180-200) described various heretical movements in Adversus haereses. The Latin word haereticus means ‘choice.’ Those who ‘chose’ the original history of Christ were the world’s first heretics.” FACT: The earliest Christian use of “heresy” stems from the Greek word hairesis, and Titus 3:9 already refers to a hairetikon anthrÿpon (“factious person”).6 Ignatius of Antioch and Justin Martyr refer pejoratively to “heresy” in the early and mid-second century.7 And Irenaeus (flourished A.D. The word heretic derives from that moment in history. On page 234, Langdon adds, “Anyone who chose the forbidden gospels over Constantine’s version was deemed a heretic. The book of Acts and some of the general epistles enjoyed a similarly early and continuous recognition as Scripture. On the other hand, the basic structure of a four-fold gospel and a collection of Pauline epistles was securely in place within the second century. On the one hand, the first extant list that corresponds exactly to our modern canon is found in an Easter letter of Athanasius (A.D. 337) did not choose the contents of the New Testament canon. On page 231, Teabing cites “the fundamental irony of Christianity”: “The Bible, as we know it today, was collated by the pagan Roman emperor Constantine the Great.” FACT: Constantine (died in A.D. Twenty-seven percent believed that Mary Magdalene was Jesus’ wife.5 Forty-two percent believed that she was one of Jesus’ followers and the first to see the risen Christ. Twenty-six percent believed she was an early church leader whose importance is not fully reflected in the Bible. The results of a recent on-line poll concerning Mary Magdalene were as follows: Six percent believed that Mary Magdalene was a reformed prostitute.
I became a believer.”4 Fourth, the Da Vinci Code (and similar materials) are influencing popular views.
As I started researching the Da Vinci Code, I really thought I would disprove a lot of this theory about Mary Magdalene and Holy Blood and all of that. In an ABC News Special on November 3, 2003, he confided, “I began as a skeptic. Third, Dan Brown himself takes the historical claims of his book seriously. “What I mean,” affirms Leigh Teabing on page 235, “is that almost everything our fathers taught us about Christ is false.” Brown specifically portrays Jesus as merely a “mortal prophet” who married Mary Magdalene and fathered a child with her. First, reviews found in such sources as The Chicago Tribune and New York Daily News have called Brown’s historical research “impeccable” and “breathtaking.”3 Second, the novel clearly manifests an underlying religious agenda. Some may wonder why the historical assumptions of a fictional work deserve a critique at all. Those thirty pages contain informative conversations between the three main characters of the novel: Sophie Neveu (a French cryptographer), Robert Langdon (a Harvard symbologist), and Sir Leigh Teabing (a former British Royal Historian). For the sake of time and convenience, this article will simply highlight those factual errors surrounding the book’s portrayal of early Christianity.2 These historical blunders particularly concern the fields of canonicity and Christology and are especially concentrated in the discussions on pages 230–259.
Page one of the work, entitled “FACT,” asserts that “All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate.” The book actually includes numerous historical inaccuracies, however. The Da Vinci Code, authored by Dan Brown, has quickly become an international bestseller and is now in theatrical release.1 Because of its depiction of Jesus Christ and Christianity, this fictional page-turner has caused vociferous reactions far outside the literary world. May 2006 The Da Vinci Code and Early Christian History, Part 1 Paul Hartog, Ph.D.