Hi Cornel, I have not seen the movie Da Vinci Code and I do not plan to do so. I have seen several programs on the two books on my favorite TV station - the History Channel. Today I saw something on the Travel channel - in Southern France, UK or Mid East. As a student of History and travel, I love to learn something new. Yet something hyped like the Da Vinci Story (at least from the TV series on the novel) turns me off.
So right now, I am only amazed by all this hullabaloo about this fictional account, which the authors of both books admit at the outset as being fictional. Another fact that humors me is that we ignore the Bible written by known authors - the apostles' account. Yet we add much weight to the Judas Gospel and other documents where we do not know who was the author and when was it written. Obviously a few hundred years after Christ there was much differences in "Jesus' Followers" with different geographical areas / sects of the following having different interpretations. I guess this depended on the archbishop and his bias. The last TV program said that the concept of Jesus being married and having a wife (believed by the Egyptian sect called the Gnostic), mirrored the Egyptian view of god Osiris and his wife Isis. So it would appear that this Egyptian sect tried to make Jesus acceptable to the local population by portraying Jesus in a manner of the "known entity" - the Egyptian God Osiris. Perhaps as a reincarnation Osiris? This is not different from Paul presenting Jesus' teaching as an evolution of Jewish faith as Paul's main audience were, like him, Jews scattered across Greco-Roman territories in Asia Minor, Greece and Italy. And this is no different in the way Europeans view Jesus as a white person and African's view him as black. We all know in the Middle Ages, and perhaps even now, the common way churches raised funds and built bigger churches was by having local saints, relics, pilgrimages, and creating other exciting stories like their church has the Holy Grail. That was the likely start of the story of the "discovered documents" started by the priest in Southern France in the late 1500's. He "found" the Templar documents in the little chapel that was crumbling. Neat way to get people to come to France and his church to make offerings. The French word "Sangraal" first appeared in a poem in France in the Middle Ages. This is 1200 years after Christ. Kind Regards, GL PS: On a related point. You are for availability of the book "Da Vinci Code" in India (which I agree). But you are for banning the distribution of the Bible (evangelization) in India. Changing standards would you not say?. My stand is I am in favor of Christian conversions in India and Hindu conversions in USA as long as in both (and other) cases there is no overt or covert coercion. ------------ cornel As a matter of interest, I couldn't tell from your long post(s) whether you have seen the controversial film The DaVinci Code or are planning to do so. From: "Gilbert Lawrence" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > It looks like your thinking cap was in the microwave getting > super-charged.:=)) I have to state at the outset that I am not as smart > in connecting the dots (real and im I could not find the decode words as Dan > Brown found in his research when he read all those documents from Jerusalem > to Southern France. _____________________________________________ Do not post admin requests to the list. Goanet mailing list (Goanet@goanet.org)
