Trices Group Book Review Journal

Da Vinci Code, Truth and Fiction in The

Ehrman, Bart D.

by:

Oxford University Press

Publisher:

Location:

2004

Kathleen M. Lynch

Cover:

Hardcover

Type:

Lynard Barnes

reviewed by:

11/25/2004

Comment:

Must Read.

Tip-toeing Through the World of the End

Brooding Prince Hamlet must chose between justice for justice’s sake or to act out of pure revenge. In doing a book review or even in writing a rebuttal on a subject as sensitive as the divinity of Jesus Christ, the writer also faces choices of self-gratification or seeking a higher goal of truth.

Truth is neither self-evident nor derived from consensus. Truth is not the indecision of an “open mind” nor manifest as an instantaneous conclusion or action. An illustration: Toward the end of Bart D. Ehrman’s rebuttal, “Truth and Fiction in The Da Vinci Code”, he relates an innocuous little vignette in which he assigns Martin Scorsese’s film “The Last Temptation of Christ” as required viewing for students in his class at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1988. Some of the students thought it sacrilegious to see the film and voiced protests. Mr. Ehrman rescinded the requirement to see the film. Unwittingly, Mr. Ehrman had discovered a truth. He could have used it for the entire eight chapters of his book. This is not a negative regarding the merits of “Truth and Fiction in The Da Vinci Code”, but rather a cloud hanging over it. If you don’t look up, it shouldn’t bother you.

Ehrman’s book should be read because it is really is a rebuttal to Dan Brown’s “The Da Vinci Code”—the other side of the dialog you might say. Ehrman quotes extensively from the characters in “The Da Vinci Code” to make his points. His points are a combination of historical fact and an assessment of historical analysis tools. There are some things historians just don’t know about the life of Jesus Christ—is this surprising?—and Ehrman is happy to point them out. But of course, not knowing something should not hinder anyone from making conjectures, sort of like the ones Dan Brown has his fictional characters make and the writers of “Holy Blood, Holy Grail” make. (See the November 2004 review of the latter work).

While Brown has his characters lecture dear Sophie on the celibate, un-married Jesus Christ as a fabricated propaganda tool of the Catholic Church, Ehrman points out that Jesus Christ was living in an apocalyptic age teaching an apocalyptic message. He was celibate and un-married because the “natural” way of the apocalyptic prophets was un-married celibacy. So there! Of course Ehrman doesn’t have any historical basis to say Jesus was or wasn’t

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married, only that based on the historical circumstances, it makes sense that he was not married. Is this any different than Dan Brown’s characters saying or the authors of “Holy Blood, Holy Grail” contending that Jesus was married and begot children? A case of conventional wisdom versus wide-eyed speculation?

Where Ehrman’s work shines is in his defense of the Roman Emperor Constantine. It is also his potential Achilles’ heel. Brown’s characters leave the very distinct impression that Emperor Constantine was responsible for the creation of the Christian Church—that is to say, the Catholic Church. He quotes the clever character Leigh Teabing as saying, “…Constantine commissioned and financed a new Bible, which omitted those gospels that spoke of Christ’s human traits and embellished those gospels that me Him godlike…” Ehrman calls the statement more fiction than fact. He then proceeds to lay out the history of how the Bible, specifically the New Testament, came into existence. In so doing, he makes this rather curious statement:

“As significant as the differences among Christian groups are today, however, they pale in comparison with the difference among Christian groups that we know about in the early centuries of the church.”

Along comes Constantine, the Council of Nicea and the “powerful bishop of Alexandria, Athanasius, . . . [who] wrote a letter to the churches throughout Egypt under his jurisdiction, in which he laid out in strict terms the contours of the canon of scripture”. His list was adopted by the Council of Nicea, which was convened by authority of the Emperor of Rome, and every Christian sect since uses the list as its bible. Brown says apples. Ehrman says raisins. Sounds like apple pie to me.

Bart D. Ehrman’s rebuttal, “Truth and Fiction in The Da Vinci Code” comes teasingly close to up-ending the conventional view of Jesus Christ in a number of places in the book. For instance, on page 138 he writes, “In many ways the picture of Jesus that emerges may seem strange to modern ears. For Jesus appears to have been a Jewish apocalypticist anticipating the end of this present evil age within his own generation.” More significant, when comparing the various Gospels not included in the official bible, Ehrman draws from both sources to make the statement, “The dead Jesus does not save; the living Jesus saves. So-called believers who don’t understand are not the beneficiaries of Jesus’ death; they are mocked by it.” It is a statement at the core of sectarian Christian belief system. However, Ehrman does not take the next step and place the reason for the statement within the context of world religions. Along with the end of the world belief, the belief in a physical world and a spiritual world and the interaction between the two, are the distinguishing tenets of Christianity. The end of the world belief system and the linking of that event with a belief in Jesus Christ as the sole link to the spiritual world is the belief element that sets Christianity apart from other world religions—including Judaism.

As an armchair historian, this reviewer once wrote that America came into existence because there were those who did not believe Mankind needed the Catholic Church as an intermediary between individual and God. The next step in this “evolutionary” process may be the full realization of the message provided by all the world great religious teachers—that each individual is a part of God, including Jesus Christ. More germane to the purpose here, Bart D. Ehrman’s book as well as Dan Brown’s, “The Da Vinci Code” highlight a truth: it is easier to accept and understand the mess engager than it is to accept and understand the message. And that’s the truth, Lily.

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“Truth and Fiction in The Da Vinci Code” is a definite must read.

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