Debunking DaVinci

No matter what you have read, no matter what you believe, the journey has just begun. (Tag line from the trailer for the upcoming Columbia Motion Picture,The DaVinci Code, opening in theaters in May, 2006.

Very few books have caused a stir in the Christian community like author Dan Brown’s The DaVinci Code. Since it was first published in 2003, over 25 million copies of the book have been sold worldwide in hardcover. A movie version starring Tom Hanks and directed by Ron Howard is scheduled to be released in May of 2006. Many find it an engrossing, easy-to-read mystery novel.

So why has this book caused so much controversy? The DaVinci Code is, at its core, a fictional murder-mystery. But the story line revolves around several claims about Jesus Christ and about the Bible which contradict what millions of believers have held as true for two thousand years.

The DaVinci Code can be found in the fiction section of book stores and libraries. So why should Christians care if it makes claims which attack the very foundation of our faith? The book opens with the claim by Dan Brown that “all descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate.” That bold statement has led many people to assume that while the crime and the characters in this whodunit are fictional, virtually everything is true and verifiable. The reality is, however, this is far from the case.

Many books and articles have been written since The Davinci Code was first published which have documented many of the historical errors and inaccuracies the author made. But this article will limit its discussion only to some of the claims made about Jesus and about the Bible.

I. Claims About the Bible

“The Bible is a product of man, my dear. Not of God.” — Leigh Teabing, character in The DaVinci Code

One of the basic premises of The DaVinci Code is that the Bible cannot be trusted, since it is not the Word of God. Certainly, Dan Brown isn’t the first to make this claim, nor will he be the last.

Yet the Bible is filled with passages that claim it is the Word of God. The apostle Paul, for instance, says that “All Scripture is God-breathed” (2 Timothy 3:16). Peter claims that “men from God spoke as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21). Jesus often equated the Bible with God’s Word (see, for instance, Matthew 22:29,31). The phrase, “This is what the Lord says” or its equivalent is used well over 2,000 times throughout the Bible. Word for word, God inspired the human writers of the Bible. Word for word, the Bible is God’s Word.

Ultimately, accepting that the Bible is the Word of God is a matter of faith. Yet we can point to things like the amazing fulfillment of prophecies, especially the hundreds of Old Testament prophecies about the coming Messiah, all of which were fulfilled completely in Jesus Christ. We can also point to outside sources which often support Scripture, such as archaeological discoveries which confirm the existence of people and places mentioned in the Bible.

Another claim about the Bible made by The DaVinci Code is that the Bible originally contained many more books than the current 66 books of the Old and New Testaments. Through his fictional characters, author Dan Brown asserts that these other books have been deliberately suppressed and hidden by the Christian Church (in particular, the Roman Catholic Church) in order to maintain its authority. In particular, The DaVinci Code maintains that there were over 80 “Gospels” written, but only four were allowed to be part of the New Testament canon.

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