Imagination or Historical Evidence?

The Da Vinci Code and the Scriptures

by Dr. Darryl DelHousaye

The Da Vinci Code claims:The Bible is not the Word of God

“The Bible is a product of man, my dear, not of God. The Bible did not fall magically from the clouds. Man created it as a historical record of tumultuous times, and it has evolved through countless translations, additions, and revisions. History has never had a definitive version of the book…the fundamental irony of Christianity! The Bible, as we know it today, was collected by the pagan Roman emperor Constantine the Great.” (Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code p.231)

Christianity responds:

The Scriptures themselves claim to be the inspired Word of God (2 Tim 3:16). Peter explains that the Spirit of God came upon apostles and prophets and filled them with His revelation (2 Peter 1:16-21). Paul adds his experience (1 Cor 2:9-13).

But there weren’t additions or revisions; we have over 5,000 ancient New Testament manuscripts dating back into the second century affirming the present New Testament. Constantine had nothing to do with creating the New Testament. These books were recognized and used by general consensus of Christians since the birth of the church.

There is a huge ten-volume set of writings called the Ante-Nicene Fathers with thousands of pages of writings by Christian teachers and scholars before 325 AD. They speak of the books of the New Testament as Scripture, the very words of God. The chief test for a book to be considered part of the New Testament was whether it was written by an apostle or a prophet or other writer endorsed by apostle (John 16:12-15). That’s why Paul says this in Ephesians 2:20. “Having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone".

The scholar Bishop Westcott put it this way: “The extent of the canon was settled by common usage and, thus, the testimony of Christians became the testimony of the church.”

The Da Vinci Code claims: We do not have the right Gospels

“More than eighty gospels were considered for the New Testament and yet only relative few were chosen for inclusion: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John among them… 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. The earlier gospels were outlawed, gathered up, and burned.” ( The Da Vinci Code p.234)

Christianity responds:

First of all there are not “eighty gospels”, but only seventeen that are put forth as accounts of the life of Jesus.

Justin Martyr lived in the second century and died in 165 AD. Here’s what he said: “on the day called Sunday there is a gathering together to one place of all those who live in cities or in the country, and the Memoirs of The Apostles or the writing of the prophets are read, as long as time permits.”

Irenaeus who lived in the 2nd century died in 180 AD. He tells us that the fourfold Gospel had become known already as the testimony of the life of Jesus in his time.

Origen, who lived in the early 200 AD said “the only undisputed Gospels are Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John."

In 170 AD, Tatian published his Diatessaron. Dia “through” and essaron “four” which were Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John woven into one long narrative. The church at that time believed these were the four authentic gospels and all others were unreliable and not part of Scripture.

The Da Vinci Code claims: Archeology proves the gospels are wrong

“Some of the gospels that Constantine attempted to eradicate managed to survive. The Dead Sea scrolls were found in the 1950’s hidden in a cave near Aumran in the Judean desert. And, of course, the Coptic Scrolls in 1945 at Nag Hammadi.” ( The Da Vinci Code p.234)

Christianity responds:

Let me comment on these two archaeological finds: The Dead Sea Scrolls and The Coptic Scrolls of Nag Hammadi.

The Dead Sea Scrolls have nothing to do with Jesus. In 1947 a Bedouin shepherd named Muhammad was searching for his lost goat and came upon an opening to a cave on the side of a cliff. He threw a stone in and heard pottery break. Scrolls were found carefully sealed for 1900 years, placed there around AD 68. Other caves were found and other jars with scrolls in them. These became known as the Dead Sea scrolls.

What is interesting is that there was a complete copy of the book of Isaiah found matching almost completely with our earliest manuscript dating 1,000 years later in the tenth century AD. There had been no revisions or additions. But the point is there is nothing said about Jesus in the Dead Sea Scrolls.

As for the Coptic Scrolls found at Nag Hammadi, In December of 1945 an Arab peasant discovered an earthenware jar with 13 papyrus books bound in leather. These became known as The Gnostic Gospels.

Let me tell you about the Gnostics, one of the earliest attacks on Christianity. Gnosticism came about with an early attempt to combine Greek philosophy, Hinduism and Buddhism with Christianity after Christianity had been around for a while. They believed in both a father god and a mother goddess.

The Gnostics opposed Christianity. They believed God could never become a man because flesh was evil. The Gnostic Gospels were written long after Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.To give them credibility, they gave them pseudonyms like: Thomas, Philip, Peter, and Mary.

The Gospel of Philip was not written until the third century AD, over two hundred years after Jesus. Do you want a first century eyewitness account or speculation about Jesus hundreds of years later by a cult? This is like you writing a personal account of Abraham Lincoln.

In the ninth century legends began to develop about the life of Jesus and this is when speculation about marriage, children, and Jesus came about. As a matter of fact the very legend of the Chalice, the Holy Grail, did not come alone, they believed that until the 12^th century.

Because the Gnostics believe God could not become a man, Jesus could not have taken on flesh. In the “Acts of John,” one of the more famous Gnostic texts found before Nag Hammadi, it explains that Jesus was not a human being at all but instead a spiritual being who adapted himself to human perception. Some of them believed Jesus was a spirit who did not leave footprints, others believed the “Christ” part came upon a man named Jesus only for a while and left him before he was executed.

The Coptic scrolls are all Gnostic writings including books like The Gospel of Thomas, The Gospel of Philip, The Gospel of Truth, and others. The Gnostic writings were never part of the Christian faith.

Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons in 180 AD denounced them as “full of blasphemy” and because of their attack on the four gospels declared that the “heretics boasts that they possess more gospels than really are.” Irenaeus, in his five volume work entitled, “The Destruction And Overthrow Of Falsely So-Called Knowledge” begins with “…to show how absurd and inconsistent with the truth are their statements…I do this so that…you may urge all those with whom you are connected to avoid such an abyss of madness and of blasphemy against Christ.”

The Gnostic Gospels are non-historical in nature. They make no reference to cities, valleys, rivers, but are musings of various Gnostic teachers. Read the Gospel of Thomas and see what I mean (vv. 7, 22, 114).

The Da Vinci Code claims: There’s a mystery document written by Jesus

“The ‘Q’ document is a book of Jesus’ teaching, possibly written in his own hand.” ( The Da Vinci Code p.256)

Christianity responds:

The “Q” document doesn’t exist. There is no evidence of a “Q” document. It is from the German word “Quelle” (kvell—eh) meaning “source.” Some believe that Matthew and Luke got their information from a previous document source because of some similarities between their gospels and so they conjured up the possibility of a “Q” document. The similarities may have more to do with the fact they were talking about the same Jesus.

Chat Calendar

Resources

The Da Vinci Code and the Scriptures

Read More