5 BIGGEST FLAWS IN 'DA VINCI'
Fiction : The Priory of Sion is an ancient group charged with protecting the secret of the real Holy Grail, and Leonardo da Vinci was a Grand Master of the Priory of Sion.
Fact : The Priory of Sion was established in 1956 by a crackpot Frenchman who was exposed as a fraud in the French media in the 1980s. The documents claiming Leonardo's role were forged and planted in French archives in the 1960s. Since there was no Priory of Sion in the way that The Da Vinci Code describes it, Leonardo couldn't have been a part of it. Simple logic.
- If they are charged with keeping "the greatest con know to man" they probably wouldn't reveal themselves and would discredit anyone who tried to prove their existence and with the power/influence they apparently have, it wouldn't be too diffucult
Fiction : Politics determined what Gospels made it into the Bible.
Fact : By the mid-second century, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were widely accepted as the foundational texts of Christianity. The criteria had nothing to do with gender or power. It was all about whether they reflected the witness of the apostles about Jesus, how old they were, and how useful they were for the entire church, instead of just a small group.
- The fact proves the fiction, politics (age, usefuleness) dictated which books were used. Will the newfound Judas books make it in? Was he old enough? His teachings useful enough?
Fiction : Constantine invented the divinity of Christ in 325.
Fact : Even a cursory look at textual evidence shows that Christians worshipped Jesus as Lord long before Constantine's reign. The Council of Nicaea was called to address a heresy called Arianism, which taught that Jesus wasn't fully divine.
- Does textual evidence mean the Bible? Because if that's the evidence it's not very good evidence, seeing as the Bible was rewritten with certain parts added/subtracted for a long, long time. It was first transferred orally, then monks would copy it and add their own flavor in the margins which the next guy would add into the actual text.
Fiction : Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married.
Fact : The Gospels are all very forthright about Jesus' familial relations, and they don't hide the existence of Mary Magdalene, either. If they had been married, there would have been no reason to hide the fact.
- The whole basis of the DaVinci Code is why they hid the fact, people didn't believe other people could believe that Jesus was the Son of God if he was married, he would be seen as a little more human. It's been over a year since I read the book so I don't remember the specifics, but that's the basic gist. Heck, the Bible leaves out a whole lot of Jesus' life as it is, he's born, has a couple adolosent adventures, then is a fully grown adult. Why can't the fact that he had a wife and kid have been "lost" during one of the revisions to the story.
Fiction : Christianity demonized Mary Magdalene in order to suppress her influence.
Fact : Mary Magdalene is a saint. In every Gospel, she is cited as the first person to find the empty tomb. She was the second-most revered saint of the Middle Ages, after Mary, Jesus' mother. That's an odd way to demonize.
- The way she's been demonized is by making the entire religion think she's a prositute. Not exactly a great reputation to be given. Plus, the fact that she was the first to see the empty tomb and be regarded as the second most revered saint seems to suggest she was a little more than a friend/disciple of Jesus.
I'm not saying the theory presented in the DaVinci Code is true or not, but it does offer an interesting theory which is just as plausible as a virgin getting pregnant.
