Notes From Chapter 5 of "Cracking Da Vinci's Code" by G&J
False statements of DB (Dan Brown) in the Da Vinci Code:
1. The Church has re-written history to present a one sided account of the
faith. (pg 233 - 235)
2. The Church has suppressed knowledge about the marriage of Jesus and Mary
Magdalene that if known would destroy Christianity (pg 244,249)
3. Church knows the location of the Holy Grail (pg 266)
4. Jews in Jesus' time were forbidden to remain unmarried (pg 245)
Teabing, the historian in Da Vinci Code, claims that history is written by
"winners". So the church as a "winner" falsified its history, and DB's version
of the church history is right. There is one problem with this fanciful theory,
about the history of the Church. The Church's history and the account of Jesus
was written when the Church was a "looser".
Most authors believe that nearly all books of the New Testament were written
prior to 70 AD - within 40 years of Jesus' death. During this period of time
and for 250 years after that, the Christians were a minority. They were
persecuted, killed and crucified for their beliefs by the Jews, Romans and
others. Even the apostles who went outside these lands, were martyred by rulers
of far away places. In the case of apostle Thomas it was in Madras,
India. Till the early fourth century when Christian persecution was at its
peak, there was nothing to be gained to believe in Christ, his message and in
recounting the history of the Church. Contrary to DB, and through the fictional
historian Teabing, there is no historical record that Jesus was married.
Historians first encounter a reference to the 'Holy Grail' in the 12th
century. The 'Priory of Sion' even according to DB was formed in 1099 to
protect the Holy Grail which if exist, did so from 33AD. The only problem the
group "Priory of Sion", was a fictional creation of a Frenchman named
Plantard. He spent time in a French prison for fraud in 1953. Leonardo da
Vinci is claimed by DB to be grandmaster of the 'Priory of Sion' in 1510-1519;
an organization that did not exists during Leonardo's time.
Regards, GL
