June 4, 2006
“Our God Is Our Savior”
The Magdalene Mystery
The Da Vinci Code: The Truth Behind the Book
Prayer and Scripture: John Stephen
· Today
we're in part seven of our
series The Da Vinci Code: The Truth Behind the Book and the question
that we're going to tackle is: Who was
Mary Magdalene?
I. QUOTES FROM THE CODE
· As
you know if you've read the book, Mary Magdalene is central to Dan Brown's
conspiracy theory. (her own website - www.belovedDisciple.org) According to the book, the Holy Grail was
never a cup; it was not a chalice that Jesus passed around the table at the
Last Supper nor was it the cup that caught the blood of Christ at the Cross as
Grail legend would have it. Instead,
according to the Da Vinci Code, the Holy Grail was a person, but not
just any person, as Dan Brown notes, the Holy Grail is… "A woman who
carried with her a secret so powerful, that if revealed, it threatened to
devastate the very foundation of Christianity!" 239.
· Who was this woman you ask and what was her
secret? Well, according
to the book, this woman was Mary Magdalene and her secret was that she and
Jesus were married and had a daughter by the name of Sarah. Now, the book claims that the marriage
between Jesus and Mary is "a
matter of historical record", and Da Vinci was certainly aware
of that fact. “The Last Supper
[painting] practically shouts at the viewer that Jesus and Magdalene were a
pair." 244
· Dan
Brown is convinced that the person sitting to Jesus' right is not the apostle
John as we've been led to believe and whom almost every art historian believes
as well, but in fact Mary Magdalene. But not only that, when you look at the
painting, you see that Jesus and Mary have a space between them that forms the
shape of a "V". This
"V" shape is an ancient pagan
symbol representing the sacred feminine. This sacred feminine is basically the female side of God, but
we'll get to that in two weeks, when we talk about whether or not Christianity
borrowed pagan symbols and practices. And Dan Brown says that Christianity
is not a new religion, it's just a collection of different pagan religions that
were fused together to make what only
appeared to be a new religion.
So, in the painting you see this "V" shape as well as another
important letter, the letter "M"…
· Leigh
Teabing, a former British royal historian and religious historian (216), is one
of the main characters in the book and he says to Sophie who is the main female
character: "'…if you view Jesus and Magdalene as compositional elements
rather than as people, you will see another obvious shape leap out at
you.' Sophie saw it at once. To say the letter leapt out at her was an
understatement. The letter was suddenly
all Sophie could see. Glaring in the
center of the painting was the unquestionable outline of an enormous,
flawlessly formed letter "M".
'A bit too perfect for coincidence, wouldn't you say?' Teabing
asked. Sophie was amazed. 'Why is it there?' Teabing shrugged.
'Conspiracy theorists will tell you it stands for Matrimonio or Mary
Magdalene. To be honest, nobody is
certain. The only certainty is that the
hidden M is no mistake.'" 243-45
· The
implication of course is that Leonardo Da Vinci knew of the secret marriage and
clearly revealed it in his painting of "The Last Supper". (236) The book also concludes that the proof of
their marriage is a "matter of
historical record" as well as stating that Jesus couldn't have been a
bachelor because He was a Jew. Teabing says: "…the social decorum during that
time virtually forbids a Jewish man to be unmarried. According to Jewish custom, celibacy was condemned, and the
obligation for a Jewish father was to find a suitable wife for his son. If Jesus were not married, at least one of
the Bible's gospels would have mentioned it and offered some explanation for
His unnatural state of bachelorhood."
245
· Now
the question is what historical records
is Teabing referring to that mention this marriage of Jesus and
Mary? Answer, the documents found at Nag Hammadi that we know as the
Gnostic Gospels. Teabing says that
these Nag Hammadi documents are: "…the
earliest Christian records"
245. And that they "do not match up with the gospels in
the Bible" 245-246.
· And
then he quotes a passage from the 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. The rest of the disciples were offended
by it and expressed disapproval. They
said to him, 'why do you love her more than all of us?" 246
· Teabing
notes that the word "companion" in those days, literally meant "spouse"
(246). Teabing then says, "'I shan't bore you with the countless
references to Jesus and Magdalene's union.
That has been explored ad nauseam by modern historians. I would, however, like to point out the
following.' He motioned to another
passage. 'This is from the Gospel of
Mary Magdalene.' Sophie had not known a
gospel existed in Magdalene's words.
She read the text, "And
Peter said, 'did the Savior really speak with a woman without our
knowledge? Are we to turn about and all
listen to her? Did he prefer her to
us?' And Levi answered, 'Peter, you
have always been hot-tempered. Now I
see you contending against the woman like an adversary. If the Savior made her worthy, who are you
indeed to reject her? Surely the Savior
knows her very well. That is why he
loved her more than us.'" 247
· Of
course it's Teabing's contention that Peter is jealous of Mary. "But
why would Peter have been so jealous of Mary?" you ask. Good question. Teabing says, "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. As a result, Peter expresses his
discontent over playing second fiddle to a woman. I daresay Peter was something of a sexist.' Sophie was trying to keep up. 'This is Saint Peter. The rock on which Jesus built His
Church.' 'The same [Teabing said],
except for one catch. According to
these unaltered gospels [the Nag Hammadi Texts/Gnostic
Gospels], it was not Peter to whom Christ gave directions which to establish
the Church. It was Mary
Magdalene.' Sophie looked at him. 'You're saying the Christian Church was to
be carried on by a woman?' 'That was
the plan. Jesus was the original
feminist. He intended for the future of
His Church to be in the hands of Mary Magdalene." 248
· And then finally, Sophie, overwhelmed
by all this new revelation exclaims, "I still don't understand how all
of this makes Mary Magdalene the Holy Grail." 248.
To which Teabing responds by pulling out a genealogy showing the family
tree of the tribe of Benjamin, one of the 12 tribes of Israel. According to Teabing, Mary Magdalene was
from the tribe of Benjamin, which made her a powerful woman. Why
did this make her a powerful woman? Because according to Teabing: "Mary was of royal descent." 248.
· According
to The Da Vinci Code, there are two primary reasons why the Church
wanted to cover up Mary and Jesus' marriage.
1. First
because Jesus having sex with his wife would undermine His deity as being
sacrilegious.
2. And
second, because Jesus was from a royal bloodline as well, the tribe of Judah in
the line of King David.
Teabing explains, "It was not Mary Magdalene's royal blood that concerned the Church so much as it was her consorting with Christ, who also had royal blood. As you know, the Book of Matthew tells us that Jesus was of the House of David. A descendant of King Solomon—King of the Jews. By marrying into the powerful House of Benjamin, Jesus fused two royal bloodlines, creating a potent political union with the potential of making a legitimate claim to the throne and restoring the line of kings as it was under Solomon.' 249.
This royal bloodline
was to be carried on by Jesus' daughter
Sarah. The supposed fact that
Jesus was a father is as Teabing declares, "…the greatest cover-up in
human history. Not only was Jesus
Christ married, but He was a father….A child of Jesus would undermine the critical
notion of Christ's divinity and therefore the Christian Church, which declared
itself to sole vessel through which humanity could access the divine and gain
entrance to the Kingdom of heaven."
249 & 254
· The
now Pregnant Mary Magdalene was supposedly smuggled into France by Jesus'
supposed uncle Joseph of Arimathea. Apparently, after Jesus was crucified, they
felt that it was too dangerous to keep Mary in Jerusalem, so Joseph got her
safely out of town. But make no
mistake, Queen Mary and the soon to be born Princess Sarah should have been the
ones in power, not the Catholic Church.
Nonetheless, according to
Teabing, "Christ's line grew quietly under cover in France until
making a bold move in the fifth century, when it intermarried with French royal
blood and created a lineage known as the Merovingian bloodline."
257. Now, some of you might
wonder, "How in the world do we know all of this historic
detail?" Well, Dan Brown tells us
that: "Magdalene's and Sarah's lives were scrutinously chronicled by
their Jewish protectors. Remember that
Magdalene's child belonged to the lineage of Jewish kings—David and
Solomon. For this reason, the Jews in
France considered Magdalene sacred royalty and revered her as the progenitor
of the royal line of kings. Countless
scholars of that era chronicled Mary Magdalene's days in France, including the
birth of Sarah and the subsequent family tree." 255
So what does all of this mean? Is there any truth to the claims made by
Teabing in the Da Vinci Code? Well,
let's take a look.
II. QUESTIONS FROM THE CODE
· As
I see it, here are the questions that arise from what we've read today:
1. Who
was Mary Magdalene according to the Bible?
2. Was
bachelorhood condemned and celibacy forbidden by the Jews during the first
century?
3. Were
Jesus and Mary Magdalene married? And
if they were, would that somehow discredit Jesus' claim of deity? Was the word "companion" synonymous with the word "spouse" during the first
Century?
4. Did
Jesus Mary intend to establish a new dynasty by uniting their two royal
bloodlines?
5. What
are the "historical records" and
"unaltered gospels" and "earliest Christian records"
that Teabing uses to prove his claims?
6. Did
Jesus commission Mary to be His sole successor?
7. Was
Jesus the first feminist?
8. Did
Jesus father a child?
9. Was
Joseph of Arimathea Jesus' uncle?
III. ANSWERS TO THE CODE
1. Who was Mary Magdalene according to the Bible?
· The
Bible tells us that Mary Magdalene was a follower and friend of Jesus as were
many women (see Matt. 27:55; Mark 15:41).
Mark 16:9 & Luke 8:2 both tell us that Jesus cast seven demons out
of her. Matthew 27:45 tells us that she
was present during Jesus' trial and sufferings and John tells us that she was
at the Crucifixion (John 19:25). Luke
tells us that she watched Joseph of Arimathea bury Jesus (Luke 23:56). And after three days, Mary and some other
women returned to Jesus' tomb, found that the stone had been rolled away (John
20:1) and they ran back to tell the disciples (John 20:2) that someone had
taken the body. John also tells us that
she was the first person that Jesus appeared to after His resurrection (John
20:15-16) and returned to the disciples confirming the fact that she had seen
the risen Lord (John 20:18).
2. Was bachelorhood condemned and celibacy forbidden by
the Jews during the first century?
· It's
true that marriage was the norm, but nowhere have I seen evidence that being a
bachelor was condemned or that celibacy was forbidden. According to The New International
Dictionary of the Christian Church: "Celibacy was foreign to the
Hebrew culture….but marriage was not
compulsory (enforced, essential or necessary are other synonyms); for
some the demands of the kingdom might involve a celibate life." The New International Dictionary of the
Christian Church: J. D. Douglass, General Editor, 633 & 34.
· Paul
was a Jew and he was a bachelor. In
fact, Paul promoted the celibate life as a gift from God. "It
is good for a man not to marry….I wish that all men were as I am. But each man has his own gift from God; one
has this gift, another has that."
1 Corinthians 7:1 & 7
· Paul
also noted that an unmarried person has the ability to focus their time and
attention solely on service to the Lord.
"I would like you to be free
from concern. An unmarried man is
concerned about the Lord's affairs—how he can please the Lord. But a married man is concerned about the
affairs of this world—how he can please his wife—and his interest are
divided." 1 Corinthians
7:32-33
· Paul
basically leaves marriage up to each person as a choice: see 1 Corinthians 7:36-40. Therefore, we can throw out Dan Brown's
theory that Jesus had to be married because it was the customary thing to
do. The fact is, Jesus often did things
contrary to what the Jews of His day did…He saw many of the rules and
regulations of the religious leaders as not from God but as "rules taught by men." (See
Matthew 15:9; Mark 7:7 & Luke 11:46)
3.
Were Jesus and Mary
Magdalene married? And if they were,
would that somehow discredit Jesus' claim of deity? Was the word "companion" synonymous with
the word "spouse" during the first century?
· The
question of whether or not Jesus was married is definitely an interesting
one. There’s really no theological
reason why Jesus couldn't have been married.
Marriage is a holy covenant between a man and a woman, ordained by God
in the very beginning. (See Genesis
2:24) The Bible has only the highest
view of marriage. "Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept
pure." Hebrews 13:4
· Sex
in marriage is a holy thing…there is nothing wrong or sinful in regards to
marital sex. If you doubt me about
that, just read Song of Songs in the Old Testament. God created sex and all the pleasure and
beauty that go with it in the context of marriage. For it to be wrong for Jesus to be married and experience sex in
marriage would mean that there was something inherently sinful about marriage
and sex, which there isn't. Now, I
personally don't believe that Jesus was married, but why would it undermine His
deity if He was? Maybe the real
question should be, why would God plan for Jesus to be married? What does a married Jesus do for you that a
single Jesus doesn't?
· And
regarding the word "companion" being
synonymous with the word "spouse"
in the first century – that’s a ridiculous statement. There isn’t a single scenario in the entire
New Testament or in Greek literature that proves Brown's point. Research shows that the word
"spouse" wasn't used until the 13th century and that's a
long way away from the first century.
· The
most common word for "marry" in Greek is "gameo". The New
Testament Greek word for bride or bridegroom are "nymphe" and "nymphios" Bride is "parthenos"
and "gyne". There are three primary Greek words defined
as "companion"
· "sunekdemos" defined as a fellow traveler.
· "koinonos"
is defined as companion or a "partaker with you"
· "sunergos"
is defined as a fellow-worker" or "companion in labor"
· Never
is "companion" used as "spouse". If you're an etymologist and can prove me
wrong, let me know.
4.
Did Jesus and Mary
intend to establish a new dynasty by uniting their two royal bloodlines?
· This
is an easy question to answer for two reasons:
REASON #1:
· Even
if Mary was from the tribe of Benjamin, of which there is no genealogical proof in the Bible, there
is still only one tribe of the 12 tribes of Israel that is of royal blood: the
tribe of Judah. It's through the tribe
of Judah that the line of David and Solomon come. This is easily seen through the genealogies in both Matthew
1:1-17 and Luke 3:23-37. The tribe of
Benjamin is not a royal line.
REASON #2:
· If
Jesus did marry Mary, He
wouldn’t have done it for political reasons because He didn’t have a political
agenda. He said Himself that His
Kingdom was not of this world. We see
this in the dialogue between Jesus and Pilate. "Pilate
then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, 'Are you the
king of the Jews?' 'Is that your own idea,' Jesus
asked, 'or did others talk to you about me?' 'Am I a Jew?' Pilate replied. 'It was your
people and your chief priests who handed you over to me. What is it you have
done?' Jesus
said, 'My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would
fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another
place.'" John
18:33-36
5. What are the "historical records",
"unaltered gospels" and "earliest Christian records"
that Teabing uses to prove his claims?
· These of course are the Gnostic Gospels that were found in Nag Hammadi Egypt in 1945. There are 52 texts that were found that included titles such as The Gospel of Thomas; The Gospel of Phillip; The Gospel of Truth (the creation account from the serpent’s perspective); and The Gospel to the Egyptians. Other texts claim to be written by some of Jesus' followers: The Secret Book of James, The Apocalypse of Paul, the Letter of Peter to Philip and the Apocalypse of Peter.
· Now,
the essence of Gnostic teaching is derived from the Greek word "gnosis" which means "knowledge". The Gnostics believed that all matter is
evil…the human body, the physical world, anything composed of base matter is
bad and functions in essence as a
prison for our minds. Gnostics
teach that each of us have a divine nature that we have forgotten about and
that we come from a place like heaven that we need to get back to. In order to rediscover this divine nature
and enter into this heavenly place of pre-existence we must escape the evil
confines of physical matter (the body and the world) by means of secret
knowledge that reveals our route of escape or salvation.
· Gnostics
see themselves as the enlightened few who have discovered this secret knowledge
and secured their salvation. Another
main element of Gnosticism is what they call a Gnostic redeemer. Ronald
H. Nash in his book The Gospel and The Greeks explains the
Gnostic redeemer myth: "One basic theme of the myth concerns the
heavenly preexistence of human souls prior to their embodied existence in this
world. Something happened in that
heavenly world of light that caused each human soul to fall from its heavenly
home and resulted in the soul's being imprisoned in its body. But the good god, taking pity on these poor
souls, sent to earth a Gnostic Redeemer who imparted a secret knowledge about
their former state-a state that people had forgotten-and about how they might
return to it. After giving this
knowledge, the heavenly figure returned to the world of light." Ronald H. Nash: The Gospel and the Greeks,
205.
· Of
course, in the Gnostic writings
found at Nag Hammadi, there is an alleged Gospel of Mary Magdalene.
In this document Mary says that she had a secret vision of Jesus where
He gave her knowledge that He had not given the disciples. And of course, Peter being Peter, wants to
know what Jesus said to her. "Peter said to Mary, 'sister, we know
that the Savior loved you more than the rest of women. Tell us the words of the Savior which you
remember—which you know (but) we do not, nor have we heard them." "The Gospel of Mary Magdalene",
The Nag Hammadi Library: James M. Robinson-General Editor, 525.
· Then
Mary goes on to tell them that she saw the Lord in a vision and that He told her that there is no sin, but we
make sin when we do bad things, and in order to reach the eternal silent rest
of the soul (heaven if you will) we must pass through four powers. The problem, of course, is that the document
is so damaged most of the content is lost and you have to radically speculate about what it says. There are huge holes in the parchment. Four pages of Mary's vision are missing so
you only have the beginning and the end.
· What
I find very interesting is that Dan Brown by implication refers to these
writings as more genuine than the New Testament manuscripts, the word “unaltered”
implying that they are completely objective and true, and that they are the
"earliest Christian records" even though they were written
well after the completed New Testament.
The historical documentation that Dan Brown bases Mary's unique role and
marriage with Jesus on, is on very shaky ground at best.
6. Did Jesus commission Mary to be His sole successor?
· Dan
Brown says that Jesus commissioned Mary Magdalene to be His successor not
Peter. But in reality, Jesus didn't
choose any ONE person as His successor.
Not Peter, not Mary not any ONE person.
Ephesians 2:19-20 is
clear. "Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow
citizens with God's people and members of God's household, built on the
foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief
cornerstone." Ephesians
2:19-20
· Peter
said himself, "But you are a chosen
people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you
may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his
wonderful light." 1 Peter 2:9
· So
of course Jesus didn't choose Mary as His successor, He didn't choose any ONE
person. The apostles plural and
prophets plural are aligned with Christ as the cornerstone which provide the
foundation of the Church.
7. Was Jesus a feminist?
· If
by asking that question you mean: "Did Jesus raise the value of women up
in the first century", the answer is yes.
However feminism as we know it today is largely a political movement to
equate the sexes in both value and roles.
Jesus would agree with the value part…men and women are equally valuable
in the eyes of God, men are not superior nor women inferior or vice versa, but
Jesus would not agree with equality in roles.
It is clear in God's economy that men have certain roles and
responsibilities that are different from the roles and responsibilities of
women. Of course this distinction has
been blurred and the issue confused in our society by making value and roles
equal, which they are not. The personal
value of a man and the personal value of a woman are not tied to what they do
or what they are responsible for. But
we'll talk about this more in depth in a couple of weeks.
· It
is clear that Jesus held women in high esteem.
He had women as part of his ministry team which we've already seen,
Mary, Martha and Lazarus were some of Jesus' closest friends and He would spend
a lot of time at their home. Jesus even
spoke to a Samaritan woman alone while she was drawing water from a well. A man in Palestine, especially a man like
Jesus whom many believed to be a Rabbi, would be committing political suicide
by talking to a woman alone even if it was in broad daylight. The disciple's response when they found
Jesus talking to her is enough to prove that.
· John
writes, "Just then his disciples
returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman." John 4:27. The Greek word translated here as "surprised" is an understatement. The Greek word is evqau,mason
"ethaumason" which means, "To be astonished. It
denotes incredulous surprise."
The Linguistic Key To The Greek New Testament: Fritz
Rienecker, 227.
· In
a time where women were considered property and were not even allowed to
testify in court and could be divorced for burning their husbands toast, Jesus'
treatment of women would have been extremely unusual.
8. Did Jesus father a child?
· I
honestly don't believe it because I don't believe He was married. But if He did have a child, it wouldn't be
for the reason that Dan Brown suggests, that is, to father an heir to His
Kingdom. Jesus' expressed purpose was not
to establish an earthly kingdom. Nor do
I believe, as Dan Brown suggests, that having a child would somehow disprove
Jesus claim to deity. If Jesus were
married, sex inside of marriage is a holy and good thing…there is nothing
sinful about it.
9. Was Joseph of Arimathea Jesus' uncle?
· The
Bible does not say that he was and it would seem odd to not record that if it
were true…there would be no reason not to. Here's what we know of Joseph of
Arimathea:
1. He was from the Judean town of Arimathea
(Luke 23:51)
2. He was wealthy
(Matthew 27:57)
3. He was a member of
Jewish ruling council, the Sanhedrin (Mark 15:43)
4. He was expecting
the coming Messiah (Mark 15:43)
5. He was a morally
good man (Luke 23:50)
6. He stood up for
Jesus at His trial before the Sanhedrin (Luke 23:51)
7. He was a disciple
of Jesus (John 19:38)
Nowhere do we see him
being referred to as Jesus’ uncle.
Now some of you might
be wondering, why in the world this is even relevant. Well legend has it, according to The International Standard
Bible Encyclopedia, that Joseph of Arimathea took the Holy Grail to
England. And since Dan Brown believes
the Holy Grail to be Mary Magdalene, this would fit nicely into his story. Not really important, just kind of
interesting. Without Biblical or
reliable extra-Biblical evidence, it’s ridiculous to say that Joseph of
Arimathea was Jesus’ uncle.
· My
prayer is that this time has helped to strengthen your faith, and to help you
engage in healthy dialogue with family, friends and coworkers about this book
and movie. And may God be glorified
through what we say and do. Let's pray.