India Today

Newspaper Review by: ishika

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DAVINCI ‘UN’CODE
FACTS & FACTOIDS
T.S.Eliot defined the task of an art critic as “the elucidation

of works of art and correction of taste” (‘The Function of Criticism”,1923). It is important for an art lover to critically engage-clarify and correct –any piece of art work. The quasi-historical thriller ,The Da Vinci Code (DVC),which has already sold a staggering figure of over 40 million copies and has now been released as a blockbuster movie, should be read/viewed by applying the same criteria.
Listed below are some clarifications and corrections.
1.
Factoid: Regarding the Martial Status of Jesus: In Chapter 58, after citing a passage from ‘The Gospel of Philip’, which refers to Mary Magdalene as the ‘companion’ of Jesus, Dan Brown writes ; “ As any Aramaic scholar will tell you, the word companion in those days, literally meant spouse”.
Fact: The Gospel of Philip was written at least 150 years after Christ by Gnostic writer(s). Gnostics had no regard for history as they believed that an evil God created the world. In other words, Gnostics were not writing as historians. Even if one overlooks this fact, there is no reason to the check word companion with an Aramaic scholar because the ‘The Gospel of Philip’ is originally written in Greek and not in Aramaic!!!
2.
Factoid: Regarding Mary Magdalene: In Chapter 60, Dan Brown writes, “ The Church , in order to defend itself against Magdalene’s power ,perpetuated her image as a whore and buried evidence of Christ’s marriage to her, thereby diffusing any potential claims that Christ has a surviving bloodline and was a mortal prophet”
Fact: It is true that a few Christians at certain period in history considered Mary Magdalene as a prostitute. However this is wrong understanding is not derived from the biblical gospels written in the first century by Jesus’ disciples. It was Pope Gregory who first said this in 591 AD . He wrongly interpreted the anonymous prostitute who was saved by Jesus from the hypocritical religious leaders, who wanted to stone her (see John 8: 1-11 in Bible), as Mary Magdalene. Moreover, the only four references in the bible related to Mary Magdalene give us an empowered image of womanhood including that she financially supported Jesus in his ministry(see Luke 10: 38-42,Luke 8:1-3,Mark 15:40 and John 20:1-18).
3
Factoid: Regarding Divinity of Jesus: In Chapter 55,Dan Brown writes that Jesus’ divinity was the result of a vote and till then Jesus was viewed as a mere human. He writes ,”the establishment as the ‘Son of God’ was officially proposed and voted on by the council of Nicaea”. He adds that it was ‘a relatively close vote’
Fact: The Council of Nicaea did not discuss between the ‘humanity ‘ and ‘divinity’ of Jesus. They only discussed about the nature of his divinity. Moreover out of 300 votes that were casted, 298 reconfirmed what the Bible has thought: Jesus is the eternal God who incarnated. (298 Vs 2,how close is it)
4.
Factoid: Regarding what Christians believed till 3rd Century AD. In Chapter 55,Dan Brown writes, “until that moment (council of Nicaea) in history, Jesus was viewed by his followers as a mortal prophet… a great powerful man, but a man nonetheless. A moral.”
Fact: Here are some quotes from the pre-Nicaea Church Fathers:
Ignatius of Antioch(circa 110AD): “For our God, Jesus Christ, was conceived by Mary in accord with God’s plan: of the seed of David, it is true, but also of the Holy Spirit”
Melito of Sardis(circa 177AD): “The activities of Christ after his baptism, and especially his miracles, gave indication and assurance to the world of the deity hidden in his flesh. Being God and like wise perfect man, he gave positive indications of his two natures”
Clement of Alexandria(circa 190AD):”The Word, then, the Christ, is the cause both of our ancient beginning-for he was in God-and of our well-being. And now this same word has appeared as man. He alone is both God and man, and the source of all our good things”
5.
Factoid: Regarding the Bible: In Chapter 55 Dan Brown writes, “ The Bible , as we know it today, was collated by the pagan Roman emperor Constantine the Great”. Again,” More than 80 gospels were considered for the New Testament, and yet only a relative few were chosen for inclusion-Mathew, Mark, Luke and John among them.”
Fact: The only part in this statement which is a fact is that Rome had an emperor named Constantine. The connection between Bible and Constantine is recorded by ancient historian Eusebius, contemporary of Constantine and his admirer. Constantine ordered to make 50 copies (and not of collating) of sacred scripture-Bible, which in fact assumes its prior existence. Second, even if one broadly defines the word ‘gospel’ and include all reference to any gospel till the 3rd century, the numbered arrived at is 20 and not 80. the writers of other ‘gospels’ (Gnostics) considered history as deceptive , unlike the writers of the four ‘chosen’ gospels. Moreover, Gnostic gospels in contrast to the four gospels of the Bible have little or no biographical information about Jesus, are mainly secret sayings without multiple witnesses and are mostly dated much later than gospels of the Bible. In other words, the difference between the Gnostic gospels and the ‘chosen’ four is the difference between myth and history. ...