents, but preserved history and religious stories primarily through the spoken word. (See the essay "From Oral Tradition to Written Word" in Glenn Michael Reddish, An Introduction to the Gospels; Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1997, chapter 1.)

The earliest known written records of the life of Jesus are the gospels included in the Bible (a wide range would be 65-115 A.D.). Other writings sometimes called gospels give very few details about his life at all, often include Gnostic or other "secret" teaching, and are agreed by most scholars to have been completed no sooner than the middle of the second century.

"More than eighty gospels were considered for the New Testament, and yet only a relative few were chosen for inclusion" (page 231).

We have evidence of maybe twelve to fourteen gospels having ever been produced, depending on the definition of "gospel." If a "gospel" is a written account of the life and teachings of Jesus tied to historical events, then only the four that are in our canon fit the bill. Other works called "gospels" (Phillip, Peter, Mary Magdalene, Judas, Thomas, Egyptians, Truth, among others) address little if anything in the actual life of Jesus. And when they do, they tend to focus on one or two events in his life as a way to suggest he endorsed or began some kind of "secret" or Gnostic teaching.

In reality, the current four gospels were well established as the only valid ones by 170 A.D. It appears that two major criteria were used in deciding what books would be recognized for use in a diocese or region: One was whether the text had a plausible link to one of the original apostles. That link could be established by history, theology, or writing style. Another was how widely the book was in use among Christians generally. (To speak of these two criteria is a way of summarizing what appears to have evolved as those who wrote about canon lists described their means of determining what was to be considered authoritative.) On both counts, the "other gospels" fell out very early on.

Constantine did not collate the Bible. But was Constantine a pagan, or just not yet baptized? The 20 Canons that were issued by the Council of Nicaea (see 11, 12, and 14) indicate that it took at least three years for a person to prepare for baptism. The Apostolic Tradition, usually dated around 215, states that people with the authority to command others to kill either had to quit their jobs or they could not begin or would be thrown out of the process of preparing for baptism (see 16:10). The Council declared in Canon 12 that a Christian who resumed a military position after baptism was "a dog going back to its vomit." So the fact that Constantine was not baptized until his deathbed probably had little to do with whether his beliefs were pagan or Christian.

Christians had little or no political power in the early fourth century, and their churches generally did not allow them to to participate in either the army or the government. Although there were isolated instances of "Christian regiments" within the Roman army by the early fourth century, Christian teaching through this period included clear rejection of the use of lethal violence for any reason. Instead, there was a long history of the pagan empire persecuting Christians from time to time for generations. The historical record is that Christians did not use violence in return.

Constantine did have some political self-interest in calling the Council. Christianity was the fastest growing religion in the Empire at the time he legalized it in 313 A.D., but Christianity was also deeply divided about the relationship between the divine and human natures in Jesus. (See the description of Arianism in the glossary above.) The Creed that was approved at Nicaea included a final statement that rejected and condemned the teachings of Arius and any who believed or followed them.

Christians have intentionally used and reinterpreted "pagan" symbols. We have done this to help people in every culture connect with the practices, beliefs, and rituals of Christian discipleship.

If by "original" one means, "having no precedent anywhere in human history or religious insight," then this may be a fair assessment. But by that standard, almost nothing in our world today is original. The idea of dying and rising gods has been part of human history and religious celebration for millennia. The redeemer myths of other cultures have generally portrayed their redeemers as divine only or their deaths as required by justice or forces outside human control. Christians, however, have always believed and taught that Jesus is a fully human, real, historical person. Christians declared that his execution on a crucifix really happened and that it was the result of a miscarriage of human justice. Read René Girard's article, "Are the Gospels Mythical?" in First Things to learn more about the the non-mythological character of the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures.

Jesus' message was consistent with many of the Hebrew prophets. He preached that God would bring justice and salvation, especially to those whom the world's power systems harmed or disregarded the most. This truthful teaching was and remains threatening to all power systems that depend upon keeping some people or groups oppressed so that others can be powerful, rich, or unified.

All the first Christians were Jews. The biblical records indicate that these Jewish Christians and some of the Gentiles they converted continued to practice Sabbath on the last day of the week while also offering Christian worship on the first day of the week. The early Christians chose to hold their worship on the first day of the week to commemorate the timing of the resurrection of Jesus. That is why they called it "The Lord's Day," not Sunday. (See Revelation 1:10.) At the same time, it also appears the Gentile Christians in some places did not practice Sabbath at all. Paul indicated to more than one church that Sabbath practice was not required for Christians. (See Colossians 2:16 and Galatians 4:10.)

The gospels and epistles attest to both the humanity and the divinity of Jesus. Several of the later Gnostic movements were known for insisting on the divinity of Jesus and NOT his humanity. This is because they believed that material creation was so incapable of bearing pure truth that only a purely spiritual being could possibly bring real revelation to humankind. The idea that Jesus was divine was not under dispute at Nicaea. The dispute was about the nature of his divinity.

Although the Bishop of Rome was very important for the some of the West as a center of authority by the late third century, that bishop would have been viewed as a co-equal at most by the bishops of Alexandria or Antioch. Canon VI establishes this principle. There was no "centralized" Christian authority that covered the entire Empire at any time during its history.

Constantine did order fifty Bibles to be made for the new churches that were going to be built in Asia Minor. He did not finance a new Bible — just the production of fifty copies of the existing one.

Constantine also issued a letter on behalf of the council calling for Arian texts to be burned. Athanasius, the orthodox bishop of Alexandria, Egypt, issued a Festal Letter in 367 that included a list of authorized Scriptures (canon) he described as consistent with the teachings of all the churches. That list recommended two Christian texts for reading, but did not include them in the "canon": Didache and The Shepherd of Hermas. It also referred to, but did not list "apocryphal" texts deemed heretical. It is possible that the Nag Hammadi library found in 1945 may have included some of these apocryphal texts. But the Nag Hammadi texts do not speak to Jesus' "human traits." Instead, when they speak of Jesus at all, it is of his "secret" teachings. These often have a decidedly Gnostic bent. These texts are reliably dated to the late second century at the very earliest. Good English translations of the Nag Hammadi library are available in book form and online. It should be noted that the Dead Sea Scrolls, also cited by Sir Leigh Teabing as relating to original Christianity, are texts of Jewish scriptures and sectarian writings and have nothing to do with Christian or Gnostic teachings or practice.

For more information about scholarship and online video clips related to Mary Magdalene and The Da Vinci Code, see Safiya Fosua's "Preaching Helps for Easter Sunday, Year A, and scroll down to the sermon notes on Matthew 28 and John 20.

Questions for Reflection and Review

• Discuss what you understand about how, when, and by whom the stories of people were remembered, passed on, or recorded during the first century. (Return to text.)


• Talk about the process of the canonization of materials (deciding which writings would be included for authoritative use by the churches). (Return to text.)
  
  Learn more about "The Canon of Scripture" at www.bible-researcher.com. Although the compiler of this material admits to a "reformed" bias in his interpretation, the records themselves are accurate and very helpful. The most authoritative book on this topic is Bruce Metzger's The Canon of the New Testament (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987).


• Discuss what you know about the length of the process and the qualifications required for a person to be baptized in the fourth century. (Return to text.)


• Talk about what you know about early Christian teaching about violence, war, and peacemaking.(Return to text.)
  
  For more information, see "The Teaching of Peace in Early Christian Liturgies" (pdf).


• Discuss whether "pagan" practices or symbols (such as Easter eggs or Christmas trees) carry pagan meanings or Christian meanings for you. (Return to text.)


• How important is "originality" to "truthfulness"? (Return to text.)


• Name one or two passages in the New Testament that establish that Christians normally worshiped on the first day of the week. (Return to text.)


• Name some Scriptures that refer to a belief in the divinity of Jesus. (Return to text.)


• Discuss what you know about the relationship of the Bishop of Rome to other bishops by the fourth century. (Return to text.)


• How likely would it be that bishops at the Council of Nicaea, many of whom had suffered for defending their faith, would allow tampering with the biblical texts? See Theodoret's fifth-century account, based on original period sources. (Return to text.)

Taylor Burton-Edwards (tburtonedwards@gbod.org) is the Director of Worship Resources for General Board of Discipleship of the United Methodist Church.

Nothing in this article should be viewed as a recommendation or endorsement for The Da Vinci Code in either its novel or movie form. Parents and some adults may find some material in the novel inappropriate or offensive. External links provided by this article do not represent any endorsement for the organizations, beliefs, opinions or practices of the owners, writers, or editors of those websites, but are offered for informational purposes only.

Quotations from The Da Vinci Code Copyright © 2003 by Dan Brown.

Copyright © 2006 The General Board of Discipleship of The United Methodist Church, PO Box 340003, Nashville TN 37203-0003This article may be reprinted and used for nonprofit local church and educational use with the inclusion of the complete copyright citation plus the words " Copyright General Board of Discipleship. Used by permission." It may not be sold, republished, altered, used for profit, or placed on another website without prior permission.