Name: Truth and Fiction in The Da Vinci Code
Rating: 3 (1 reviews)
ISBN: 9780195307139

Bart D. Ehrman

A biblical historian examines the history of the early Christian church that forms the background for "The Da Vinci Code," pointing out inaccuracies in the novel and providing an introduction to biblical scholarship.

A Historian Reveals what We Really Know about Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and Constantine

Truth and Fiction in The Da Vinci Code

Sophie Shrimpton

“… history is like any good story. It is a narrative that we tell and retell, filled with characters that we can relate to, with plots and subplots that we somehow feel a part of. The past is a story that we ourselves can live in, one that can inform our lives in the present. It is a true story, one that contributes to our sense of ourselves and our place in the world. And for that reason, if no other, it seems important for us to know the truth about what happened in the past” 

This book does what it says it will on the cover. I only gave it three stars because the repetition was grating. There's nothing worse than a book that could have been a shorter book, or better yet, a long-form article. Regardless, the history was enlightening, and the methodology was a good reminder of how to pursue spiritual curiosity critically. 

Some interesting things:
- Constantine's worship of the sun god leaked into the Christian rituals. E.g. he determined the Christian God was to be worshiped on the day of the sun (Sunday) and the birth of Christ came to be celebrated at the time of the winter solstice
- There was no vote at the Council of Nicea to determine Jesus' divinity
- Apocalypticism comes from the Greek word "apocalypsis" which means "uncovering" or "unveiling". They believed God "unveiled" to them heavenly secrets, in particular what would happen when God intervened in the near future to destroy evil and establish His good kingdom. They were dualists (there was good and bad. God, angels, righteousness and life vs the Devil, demons, sin and death) who believed sin was a cosmic force, aligned against God, that attempts to make people act in ways contrary to God. This age is the age of evil, and when it gets as bad as it can, God will intervene and overthrow evil in an act of judgment and bring his good kingdom to earth. 
- Gnostics (from the Greek gnosis, which means knowledge) believe you need true self-knowledge for salvation. The world of matter is inherently evil and must be escaped by our spirits, which are trapped in our material bodies, to the world of spirits, which is inherently good. This trapping of spirits happened when there was catastrophe in the divine realm when Sophia became separated from the rest and spontaneously created another divine being outside the divine realm, who was evil, and he created the material world as imprisonment for Sophia, who had fallen. Deliverance can only come through liberating knowledge. Christ brought that knowledge.
- The Infancy Gospel of Thomas talks about Jesus as a young boy. According to the Gospel he had a temper and randomly killed people if they annoyed him (usually later restoring life).
- The Gospel of Peter claims the Jews were responsible for Jesus' death, not the Romans
- The Coptic Apocalypse of Peter claims that Jesus' body is just a shell, and his true self is within and cannot be touched by physical pain (e.g. during the crucification). Salvation comes from escaping the body. 
- The Coptic Gospel of Thomas at one point quotes Jesus as saying “On the day when you were one you became two. But when you become two, what you will you do?” (Reminds me of Taoism) This refers to a unified spirit (one) becoming trapped in a body and becoming body and spirit (two). It must become one again by escaping. 
- The same Gospel says “Whoever finds the interpretation of these sayings will not experience death.” The interpretation is that the material world is death, and you must rise above it as life is in the spirit. The material world is worthless and you must escape it. For spirits imprisoned in this material world it is like being blind and not being able to see. 
- The same Gospel says Jesus said that when “you make the two one”, “you make the male and the female one and the same, so that the male not be male nor the female female”. Heaven is genderless?
- However, the same Gospel also states that Jesus said “I myself shall lead her in order to make her male, so that she too may become a living spirit resembling you males. For every woman who will make herself male will enter the kingdom of heaven.” This is because, at that time, it was believed all the world operated along a continuum of perfection: lifeless things to living things, plants to animals, animals to humans, women to men, men to gods. Women had to pass through the next “stage” on the continuum before becoming “perfected”. 
- Irenaeus defined what books would be canon early on by saying there should be four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) because there are four corners of the earth, over which the four winds blow, carrying the truth of the Christian gospel. 
- Criteria for inclusion in the canon: ancient, apostolic (written by an apostle), Catholic (widespread acceptance amongst churches), orthodox (in line with current view)
- Athanasius in 367CE set out list of canon as it looks like today - beginning of the end about arguments about canon
- Almost everyone during Jesus’ time was illiterate, hence the lack of sources from his time
- Q is a hypothetical document that scholars believe once contained sayings of Jesus written about twenty years after his death, and used as a source by Matthew and Luke
- Gospels not written by those they are named after - they were anonymous. Titles added by second-century Christians decades after the books had been written to claim they were apostolic. Written by highly trained, Greek speaking Christians., not Aramaic-speaking peasant disciples. 
- Matthew and Luke based many of theirs stories off of Mark’s gospel - hence the close similarities. 
- Gospels based on oral tradition - stories told over and over, and therefore changed for different situations and contexts. New stories could have been made up, some could have been lost, some could have been embellished. 
- Methods for working out the truth: earlier the better, more independent testimonies is better, cutting against the grain (things that go against Christian belief are more likely to be true bc unlikely to be made up), context corroborates. 
- Jesus was an apocalyptic Jew who believed God would intervene in the world of suffering and establish a new kingdom on earth (see: apocalypticism above). Specifically, Jesus predicted an actual physical presence of God on earth (not just a spiritual kingdom) where the twelve disciples would be human rulers and all would eat, drink and talk. It also included a judgment day. 
- Women were the first to discover Jesus was not in his tomb and had been resurrected. There are differing accounts as to whether it was just Mary Magdalene or multiple women. 
- Jesus encouraged Mary of Bethany to attend to his teaching rather than busy herself with “womanly” household duties (Luke 10:38-42). (Though only in one gospel so less likely to be authentic). 
- Jesus preached a “radically egalitarian society” in his kingdom on earth. He may also have urged his followers to implement these implications in the present. 
- Paul’s view of women similar - Galations 3:28 “… there is no longer male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
- Untrustworthy Epiphanius claim about secret rituals where Phibionites have ritual sex, but both partners eat the semen of the man saying “This is the body of Christ” and the woman’s menstrual blood saying “This is the blood of Christ”. If the woman becomes pregnant, the foetus is aborted and eaten in a communal meal called “the perfect Passover”.

Truth and Fiction in The Da Vinci Code A Historian Reveals what We Really Know about Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and Constantine

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