Review: Bart D. Ehrman's Truth And Fiction In The Da Vinci Code

If you are one of the millions who enjoyed The Da Vinci Code, you may want to reconsider Dan Brown’s narrative in the light of its historical claims, after you read Bart Ehrman’s Truth and Fiction In The Da Vinci Code.

Ehrman is a well-known critical historian, who chairs the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is an authority on the early Church and the life of Jesus.

He is also the author of Lost Christianities and Lost Scriptures.

Although he admits he enjoyed reading Dan Brown’s work of fiction and has even recommended it to many of his friends, he takes issue with some of the historical claims Brown makes about Jesus, Mary, and the Gospels that readers were expected to accept as factual and not fictional.

Ehrman points out: “Dan Brown states as a fact that all descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate.”

As the author is an expert on historic Christian documents, it is here where his arguments are focused.

Throughout the book, Ehrman insists that one of the cardinal ingredients to weigh, when arriving at any historical conclusion, is the sources of information forming the foundation of the conclusion. Misreading or misinterpreting these sources is as dangerous as if they were omitted.

According to the author, if Brown had only done a little more research, he would have been able to more accurately portray the historical account, without even compromising the story.

Immediately in the introduction to the book, Ehrman sets the tone of his arguments by pointing out ten factual errors in Brown’s book. These are more fully fleshed out and assessed in the book.

The author points out that contrary to what was mentioned in Brown’s book, Jesus’ life was not recorded by thousands of followers across the land; it is not true there were eighty Gospels considered for the New Testament; it is false to state that Jesus was considered divine until the Council of Nicea; Constantine did not commission a “new Bible” that omitted references to Jesus’ human traits; the Dead Sea Scrolls were found in 1947 and not in the 1950s, and furthermore, they were not among “the earliest Christian records.” In fact, they are Jewish, and contain nothing Christian in them. The Nag Hammadi documents do not narrate the Grail story, nor do they underline Jesus’ human traits. On the contrary, they do just the reverse. It is leading astray when we assert that Jewish decorum forbade a Jewish man to be unmarried, and in fact most of the individuals behind the Dead Sea Scrolls were male unmarried celibates. There is nothing to tell us about the lineage of Mary Magdalene, and there is no evidence that she belonged to the House of Benjamin.

Moreover, what evidence exists that she was pregnant at the crucifixion, as Brown suggests in his book. As for the Q document being hid by the Vatican, where is the proof, and how do we know it is a book allegedly written by Jesus?

In addition to exploring the above misleading assertions in Brown’s story, Ehrman addresses such queries as to how did it happen that the four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John came were admitted into the New Testament, while others were omitted.

If you are wondering why anyone would tackle the thorny question as to how much of The Da Vinci Code is based on valid documents and how much is pure fiction, Ehrman explains that books of historical fiction are one of the ways people come to learn and think about the past. Would it not have been more enlightening and instructive, if historical facts were presented more accurately?

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Norm Goldman is editor of bookpleasures.com and sketchandtravel.com.
Norm has also contributed to many online book review sites as well as to the print media.

Norm and his artist wife Lily are a unique husband and wife team who meld words with art focusing on romantic and wedding destinations.

They are always open to invitations to visit romantic properties in the New England states, New York state and Florida.

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