The Reality and Fiction of "The Da Vinci Code"

Author: (American) Bart D. Ehrman and Xiaoju Jiao
Publisher:
Publication Date: 2006-01-01
Features: The Da Vinci Code has achieved astonishing popularity, topping The New York Times bestseller list for over a year with millions of copies printed. This suspense novel is fast-paced, and its unusual feature is that the author claims at the outset that all historical descriptions in the book are true. Is this really the case? As the historian Bart D. Ehrman points out in this comprehensive and innovative book, The Da Vinci Code is filled with historical inaccuracies. Did the ancient church participate in concealing the truth, turning Jesus into a divine figure from a mortal? Did Constantine the Great determine the text of the New Testament, selecting only four out of about eighty candidate gospels that emphasize Jesus' divinity? Was Jesus Christ married to Mary Magdalene? Did the church suppress the gospels that told of their secret marriage? Bart Ehrman thoroughly debunks the fallacies of all these claims. But this book is not just about listing Dan Brown's misinterpretations of history. Throughout the book, Ehrman provides a wealth of background information on early Christianity, which is both fascinating and historically accurate. For example, he describes the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls (contrary to The Da Vinci Code, the Dead Sea Scrolls contain no Christian content), concisely outlines how scholars determine the reliability of early Christian documents, and explores other gospels discovered in the past half-century. Ehrman distinguishes between truth and fiction, between historical reality and literary fantasy. If readers of The Da Vinci Code want to know the truth about the origins of Christianity and the life of Jesus, they will find this book a compelling read. How much of The Da Vinci Code is fact? From a certain perspective, this question is raised by The Da Vinci Code itself, as it explicitly lists a series of "facts" at the beginning (page 1, before the preface), including the assertion: "All descriptions of art, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this book are true." Is this really the case? I will not discuss whether the book's descriptions of paintings, architecture, or rituals are accurate. What I will explore is the truth. We will see that despite Dan Brown's efforts to portray facts (and imply that the facts he portrays are real), he is actually manipulating facts. Therefore, many of the so-called facts in the book are actually fictional. My purpose in discussing this is to help anyone interested in understanding the origins of Christian history, especially those interested in the life of Jesus and the composition of the New Testament, distinguish between truth and fiction, between historical reality and fantasy.