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May 7, 2006
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Da Vinci Code
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Pastor Brian Shimer
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"Is This BIble Reliable?"
2 Peter 1:19-2:3; 2 Timothy 3:10-27
- Some of you may have already read my article in the May Newsletter on Dan Brown's book called The Da Vinci Code and upcoming movie based upon it. The book released in 2003 was the biggest selling hardback fiction book of all time with sales topping 40 million copies and has also been translated into dozens of languages. The New York Times wrote that it is a riddle-filled, code-breaking, exhilarating, brainy thriller. This month the movie based upon the book will be released which some say may have a wider influence than The Passion of the Christ.
So, why am I giving it any heed? After all, as one non Christian told me, "It is only a novel."
My reason is that many are not reading it as if it was only a novel. Some read Dan Brown's "Fact page" that "all descriptions, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate" ( p. 1), and from there extrapolate that Mr. Brown's conclusions about the documents and historical persons to which he refers are accurate as well.
A tourist industry has begun to flourish around the sites mentioned in this book, some art students are applying his comments about art masterpieces, and some Christians have swallowed his distorted view of Christian history. One Christian woman commented, "It almost made me lose my faith." Dr Dobson's Focus on the Family radio program polled its listeners to find a startling 80% believed that the Da Vinci Code's view of Christian history was accurate. Clearly this book is changing the way people think. Whether or not Mr. Brown intended to have such an influence over the lives and thoughts of people cannot be stated. But the fact remains his book is having a profound influence.
So, we are going to spend four weeks looking at this novel in the light of God's Word, which is what the Bible claims to be. About itself the Bible asserts it is a lamp for our feet, a light for our path. It says it is "God-breathed" that as the words of Scripture were written, the authors were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
(Psalm 119:105; 2 Timothy 3:16, 2 Peter 1:19-21).
Today, I simply want you and I to take the time to rehearse how the Bible came about in the first place, for if we are going to take this novel in the light of Scripture we had best understand with clarity "how the Scriptures came to be". This may be a bit stodgy for some of you, a bit rudimentary for others, but so important. I can foresee that there will be conversations birthed by this book and the upcoming movie, and what a terrific thing for you and me to be more prepared for them.
- From 2nd Peter you know we have been told to grow in the knowledge of Jesus and of God. Peter has laid out the importance and authority of God's word as I mentioned already and tells his readers to "pay attention" to the Word of God and then warns them at the start of the second chapter that false teachers will be among them. It is clear Peter does not want his readers to be led astray by these teachers but instead have the ability to stand upon what God has said and done.
It is clear too that Peter believed that the truth of God's Word and relationship with Jesus was what would guard them from being exploited by these teachers. However, if we believe what the Da Vinci Code says about the Bible, upon what will we stand when false teachers come around?
One of the authoritative characters in The Da Vinci Code Sir Leigh Teabing says,
"The Bible is a product of man, my dear. Not of God… Man created it as an historical record of tumultuous times, and it has evolved through countless translations, additions, and revisions. History has never had a definitive version of the book." He goes on to say that "The Bible, as we know it today, was collated by the pagan Roman emperor Constantine the Great" (DVC, p 231).
Well is Sir Teabing accurate in his historical perspective?
- There is only one way to know and that is to review some of the basics of how the Bible came about.
Begin with me with the word "Canon". When we speak of the "Canon of Scripture" we are referring to the collection of books measured by a standard (Kanas) and accepted as divinely inspired, sacred. When you read the New Testament there is no doubt that the authors therein considered the Old Testament scriptures the authoritative Word of God. 10% of the New Testament is made up of quotes from the Old. Jesus often quotes it. Paul and Peter wrote their statements about it. It is the Hebrew Scriptures that first were seen as "God breathed" as the prophetic writings of men who wrote as carried along by the Holy Spirit.
The Da Vinci Code says that the Dead Sea Scrolls contained New Testament manuscripts, but actually, they contained only Old Testament manuscripts all of which were dated at 200 years before the birth of Christ. This find confirmed the accuracy of the Old Testament Scriptures moving the date back of our earliest manuscripts more than 1000 years!
You can say of the Bible you have that it is "the most accurately transmitted book of all times. Its transmission from one generation to the next has been done so carefully and is so well documented that once people know the whole story, they often remark that only God could have done such an excellent job" (Pastor Hal, All that copying, over all that time, New Song Church, newsongchurch.com).
- The New Testament began first as an oral tradition, which at the time of Jesus was considered more accurate than written sources (Papias, Bishop of Hierapolis AD 135,
"I did not consider that I got so much profit from the contents of books as from the utterances of a living and abiding voice." Documents of the Christian Church, H. Bettenson, Oxford U. Press,c. 63, p. 26, ubp)
The oral tradition consisted, first and foremost, of the Words of Jesus. They were cherished and considered holy. They were the common possession of the community. It was not considered urgent to preserve them for posterity, for the early church believed wholeheartedly that Jesus would be returning very soon. The words of Jesus were the "canon," the "standard," of the New Testament long before there was any literature to canonize.
However, concurrent with this oral tradition was the written word. Letters began to be written and circulated among the churches. First of these were the letters of Paul. By 94 AD Bishop Clement of Rome mentions a "collection" of Paul's letters. There were other letters being circulated as well: 1 and II Clement, Epistle of Barnabas, Shepherd of Hermas and others.
Then, much was also being written about Jesus at this time. First was Mark's Gospel, which was published in Rome between 55 and 65 AD. Then, Matthew published his in Palestine around 60 AD. And Dr Luke based his upon Paul's teachings and upon his own further research, published his in the Eastern Mediterranean around 60 AD as well. John was written while he was bishop of Ephesus, and possibly while imprisoned on the Isle of Patmos concurrent with the Book of Revelation.
None of these writers claimed divine authority, however, by 140 AD Justin Martyr wrote that the memoirs of the apostles called gospels were being read liturgically in church along with the Hebrew Bible.
"The term gospel ("good news") is not just a Christian term, but rather one that was already in use in the Greco-Roman world before the canonical Gospels were written. Because the ancient world didn't have a free-market economy, public gifts from higher-status persons were what greased the wheels of society and commerce. Emperors were lauded for their good deeds of benefaction and their triumphs in wars. The "gospel" was good news about actions taken on behalf of the people by the emperor (or another wealthy person). The benefactors weren't, in the main, praised for their great philosophical or wise utterances. When early Christians picked up the term gospel, they had in mind the good news of things Jesus had done, while also including some of his teachings" (Ben Witherington, The Gospel Code, Intervarsity Press, c.'04, p. 97, ubp).
The other so-called gospels of Thomas (published in 150 AD), Philip (300 AD), Peter, Mary, also of the 2nd century, and the most recently discovered Judas (180 AD) were rejected by the early church as not trustworthy, for it was considered a sin to write something under the name of someone else. Judas who died in 33 AD could not have written the gospel dated in the 2nd Century AD. Also, these gospels contained explicit reference to a belief system called Gnosticism, which I will discuss in greater detail next week. If you were to look at any of them you would find them a series of disconnected teachings which would not read to you as if Jesus was saying them. They are strange, esoteric, philosophical, and not dealing with the real, day-to-day life of Jesus. They are not "gospel" as far as the use of that term.
By 150 AD a consensus grew for requirements for a New Testament Canon.
The books had to be written by the original apostles or their disciples.
They had to be orthodox - they had to present the faith "as handed down to us" as the Bishop of Antioch wrote in a letter to the Church at Rhossus.
They had to have general acceptance and belong to the community, not to the elite educators. In other words it was only those books that were being used as a regular part of worship, instruction, confession, liturgy, and were visible all through the church, the Body of Christ, that were accepted.
By the end of the 2nd Century at the four centers for Christianity in Rome, Gaul, Alexandria and Carthage, some of the first collections of the letters (or books) accepted in this canon were gathered. 21 of the books currently in our New Testaments were uplifted as belonging to canon with a few in question
In 280AD the emperor of Rome Diocletian ordered that all sacred Christian books be burned, which raised this question among believers: "Which ones were 'sacred'?" Diocletian's efforts failed, as have multiple similar efforts down through the ages, and then God prompted the next Roman Emperor, Constantine, to have 50 copies of the then accepted books of the New Testament produced at his own expense in 313 AD!
Beginning in 367 AD in North Africa, Carthage, Milan, and Alexandria, Egypt, although separated by miles and often conflicts, books were gathered in preparation for an international council of the church which met at Carthage in 397 AD. To that gathering representatives came from these and other areas, and when they compared what the Holy Spirit had led them to choose, all of them had selected the same 27 books for a New Testament Canon.
Unlike what Sir Teabing in the Da Vinci Code says, this canon was not brought about under order of Constantine, indeed, he was not involved. And it was not brought about by the powerful to squelch the weak. Instead the council simply certified the canon that was already widely acknowledged in the church. (Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, c.'94, p. 68-69, ubp)
So, in agreement with the church as a whole at Carthage it was declared: "Apart from this canon, nothing read in church is Scripture."
- So, tell me how many books are in the New Testament you have in your bible? Yep, 27.
This is the authoritative canon, the definitive version of the book - this is what came about in the early church, developed soon after Jesus died, resurrected and ascended and has been accepted by the church since those days. No it has not been changed, revised or altered to speak a message it did not speak in 397 AD and prior to then.
The evangelist of the 18th Century England, John Wesley, wrote: "Would you come closer to the One who is the living Word? Then draw closer to the written word. Would you like to know the living Christ? Then know the written Word of that Christ."
Richard Watson, Wesley's contemporary, in his sermon Oracles of God, wrote: "If this is a dead book to you, this is not a commentary on the Bible but a commentary on your own spiritual health, or lack thereof… No other resource disarms death… No other resource is anointed with the Spirit like this…"
In the Bible you hold God's Word -- your Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth, God's promises for your life. So, if you read The Da Vinci Code or go see the movie come back to the book, this book, and continue in the more exciting and compelling story. It is the only book that reads you and exposes your own heart and works transformation within you to become more like Jesus Christ.
Resources:
Nicky Gumbel, "Pure Fiction?" article in GoodNews January/February 2006, p. 13.
Everett F. Harrison's Introduction to the New Testament, Wm. B Eerdmans, c. '71.
Henry Bettenson's Documents of the Christian Church, 2nd ed, Oxford University Press, c'63.
Rev Neely P. Towe, "Christianity and the Da Vinci Code," lecture series found online, do not have address, through tothesource.com
Ben Witherington III, The Gospel Code, Intervarsity Press, c.'04.
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