The Da Vinci Code claims that the New Testament is a forgery and that the Gnostic gospels and the Dead Sea Scrolls are the original Christian texts.

The Dead Sea Scrolls refer to a collection of about 900 documents, many of which are fragmentary scrolls written in Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic, that were discovered between 1947 and 1956 in caves near an ancient settlement called Qumran, near Jerusalem.

The documents include some of the oldest known copies of portions of the Old Testament, as well as several writings from a religious group called the Essenes, which existed in Israel from about 200 BC to about 100 AD. (That is about 2200 years ago to about 1900 years ago).

Many scholars have attempted to show that there is a connection between the scrolls and Christianity, with an implication that instead of being the word of God, the New Testament supposedly grew out of the writings of the Essenes.

However, the Dead Sea Scrolls do not contain even a single mention of Jesus, according to several sources. As an example, the Israel Museum web site says:

None of the scrolls contain any explicit mention of Jesus or any other New Testament personality. – from an Israel Museum web page about the Dead Sea Scrolls, which can be found here:

There are major differences between the New Testament Gospels and the so-called Gnostic gospels. The New Testament Gospels contain details about life in the land of Israel during the first century. They also contain several references to Old Testament passages, prophecies and theological concepts. For Christians, the New Testament is the continuation of the Old Testament – the fulfillment of promises made in the Old Testament.

In contrast, the Gnostic texts contain very little detail to suggest that their authors had ever been to the land of Israel, or that they were even alive during the first century. And the theological concepts of the Gnostic texts sharply contradict those that are found in the Old Testament.

Consider this from pages 26 and 27 of the Truth Behind the Da Vinci Code, by Richard Abanes:

“But were the Gnostic gospels written prior to the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John? Most scholars, Christian and non-Christian, would answer no. They date the Gnostic gospels (for example, those in the Nag Hammadi collection) to about A.D. 150 to 250. Although many of these texts are Coptic translation of earlier Greek texts (that are no longer extant), most scholars agree that the material itself still does not date previous to the mid 100s to the early 200s.

They [the Gnostic texts] were late arrivals, which is one reason why church leaders rejected them. … These Gnostic gospels not only disagreed with the older [New Testament] Gospels, which were already accepted by Christians, but they lacked authority since their authors were neither a) apostles of Jesus nor b) persons associated with apostles of Jesus. … No one really knows who wrote the [Gnostic] texts.”

In contrast, Abanes says the New Testament Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were written during the first century, which is the century during which Jesus lived.

The relevance of the Dead Sea Scrolls for better understanding Jesus and the Gospels is a controversial topic. In this chapter, we have emphasized that there is no direct relationship between Jesus and the scrolls, and none of these ancient documents was written by or for Christians as far as we know. Attempts have been made to find direct connections, but in many cases these are speculative, sensational, or bizarre (e.g., John Allegro and the sacred mushroom, Barbara Thiering’s peshar technique, and the scrolls and the New Age Jesus). – “The Meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls: Their Significance For Understanding the Bible, Judaism, Jesus, and Christianity,” by James VanderKam and Peter Flint (Hardcover – Dec 1, 2002).

As for the claims related to the Gnostic writings, a little background might be helpful. The Gnostic writings, especially the examples from the third, fourth and fifth centuries, often borrow names and concepts from the New Testament, perhaps as a way to give the appearance of legitimacy or as an attempt to lure people away from Christianity.

In 1945, there was a discovery of several Gnostic writings buried in the town of Nag Hammadi, in Egypt. Some of the documents are called The Gospel of Philip and the Gospel of Mary Magdalene. No one knows who specifically wrote the documents. They were not written by Christians but by Gnostics who were emulating Christianity.

Various scholars have characterized the Gnostic-related claims of the Da Vinci Code as careless and misleading,

Fiction: Christianity stole ideas and concepts from Mithraism and other forms of paganism.

“Nothing in Christianity is original. The pre-Christian god Mithras – called the Son of God and the Light of the World – was born on December 25, died, was buried in a rock tomb, and then resurrected in three days. By the way, December 25 was also the birthday of Osiris, Adonis, and Dionysus. The newborn Krishna was presented with gold, frankincense, and myrrh.” – The Da Vinci Code, page 232.

It is easy to make claims like those stated above, but try finding evidence to support them. For example, try finding ancient documents that provide any kind of details involving a birth date for Osiris, Adonis, or Dionysus.

In regards to the claims involving Mithraism and Christianity, consider the following from page 87 of de-coding Da Vinci: The facts behind the fiction of The Da Vinci Code, by Amy Welborn:

“Mithras was a god with many forms. By the centuries after Christ, his cult was primarily a mystery religion, popular among men, especially soldiers. Mithraic studies do not find any attribution of the titles ‘Son of God’ or ‘Light of the World,’ as Brown claims. There is also no mention of a death-resurrection motif in Mithraic mythology. Brown seems to have picked this up from a discredited nineteenth-century historian, who provided no documentation for his assertion. The same historian is the source for the Krishna connection to which Brown alludes. There is not a single story in actual Hindu mythology of Krishna being presented with gold, frankincense, and myrrh at his birth (see Miesel and Olsen, Cracking the Anti-Catholic Code)

As for the matter of December 25th, it is true that many Christians choose that time of year to commemorate the birth of Jesus. But that doesn’t mean that they believe that Jesus was actually born on Dec. 25. The fact is, the Bible does not specify a birth date for Jesus.

There are many contradictory theories about the origins of the celebration of Christmas, but it is important to understand that none have any bearing on the Christian Bible, Christian beliefs, or Christian theology. For Christians, Dec. 25th is matter of tradition, not theology.

By way of comparison, consider the changes in the December celebration of Hanukah in North America. It has become increasingly like the celebration of Christmas, involving sugary foods, wrapped gifts, and decorated trees. But no one accuses Judaism of “stealing” from Christianity. And rightfully so, because sugary foods, wrapped gifts and decorated trees, regardless of their origin, are matters of tradition, not theology.

Fiction: The Vatican killed an “astounding 5 million women” during the witch hunts

In order for the storyline of the Da Vinci Code to work, the Catholic Church, which the novel alternately refers to as the “Vatican,” must be portrayed as an evil and oppressive institution that hates and murders women.

To accomplish this goal, the novel cites the witch hunts of Europe, which mostly took place between the 1400s and the 1800s, as evidence of the Vatican’s murderous contempt for women. But, the historical evidence contradicts this claim. In fact, some scholars characterize the witch hunts as a persecution pitting women against women, not the Vatican against women.

For example, Deborah Willis, in her book, “Malevolent Nurture,” on page 30, writes:

The “typical” witchcraft case began when an older woman had a falling out with a neighbor – often another woman, usually a younger one. The older woman tended to be poorer, and frequently the falling out occurred after she had gone to her neighbor with a request for food or some domestic item or for access to land, and the neighbor refused her request.

Many scholars also dispute the claim that 5,000,000 women died during the witch hunts, often suggesting instead that the number is somewhere between 20,000 and 100,000, and that 20 percent to 25 percent of the victims were male, and that the trials generally were handled by local secular courts, and that the majority of witch hunts actually took place in non-Catholic countries.

Fiction: Emperor Constantine shaped the New Testament.

This is essential to the plot in The Da Vinci Code because it requires that the reader believe that Constantine replaced the “original” Gnostic writings with what we now call the New Testament. But, Constantine could not have had a hand in shaping the New Testament for two reasons: He wasn’t born soon enough and he didn’t live long enough.

Based on writings from early church leaders, including documents dated from the year 96 through the year 112, at least 24 of the 27 books that comprise the New Testament were already regarded by early Christians as being authoritative, a full 200 years before Constantine convened the Council of Nicea.

And, the Council of Nicea didn’t canonize anything. The canonization process actually occurred a full 70 years later, on a different continent (Africa). And it should be understood that the process of canonization wasn’t intended to “create” or “construct” a New Testament, but to reaffirm the books that for centuries had already been acknowledged as authoritative by Christians.

The fundamental beliefs of Christianity, including its message that Jesus was fully man and fully God, that he is the Son of God, that he is divine, etc., are part of the historical record that pre-dates the time of Constantine, by centuries.

Also, the novel is incorrect in claiming that Constantine made Christianity the official religion of his empire. He didn’t. Instead, he made it illegal for pagans within his realm to continue persecuting Christians

Fiction: The Vatican demonized pagan worship.
“As part of the Vatican’s campaign to eradicate pagan religions and convert the masses to Christianity, the church launched a smear campaign against the pagan gods and goddesses, recasting their divine symbols as evil…. Venus’ pentacle became the sign of the devil.” – The “Da Vinci Code,” page 37.

The novel distorts history at the expense of Christianity.

Historically, during the first three centuries of Christianity, it was the pagans who persecuted the Christians. By the time the fourth century had dawned, the persecutions began to subside, in part because of the growing numbers of Christians, and the shrinking number of pagans, and because of government policies to ban the persecutions of Christians. Large numbers of people abandoned paganism and converted to Christianity, long before the Vatican was established.

Fiction: The sacred name for God has a paganistic origin.

“The Jewish Tetragrammaton YHWH – the sacred name of God – in fact derived from Jehovah, an androgynous physical union between the masculine Jah and the pre-Hebraic name for Eve, Havah.” – The Da Vinci Code, page 309.

This is one of the more embarrassing errors within the Da Vinci Code. The word “Jehovah” is an English language convention that combines a Hebrew name for God, for which the consonants are YHWH, with the vowel sounds from another Hebrew word, which is pronounced “Adonai,” meaning “Lord.”

The tradition of melding the consonants of YHWH with the vowel sounds of “Adonai” began long ago because Rabbis believed that it was not respectful to say out loud this particular name for God. For comparison, this is similar to the secular tradition of addressing a king as “Lord,” rather than addressing him by name.

The derivation of YHWH, according to some Hebrew scholars, involves the past, present, and future tenses of the verb “to be.” It alludes to God’s eternal nature..

The davinci code is a work of fiction. It is the novels encorporation of history into its story line which has ruffled feathers and lead many people to believe and doubt history as it stands..

The concept of the holy grail is really a very confused one.

The explanation which the book aims at giving, is just one of the possibilites which the grail story provides.

This rendition of the grail mystery is sure to dissapoint many treasure hunters as there is not treasure or great power in the grail if it is indeed nothing but the blood line of jesus christ..