and fury, signifying nothing.
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Rick Archer
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> The Truth at the Heart of 'The Da Vinci Code'
>
> by Elaine Pagels
>
> [Elaine Pagels, author of The Gnostic Gospels and Beyond Belief:
The Secret
> Gospel of Thomas, is a professor of religion at Princeton. She
wrote this
> article for the Perspective section of the San Jose Mercury News.]
>
>
>
> Archbishop Angelo Amato, a top Vatican official, recently railed
against The
> Da Vinci Code as a work "full of calumnies, offenses and
historical and
> theological errors.'' As a historian, I would agree that no
reputable
> scholar has ever found evidence of author Dan Brown's assertion
that Jesus
> and Mary Magdalene married and had a child, and no scholar would
take
> seriously Brown's conspiracy theories about the Catholic group
Opus Dei.
>
> But what is compelling about Brown's work of fiction, and part of
what may
> be worrying Catholic and evangelical leaders, is not the book's
many
> falsehoods.
>
> What has kept Brown on the bestseller list for years and inspired
a movie
> is, instead, what is true that some views of Christian history
were buried
> for centuries because leaders of the early Catholic Church wanted
to present
> one version of Jesus' life: theirs.
>
> Some of the alternative views of who Jesus was and what he taught
were
> discovered in 1945 when a farmer in Egypt accidentally dug up an
ancient jar
> containing more than 50 ancient writings. These documents include
gospels
> that were banned by early church leaders, who declared them
blasphemous.
>
> It is not surprising that The Da Vinci Code builds on the idea
that many
> early gospels were hidden and previously unknown. Brown has said
that part
> of his inspiration was one of these so-called Gnostic Gospels as
presented
> in a book I wrote on the subject. It took only three lines from
the Gospel
> of Philip to send Brown off to write his novel:
>
> The companion of the savior is Mary Magdalene. And Jesus loved her
more than
> all the disciples, and used to kiss her often... The rest of the
disciples
> were jealous, and said to him, "Why do you love her more than all
of us?''
>
> Those who have studied the Gospel of Philip see it as a mystical
text and
> don't take the suggestion that Jesus had a sexual relationship
with Mary
> Magdalene literally.
>
> Still, by homing in on that passage and building a book around it,
Brown
> brought up subjects that the Catholic Church would like to avoid.
He raised
> the big what-ifs: What if the version of Jesus' life that
Christians are
> taught isn't the right one? And perhaps as troubling in a still-
patriarchal
> church: What if Mary Magdalene played a more important role in
Jesus' life
> than we've been led to believe, not as his wife perhaps, but as a
beloved
> and valued disciple?
>
> In other words, what Brown did with his runaway hit was popularize
awareness
> of the discovery of many other secret gospels, including the
Gospel of Judas
> that was published in April.
>
> There have long been hints that the New Testament wasn't the only
version of
> Jesus' life that existed, and that even the gospels presented
there were
> subject to misinterpretation. In 1969, for instance, the Catholic
Church
> ruled that Mary Magdalene was not a prostitute, as many people had
been
> taught. The church blamed the error on Pope Gregory the Great, who
in 591
> A.D. gave a sermon in which he apparently conflated several women
in the
> Bible, including Mary Magdalene and an unnamed sinner who washes
Jesus' feet
> with her tears.
>
> But even that news didn't reach all Christians, and it is the rare
religious
> leader who now works hard to spread the word that the New
Testament is just
> one version of events crafted in the intellectual free-for-all
after
> Christ's death. At that time, church leaders were competing with
each other
> to figure out what Christ said, what he meant -- and perhaps most
important,
> what writings would best support the emerging church.
>
> What we know now is that the scholars who championed
the "Gnostic'' gospels
> are among the ones who lost the battle.
>
> In the decades after Jesus' death, these texts and many others were
> circulating widely among Christian groups from Egypt to Rome,
Africa to
> Spain, and from today's Turkey and Syria to France. So many
Christians
> throughout the world knew and revered these books that it took
more than 200
> years for hardworking church leaders who denounced the texts to
successfully
> suppress them.
>
> The copies discovered in 1945, for example, were taken from the
sacred
> library of one of the earliest monasteries in Egypt, founded about
10 years
> after the conversion of Constantine, the first Roman emperor to
join the
> fledgling church. For the first time, Christians were no longer
treated as
> members of a dangerous and seditious group and could form open
communities
> in which many lived together. Like monks today, they kept in their
monastery
> libraries a very wide range of books they read aloud for
inspiration.
>
> But these particular texts appeared to upset Athanasius, then
archbishop of
> Alexandria; in the year 367 he sent out an Easter Letter to monks
all over
> Egypt ordering them to reject what he called "illegitimate and
secret
> books.'' Apparently, some monks at the Egyptian monastery defied
the
> archbishop's order and took more than 50 of the books out of the
library,
> sealed them in a heavy jar and buried them under the cliff where
they were
> found 1,600 years later.
>
> In ordering the books destroyed, Athanasius was continuing the
battle
> against the "Gnostic'' gospels begun 200 years earlier by his
revered
> predecessor, Bishop Irenaeus, who was so distressed that certain
Christians
> in his congregations in rural Gaul (present day France) treasured
such
> "illegitimate and secret writing'' that he labeled them heretics.
Irenaeus
> insisted that of the dozens of writings revered by various
Christians, only
> four were genuine -- and these, as you guessed already, are those
now in the
> New Testament, called by the names of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and
John.
>
> Irenaeus said there could be only four gospels because, according
to the
> science of the time, there were four principal winds and four
pillars that
> hold up the sky. Why these four gospels? He explained that only
they were
> actually written by eyewitnesses of the events they describe --
Jesus'
> disciples Matthew and John, or by Luke and Mark, who were
disciples of the
> disciples.
>
> Few scholars today would agree with Irenaeus. We cannot verify who
actually
> wrote any of these accounts, and many scholars agree that the
disciples
> themselves are not likely to be their authors. Beyond that, nearly
all the
> gospels that Irenaeus detested are also attributed to disciples --
some,
> including the Gospel of Thomas, to the original 12 apostles.
Nonetheless,
> Athanasius and other church leaders succeeded in suppressing the
gospels
> they (and Irenaeus) called illegitimate, won the emperor's favor
and
> succeeded in dominating the church.
>
> What, then, do these texts say, and why did certain leaders find
them so
> threatening?
>
> First, they suggest that the way to God can be found by anyone who
seeks.
> According to the Gospel of Thomas, Jesus suggests that when we
come to know
> ourselves at the deepest level, we come to know God: "If you bring
forth
> what is within you, what you bring forth will save you.'' This
message to
> seek for oneself was not one that bishops like Irenaeus
appreciated:
> Instead, he insisted, one must come to God through the
church, "outside of
> which,'' he said, "there is no salvation.''
>
> Second, in texts that the bishops called "heresy,'' Jesus appears
as human,
> yet one through whom the light of God now shines. So, according to
the
> Gospel of Thomas, Jesus said, "I am the light that is before all
things; I
> am all things; all things come forth from me; all things return to
me. Split
> a piece of wood, and I am there; lift up a rock, and you will find
me
> there.'' To Irenaeus, the thought of the divine energy manifested
through
> all creation, even rocks and logs, sounded dangerously like
pantheism.
> People might end up thinking that they could be like Jesus
themselves and,
> in fact, the Gospel of Philip says,
>
> "Do not seek to become a Christian, but a Christ.'' As Irenaeus
read this,
> it was not mystical language, but "an abyss of madness, and
blasphemy
> against Christ.''
>
> Worst of all, perhaps, was that many of these secret texts speak
of God not
> only in masculine images, but also in feminine images. The Secret
Book of
> John tells how the disciple John, grieving after Jesus was
crucified,
> suddenly saw a vision of a brilliant light, from which he heard
Jesus' voice
> speaking to him: "John, John, why do you weep? Don't you recognize
who I am?
> I am the Father; I am the Mother; and I am the Son.'' After a
moment of
> shock, John realizes that the divine Trinity includes not only
Father and
> Son but also the divine Mother, which John sees as the Holy
Spirit, the
> feminine manifestation of the divine.
>
> But the Gospel of Mary Magdalene -- along with the Gospel of
Thomas, the
> Dialogue of the Savior, and the Gospel of Philip - all show
Peter, the
> leader of the disciples, challenging the presence of women among
the
> disciples. We hear Peter saying to Jesus, "Tell Mary to leave us,
because
> women are not worthy of (spiritual) life.'' Peter complains that
Mary talks
> too much, displacing the role of the male disciples. But Jesus
tells Peter
> to stop, not Mary! No wonder these texts were not admitted into
the canon of
> a church that would be ruled by an all-male clergy for 2,000 years.
>
> Those possibilities opened by the "Gnostic'' gospels -- that God
could have
> a feminine side and that Jesus could be human -- are key ideas
that Dan
> Brown explored in "The Da Vinci Code,'' and are no doubt part of
what made
> the book so alluring. But the truth is that the texts he based his
novel
> upon contain much deeper and more important mysteries than the
ones Tom
> Hanks tries to solve in the movie version that opened this weekend.
>
> The real mystery is what Christianity and Western civilization
would look
> like had the "Gnostic'' gospels never been banned. Because of the
discovery
> by that Egyptian farmer in 1945, we now at least have the chance
to hear
> what the "heretics'' were saying, and imagine what might have been.
>
> ------------
>
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