Transcript CONSTANTINE The Da Vinci Code By Dan Brown

WELCOME TO THE
PASTOR’S FORUM
The Da Vinci Code
By Dan Brown
Main Characters
•Robert Langdon, Professor of Religious Symbology,
Harvard University
•Jacques Sauniere, murdered museum curator at the
Louvre, Grand Master of the Priory of Sion, sworn
protectors of the Holy Grail.
•Sophie Neveu, agent of the Department of Cryptography, a branch of the French state police
•Sir Leigh Teabing, wealthy grail researcher, British
Royal Historian affiliated with Oxford University
“All descriptions of artwork,
architecture, documents, and secret
rituals in this novel are accurate.” (1)
The Da Vinci Code
By Dan Brown
MISINFORMATION
The Da Vinci Code
By Dan Brown
“During three hundred years of witch
hunts, the Church burned at the
stake an astounding five million
women.” (125)
The Da Vinci Code
By Dan Brown
Langdon: “It was man, not God, who created
the concept of ‘original sin,’ whereby Eve tasted
of the apple and caused the downfall of the
human race.” (238)
“The orb from which Eve partook,” Langdon
said coolly, “incurring the Holy wrath of God.
Original sin.” (425)
The Da Vinci Code
By Dan Brown
CONSTANTINE
The Da Vinci Code
By Dan Brown
CONSTANTINE
The Priory’s beliefs conveyed by Langdon: “. . .
powerful men in the early Christian church ‘conned’
the world by propagating lies that devalued the
female and tipped the scales in favor of the masculine. . . .Constantine and his male successors
successfully converted the world from a matriarchal
paganism to patriarchal Christianity by waging a
campaign of propaganda that demonized the sacred
feminine, obliterating the goddess from modern
religion forever.” (124)
The Da Vinci Code
By Dan Brown
CONSTANTINE
“In the battle between the pagan symbols and
Christian symbols, the pagans lost.” (37)
“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.” (37)
The Da Vinci Code
By Dan Brown
CONSTANTINE
Teabing: “Nothing in Christianity is original . . . .
Originally Christianity honored the Jewish
Sabbath of Saturday, but Constantine shifted it to
coincide with the pagan’s veneration day of the
sun . . . .To this day, most churchgoers attend
services on Sunday morning with no idea that
they are there on account of the pagan sun god’s
weekly tribute—Sunday.” (232-233)
The Da Vinci Code
By Dan Brown
CONSTANTINE
Teabing, regarding Nicea: “At this gathering,
many aspects of Christianity were debated and
voted upon—the date of Easter, the role of the
bishops, the administration of sacraments, and, of
course, the divinity of Jesus . . . . until that moment in history, Jesus was viewed by His followers
as a mortal prophet . . .a great and powerful man,
but a man nonetheless. A mortal . . . .
The Da Vinci Code
By Dan Brown
CONSTANTINE
Jesus’ establishment as ‘the Son of God’ was
officially proposed and voted on by the Council of
Nicaea. . . .By officially endorsing Jesus as the
Son of God, Constantine turned Jesus into a deity
who existed beyond the scope of the human world
. . . . the early Church literally stole Jesus from
His original followers, hijacking His human
message, shrouding it in an impenetrable cloak of
divinity, and using it to expand their own power.”
The Da Vinci Code
(233)
By Dan Brown
CONSTANTINE
From Teabing: “Jesus Christ was a historical
figure of staggering influence, perhaps the most
enigmatic and inspirational leader the world has
ever seen. . . .More than eighty gospels were
considered for the New Testament, and yet only a
relative few were chosen for inclusion. . . .The
fundamental irony of Christianity! The Bible, as
we know it today, was collated by the pagan
Roman emperor Constantine the Great.” (231)
The Da Vinci Code
By Dan Brown
CONSTANTINE
Teabing: “. . . any gospels that described the
earthly aspects of Jesus’ life had to be omitted
from the Bible.” (244)
“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.” (234)
The Da Vinci Code
By Dan Brown
CONSTANTINE
Teabing, responding to Sophie, who thought
Constantine was a Christian: “Hardly. He was a
lifelong pagan who was baptized on his deathbed,
too weak to protest.” (232)
“In 325 [Constantine] decided to unify Rome
under a single religion. Christianity.”
The Da Vinci Code
By Dan Brown
CONSTANTINE
Sophie: “Why would a pagan emperor choose
Christianity as the official religion?”
Teabing: “Constantine was a very good
businessman. He could see Christianity was on
the rise, and he simply backed the winning
horse.” (232)
The Da Vinci Code
By Dan Brown
THE GOSPELS
The Da Vinci Code
By Dan Brown
GOSPELS
From Teabing: “The Bible did not arrive by fax
from heaven. . . . The Bible is a product of man,
my dear. Not of God. . . . it has evolved through
countless translations, additions, and revisions.
History has never had a definitive version of the
book.” (231)
The Da Vinci Code
By Dan Brown
GOSPELS
“Nobody is saying Christ was a fraud, or denying
that He walked the earth and inspired millions to
better lives. All we are saying is that Constantine
took advantage of Christ’s substantial influence
and importance. And in doing so, he shaped the
face of Christianity as we know it today. . . .
Constantine upgraded Jesus’ status almost four
centuries after Jesus’ death.” (234)
The Da Vinci Code
By Dan Brown
GOSPELS
“Almost everything our [church] fathers taught
us about Christ is false.” (235)
Langdon considers the implications of
“presenting to the world thousands of ancient
documents as scientific evidence that the New
Testament is false testimony.” (341)
The Da Vinci Code
By Dan Brown
GOSPELS
“Fortunately for historians, some of the gospels
that Constantine attempted to eradicate managed
to survive. The Dead Sea Scrolls were found in
the 1950s hidden in a cave near Qumran in the
Judean desert. And, of course, the Coptic Scrolls
in 1945 at Nag Hammadi.” (234)
The Da Vinci Code
By Dan Brown
•If Jesus was born around the year 1900
•Jesus in Jerusalem about when the Titanic sank
•Death and resurrection in 1930
•First NT writings at the close of WWII
•First NT Gospel around 1960
•Last NT Gospel around 1990
•Gospel of Thomas written about 2030
•Gospel of Mary written about 2050
•Gospel of Philip written about 2170
The Da Vinci Code
By Dan Brown
SECRET SOCIETIES
The Da Vinci Code
By Dan Brown
SECRET SOCIETIES
The Knights Templar
Opus Dei
Priory of Sion
The Da Vinci Code
By Dan Brown
LEONARDO DA VINCI
The Da Vinci Code
By Dan Brown
LEONARDO DA VINCI
“His Mona Lisa is
neither male nor
female. It carries a
subtle message of
androgyny.” (120)
[This, he claims, is
why she is smiling – it
was her secret (121)]
LEONARDO DA VINCI
LEONARDO DA VINCI
LEONARDO DA VINCI
MARY MAGDALENE
The Da Vinci Code
By Dan Brown
MARY MAGDALENE
Was she a prostitute?
The Da Vinci Code
By Dan Brown
MARY MAGDALENE
Was she a prostitute?
Did the Church conspire against her?
The Da Vinci Code
By Dan Brown
MARY MAGDALENE
Teabing, that Mary Magdeline was a prostitute:
“That unfortunate misconception is the legacy of
a smear campaign launched by the early
Church. The Church needed to defame Mary
Magdalene in order to cover up her dangerous
secret—her role as the Holy Grail.” (244)
The Da Vinci Code
By Dan Brown
MARY MAGDALENE
“Magdalene was recast as a whore in order to
erase evidence of her powerful family ties.” (249)
“The Church . . . perpetuated her image as a
whore and buried evidence of Christ’s marriage
to her. . . .” (254)
The Da Vinci Code
By Dan Brown
MARY MAGDALENE
Teabing: “Sadly, Christian philosophy decided
to embezzle the female’s creative power by
ignoring biological truth and making man the
Creator. Genesis tells us that Eve was created
from Adam’s rib. Woman became an offshoot of
man. And a sinful one at that. Genesis was the
beginning of the end for the goddess.” (238)
The Da Vinci Code
By Dan Brown
MARY MAGDALENE
Was she a prostitute?
Did the Church conspire against her?
Was she Jesus’ wife?
The Da Vinci Code
By Dan Brown
MARY MAGDALENE
Gospel of Philip 63:33-36
And the companion of the [...] Mary Magdalene. He loved Mary more than [all] the
disciples and used to kiss her [often] on the
[mouth? Head? Cheek?]. The rest of [the
disciples were offended?]. They said to him,
‘Why do you love her more than all of
us?’”
The Da Vinci Code
By Dan Brown
MARY MAGDALENE
Gospel of Mary 17:10-18:21
When Mary had said this, she was silent, since
the Savior had spoken thus far with her. But
Andrew answered and said to the brethren, ‘Say
what you think concerning what she said. For I
do not believe that the Savior said this. For
certainly these teachings are of other ideas.’
The Da Vinci Code
By Dan Brown
MARY MAGDALENE
Gospel of Mary 17:10-18:21
Peter also opposed her in regard to these matters
and asked them about the Savior. ‘Did he then
speak secretly with a woman, in preference to us,
and not openly? Are we to turn back and all listen
to her? Did he prefer her to us?’ Then Mary grieved
and said to Peter, ‘My brother Peter, what do you
think? Do you think that I thought this up myself in
my heart or that I am lying concerning the Savior?’
The Da Vinci Code
By Dan Brown
MARY MAGDALENE
Gospel of John 20:17
Jesus said to [Mary], “Stop clinging to Me, for I
have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to
My brethren and say to them, ‘I ascend to My
Father and your Father, and My God and your
God.’”
The Da Vinci Code
By Dan Brown
MARY MAGDALENE
“These are photocopies of the Nag Hammadi
and Dead Sea Scrolls, which I mentioned
earlier,” Teabing said. “The earliest Christian
records.” (245)
The Da Vinci Code
By Dan Brown
MARY MAGDALENE
“Teabing flipped through the book and pointed
out several other passages that, to Sophie’s
surprise, clearly suggested Magdalene and Jesus
had a romantic relationship.” (246)
Teabing, referring to Philip and Magdalene:
“According to these unaltered gospels . . .”
The Da Vinci Code
By Dan Brown
MARY MAGDALENE
Teabing: “It is not I who claim she is the Grail.
Christ Himself made that claim.” (242)
The Da Vinci Code
By Dan Brown
MARY MAGDALENE
Teabing: “I shan’t bore you with the countless
references to Jesus and Magdalene’s union.”
(247)
“It’s a matter of historical record.” (244)
“The marriage of Jesus and Mary Magdalene is
part of the historical record.” (245)
The Da Vinci Code
By Dan Brown
MARY MAGDALENE
“The historical evidence supporting this is
substantial.” (254)
Teabing calls it “persuasive scientific evidence.”
(266)
Langdon: “The iconographic evidence I’m
finding to support the theory is, well,
staggeringly persuasive.” (163)
The Da Vinci Code
By Dan Brown
A VERY TRUE NUGGET:
“A career hazard of symbologists was
a tendency to extract hidden
meanings from situations that had
none.” (172)
The Da Vinci Code
By Dan Brown
A FINAL THOUGHT:
“Great fiction; Bad theology”
The Da Vinci Code
By Dan Brown
WELCOME TO THE
PASTOR’S FORUM
Q &A
The Da Vinci Code
By Dan Brown