The Da Vinci Code, By Dan Brown
The Da Vinci Code is well written, mystery fiction. Its lively flame is sparked from the smoldering ashes of ancient nature worship and fueled by centuries-old documents which the author says have been suppressed by the Church (i.e., The Roman Catholic Church). The plot of the book can be summed up as “the quest for the Holy Grail”. Myth and reality dance about on this quest until it is difficult to distinguish between them. I will attempt to sort out some of the issues, as much for my own benefit as I hope also for yours.The Story begins with the execution of the last of the only four members of the Priory of Sion (Mt. Zion or a Mt. Sion/Zion in Switzerland) who know the secret of the Holy Grail’s location. Jean Sauniere, curator of the Louvre, Paris, knowing that he is the last living person with this knowledge, leaves a dying and coded message for his granddaughter who with the help of American symbiologist, Robert Langdon, set about on a quest for the Grail. From the Louvre in France, around about Paris, and through London, they decode message after message until their quest culminates in Rosslyn Chapel, “Cathedral of Codes”, near Edinburgh, Scotland. The Chapel is on the site of an ancient Mithraic temple and was built by the Knights Templar in 1446. A Star of David, the blending of the blade “V”(the symbol for man) and the chalice “^”(the symbol for woman), and representing the perfect union of male and female, guards the empty location of where the grail was supposed to be, but is not. Hence, the quest will go on, and on. The Da Vinci Code is an encrypted and esoteric tale, so opaque that even when the story seems to resolve in the closing chapters, one is left wondering still. The quest continues.
Nature worship might fairly be called “the oldest organized religion of mankind”. It predates Abraham. The pages of the Old Testament are splashed with the backwash of nature religion that appears, in some form, in virtually all polytheism. The Apostle Paul represents it as a refusal to worship of the one true God; a worship of the created things rather than the Creator (Romans 1:18ff.). The judges and kings of Israel/Judah battle to defeat and suppress these influences.
One re-occurring rite in most, if not all these religions is the practice of cult prostitution. The practice was a fertility rite and involved females who played a vicarious role of the goddess (Egyptian Isis; Sumerian Innana, Semitic Istar, Canaanite Astarte/Ashera, Greek Aphrodite, Roman Venus, etc.). Nature worshipers who still hold to a Judeo-Christian framework, postulate that “Shekina” is the Jewish female counterpart to the male god Yahweh. There is, however, no evidence that any Jews ever thought of “Shekina” (i.e. Glory) as a person/goddess or anything other than the glorious presence of Yahweh. (“Sophia”, i.e. Wisdom, from the Proverbs has also been spuriously suggested as a Jewish female deity.)Nevertheless, the promised “fruit” from the cultic union was a bountiful crop. “Sons” of these goddesses were most often related to the death/resurrection cycle of the growing season and included the Egyptian Horus; Sumerian Dummuzi, Semitic Tammuz (Ezekiel 8:14), Greek Eros, and the Roman Cupid. Baal, the Canaanite lord of the sky is also directly related to vegetation and nature worship. Cultic prostitution, in all its forms, was forbidden for the people of Israel. Deuteronomy 23:17f.
The Order of the Holy Grail was founded, it is stated, by Joseph of Arimathea in A.D. 54 at Rheddae (Rennes le Chateau) in France. Joseph, the supposed natural father of Jesus, received both priesthood and the Holy Grail from Melchizedek who had received it from neutral angels, loyal to neither Lucifer nor Michael. Several variations in the stories are existent yet it is further stated, without any evidence, that Jesus and/or Mary Magdalene, his wife, escaped with Joseph of Arimathea and Mary (Jesus’ parents), to France. (In one version, Jesus’ twin brother Thomas, also known as Simon of Cyrene, was mistakenly crucified in place of Jesus. In another version, Jesus is crucified yet after he had impregnated Mary Magdalene, who was not a prostitute but a wealthy Galilean.). The fusing of Joseph of Nazareth/Bethlehem with the character of Joseph of Arimathea seems inexcusable historical oversight or license. Further, the spurious supposition of a marriage between Jesus and Mary has no more historical basis than the supposed homosexual relationship between Jesus and John, which has been put forth by those wanting to justify their own homosexuality. Nevertheless, in this “myth” the bloodline of Jesus is passed from him through Mary Magdalene, who is the true “Notre Dame”, and eventually surfaces in the French royal family of the Merovingians, who founded Paris. These Frankish kings ruled areas of France and Germany from the 5th to the 8th century A.D. While all/most historians believe this line to have died out, nevertheless, some adherents claim it has survived today in the Stuart/Stewart royal line of Scotland.
The Holy Grail, the sacred icon of the Merovingian bloodline, along with certain sacred documents have been, reputedly, a closely guarded secret ever since the late 300s A.D. when Roman rulers declared Christianity the religion of the empire. Christian popes and bishops, afraid of such material damaging their growing power base, mercilessly suppressed all signs of nature worship, forcing the Holy Order to go underground.
The Priory of Sion may have been established as early as the 8th or 9th century as a secret society to guard the Holy Grail and its documents. In 1095 the Priory of Sion infiltrated and secured the patronage of the Church in the creation of “The Order of Knights of the Temple”. Pope Urban II commissioned the Knights Templar to conduct the first crusade to secure the Holy Land from the infidel Moslems. Some believed that the clandestine goal of the Order was, to secure the Holy Land and then to crown the true king of the Merovingian bloodline. The official founding of the order took place in 1099 when the French king, Godefroi de Bouillon, with the Knights Templar conquered Jerusalem. For then next few years they supposedly found secret documents in the ruins of Solomon’s Temple. The Priory was charged with the responsibility to keep these secrets alive and continued seeking opportunity, through the Templars, to grow its power base. Increasingly the Templars were opposed by the Church which grew understandably suspicious of the Orders’ motives. In 1314 Pope Clement V and King Philippe IV of France martyred the last known Grand Master of the Knights Templar. The Priory of Sion continued in their role as guardians of the Holy Grail and has had such notable members as Leonardo da Vinci*, Sir Isaac Newton, Botticelli and Victor Hugo.
Louis XIV (1643-1715) apparently angered the Priory by a decision to give France a new national Meridian, carried out by Colbert, and based upon the observatory in Paris, as calculated by the astronomer Cassini. The older N-S meridian, known also as the “roseline” ran through several Catholic churches in France, including St. Sulpice in Paris. In the 1750s a copper line was drawn on the floor of St. Sulpice with a meridian marker as if to say that it had once been a meridian church.
In the late 1800s the Priory of Sion disappears from the scene but may have transferred some of its ideas and personnel into other groups such as the Order of St. Sulpice. Today the quest for the Holy Grail continues in the several esoteric groups including the Merovingian Templar Gnostic Church.
“Other Gospels”, Brown suggests, the Church has mercilessly suppressed and fought to keep secret. Most Christians might accept this implication because they likely have been unaware of anything but the four gospels in our New Testament. It is a revelation to them. However, any biblical scholar or historian of the time is well aware of additional writings, most of them purporting to be written by Apostles. This is nothing new. While the canon of the New Testament was not solidified until A.D. 400 at the Council of Carthage this canon was little different from the one L.A. Muratori found in 1740 which has been dated to around the end of the second century (i.e. 200 A.D.). It is missing only Hebrews and 1&2 Peter and includes the Revelation of Peter and the Wisdom of Solomon, two books soon considered beneficial but not inspired. Early Church Fathers reference some of these other writings in their own works, apparently without fear of reprisals from bishops or others in higher ecclesiastical authority. (Epiphanius, Panarion, 30; Clement of Alexandria, Miscellanies, 2,9,45; Origen, Commentary on John, 2,12; etc.
The primary requirement for canonicity was apostolic authority. Did one of the 12 write or greatly influence the book? Did another write with apostolic authority? Hence the slow acceptance of Hebrews and also 1 & 2 Peter. Failure to pass the test of apostolic authority meant failure to be accepted by the churches. Knowing that apostolic authority was the test, nearly every additional “gospel” written purports to be written by an apostle or someone otherwise notable. Hence, The Gospels of Peter, Thomas, Philip, James, Mary and the Secret Gospel of Mark. Others were titled what may have sounded like apostolically respectable names and include the Gospels of the Nazarenes, the Ebionites, the Hebrews, the Egyptians, and also The Acts of John, Paul, Peter, and Thomas. There are more. Under close scrutiny most were deemed non-apostolic.
Anyone may read these and other early writings. Bart Ehrman’s recent release, “Lost Scriptures: Books That Did Not Make it into the New Testament”, Oxford Press, 2003, is a good place to start. The Gnostic influence becomes quickly apparent in many of the works. Secret knowledge and esoteric meanings are suggested in often-disjointed language. Gnosticism was a developing movement in the second and third centuries which blended Greek platonic thought with many Jewish influences. It is esoteric and generally “other worldly”. It is often anti-feminist, such as the following: “I have come to destroy the works of the female.” (Gospel of the Egyptians), “Simon Peter said to them, ‘Let Mary leave us, for women are not worthy of life.’ Jesus said, ‘I myself shall lead her in order to make her male, so that she too may become a living spirit resembling you males. For every woman who makes herself male will enter the kingdom of heaven.’” (Coptic Gospel of Thomas) This may come as a surprise to some who suppose that the search for more feminine- friendly material had found a treasure trove in extra-biblical material of the first centuries A.D.
The Gospel of Mary is cited by Brown as a link to Mary Magdalene. It is incomplete and was composed by someone no earlier than the late second century, likely the third. It consists of two parts, the first of which is a post-resurrection appearance in which Jesus speaks of the nature of sin, gives a final exhortation and blessing and commissions the disciples to preach the gospel, then leaves. The disciples are saddened, at which Mary consoles them. She is asked by Peter what the Savior said to her directly. In this second part of the gospel, Mary relays a vision she claims to have been give by Jesus, most of which is lost, however, in Erhmans words it appears to describe “how the human soul may ascend past the four ruling powers of the world in order to find its eternal rest. This description of the fate of the soul is related to salvation narratives found in other Gnostic texts.” (p.35) Peter and Andrew challenge Mary’s claim, but Levi points out that Mary was Jesus’ favorite and urges the others to go forth and preach the gospel as he commanded.
It is not surprising that these other writings came about, nor surprising that early Christians examined them closely, comparing them with already received texts which they were confident had been authored by apostles of Jesus. The fact of the matter is that it did not take a Church Council to rule on this. Average Christians could tell that these works were likely not authored by apostles, that they presented some strange ideas when compared to previously received texts, and that they were mostly disjointed, esoteric and, at times, totally dumbfounding. In 400 A.D. the church ruling on the canon of the N.T. reflected the common usage of texts by the Christian Church. I encourage you to read them.
Dan Brown suggests that Leonardo da Vinci included numerous pagan symbols in much of his art work, some of it intended to direct later followers in the quest for the Holy Grail, while remaining discretely acceptable to the Church. Hence, we have the book’s title, The Da Vinci Code. Brown also says that the individual seated in the privileged seat, to Jesus’ right, in Da Vinci’s Last Supper, is in fact a carefully disguised Mary Magdalene. Take a look for yourself.
Merovingian Templar Gnostic Church exists today and may be explored on their web site. I found it by a simple search on the word “Merovingian”. Their beliefs include:
- A Sacred God (Order) and Goddess (Chaos).
- We were God’s and Goddesses before being created.
- The purpose of life is the quest for the Holy Grail and finding balance.
- Reincarnation
- Divine Mathematics can show the path to Illumination
- And more!
In conclusion, The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown, is fast-paced mystery fiction. On page one, Brown has a “fact sheet”. Read it carefully. Treat everything else with “a grain of salt”, and there is no secret message in that!
© 2004 Donald D. Reigstad