The Truth About

The Da Vinci Code

Responding to the movie’s claims
 Questions From the Book:
• Is Jesus God?
• Is the Bible true?
• Was Jesus married?
• Lost Books of the Bible - Are They Real?
• What is the Sacred Feminine?
• What about the Holy Grail?
 Is Jesus God?
“My dear,” Teabing, declared, "until that moment in history,
Jesus was viewed by His followers as a mortal prophet. . .
a great and powerful man, but a man nevertheless.
A mortal."

"Not the Son of God?"

"Right," Teabing, said. "Jesus' establishment as the Son

of God was officially proposed and voted on by the
Council of Nicaea."

The Da Vinci Code p. 233

 Is Jesus God?
• Fact: Jesus was viewed as divine from the very
beginning of Christianity. He is referred to as God at
least seven times in the New Testament and Lord as a
divine title many other times.

• Fact: The earliest documents from the Christian church

ascribe to Jesus divine status.

• Fact: The entire flow of the Old Testament requires that

God come into the world, as Immanuel (God-with-us e.g.
Isaiah 7:14).
 Is Jesus God?
"Many scholars claim that the early
Church literally stole Jesus from His
original followers."

Sir Leigh Teabing, The Da Vinci Code p. 233

 Is Jesus God?
• Fact: Even non-Christian writings from Romans such as
Celsus, Pliny and Lucian state that the Christians
venerated Jesus as God.

• Fact: Jesus' original followers were routinely martyred

for their belief that Jesus was God - a belief they would
not recant even unto death.

• Fact: It is always possible to find someone holding such

a view, but to claim there are many is simply untrue.
 Is the Bible True?
"The Bible is a product of man my dear, not
of God."

Sir Leigh Teabing, The Da Vinci Code p. 231

 Is the Bible True?
• Fact: The Bible is the most reliable book of antiquity -
with more manuscript evidence and less significant
variations deviation than any other, by a long shot.

• Fact: The Bible demonstrates its inspired origin in many

ways, including its lofty doctrine, its historical precision,
its predictive prophecy and the way that it was acclaimed
by Old and New Testament figures, especially Jesus and
the apostles.
 Is the Bible True?
"[The Bible] has evolved through countless
translations, additions, and revisions.
History has never had a definitive version
of the book."
Sir Leigh Teabing, The Da Vinci Code p. 231
 Is the Bible True?
• Fact: The New Testament has more manuscript
evidence for its preservation as the original authors
wrote than any other book in antiquity.

• Fact: The nearly complete consistency between the

many versions is recognized as an astonishing testimony
to its single origin.
 Is the Bible True?
"The Bible as we know it today was collated
by the pagan Roman emperor Constantine
the Great."

Sir Leigh Teabing, The Da Vinci Code p. 231

 Is the Bible True?
• Fact: The earliest testimony we have today of a list
which corresponds exactly to our New Testament is from
Athanasius of Alexandria, in 367. However, the concept
of a New Testament, and much of its content are
attested as early as I Clement (95 AD), and is essentially
the same as ours by the mid second century, which is
175 years before the Constantine’s rule (306-337).

• Fact: Tradition strongly suggests Constantine became a

Christian in 312. He did a lot for the church, including
forbidding persecutions and calling councils, but it would
not have occurred to him to collate the Bible.
 Is the Bible True?
"Fortunately for historians, some of the
gospels Constantine tried to eradicate
somehow survived (in the Dead Sea
Scrolls)."

Sir Leigh Teabing, The Da Vinci Code p. 234

 Is the Bible True?
• Fact: There are two main types of documents
contained in the scrolls: Biblical books (all
except Esther), and a large collection of
documents, some complete, some in fragments
of stuff written by the Essenes. However, there
is no Christian literature in the Dead Sea scrolls
at all!

• Fact: Not only was no attempt made to suppress

these books, but they cast considerable light on
the New Testament background.
 Was Jesus Married?
“Jesus was the original feminist. He
intended for the future of the church to be
in the hands of Mary Magdalene”

Sir Leigh Teabing, The Da Vinci Code

p.248
 Was Jesus Married?
• Fact: If Jesus had married Mary Magdalene, we would
expect to see some type of her veneration in the history
of the early church – like we see for Mary Jesus’ mother.
However, there exists no reference or tradition
anywhere to worship or veneration of Mary Magdalene.

• Fact: The Son of God came to earth not to start a family

but to save the Church, which is his true bride
(Ephesians 5:22-33)
 Was Jesus Married?
“If Jesus were not married, at least one of
the Bible's gospel's would have mentioned
it and offered some explanation for His
unnatural state of bachelorhood.”

Robert Langdon The Da Vinci Code p.245

 Was Jesus Married?
• Fact: Whenever Jesus' family is referred to, it is his
brothers and sisters who are mentioned, but never a
wife. Contrast this to descriptions of the rest of the
apostles, Peter, and the brothers of the Lord - all of
whom are said to have had wives.

• Fact: At the crucifixion, Jesus shows no special concern

for the care of Mary Magdalene as he does his mother.

• Fact: This claim commits the fallacy of Hasty

Generalization – just because the majority of Jews would
be married, it doesn’t follow that EVERY Jew would be.
 Was Jesus Married?
"When Grail legend speaks of 'the chalice
that held the blood of Christ' … it speaks,
in fact, of Mary Magdalene - the female
womb that carried Jesus' royal bloodline."

Sir Leigh Teabing, The Da Vinci Code p.249

 Was Jesus Married?
• Fact: There exists no mention of a wife in any scripture
of Jesus, in his ministry, when he was tried and crucified,
or after his death.

• Fact: The legend of the Grail is indeed about the lost

cup from the Last Supper. But biblical language about a
mothers’ womb is always a reference to gestation and
protection, never about bloodlines. Indeed, shed blood
was always about the opposite of birth, that is, death.
 Was Jesus Married?
"Companion of savior is Mary Magdalene.
Christ loved her more than all the disciples
and used to kiss her often on the mouth.
The disciples were offended at this."

Gospel of Philip The Da Vinci Code p. 246

 Was Jesus Married?
• Fact: This passage comes from the Gnostic gospel of
Philip and was written very late. It was written in Coptic,
not Aramaic or Hebrew, and there IS no word in Aramaic
where companion means spouse.

• Fact: The actual manuscript is broken at this passage,

so we don't know where it claims Jesus kissed Mary.

• Fact: The Gospel of Philip is a Gnostic document, and

Gnostics held that the physical expression of sex is not
sacred or spiritual - it actually defiles the soul who
believes by holding to the corrupt physical.
 Lost Books of the Bible
"More than eighty gospels were considered
for the New Testament, and yet only a
relatively few were chosen."

Sir Leigh Teabing, The Da Vinci Code

p.231
 Lost Books of the Bible
• Fact: Other than the four recognized gospels, there are
only eleven ancient documents still in existence today
that are called "gospel" .

• Fact: In all of antiquity, there are only twenty eight other

sources no longer in existence that are cited or
mentioned in Jewish or Gnostic writings as gospels.

• Fact: Most of the Gnostic works are rejected because

they are too late to be written by the purported authors,
they rely heavily on the stories in the existing gospels,
and they contradict the beliefs taught in the orthodox
gospels.
 Lost Books of the Bible
"The Nag Hammadi and the Dead Sea
Scrolls [are] the earliest Christian
records."

Sir Leigh Teabing, The Da Vinci Code

p.245
 Lost Books of the Bible
• Fact: All of the Biblical gospels date from the last half of
the first century, where the two texts the Da Vinci Code
relies on most, the gospel of Philip and the gospel of
Mary Magdalene, are from the third to fifth century.
 Lost Books of the Bible
"Constantine commissioned and financed a
new Bible, which omitted those gospels
that spoke of Christ's human traits and
embellished those gospels that made Him
godlike.”

Sir Leigh Teabing, The Da Vinci Code

p.234
 Lost Books of the Bible
• Fact: All four canonical gospels exist in lists of church
scripture as early as Papias (c. 115 AD) and Justin
Martyr (d. 165) and no other gospels ever appear in any
list as authoritative.

• Fact: Constantine did not summon the council of Nicaea

until A.D. 325 - far too late for this claim to be taken
seriously.
 Lost Books of the Bible
“Those who 'chose' the original history of
Christ were the world's first heretics.”

Sir Leigh Teabing, The Da Vinci Code

p.234
 Lost Books of the Bible
• Fact: The Gnostic gospels reflect a line of thinking that
didn't arise until the second century, and it was criticized
by the early church fathers Irenaeus, Hippolytus and
Tertullian.

• Fact: Irenaeus makes it clear that the so-called gospels

of the Gnostics are heretical precisely because they
were secret documents. The Apostolic writings
commend themselves because they are public and
verifiable.
 The Sacred Feminine
"Powerful men in the early church ‘conned’
the world by propagating lies that
devalued the female and tipped the scales
in favor of the masculine."

Robert Langdon, The Da Vinci Code p.124

 The Sacred Feminine
• Fact: The Advent of Christianity radically transformed
the fate of women. Even ancient Roman pagan scholars
agree that it was a turning point for the freedom and
dignity of women.

• Fact: According to sociology scholar Steven Goldberg,

“The findings of the past 50 years [have] failed to include
a single shred of evidence that such matriarchies had
ever existed… All the claims of societies ruled by women
are nonsense. We have no reason to believe they ever
existed.”
 The Sacred Feminine
"Constantine and his male successors
successfully converted the world from
matriarchal paganism to patriarchal
Christianity by waging a campaign of
propaganda that demonized the sacred
feminine."

Robert Langdon, The Da Vinci Code p.124

 The Sacred Feminine
• Fact: Christian women were powerful witnesses to
Jesus' message, often despite the sinfulness of a male-
dominated culture. Examples throughout many centuries
include: Perpetua, Monica, Clare, Teresa of Avila, Julian
of Norwich, Catherine of Sienna, Katherina von Bora,
Susanna Wesley, Catherine Booth, Mother Teresa, and
Anne Graham Lotz.
 The Sacred Feminine
"According to these unaltered gospels, it
was not Peter to whom Christ gave
directions with which to establish the
Christian Church. It was Mary
Magdalene."
Sir Leigh Teabing, The Da Vinci Code p.248
 The Sacred Feminine
• Fact: The Gnostic Gospel of Thomas, to which the book
refers, records Jesus as wanting to transform Mary
Magdalene into a man to make her acceptable to enter
heaven.
 The Sacred Feminine
"The Priory [of Sion's] membership has
included some of history's most cultured
individuals: men like Botticelli, Sir Isaac
Newton, victor Hugo... and Leonardo Da
Vinci... The Priory has a well documented
history of reverence for the sacred
feminine."

Robert Langdon, The Da Vinci Code p.113

 The Sacred Feminine
• Fact: The modern Priory of Sion was created in 1954 by
Pierre Plantard. All documents “proving” a blood line
and a list of historical Priory members were proven to be
forged in a French court of law.

• Fact: Much of the supposed research done for The Da

Vinci Code is embarrassingly incorrect
 The Holy Grail
"Mary Magdalene became secretly known
by many pseudonyms - the Chalice, the
Holy Grail..."

Sir Leigh Teabing, The Da Vinci Code p.254

 The Holy Grail
• Fact: Before the twelfth century, there were no legends
about the grail; by the thirteenth century, the tale had
become intertwined with Arthurian legends. The
characters from Chretien's story developed into
supposed historical figures from the Gospels, and the
grail had become the Holy Grail.
 The Holy Grail
""The word Sangreal derives from San Greal
- or Holy Grail. But in the most ancient
form, the word Sangreal was divided in a
different spot.. Sang Real .. literally
mean[ing] Royal Blood."

Sir Leigh Teabing, The Da Vinci Code p.250

 The Holy Grail
• Fact: There is no historical evidence to connect the
ancient female symbol of the chalice to the Holy Grail,
since the grail's concept can only be traced back as far
as the twelfth century.

• Fact: The re-division of the word Sangreal into Sang

Real or Royal Blood appears to be completely
manufactured.
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