Cracks in The Da Vinci Code

Is the Bible Reliable?

The Da Vinci Code is a blockbuster best seller, Hollywood movie, and an adventurous fiction with a dangerous theology espoused by the author Dan Brown.   He wants us to believe that “almost everything our fathers taught us about Christ is false.”

One of the book’s biggest secrets is this: the “Holy Grail” is not the cup that Jesus drank from at the last supper but is actually Mary Magdalene!  According to Dan Brown, the “earliest Christian records” prove that Jesus married Mary Magdalene, and Mary bore Jesus’ children.  And that’s not all.  Buried with the bones of Mary are many ancient documents that would prove that the Bible is full of error.  These secret documents would also reveal a human Jesus, and a church that has conspired to keep these documents from being known.  Dan Brown believes that the early church was a sexist group of sinister liars who covered up the “fact” that Jesus had intended Mary Magdalene to be the leader of the church.

Dan Brown’s historical expert in The Da Vinci Code is a man named Teabing.  One of his more outlandish statements against the Scripture is this:

“The Bible did not arrive by fax from heaven… The Bible is the product of man, my dear.  Not of God.  The Bible did not fall magically from the clouds.  Man created it as a historical record of tumultuous times, and it has evolved through countless translations, additions, and revisions.  History has never had a definitive version of the book” (p.231).

In seeking to prove the point of the Bible’s unreliablity, Dan Brown fills The Da Vinci Code with historical inaccuracy.  For example, he says that at the Council of Nicea the Bible was “collated by the pagan Roman emperor Constantine the Great.”  He indicates that at the Council of Nicea, the  bishops in attendance picked four Gospels out of a possible 80.

The fact however is this: although the Council of Nicea was called by Constantine in 325 AD, it had nothing to do with the finalizing of the New Testament Canon.  This Council was called to decide the deity of Jesus Christ.  The subject of the Scripture was not an official part of this council, and Constantine had nothing to do with the choosing of the books into the canon.  The reason for this is that there were never 80 Gospel accounts that the true church considered inspired.  There may have been more than four accounts of Christ’s life written, but using certain standards, the church quickly began to cherish just four.  The four Gospels found in the New Testament were widely accepted and spread by 325 AD.

Another mistake by Dan Brown is his claim that there were Gospel records found among the Dead Sea Scrolls in the 1950’s (p.234,245).  He says that these were the “earliest Christian records.”  The fact is the Dead Sea Scrolls do not contain any Gospel accounts for they were pre-Christian Jewish texts.  They were not found in the 1950’s either.  They were found in the 1940’s.

The Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of manuscripts discovered between 1945 or 1947 in a number of regions west of the Dead Sea.  They contained the complete copy of Isaiah and about 500 other books, of which 100 are from the Old Testament.  They have found portions of Leviticus, selection of psalms, Job, and fragments from Genesis, Psalms, Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Judges, Samuel, Isaiah, Ezekiel.

The Bible never claims to be a fax from heaven, nor do we believe that the Bible fell magically from the clouds. The Bible teaches that God used holy men to write the Scripture.  God breathed out the Word of God and this true Word has endured, been preserved, copied, translated, and widely quoted by early writers of the church.  Inspiration is the breath of God, that power which the Holy Spirit placed upon the writers of Scripture to guide them in the every word they wrote, and to preserve them from all error, additions, or omissions.  The inspiration of Scripture goes to the very words the authors of Scripture used and each book was exactly and completely what God wanted written.

Jesus said, “Thy word is truth.”  Psalm 19:9 says, “The judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.”  Psalm 119:142 states, “Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and thy law is the truth.”  Psalm 119:151 declares, “All thy commandments are truth.”  Over 3800 times the Scripture says with dogmatic authority, “Thus saith the Lord!”  Written by forty authors over a period of 1500 years, the Bible stands as a collection of 66 books with an unparalleled unity and harmony amongst all the literature of earth.  Often the writers tell us they were told to write the Word of God (Exodus 17:14; 24:4; 34:27; Numbers 33:2.)  Some writers claim absolute perfection and authority (Deut. 28:58, 59; Psalm 19:7, 119:142; Isaiah 8:20.)  One book often recognizes another book as speaking with absolute authority (Joshua 1:8; Ezra 3:2.)  Jesus and the Apostles recognized the Hebrew Scripture as being the very voice and Word of God.

How do we know that God intended for only the 27 books that are in our New Testament to be included in a book we call the Word of God?  The word “canon” means a reed used as a measuring rod.  It came to mean a standard, or the official accepted list of books.  The following standards were used to measure whether a book was “canonical:”

Apostolicity: was the book written by an apostle, or did the author of the book share a close relation with an apostle?

Authenticity: was the book written by who it was alleged to have been written? 

The Gospel of Phillip is not in our New Testament, and for good reason.  Scholars date it in the 3^rd Century and it is not the work of the Apostle Philip or the Deacon Philip. 

Accuracy: Is the book true to the Word of God, the character of God, and to the culture at the time?

The Gospel of Thomas says in its final passage, “I myself shall lead her in order to make her male…for every woman who will make herself male will enter the Kingdom of heaven.”  We know therefore that this is a false statement and is not worthy of Scripture.

Universality: Was the book universally received by the church, was it read in the church, shared with other churches, and circulated?

Contents: were the contents of a book of a spiritual character as to entitle it to a rank of Scripture?

Some of the Gnostic Gospels have only been found in recent times.  They were heretical accounts of Christ’s life and ministry.  They were rejected by the early church because they did not meet the standard.

The 27 books of the New Testament have had incredible tenacity to survive over tumultuous times and become so widely distributed.  As soon as they were written, they had an almost universal acceptance.  They were read in churches, and shared with other churches.  They were copied and widely distributed.  The Gnostic Gospels meanwhile were relegated to dark caves and have not been well preserved nor even read for thousands of years.

The Gospel writers were not dependent upon one another, but their ultimate dependence was upon the Holy Spirit of God.  The similarities between Matthew, Mark, and Luke demonstrate that they were eyewitnesses to many of the same things; their differences demonstrate that they wrote uniquely their own point of view.  They no doubt wrote based upon direct knowledge, oral teaching at the time, and written accounts by other apostles or eye witnesses.  But the main importance of their writing is the Holy Spirit breathed out word for word what they were to write.

Not only was the Scripture divinely inspired, but they have been amazingly preserved.  Preservation means that God’s Word would be guarded so that it would be kept completely intact, pure, and trustworthy throughout all ages!

Isaiah 40:8 says, “The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand forever.”  Psalm 119:89 tells us, “Forever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven.” Matthew 24:35 declares, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.”

There is no body of ancient literature in all of the world that has enjoyed such amazing documentation than the New Testament.  You might wonder, “How has God preserved the New Testament?”  First of all there is an unprecedented mountain of New Testament manuscripts.  Over 14,000 ancient manuscript copies of the whole or part of the New Testament exist.  This includes about 5,700 parts or the whole of the New Testament in Greek.  This also includes 9,000 translations, or the NT written in other languages.  One of the earliest manuscripts is the Chester Beatty Papyri.  It contains parts from all four Gospels and the Acts, and it is from about 200 AD.  This would make it just about 110-150 years older than the original. 

In comparison, Plato lived in about 400 BC, and the earliest copy of his writings we have is from 900 AD, a time difference of 1300 years!  And only about 7 of these ancient documents exist!  No one doubts that Plato lived and wrote and many study his writings.  Many do doubt the New Testament, because they speak of salvation through One Person, His death for sin, his bodily resurrection, His coming again, and His judgment of all who reject Him.

The number of available manuscripts of the New Testament is overwhelmingly greater than any other work of ancient literature.

The New Testament was also extensively quoted by the early Christian leaders.  In fact the entire New Testament could be reconstructed from quotations except for eleven verses without the use of a single New Testament manuscript!  Tertullian, who lived from 160-220 BC, quotes from the New Testament 7,258 times, over 3800 times from the Gospels alone!  Origin quoted it more than 18,000 times.  Ignatius, who lived from AD 70-110 knew the apostles well and his writings contain verses from Matthew, John, Acts, Romans, 1 Corinthians, and other books as well.  Polycarp, a disciple of John the Apostle, had the Gospel of Matthew and quotes many New Testament books.

The Bible is incredibly reliable and will stand forever.  When Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code is forgotten, God’s Word will still stand and give life and comfort to all those who trust in the One True Living God: The Father, His Son, and the Holy Spirit!