What's up with the whole Da vinci code Crap..enlighten me on this?

Answer 1

The Da Vinci Code is a mystery/detective novel by American author Dan Brown, published in 2003 by Doubleday Fiction. It is a worldwide bestseller with more than 60.5 million copies in print (as of May 2006) and has been translated into 44 languages. Combining the detective, thriller and conspiracy theory genres, the book is part two of a trilogy that started with Brown's 2000 novel Angels and Demons, which introduced the character Robert Langdon. In November 2004, Random House published a "Special Illustrated Edition", with 160 illustrations interspersed with the text.

The plot of the novel involves a conspiracy by the Catholic Church to cover up the "true" story of Jesus. The Vatican knows it is living a lie but does so to keep itself in power. The novel has helped generate popular interest in speculation concerning the Holy Grail legend and the role of Mary Magdalene in the history of Christianity. Fans have lauded the book as creative, action-packed and thought-provoking. Critics have attacked it as inaccurate, sacrilegious and decry the many negative implications about the Catholic Church and Opus Dei.

Dan Brown's novel was a smash hit in 2003, even rivaling the sales of the highly popular Harry Potter series. It spawned a number of offspring books and drew glowing reviews from the New York Times, the People Magazine and Washington Post . The novel has also inspired several tour groups like Da Vinci Code tours, and companies like Ravenchase Adventures to create Da Vinci code like races and adventures using codes, ciphers, actors and gadgets. It also re-ignited interest in the history of the Catholic Church. As well as re-invigorating interest in the church, The Da Vinci Code has also spawned numerous "knockoffs" (as they are referred to by Publishers Weekly) , or novels that have a striking resemblance to The Da Vinci Code, including Raymond Khoury's The Last Templar, and The Templar Legacy by Steve Berry.

Sony's Columbia Pictures has adapted the novel to film, with a screenplay written by Akiva Goldsman, and Academy Award winner Ron Howard directing. The film is set for release on May 19, 2006, and will star Tom Hanks as Robert Langdon, Audrey Tautou as Sophie Neveu, and Sir Ian McKellen as Leigh Teabing.

Plot summary
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The book concerns the attempts of Robert Langdon, Professor of Religious Symbology at Harvard University, to solve the murder of renowned curator Jacques Saunière (see Bérenger Saunière) of the Louvre Museum in Paris. The title of the novel refers, among other things, to the fact that Saunière's body is found in the Denon Wing of the Louvre naked and posed like Leonardo da Vinci's famous drawing, the Vitruvian Man, with a cryptic message written beside his body and a Pentagram drawn on his stomach in his own blood. The interpretation of hidden messages inside Leonardo's famous works, including the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, figure prominently in the solution to the mystery.

The main conflict in the novel revolves around the solution to two mysteries:

•What secret was Saunière protecting that led to his murder?

•Who is the mastermind behind his murder?

The novel has several concurrent storylines that follow different characters. Eventually all the storylines are brought together and resolved with the denouement.

The unraveling of the mystery requires the solution to a series of brain-teasers, including anagrams and number puzzles. The solution itself is found to be intimately connected with the possible location of the Holy Grail and to a mysterious society called the Priory of Sion, as well as to the Knights Templar. The Catholic organization "Opus Dei" (a caricature of the real Opus Dei) also figures prominently in the plot.

The novel is the second book of a trilogy by Brown in which Robert Langdon is the main character. The previous book, Angels and Demons, took place in Rome and concerned the Illuminati. Although Angels and Demons is centered around the same character it is not necessary to read the book in order to understand the plot of The Da Vinci Code. The next book is tentatively scheduled for release in 2007.Its working title is The Solomon Key, and it is understood to concern Freemasonry.

Summary of spoilers

Jacques Saunière was the head of the Priory of Sion and therefore possessed the knowledge of the "keystone", which in turn reveals the location of the Holy Grail, as well as documents which would shake the foundation of Christianity and the Church. He was killed in order to extract this information from him and eliminate the members of the Priory of Sion.

The reason that Sophie Neveu disassociated herself from her grandfather is that she witnessed him participating in a pagan sex ritual (Hieros Gamos) at his home in Normandy, when she made a surprise visit there during a break from college.

The message Saunière wrote with an alcohol restoration marking pen on the floor before dying contained the extra line "P.S. Find Robert Langdon". This was the reason Bezu Fache suspected Langdon of being the murderer. Fache had erased this line before Langdon arrived so that Langdon would not be aware that the police suspected him. Sophie Neveu saw the entire text of the message by accident when it was faxed to her office by the police. Sophie realized immediately that the message was meant for her, since her grandfather used to call her "Princesse Sophie" (i.e. "PS") when she was a girl. From this, she also knew Langdon to be innocent. She informs him of this secretly when they are in the Louvre by telling him to call her personal voicemail box and listen to the message that she had left there for him.

The other three lines of Saunière's blood message are anagrams. The first line are the digits of the Fibonacci sequence out of order. The second and third lines ("O, draconian devil!" and "Oh, lame saint!") are anagrams respectively for "Leonardo da Vinci" and "The Mona Lisa" (in English). These clues were meant to lead to a second set of clues. On the glass over the Mona Lisa, Saunière wrote the message "So dark the con of Man" with a curator's pen that can only be read in ultra-violet light. The second clue is an anagram for Madonna of the Rocks, another Da Vinci painting hanging nearby. Behind this painting, Saunière hid a key. On the key, written with the curator's pen, is an address.

The key opens a safe deposit box at the Paris branch of the Depository Bank of Zurich. Saunière's account number at the bank is the Fibonacci sequence digits, arranged in the correct order.

The instructions that Saunière revealed to Silas at gunpoint are actually a well-rehearsed lie, namely that the keystone is buried in the Church of Saint-Sulpice beneath an obelisk that lies exactly along the ancient "Rose Line" (supposedly the former Prime Meridian (as defined by the French--not internationally) which passed through Paris before it was redefined to pass through Greenwich, although the actual Paris Meridian does not pass through the actual Church of Saint-Sulpice). In reality, the message beneath the obelisk simply contains a reference to a passage in the Book of Job which reads "Hitherto shalt thou go and no further". When Silas reads this, he realizes he has been duped.

The keystone is actually a cryptex, a cylindrical device invented by Leonardo Da Vinci for transporting secure messages. In order to open it, the combination of rotating components must be arranged in the correct order. If forced open, an enclosed vial of vinegar will rupture and dissolve the message, which was written on papyrus. The rosewood box containing the cryptex contains clues to the combination of the cryptex, written in backwards script in the same manner as Leonardo's journals. While fleeing to England aboard Teabing's plane, Langdon solves the riddle and finds the combination to be "S-O-F-I-A", the ancient Greek form of Sophie's name, also meaning wisdom.

The keystone cryptex actually contains a second smaller cryptex with a second riddle that reveals its combination. The riddle, which says to seek the orb that should be on the tomb of "a knight a pope interred", refers not to a medieval knight, but rather to the tomb of Sir Isaac Newton, who was buried in Westminster Abbey, and was eulogized by Alexander Pope (A. Pope). The orb refers to the apple observed by Newton which led to his discovery of the Law of universal gravitation and thus, the combination to the second cryptex is "A-P-P-L-E".

The Teacher is actually Sir Leigh Teabing. He learns of the identities of the leaders of the Priory of Sion and buggs their offices. Rémy is his collaborator. It is Teabing who contacts Bishop Aringarosa using a phony French accent to hide his identity and dupes him into financing the plan to find the Grail. He never intends to hand the Grail over to Aringarosa but is simply taking advantage of "Opus Dei's" resolve to find it. Instead, he believes that the Priory of Sion intends to renege on its vow to reveal the secret of the Grail to the world at the appointed time; thus, he plans to steal the Grail documents and reveal them to the world himself. It is he who informs Silas that Langdon and Sophie Neveu were at his chateau. He does not seize the keystone from them himself because he does not want to reveal his identity to them. His plan to have Silas break into his house and seize the keystone was thwarted when the police raided the house, having followed the GPS device in the truck Langdon had stolen and having heard Silas's gunshot. Teabing leads Neveu and Langdon to the Temple Church in London knowing full well that it was a blind alley. He does this to stage the hostage scene with Rémy in order to obtain the keystone without revealing his real plot to Langdon and Neveu. The call Silas receives while riding in the limousine with Rémy is in fact Teabing, surreptitiously calling from the back of the limousine.

In order to erase all knowledge of his work, Teabing kills Rémy by giving him cognac laced with peanut powder, knowing Rémy has a deadly allergy to peanuts. Teabing also anonymously tells the police that Silas is hiding in the London headquarters of "Opus Dei".

In Westminster Abbey, in the showdown with Teabing, Langdon secretly opens the second cryptex and removes its contents before destroying it in front of Teabing. Teabing is arrested and led away while fruitlessly begging Langdon to tell him the contents of the second cryptex and the secret location of the Grail.

Bishop Aringarosa and Silas believe they are saving the Church, not destroying it.

Bezu Fache figures out that Neveu and Langdon are innocent after discovering the bugging equipment in Teabing's barn.

Silas accidentally shoots Aringarosa outside the London headquarters of "Opus Dei" while fleeing from the police. Having realized his terrible error and that he has been duped, Aringarosa tells Bezu Fache to give the bearer bonds in his brief case to the families of the murdered leaders of the Priory of Sion. Silas dies of fatal wounds.

The final message inside the second keystone actually does not refer to Rosslyn Chapel, although the Grail was indeed once buried there, below the Star of David on the floor (the two interlocking triangles are the "blade" and "chalice", i.e., male and female symbols).

The docent in Rosslyn Chapel is Sophie's long-lost brother.

The guardian of Rosslyn Chapel, Marie Chauvel, is Sophie's long-lost grandmother, and the wife of Jacques Saunière. She is also the woman who participated in the sex ritual with Jacques Sauniere.

Even though all four of the leaders of the Priory of Sion are killed, the secret is not lost, since there is still a contingency plan (never revealed) which will keep the organization and its secret alive.

The real meaning of the last message is that the Grail is buried beneath the small pyramid (i.e., the "blade", a male symbol) directly below the inverted glass pyramid of the Louvre (i.e., the "chalice", a female symbol, which Langdon and Sophie ironically almost crash into while making their original escape from Bezu Fache). See La Pyramide Inversée for further discussion.

At the end of the book, Robert Langdon and Sophie Neveu fall in love. They arrange to meet in Florence.

Source(s):
(US) The Da Vinci Code, March 18, 2003 (1st edition), Doubleday, ISBN 0385504209.

The Da Vinci Code, Special Illustrated Edition, November 2, 2004, Doubleday, ISBN 0385513755 (as of January 2006, has sold 576,000 copies).

(UK) The Da Vinci Code, April 2004, Corgi Adult. ISBN 0552149519.

(UK) The Da Vinci Code: The Illustrated Edition, October 2, 2004, Bantam Press. ISBN 0593054253.

(US/Canada) The Da Vinci Code (Trade Paperback edition), March 2006, Anchor Books.

Answer 2

Listen to the news, read newspapers, listen to ministers...then you will be able to hear both sides and judge for yourself. The Movie is a fictional movie. Therefore, it does not claim to be true. The problem is mainly the content. The nature of the movie is based on the life of Jesus Christ. Christians do not believe the subject matter should be presented in a fictional way, they believe it is sacreligious to do so. The Hollywood side believes it is okay because it is fiction and other movies about any other subject matter have been made, which is okay. The idea that the Movie casts doubt in the minds of youth, confused persons, and those unsure of their faith is seen as very harmful, to the Christians. An example is science fiction movies, they are fictional movies. Many person watch them and know they are fiction but believe that much or all of the movie could be true or could become true. When the nature of the subject matter is serious, such as religious or spiritual it insults those with founded beliefs. You may say it rocks the boat of their stability. Some Christians view this as good, if it is a way of getting people to look at the life and truth of Christ and see it as a way to educate the public. Viewpoints vary depending on the belief. I encourage if people really feel the need to see this movie and judge for themselves, that they be objective and also view the other side before they form ideas. The other movie is "The truth about the Davinci code", it can be obtained from almost any religious organization (christians). You can send for it from the TV ministerial associations. If a person is mature and objective, you must see all sides before froming an opinion. The Christians say this is blasphemy becuse the lies told about Christ, such as he married and had sex with Mary Magdalene. Blasphemy is anyway one degrades or casts doubt or bad image on the creator or the church, regardless of whether it is stated to be fiction or not. Please, be objective and hear and study both sides...you decide.

Answer 3

fiction being sold as a 'Truth' a mix of gnostic gospel beliefs, a pot shot at a catholic group called Opus Dei (whom for the record don't even have monks) a fictional account of a French royal family having The daughter of Jesus and Mary Magdalene. DNA tests show a dead 14th century queen of that line doesn't match any Middle Eastern blood and the author of the 'secret documents' later make a public and notarized statement that is was a hoax he placed in the French national library. So a much to do about a total fiction. Funny how it's selling on the line of 'truth' Someone made a lot of money and the same controversies have been around since the 2 and 3 centuries. Which basically claim Jesus Christ was a great man, not son of God. That's why it has a lot of Christians upset and it is another Catholic basher.

Answer 4

early Christianity was much much more diverse than what we have today. Most of these early Christians are now referred to as Gnostic Christians or "heretics". But there are a few still practicing the ancient traditions in Iran and Egypt. And there are Pagan Christians in the west reclaiming early Christian ideas from the Gnostic Gospels into esoteric and mystical Christianity akin to New Age or even Hinduism and Buddhism. One strain of early Christianity that has survived into modern times is the myth of the Black Madonna or Mary Magdalene as a sacred Esoteric/Metaphysical Christian Symbol. Though the Da Vinci Code is highly fictionalized there are and have been Christians througout time that believed basically that Christ did not ascend to heaven, but either escaped from Jerusalem before being caught, or was resurrected and then left and lived out his life with Mary Magdalene and their child. Others believe that Christ did die, and or was resurrected and ascended and Mary Magdalene was left pregnant with their child to hide in secrecy and raise on her own. These ideas and beliefs are actually just a very small strain within Esoteric Christianity and early Christian beliefs made radically popular by the book the Davinci Code.

Answer 5

The Da Vinci Code is a Fictional book kind of based loosely on some truth about religion. Supposedly Leonardo Da Vinci knew about and was a member of a secret society and they held the secrets to the Holy Grail. The secret society beleived that Jesus married Mary Magnalane and had a child named Sarah. The Holy Grail is not a cup according to the book it is Mary Magnalene herself because she gave birth to jesus' child and carried on the holy bloodline.

Da Vinci went and tried to put the secrets in code or symbolically in his paintings. The woman in the book (main character) her grandfather was a member also of the secret society and he was murdered and before he was murdered he left a criptic messege for his granddaughter and Robert Langdon (he is a professer of art and symbololgy(?) at harvard university) He goes and tries to figure out who killed the Grandfather.

The girl(main character) was a part of the ancestry of jesus and she was the last surviving decentant of jesus.

Go see the movie it was GREAT!

Answer 6

It's just religious conspiracy theory set in the guise of a decent sleuth-thriller. It is based on third century gnostic gospels, which were fictional stories created to suit the philosophy of the time, but using historical characters.

The DaVinci Code really just taps into the postmodern ideas that the only thing that matters is that you believe (although it matters not in what). It is just saying that there is no need to worry about the truth or content of faith, but just that you have faith.

I think that this is bollocks, but 99% of 'Christians' seem to disagree based on the evidence of this site.

Answer 7

How do you mean what's up with it? It's a story, plain and simple, like... harry potter.

Some people seem to think that it is true, which is odd, because it's a work of fiction, and religious groups find it offensive, because it brings into question certain aspects of Christ's life. (If religion can't be questioned, in works of fiction, then it does not say much for freedom of speech, but no matter...)

Answer 8

Its nothing new......I've seen it before in other forms....infact the last movie made about Jesus and Mary Magdalene was called "The last temptation of Christ". Same old crap being written to look new.
Satan has been trying to kill and to discredit Jesus since his conception.
Its the end times so don't be moved by the evil movement of the times. Satan is working over time.....lol. because he will lose in the end.

Answer 9

There's about a metric ton of websites out there devoted to this.

I don't honestly know what all the hype is about. The concept isn't especially new or interesting. Maybe people just don't read enough...

Answer 10

Why not look into it yourself?
Or are you only able to believe things other people tell you are true/false?
Free Will is a very powerful tool. Many xtians will say that too, but not actually want you to use it, as it makes one question things...

Answer 11

He just took a few historial names out of history and made up a fictional story to make a livng. He sells them, he has no interest in God or truth, its just a story. If you believe it to be truth then I have a bridge I want to sell you.