The Da Vinci Code – a View from the Pew

The Da Vinci Code has exercised a great deal of interest recently, as it is now an overlong and boring, badly scripted film, as well as an overlong, boring and badly written book. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend Pete Willcox’s talk on the subject, so these thoughts are simply the random ramblings of someone without the benefit of clerical training, but hopefully with some commonsense.

Apparently, according at least to the more sensational press, the assertion that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and fathered a bloodline that continues to this day, is sufficient to render Christian faith meaningless. This raises one or two points:

(a) The Da Vinci code is a very clever book which builds a lot of bricks with very little straw, but the fact remains that it is totally a work of fiction;
(b) The book was so poorly researched that at one point we are asked to believe that an eminent cryptographer would not recognise mirror-writing, despite this being a freely acknowledged accomplishment of Da Vinci;
(c) According to the book the bloodline of Jesus gave rise to the Merovingian dynasty of medieval rulers, but has now dwindled to the point where there is only a single remaining descendant. Clerical training I may not have, but when I took my degree in medieval history, I was under the impression that the Merovingian dynasty evolved in turn from the Carolingian dynasty founded by Charlemagne the Great, and itself launched most of the royal families of Western Europe – far from 1 remaining descendent, it has spawned hundreds if not thousands of living descendents.
(d) Given that marriage was one of the most important social events in the life of any Jew, is it not a little surprising, if Jesus got married, that none of the Gospel commentators thought fit to mention it, especially that arch champion of the Jewish faith – Matthew?

A threat to the very foundations of Christian faith? Not for me – rest assured that the Bible will continue to outsell the Da Vinci Code for many decades yet.

God Bless

Keith