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Yaaraer
9th October 2004, 16:28
Salam,

Has anyone here read Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code? According to Dan Brown the story takes place in the context of factual events, places, organizations and rituals. What do you all think about the many points he makes? Some of them I have copy/pasted below... I am not learned in Christianity, its history and stuff but what do ya all think? Are all the facts (as called by the author) in the book supported by historical evidence?

The facts: -

“More than eighty gospels were considered for the New Testament, and yet only a relative few were chosen for inclusion…The Bible as we know it today was collated by the pagan Roman Emperor Constantine the Great.” (p.231)

“Nothing in Christianity is original. The pre-Christian God Mithras – called the Son of God and the Light of the World – was born on December 25, died, was buried in a rock tomb, and then resurrected in three days. By the way, December 25 is also the birthday of Osiris, Adonis, and Dionysus. The newborn Krishna was presented with gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Even Christianity’s holy day was stolen from the pagans.” (p.232)

“At this gathering [Council of Nicea in 325 AD] many aspects of Christianity were debated and voted upon – the date of Easter, the role of the bishops, the administration of sacraments, and, of course, the divinity of Jesus…until that moment in history, Jesus was viewed by his followers as a mortal prophet…Jesus establishment as the ‘Son of God’ was officially proposed and voted on by the Council of Nicea…A relatively close vote at that.” (p. 233)

“From this sprang the most profound moment in Christian history. Constantine commissioned and financed a new Bible, which omitted those gospels that spoke of Christ’s human traits and embellished those gospels that made him godlike. The other gospels were outlawed, gathered up, and burned.” (p.234)

“…almost everything our fathers taught us about Christ is false. As are the stories about the Holy Grail.” (p. 235)

“…legend tells us the Holy Grail is a chalice – a cup. But the Grail’s description as a chalice is actually an allegory to protect the true nature of the Holy Grail…The Grail is literally the ancient symbol for womanhood and the Holy Grail represents the sacred feminine and the goddess, which of course has now been lost, virtually eliminated by the Church.” (p.238)

“The Church needed to defame Mary Magdalene [making her out to be a prostitute] in order to cover up her dangerous secret – her role as the Holy Grail.” (p.244)

“At this point in the gospels, Jesus suspects He will soon be captured and crucified. So he gives Mary Magdalene instructions on how to carry on His Church after He is gone…Jesus was the original feminist. He intended for the future of His Church to be in the hands of Mary Magdalene.” (pp 247-248)

“Behold, the greatest cover-up in human history. Not only was Jesus Christ married, but He was a father. My dear, Mary Magdalene was the Holy Vessel. She was the chalice that bore the royal bloodline of Jesus Christ. She was the womb that bore the lineage, and the vine from which the sacred fruit sprang forth.” (p 249)

“Mary Magdalene was pregnant at the time of the crucifixion…With the help of Jesus’ trusted uncle, Joseph of Arimathea [she] secretly traveled to France, then known as Gaul. There she found safe refuge in the Jewish community. It was here in France that she gave birth to a daughter. Her name was Sarah.” (p 255)

The Grail story is everywhere, but it is hidden. When the Church outlawed speaking of the shunned Mary Magdalene, her story and importance had to be passed on through more discreet channels…channels that supported metaphor and symbolism…The arts…Once you open your eyes to the Holy Grail you see her everywhere. Paintings. Music. Books. Even in cartoons, theme parks, and popular movies.” (p. 261)

Also what about the ‘Priory of Sion’ and the hidden symbols in Da Vinci’s paintings? And Mary Magdalene in the Last Supper?

Wondering about other people’s opinions…

Peace.

Ratatosk
9th October 2004, 18:32
Salam,

Yaaraer, peace. I have to admit that I haven't read the Da Vinci Code, although strangely yesterday a friend of mine recommended it as a good read. Anyhow, my two cents:

The Council of Nicea (the 325 AD one) did collect a lot of gospels, books that were circulating in Asia Minor, the Middle East and Rome around that time. From what I've gathered, the reasons for inclusion were partly quite worldly. If the gospel in question did not stray all too radically from the at that time accepted view of the early christian congregation, a simple formula was used. Simply the gospels that had the largest circulation, ie the one's that were the most copied, were included and canonized. If one would be cynical enough (which none of us are), one could say that the New Testament is a tad, how to put it, populistic in its approach.

I haven't found a lot of hard facts about these Nicaean councils, so there might be a lot of other issues that I am unaware of that have played an important part in the forming of the christian NT. There are numerous gospels in circulation that give us a quite different view of Jesus(pbuh), as opposed to the christian canon. One of my favourites is the Gospel of Thomas.

Anyhow, is the Da Vinci Code worth checking out?


€0.02

Yaaraer
10th October 2004, 08:28
Salam,

Thank you for your two cents JC.

I think it certainly is worth checkin' out.Even if all the facts in the book are not supported by historical evidence,I thought it was very well-written and a fascinating read.

Peace.

Ratatosk
10th October 2004, 09:10
Salam,

To dispel any misunderstandings regarding the Nicaean Council, the christian canon was already well established at the time of the Council. 80 gospels is pretty far from the truth, IIRC they were 4, ever since 90-110AD. No 'books of secret teachings' were burned, nor was the intrinsic divinity of Jesus(pbuh) heavily discussed. The only issue that'd be somewhat close to Dan Brown's opinion was the nature of Jesus(pbuh) divinity, ie. was he a creation of God, or was he eternal, like God. You know, like, esoteric stuff or something.

Regards,

halcyondream
17th October 2004, 10:24
Salaam everyone,

I finished reading The Da Vinci Code in the early hours of this morning, and was wondering what Muslims believe of Mary Magdalene's history, and her relationship (if any) with Jesus. I'm a Muslim myself, and have never heard of her apart from in the Bible.

Yaaraer
24th October 2004, 11:48
Peace,

Yeah Ratatosk, thats exactly what I have found from reading the articles here and there on the internet...It was basically convened by the emperor Constantine to settle a controversy raised by Arianism over the nature of Trinity in Christianity.From what I have found the main idea of Arianism was that Jesus(pbuh) was someone created and someone lesser in status than God,the Father...far exalted above the rest of the humans but inferior than the Father nonetheless..More than three hundred bishops were there from the eastern empire where the controversy was mainly based.Just 2 bishops failed to vote against Arianism and were banished.Also the Nicene Creed was formulated in the Council which goes like ..."God the Father and God the Son were cosubstantial and coeternal and that the Arian belief in a Christ created by and thus inferior to the Father was heretical"...

Thats what I have found.

Regards,

halcyondream
24th October 2004, 11:54
I think this link is worth checking out, we get to read about it from a Christian's point of view:

http://www.irr.org/da-vinci-code.html

Yaaraer
26th October 2004, 14:24
Salam,

Thank you for the link...

halcyondream
26th October 2004, 14:28
Salaam Yaaraer,

S'ok :)

halcyondream
27th October 2004, 07:50
What did you think of it?

Yaaraer
27th October 2004, 08:26
Salam,

I haven't read it yet halcyon ..It's pretty long.Did you?
What did you think of it?

halcyondream
27th October 2004, 11:53
Salaam,

I didn't read all of it either, but some of his arguments were reasonable.

Amd
3rd November 2004, 17:01
Salaam everyone,

I finished reading The Da Vinci Code in the early hours of this morning, and was wondering what Muslims believe of Mary Magdalene's history, and her relationship (if any) with Jesus. I'm a Muslim myself, and have never heard of her apart from in the Bible.

I have just finished reading Da Vinci code, and I have to say that if u look at the book from a suspense/thriller point of view, then its a very good read and I would certainly recoment it all of u.

But the first thing that came to my mind after reading about Mary Magdalene, was ..."what does Islam tells about her? if at all it does?"

I hope someone can answer this confusion.

regards,

Waqqas

Ratatosk
3rd November 2004, 21:47
Salam,

Peace, Amd, and welcome to the forum. I hope your stay will be a pleasant and enlightening one. The noble Qur'an is indeed very quiet about the lady in question. The only notion even remotely connected to islam is the NT story about the mentioned lady recognizing Jesus(pbuh) as being alive, vis-a-vis the muslim non-acceptance in Jesus'(pbuh) death on the cross. Vs, of course, the central tenet in christianity, the one with resurrection and all. This is stretching the analogy to the breaking point, granted, but that's about it.

Regards,

Amd
4th November 2004, 12:34
Salam,

Peace, Amd, and welcome to the forum. I hope your stay will be a pleasant and enlightening one. The noble Qur'an is indeed very quite about the lady in question. The only notion even remotely connected to islam is the nt story about the mentioned lady recognizing Jesus(pbuh) as being alive, vis-a-vis the muslim non-acceptance in Jesus'(pbuh) death on the cross. Vs, of course, the central tenet in christianity, the one with resurrection and all. This is stretching the analogy to the breaking point, granted, but that's about it.

Regards,

Salams Ratatosk,

thanks for ur input, and what i have concluded (not sure if im correct) is that Mary Magdalene doesnt exist at all!! she seems to be a mythological character created by God knows who!!! I have checked some other christian websites as well, and they seem to disagree with Dan Brown on this and several other claims which he made in Da Vinci code.

I hope someone with a better understanding of Holy Quran can elaborate on this. May God give us knoweldge to read and understand Holy Quran. Amen.

regards.

Ratatosk
4th November 2004, 12:49
Salam Amd,

Thank you for your post.

I guess it's a bit far fetched to conclude that the lady did not exist. It is quite clear, however, that to use the present tense is superfluous. [Smiley.] In context, the venerable missus is just as 'real' (on every past characters secondary plane of reality) as the other unverifiable characters in the plethora of old scriptures that abound. That said, a lot of later add-ons have indeed been incorporated into tradition. For instance, there exists a complete correspondence between Paul and Seneca(!), some sixteen letters, IIRC. Completely fictuous, of course. It doesn't make these two past persons any less real, though.

Make of that what you will.

Regards,

Ansar Al-Haq
16th November 2004, 01:28
I agree. ;)

Shehbaz
23rd November 2004, 21:46
Recently finished reading the book. I think what people seem to forget is that this book is a work of fiction, it isn't meant to be anymore. An enjoyable, well written read none the less.

It is easy to read with not much left to the imagination. The imagery is fed to you in the text so you don't need to strain your brain visualising it. Kinda like a movie script. Also it is pretty fast paced so wont bore all you people with short attention spans. I would recommend getting your hands on a copy if you can.

defenders
26th November 2004, 19:24
have you read the news?
They will put the CODE to the big screen.
Tom Hank will play Professor Robert Langdon

Rean the news:

Tom Hanks Deciphers The Da Vinci Code
Source: Newsweek November 15, 2004

Tom Hanks has been pegged to play the lead role in Sony's upcoming film The Da Vinci Code, the adaptation of author Dan Brown's best-selling thriller, Newsweek has learned. Director Ron Howard and producer Brian Grazer, the duo who helped make Hanks a star with their 1984 comedy Splash and rehired him 11 years later for Apollo 13, cast Hanks as the globe-trotting scholar Robert Langdon, a decision based partially on the cerebral (riddle-solving, code-cracking) nature of the action in "Da Vinci."

"Tom is an exciting actor to watch thinking," Howard tells the magazine. "We probably don't need his status from a box-office standpoint" -- by now, The Da Vinci Code sells itself -- "but he gives Langdon instant legitimacy."

Howard and Grazer are taking their time casting "Da Vinci," but plan to hire actual foreign actors to play the book's foreign characters. "If there's any book that's supposed to be an international thriller, says Grazer, "this is it." Grazer tells Newsweek that one recent Oscar winner inquired about the role of Parisian cryptologist Sophie Neveu, "and she could easily do it. But I think the audience would be let down a bit. They expect a French girl." As for the role of bullish cop Bezu Fache, Gordon reports that Jean Reno is on Grazer's short list.

Grazer first got wind of The Da Vinci Code early in 2003, when Joel Surnow -- creator of the acclaimed TV series 24 -- thought "Da Vinci" would make a terrific story line for the show's third season. Surnow asked his boss, Grazer, to look into acquiring the rights. But as Brown had no intention of handing over his book to a mere TV show, Grazer says that "it quickly became clear that we had no chance." A few months later Sony paid $6 million for the movie rights -- and hired Grazer as the producer for the biggest film adaptation since "Harry Potter."

The 53-year-old Grazer, who also paired with Howard on the Oscar-winning A Beautiful Mind, has several upcoming projects on his slate, including an animated Curious George film with Will Ferrell and Fun with Dick and Jane starring Jim Carrey. Grazer is also producing a documentary about the notorious skinflick Deep Throat, Gordon reports. Due out in February, it may be the first NC-17 movie released by a major studio in years.

Warbird
28th November 2004, 04:55
WOW!! this books seems very contraversial im gonna go buy it on monday... i cant go tomorrow cuz im working... but yea once im done reading it be prepared for a great amount of debates.

amenlamen
18th May 2006, 21:36
Mariam (Mary) occupies a very high place in Islam.

From Surat Al-Imran verse 35 in the holy Koran.
It does state clearly that Mariam (Mary) is the mother of Issa (Jesus), there is no doubt about this.

Mariam is a very important woman in Islam, she occupies a very, very respectable place in the Muslim believe.

Mohammed

MF
19th May 2006, 13:09
welcome to the forum amen and lamen.

I think Maria Magdalena had kids with Jesus accoording to the book, so its not the same Maria as his mother.

I wonder how the movie is, it went in premiere yesterday or something? offcource I read the book (along with a few others from Dan Brown)

Sara
24th May 2006, 05:39
Others said the movie wasn't as good as the book. I should have read the book first before watching the movie :(

syedhs
25th May 2006, 16:10
Actually I am not really impressed with the plot in the Da Vinci book, and it is less so after I read the next book (was it Angel Daemon?). The plot feels the same, and the controversies in Da Vinci Code is what sells the novel, IMO.