The Davinci Code?

Question

Okay the Davinci code I want your opinions on the book. Do you think it depicts actual historical facts or is it just completly makibng them up all together? Do you believe in the Priory of Sion and that it actual existed or still exists today honest opinions people please it is for a research project for my philosophy class so please help me?!!!!

Answer 1

The DaVinci Code, as a work of fiction, was an amusing book. though the habit of the author to boldface the points he wished to stress was tiresome and somewhat insulting. I have researched some thigns from the book. I do believe that some of what the book states is true. I also think a lot of it was fiction used to support some true points. Take the history of the Knights Templar.....yes, they were all destroyed, for what reason, no one knows...except maybe for the Vatican, as it was by Papal decree that they were hunted down. I honestly believe that Jesus, as a man, did have a wife. Jewish history as well as custom tells us that a man his age would have been married. Additionally, he was in his 30's before he began his ministry, so...The Opus Dei exists, and they do use the device mentioned in the book. The Priory? I don't know. History records it as a hoax...but...as for anything else, Leonardo was an enigmatic person, to be sure...but...the Rose thing? Well, some of it can be verified, some cannot. And there are a lot of, well lets call them cults for lack of a better word, that believe in the Feminine Devine, however, they would scarcely align themselves with Christianity. I think there are mysteries in our world that will never be solved...sort of like conspiracy theories...the ones who believe them are very good at giving "proof", while the ones that do not are equally as good at disproving them.

Answer 2

I think the best way to describe The Da Vinci Code is complete and unadulterated, but entertaining fiction.

Dan Brown cleverly uses real locations, real(ish) organisations and some dubious art history as part of his plot - this forms part of the attraction to the reader.

Briefly,

Priory of Sion - it has pretty much been proved the "Dossiers Secrets" documents that alledgedly "proved" the ancient heritage of the Priory were not in existence prior to 1956 when Pierre Plantard created the organisation.

Opus Dei - does certainly exist, but not in the form or for the reason that Dan Brown writes of.

The Last Supper - no reputable art historian really believes that this painting by da Vinci conceals a code. The letter "M" in the background only makes sense if you believe all the guff about Mary Magdalene in the first place, and the figure that Brown identifies as Mary is actually John. If it is Mary, why aren't there 14 people at the Last Supper ? If it is Mary, where is John ?

The attached links will give you some good sensible detailed answers as to why the book must be considered fictional.

Answer 3

The DaVinci Code is fiction. It contains several factual errors.

It claims that the Dead Sea Scrolls (which it says were find in the 1950s) contained "over 80 other gospels of Jesus". Facts: the Dead Sea Scrolls were found in the 1940s. They are entirely Jewish writings that predate the birth of Christ by 100-150 years. There is not a single "gospel" or other Christian related book in the scrolls. They predate Christianity.

It claims the Council of Nicene in 325AD altered the contents of the New Testament books. Fact: over 2,300 manuscripts still exist today that predate the Council (some by 200 years) yet are word for word the same as the NT Greek texts used today. This includes complete NTs that contain the same 27 books official approved by the Nicene Council, but from 150 years before the Council meet. There is no historical evidence that they altered the New Testament.

The book takes some facts, and some historical settings (there really is a Louve Art gallery in Paris for instance) to make the book believable, then blends in fictional characters and pure fantasy to make an exciting story.

Answer 4

I'm only halfway through the book. I don't know about all the stuff within the catholic church because I''m a protestant. I've seen the movie so that's what I'll answer from. The Concil of Nicea was what 3rd century A.D. The Gospel of Mary was written 3rd century A.d. The Gospel of Thomas and Phillip were I think (Nag Hammadi) either 2nd or 3rd Century A.D. I think the fact that they were written such a long time after Jesus (the other gospels included in the Bible were written within 10 or 40 years after Jesus ascended into Heaven), makes them less credible because they weren't written by eye-witnesses. And also Dan Brown doesn't mention how in these pagan religions, where men and female dieties/diety were worshipped, women were excluded from coming into places of worship. Especially in Rome. In fact, the reason why so many women became Christians was because Christianity didn't exclude women. The first European cover--A woman. (I got this information from the BBC Series on Religion).

Anyway, he didn't bring up a good point about Mary Magdelene being slandered. The Bible never called her a prostitute. That was the work of evil, sinful men who may or may not have been Christians. For me, I think the corruption of Christianity came with Roman backing. Romans were very sexists. A pagan emperor made Christianity the state religion. So instead of martyrs who died for their beliefs and who were probably quite certain, you have "Christians" who are more cultural Christians than anything. And the Roman Catholic church started all these traditions and rules and religious formations that the Bible gave no orders to do.

So I think that Christianity and the Bible, but rather "christianity".

I don't know what happened to all those women. But from what I understand some Catholic bible include some appocraphyl books like Ecclesiasticus which are very insulting to women, but they aren't even considered to be legitimate. I think it was a perversion of the cannonized Bible to suit some kind of bestial need to exert power over women. I think Christianity in it's true form gave women a lot more freedom than some give it credit for.

Anyway, that was a lot. Hope you could read it all.

Answer 5

The book is fiction based on history, so there is a mix of both in it.
The Priory of Sion did actually exist at one time -- it may or may not exist now, hard to tell with secret societies :) What the Priory actually did (or does) is really only known to its members, so their actions and methods in the book are Brown's ideas based on their existence -- could be right, could be wrong, only the Priory know for sure.

The Knights Templar, doctrine about jesus being married and having children, about the "holy grail" really being his offspring -- all real history before Dan Brown wove them into his story.

Interesting research on this at the link below.

Answer 6

This is for a philosophy class!?

Read "Holy Blood, Holy Grail," which claims to be historical.

Have a good chuckle.

Then read Eco, "Foucault's Pendulum."

Have another good chuckle, and admire the shades of historial allusion and subtle irony in Eco's masterful writing.

Then, go back to Brown's "Da Vinci Code" and reflect on just how bad it is, even by the standards of popular fiction. Then watch the movie, which will make the book seem bearable by comparison.

Answer 7

The Da Vinci code is a mix of actual historical facts and fiction. Read the author's notes in the book, he himself will tell you exactly what he made up and what is proven to be fact. And to help you learn more about the parts that are fact, simply search on google.com.

Answer 8

There's a disclaimer in the book that mentions that some things in the book (which it lists...) are true, but it turns out that most of the more interesting parts of the book are pure fiction, including the Priory of Scion, which was a hoax made up during WWII.

It's a good story, thought provoking, educational...but not factual.

Answer 9

If you read the book, in the foreward there is a paragraph that states in the first line:" This is a work of fiction", if that does not explain the behind the scenes prose of this work nothing will.

Answer 10

I think there are elements of truth in the book.

But the book itself is just preditable fiction, I knew exactly how it was going to end by about chaper 10.