Early Christianity

So, I recently watched the DaVinci code after purchasing it on DVD. I have seen it before but it was over a year ago. After researching just what and wasn’t true in the story, I found out a lot of interesting information about early Christianity, which I will point out some of the truths and falacies in the DaVinci story as well as some other findings. The important thing to remember, however, is that it is a FICTIONAL story. While the novel did make a claim that it was based on a true story, this is just an attention grabber, like you see on a horror movie which actually has very little to do with the true story it is inspired by.

First of all, while some of the Gnostic gospels found in the Nag Hammadi manuscripts do make mention of Mary Magdalene, there is nothing that explicitly says they are married. For reference, here are some of the verses that make mention of her.

In The Gospel of Philip, it is said:

"There were three who always walked with the Lord: Mary, his mother, and her sister, and Magdalene, the one who was called his companion. His sister and his mother and his companion were each a Mary."

"As for the Wisdom who is called "the barren," she is the mother of the angels. And the companion of the [...] Mary Magdalene. [...] loved her more than all the disciples, and used to kiss her often on her mouth. The rest of the disciples [...]. They said to him "Why do you love her more than all of us?" The Savior answered and said to them,"Why do I not love you like her? When a blind man and one who sees are both together in darkness, they are no different from one another. When the light comes, then he who sees will see the light, and he who is blind will remain in darkness."

And in the Gospel of Mary Magdalene

Then Mary stood up and greeted all of them and said to her brethren, "Do not mourn or grieve or be irresolute, for his grace will be with you all and will defend you. Let us rather praise his greatness, for he prepared us and made us into men." When Mary said this, their hearts changed for the better, and they began to discuss the words of the [Savior].

Peter said to Mary, "Sister, we know that the Savior loved you more than other women [see John 11:5, Luke 10:38-42]. Tell us the words of the Savior which you have in mind since you know them; and we do not, nor have we heard of them."

The Davinci Code makes mention of the fact that Mary Magdalene was indeed not a prostitute and was smeared by the Church. To quote the Novel

“Who is she?” Sophie asked.
“That, my dear,” Teabing replied, “is Mary Magdalene.”
Sophie turned. “The prostitute?”
Teabing drew a short breath, as if the word had injured him
personally. “Magdalene was no such thing. That unfortunate
misconception is the legacy of a smear campaign launched
by the early church. The Church needed to defame Mary
Magdalene in order to cover up her dangerous secret—her
role as the Holy Grail.”

This is actually partly true. This mistake dates from a sermon by Pope Gregory the Great that identified Mary with the woman in Luke 7:36-50. Most modern scholars know this to be an error. However, there was not really a smear campaign.

Now, one of the big debates is the legitimacy of these Gnostic gospels. Many of our manuscripts for these gospels date past 100 AD. The Gospel of Mary is dated to around 120 AD based on the manuscripts from the Nag Hammadi manuscripts. The Gospel of Philip is likely from around 150 to 150 AD. The Gospel of Thomas, the earliest of the Nag Hammadi scripts, was likely written around 140 AD.

One thing to point out is that not all non-canonical gospels are Gnostic. The manuscripts are called Gnostic if they represent a certain set of beliefs that parallel some eastern teachings. In general, these gospels are called apocryphal regardless of whether they reflect Gnostic teachings or not. Some apocryphal gospels are not canonical because, like the DaVinci Code asserts, they were not chosen as part of the Canon for various reasons. However, the Council of Nicaea did not particularly concern the canon of the bible, and while Constantine did call it to order, he had little if any direct involvement that we are aware of. Some of the gospels that are not included in in either the Roman Catholic or Protestant bibles are however included in some Eastern and Coptic Orthodox traditions. Some Apocrypha are included in Roman Catholic bibles as Deuterocanonical books – being of second importance. Some were rejected over other gospels by the Church because of consistency or what they wanted them to say – similar to how the DaVinci code asserts. These have nothing to do with the Gnostic gospels but were rejected by the Church. Many represent the same stories as canonical New Testament books ; These include:The Gospel of Marcion, The Gospel of Mani, The Gospel of Appelles, The Gospel of Bardesanes, The Gospel of Basilides, and The Gospel of Cerinthus.

On the subject of Church Councils, you can see a list of the Councils, when they were held and what they were about here.

The argument about the dates of some of the rejected gospels is somewhat of a weak argument, because the earliest canonical new testament gospels in Catholic and Protestant christianity date to 70 AD at the earliest. Assuming Jesus existed, he would have died around 30 AD (the BC/AD dating system was invented by a Catholic monk named Dionysius Exiguus, who made estimates of when Christ died and it did not even come into effect until 525 AD, for this reason some scholars use Before Common Era (BCE)/Common Era (CE) ). This would have meant that the gospels were written several years after his death and would have been subject to reinterpretation and changes. Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, made a list of biblical canon in his Easter letter in 367 AD. The modern biblical canon was not even decided for the Roman Catholics until Council of Trent in 1546, the Thirty-Nine Articles of 1563 for the Church of England, the Westminster Confession of Faith of 1647 for Calvinism, and the Synod of Jerusalem of 1672 for the Greek Orthodox. Even some of the most common New Testament canon were considered heretical or untrue at some point --- for example the Book of Revelations

Christianity today however, is not the same Christianity that would have been practiced by Christians before the Council of Nicaea. There were many schools of thought before then – from Arianism, to “Jewish Christianity”, to various Christianities that had become adapted to various pagan cultures of Europe, and possibly the earliest Gnostic sects. The Catholic Church officially came about from the Ecumenical Councils (though there were Popes in local Roman Christianity and the Roman Catholic Church claims that the Roman Church was always the true Church) and the Eastern Orthodox Church split away after the seventh council although they had their own traditions long before and Oriental Orthodoxy split after the rejection of the fourth council. However, many of the Church doctrine created at the councils reflect pagan ideals (sort of like the DaVinci code claimed). Specifically, the Easter holiday was taken from the celberation of the Saxon/German/Nordic godess Ostara and other sun godess holidays. The veneration of Mary Mother of Jesus reflects that of the Egyptian goddess Isis and Horus. However, the BIGGEST influence on post-council Christianity is Mithraism. Mithraism was a religion popular among the soldiers in the Greeko-Roman world long before the birth of Jesus that has origins in a Zoroastrian god named Mithra. It is likely that Paul and the authors of the canonical new testament were exposed to these beliefs, which is possibly why those gospels were chosen over others because of their influence from Mithraism. Many of the practices of Mithraism include a communion of Wine and Bread, the clergy of the church comprising only of men as Mithraism was practiced exclusivley by soldiers and politicians – males-- and the mythical birth date of Mithra who became associated with the sun, was also December 25. It became common for Roman emporers to practice Mithraism, one notable being Emperor Diocletian. Mithra was associated with the sun; in Iran there is a holiday called Shab-e Yalda. The word Yalda literally means birth of the sun. Like the DaVinci code purports, Constantine was possibly a life long pagan. Evidence for his devotion to Mithra is the coins produced under his reign have the words inscribed saying, “Sol Invicto comiti”, or in english, Commited to the Invincible Sun. The Roman name for a sun god was Sol Invictus. Jesus was never mentioned to be a sun deity so it clearly is referring to Mithra.

The canonical and synoptic gospels clearly display much influence from this pagan religion as well. This is possibly because of a misinterpretation of words. Jesus claimed to be the messiah. While both Christ and Messiah both mean anointed, they carry different cultural connotations. (Click here for etymology info). The Greek term Christ refers more to a divine being, while Messiah specifically means someone that is descended from King David and will lead people out of oppression. Jesus himself possibly knew of Mithraism because it was being practiced as early as 67 BC (Jesus Mysteries).

While the DaVinci code does change facts, it is important to remember that is a fictional story and not a history book. However, different aspects of the story are based in truth, and the book and movie are both very entertaining. Christianity as in originally was has been lost over the years because of political and cultural changes to the doctrine. Does this mean that the teachings of Jesus: love and acceptance, are not good ones? Of course not. Tolerance and peace are great messages to be heard but the fact is modern, post Council of Nicaea Christianity was purposely changed and meanings lost. Now, whether you believe that these things makes the modern Churches false or not is a matter of faith. Do you believe that the influence of Paganism on Christianity makes it false? Or do you believe that all these things are mere coincidences? I personally believe Jesus did exist at some point and taught spiritual things, but was just a man. However the Jesus people think of, I believe only exists as a series of exaggerated tales.

“Okay, maybe there is no proof. Maybe the Grail is lost forever. But, Sophie, the only thing that matters is what you believe. History shows us Jesus was an extraordinary man, a human inspiration. That's it. That's all the evidence has ever proved. But... when I was a boy... when I was down in that well Teabing told you about, I thought I was going to die, Sophie. What I did, I prayed. I prayed to Jesus to keep me alive so I could see my parents again, so I could go to school again, so I could play with my dog. Sometimes I wonder if I wasn't alone down there. Why does it have to be human or divine? Maybe human is divine. Why couldn't Jesus have been a father and still be capable of all those miracles?” – Robert Langdon

For more information on the Church and Christianity, I recommend these sources.

• The Historical Jesus
• Non-Canonical Books Referenced in the Bible
• Deuterocanonical Books
• Biblical Apocrypha
• New Testament Apocrypha
• Nag Hammadi Library
• Rivals of Jesus (A National Geographic documentary about religious teachers at the time of Jesus) HIGHLY RECCOMENDED – this is not necessarily anti-Christian
• Gospels and Religious essays from both Christianity and Gnosticism
• List of Errors and Facts in the DaVinci Code (Remember, some of the things are changed just for the same of making a good story!)
• Variations of Christianity