TALKING POINTS ON FALSEHOODS
IN THE DA VINCI CODE

© 2006 by C.R. Publications space
Da Vinci Code
Jesus was just an ordinary man.
Truth
Jesus said he was God and proved it with dozens of miracles. He changed water into wine, cured the sick, the lame, the blind, and the deaf, cast out demons, brought three people back to life, and rose from the dead himself. Only an “extraordinary Christ who did extraordinary things,” said historian Paul Johnson, can explain the rise of Christianity during three centuries of persecution under the Roman Empire.
Da Vinci Code
No one knew Jesus was God until the Council of Nicaea in A.D. 325.
Truth
Jesus is described as God or as God’s Son more than 100 times in the New Testament. For example, when the Apostle Thomas was invited by Jesus after the Resurrection to put his fingers into Christ’s wounds, Thomas fell to his knees and said, “My Lord and my God” (John 20:28). In A.D. 107, St. Ignatius of Antioch referred to “our God, Jesus Christ.” In A.D. 150, St. Justin Martyr said that Jesus was “God, Son of the only, unbegotten, unutterable God.” These statements came at least 175 years before the Council of Nicaea.
Da Vinci Code
The Council of Nicaea decided by “a relatively close vote” that Jesus was God.
Truth
The Council of Nicaea already knew Jesus was God and voted 218 to 2 (that’s close?) to affirm that He was true God and equal to the Father. They approved the Nicene Creed we say every Sunday at Mass, that Jesus is “God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, one in being with the Father.”
Da Vinci Code
That must be Mary Magdalene sitting next to Jesus in Leonardo Da Vinci’s painting of “The Last Supper” because the person has long hair, no beard, and feminine features.
Truth
No, that’s John the Apostle sitting next to Jesus, not Mary Magdalene. Leonardo explained in his Treatise on Painting that he painted people according to their age and status. Since John was the youngest Apostle and a favorite disciple of Jesus, Leonardo painted him as youthful, long-haired, and clean-shaven.
Da Vinci Code
That Leonardo was part of a secret conspiracy is shown by his painting of the “Mona Lisa” because when you shift the letters around, Mona becomes the pagan god Amon and Lisa the pagan goddess Isis.
Truth
Mona is a shortened version of Madonna, which means “My Lady.” Lisa was the wife of an Italian businessman, and Leonardo did the painting for him and called it “La Gioconda,” not “Mona Lisa.”
Da Vinci Code
The Roman Emperor Constantine shifted the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday because that was the day that pagans worshipped the sun, and that’s why we observe Sunday as the Sabbath.
Truth
In A.D. 321, Constantine did make Sunday a day of rest in the Roman Empire, but the Catholic Church changed the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday nearly 300 years before Constantine (cf. Acts of the Apostles 20:7) because that was the day on which Jesus rose from the dead.
Da Vinci Code
Constantine created a “new Vatican power base” in the fourth century.
Truth
The Vatican was swampland in the fourth century and did not become the official residence of the Pope until a thousand years later.
Da Vinci Code
Constantine assembled the Bible and burned all those “gospels” that showed Jesus wasn’t God.
Truth
The Bible was assembled by the Catholic Church about 150 years before Constantine and included only those Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) that were written by persons who either knew Jesus (Matthew and John) or by persons who interviewed those who knew Jesus (Mark and Luke). That these four authors spoke the truth is proved by their willingness to give up their lives for what they wrote about Jesus.
Da Vinci Code
Some of the gospels that Constantine tried to destroy were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls discovered in 1947 in a cave in the Judean desert.
Truth
There are no Gospels (none!) among the more than 800 scrolls found near the Dead Sea from 1947 to 1956.
Da Vinci Code
The Dead Sea Scrolls are the “earliest Christian records” we have.
Truth
The Dead Sea Scrolls are Jewish records, not Christian records. They were compiled by a Jewish sect known as the Essenes, who lived near the Dead Sea from about 200 B.C. to 100 A.D.
Da Vinci Code
Jesus made Mary Magdalene, not St. Peter, the first head of His Church.
Truth
The reason why the Da Vinci Code tries to discredit the four true Gospels is because Matthew reports that Jesus changed Simon’s name to Peter and told him: “You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Matthew 16:18-19). It is Peter, not Magdalene, who is recognized as the head of the Church in the Acts of the Apostles, which is the history of the first 30 or so years of the Catholic Church.
Da Vinci Code
Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene and they had a child.
Truth
There is no evidence anywhere, not even in the phony “gospels” promoted by those who believe this falsehood, that Jesus and Magdalene were married. The Da Vinci Code cites as evidence the following passage from the bogus Gospel of Philip: “And the companion of the Savior is Mary Magdalene. Christ loved her more than all the disciples and used to kiss her often on her mouth.” Not only does this say nothing about marriage, but here is how the passage appears in the original manuscript, which has many holes in it: “... the companion of the [...] Mary Magdalene. [...] loved her more than [...] the disciples, and used to kiss her [...] on her [...].” Fill in the blanks any way you want, but Jesus and Magdalene weren’t married.
Da Vinci Code
The Catholic Church was so afraid of the power of Magdalene that it outlawed speaking her name.
Truth
Mary Magdalene is mentioned a dozen times in the four Gospels. She was the first person to see Jesus after He rose from the dead. She is one of the most famous saints in the Catholic Church and has many churches named after her. Her feast day has been celebrated on July 22nd ever since the eighth century. Does that sound like outlawing the mention of her name?
Da Vinci Code
Pope Clement V burned to death hundreds of Knights Templar and tossed their ashes into the Tiber River in Rome.
Truth
Pope Clement V spent his entire papacy (1305-1314) in Avignon, France, and never set foot in Rome.
Da Vinci Code
Opus Dei is “a deeply devout Catholic sect” that engages in “brainwashing, coercion, and corporal mortification“ and has monks to carry out its dirty deeds.
Truth
Opus Dei does not have monks. It is not a sect but rather an association of priests and lay people that was founded in 1928 by St. Josemaria Escriva to help lay people live out their call to holiness in the workaday world. Whatever mortifications some of its members may inflict on themselves for spiritual reasons don’t come close to the punishments that marathon runners and Olympic athletes inflict on their bodies when preparing for an event.
Da Vinci Code Defenders
Why get upset about this? It's only fiction.
Truth
Fiction can have a powerful influence on the views of people who are uninformed, especially when author Dan Brown claims that the story is based on FACT and is the result of serious historical research.
Dan Brown’s history has nothing to do with fact.
Dan Brown’s scholarship is really just an act.
Dan Brown’s history has nothing to do with fact.
His lies go marching on.

Glory, glory, hallelujah,
His sense of history is peculiar.
Glory, glory, hallelujah,
His lies go marching on.
Suggested Resources for Additional Information:
De-Coding Da Vinci by Amy Welborn
The Da Vinci Deception by Mark Shea and Edward Sri
The Da Vinci Hoax by Carl E. Olson and Sandra Miesel