General Observations:
1. The book is a fictional novel (fictional foreground) set in a historical timeframe (factual background).
2. The book has sourced most of its information from the Templar Revelation and Holy Blood, Holy Grail, 2 unreliable sources written by non-reputable historians.
3. The book states: “The New Testament is false testimony” and “based on fabrications” (p. 341).
4. The book states: “Leonardo was one of the keepers of the secret of the Holy Grail. And he hid clues in his art” (p. 230).
5. The book asserts that in Leonardo’s painting of the Last Supper, the person next to Jesus is Mary Magdalene, not the apostle John (p. 243).
6. The book states: “More than 80 gospels were considered for the New Testament, and yet only a relative few were chosen for inclusion—Matthew, Mark, Luke and John among them” (p. 231). In addition to this, the book states that the church suppressed these other “valid” gospels that were competing for inclusion into the canon, there was a political campaign to force upon us a “false” or “only mortal” Jesus.
7. The book states that Jesus’ deity was not accepted until the Council of Nicea (AD 325) and that it was decided by “a relatively close vote” (p. 233).
8. The book asserts that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene (p. 244) and that they had a daughter named Sarah (p. 255), but this secret is “the greatest cover-up in human history” (p. 249) suppressed by the church (p. 254).
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Issue |
Claim |
Response |
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The New Testament Gospels |
“More than eighty gospels were considered for the New Testament, and yet only a relative few were chosen for inclusion” (DC, p. 231). The church suppressed the other “valid” gospels that were competing through some type of political campaign. |
There are only 4 first-century written gospels. No evidence whatsoever that there were other “competing” gospels written during same time frame. The DC characters base their unorthodox claims of Jesus on gnostic texts that were discovered in Nag Hammadi, Egypt in 1945. These gnostic texts were written more than 100+ years after the Apostles and have proven to be unreliable, filled with errors and false doctrine, written by people who were not connected with the Apostles or the eyewitnesses of the Resurrection. Shortly after the 1st Century, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were clearly acknowledged as Scripture because they were inseparably connected with the Apostles who were eyewitnesses of the Resurrection of Christ. The gospel authors were people who actually saw, ate, experienced life and interacted with Jesus Christ directly, unlike the gnostic gospel authors who lived and wrote in the 2nd and 3rd century. Gnostic gospels tell a lot about Gnosticism, but not much about the 1st Century actions of Christ. |
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The Deity of Christ |
“My dear,” Teabing declared, “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.” “Not the Son of God?” “Right,” Teabing said. “Jesus’ establishment as the Son of God was officially proposed and voted on by the Council of Nicea.” “Hold on. You’re saying Jesus’ divinity was the result of a vote?” “A relatively close vote at that,” Teabing added. (DC, p. 233) |
The Apostles, eyewitnesses of Christ (Peter, John, Paul, Matthew, Luke, James, Thomas in John 20:28 and the writer to the Hebrews (1:8) affirm Christ’s deity and many of them were martyred for believing this truth. In addition, numerous early church writings (The Didache, Shepherd of Hermas, The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles) state that Christ is God, as well as the following church fathers: Polycarp (disciple of Apostle John), Ignatius (105), Clement (150), Justin Martyr (160), Ireneas (180), Tertullian (200), Origen (225), Novatian (235), Cyprian (250), Methodius (290), Lactantius (304), Arnobius (305) (See Cracking the DaVinci Code by Jones and Garlow, p. 94).
At the Nicean Council, church leaders were not asked to vote on Jesus’ deity, but to respond to the influence of Arianism, a false teaching that stated that Jesus was created as God’s Son. The Nicene Creed states clearly that Jesus was “begotten, not made” (divinely unique) in his lordship over the universe. The vote was 214-2.
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Jesus was married |
Mary Magdalene was beside Jesus in the Last Supper painting by Leonardo, not the apostle John. She is the Holy Grail and the bride of Christ, and they had a daughter (“Mary Magdalene was pregnant at the time of the crucifixion…she gave birth to a daughter. Her name was Sarah” DC, p. 255). The church has covered up this “secret” through the centuries. |
There is no evidence from any document from any time frame in the first three centuries of the church or from Leonardo himself that even hints that Jesus had a human bride. Author of DC believes it comes from the Gospel of Philip and the Gospel of Mary Magdalene, but these are gnostic gospels written much later and not written by Philip and Mary. Plus, in Paul’s argumentation in 1 Corinthians 9:5, he would have used Christ to prove his point if Christ was married. But Christ wasn’t married, so Paul couldn’t. Christ’s real bride is the church! |
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The Canon of the New Testament
(Canon: “reed” or standard; the set of books affirmed as members of the NT Scriptures) |
“Who chose which gospels to include?” Sophie asked. “Aha!” Teabing burst in with enthusiasm. “The fundamental irony of Christianity! The Bible as we know it today was collated by the pagan Roman emperor Constantine the Great” (DC, p. 231). |
Constantine claimed to be a Christian and was the first ruler to give freedom to Christians in the first 300 years of the Christian movement. He did not decide the canon nor did the Council of Nicea decide the canon. By the end of the 1st Century, most (4/5) of the New Testament was already recognized by the Church as canonical. A NT book is canonical the moment it is written because it is “God-breathed” (2 Timothy 3:16); the church simply recognizes that it came from God through an Apostle (eyewitness). Final portion (1/5) of New Testament canon was recognized when freedom was granted in Constantine’s time, permitting Christians to travel and to assemble with greater safety.
One of the earliest “creeds” (confession of faith) in NT is 1 Corinthians 15:3-5, written by Paul only a few years after the Resurrection. The New Testament books were not forced upon anyone; they were affirmed and recognized broadly by the churches across the empire as coming from God. Humanity does not determine their authority; Their authority/authenticity comes from God. |
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Leonardo DaVinci |
“Leonardo was one of the keepers of the secret of the Holy Grail. And he hid clues in his art” (DC, p. 230). |
The DC has no credibility in art history. No credible art historian believes its claims. No evidence anywhere in Leonardo’s writings that there were any secret “clues” in the Last Supper painting or that Mary Magdalene is beside Jesus. Oftentimes Renaissance painters portrayed apostle John more feminine (no beard, long hair) because he was the youngest apostle and the one who was entrusted by Christ to care for his mother Mary. The Mona Lisa is not a self-portrait of Leonardo in disguise; In fact, Leonardo is not known as a prolific portraitist (He only painted 17 works, only 1 commissioned by the Vatican). He is known as a Renaissance man—scientist, inventor, mathematician, writer, thinker, doing many things brilliantly. |
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Opus Dei and the Priory of Sion |
The chief murderer in DC is an albino monk from the Opus Dei group. The Priory of Sion is an organization from the Medieval times dedicated to preserving the secret marriage between Jesus and Mary Magdalene. |
Opus Dei is a Catholic lay movement founded in 1928 to energize Catholic laity. They have no monks!
The Priory of Sion was founded in 1956 by Pierre Plantard, a French anti-Semitic scoundrel who served time in prison for fraud and other strange claims, such as decreeing he was the rightful carrier of the “Holy Blood” and that he was the true King of France. He claimed that his organization existed since 1099 and that it had such notables as Leonardo, Isaac Newton, Joan of Ark and Victor Hugo as members of it. In 1993, he confessed in court that these claims were a hoax and died disgracefully in 2000. |
H. Curtis McDaniel, PhD, DMin