"The Truth and Fiction of 'The Da Vinci Code'"

Author: (American) Elman, translated by Jiao Xiaoju
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-01-17
Features: The Da Vinci Code has achieved astonishing popularity, topping The New York Times Best Seller list for over a year with millions of copies printed. This suspense novel is fast-paced, and its uniqueness lies in the author's claim at the outset that all historical descriptions in the book are true. Is it really so? As the historian Bart D. Elman points out in this comprehensive and innovative book, The Da Vinci Code is riddled with historical inaccuracies. Did the ancient church participate in concealing the truth, turning Jesus from a mortal into a divine being? Did Constantine the Great determine the text of the New Testament, selecting only four out of approximately 80 candidate gospels that emphasize Jesus' divinity? Did Jesus Christ marry Mary Magdalene? Did the church suppress the gospels that told of their secret marriage? Bart Elman thoroughly debunks the fallacies of all these claims. However, this book is not merely a list of Dan Brown's misinterpretations of history. Throughout the book, Elman provides a wealth of background information on early Christianity, presented in an engaging and historically accurate manner. 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 literature, and explores other gospels discovered in the past half-century. Elman distinguishes between truth and fiction, between historical reality and literary fantasy. If readers of The Da Vinci Code wish to learn the truth about the origins of Christianity and the life of Jesus, they will find this book a fascinating and enlightening read. How much of The Da Vinci Code is fact? From a certain perspective, the 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 that "all descriptions of art, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this book are true." Is it really so? 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 them. Therefore, many of the so-called facts in the book are actually fictional constructs of his novel. The purpose of my discussion is to help anyone interested in understanding the historical origins of Christianity, 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.