Breaking the Da Vinci Code

By Darrell L. Bock and Francis J. Moloney

Many who have read the New York Times bestseller The Da Vinci Code have questions that arise from seven codes-expressed or implied-in Dan Brown's book. In Breaking the Da Vinci Code: Answers to the Questions Everyone's Asking, Darrell Bock, Ph.D., responds to the novelist's claims using central ancient texts and answers the following questions:

• Who was Mary Magdalene?
• Was Jesus Married?
• Would Jesus Being Single be Un-Jewish?
• Do the So-Called Secret Gnostic Gospels Help Us Understand Jesus?
• What Is the Remaining Relevance of The Da Vinci Code?

Darrell Bock's research uncovers the origins of these codes by focusing on the 325 years immediately following the birth of Christ, for the claims of The Da Vinci Code rise or fall on the basis of things emerging from this period. Breaking the Da Vinci Code, now available in trade paper, distinguishes fictitious entertainment from historical elements of the Christian faith. For by seeing these differences, one can break the Da Vinci code.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Apr 19, 2004
• ISBN: 9781418513382

Darrell L. Bock

Darrell L. Bock (Ph.D., Aberdeen) is research professor of New Testament studies and professor of spiritual development and culture at Dallas Theological Seminary in Dallas, Texas. He has written the monograph Blasphemy and Exaltation in Judaism and the Final Examination of Jesus and volumes on Luke in both the Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament and the IVP New Testament Commentary Series. Bock is a past president of the Evangelical Theological Society. He serves as a corresponding editor for Christianity Today, and he has published articles in Los Angeles Times and the Dallas Morning News.

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Praise for

BREAKING THE DA VINCI CODE

Breaking the Da Vinci Code is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the pernicious nature of The Da Vinci Code. Darrell Bock shines the light of history on Dan Brown’s conspiracy theories and turns up a mixture of fascinating possibilities, wishful thinking, overblown claims, and outright errors. But more importantly, he reveals the book’s hidden agenda: to transform the very character of the Christian faith.

—David Neff

Editor & Vice-President, Christianity Today

Darrell Bock’s Breaking the Da Vinci Code appeared on my desk the week I prepared to alert my congregation to the dangerously inaccurate facts presented in the novel The Da Vinci Code. As always with Dr. Bock, the research is impeccable, the writing is understandable, and the input invaluable. By sending the unfinished work to my office unsolicited, this academic demonstrated his pastor’s heart. He wants us to understand the issues so we can avoid error and at the same time engage culture one person at a time. This book is an act of service to the church.

—Pete Briscoe

Senior Pastor, Bent Tree Bible Fellowship, Carrollton, TX

Those who would like to think that the scenario set out in The Da Vinci Code reflects a reality larger than the imagination of its author will find Darrell Bock’s critical assessment disturbing. In an engaging and accessible style, Bock carefully examines the key claims advocated, and cogently shows them to have no historical merit. This is a veritable demolition job on a structure that deserves to be so dismantled. It is a mark of sanity to be able to tell the difference between reality and fantasy. Sadly, The Da Vinci Code somewhat mischievously blurs the difference, and Bock intriguingly argues that this is deliberate. To any reader who prefers to build his or her convictions on competent handling of relevant evidence, I recommend Breaking the Da Vinci Code.

—Larry W. Hurtado, Ph.D.

Professor of New Testament Language, Literature & Theology and

Director of the Center for the Study of Christian Origins,

University of Edinburgh

In Breaking the Da Vinci Code Darrell Bock, a senior New Testament scholar, offers a thorough and convincing guide through the maze of issues offered so boldly in Brown’s book. Bock’s effort, however, not only refutes the novel’s central thesis, but it offers a fascinating survey of Jewish attitudes toward marriage and women in first-century leadership. For every Christian who has read The Da Vinci Code, this volume is an essential companion.

—Gary M. Burge, Ph.D.

Wheaton College and Graduate School

Darrell Bock, one of today’s foremost New Testament professors, spells out the true identity of Jesus Messiah in his most recent book, Breaking the Da Vinci Code. . . . He patiently and carefully clarifies the real story about Jesus, his relationships with his earliest followers, and the development of the theological doctrines about his identity and ministry. Bock’s code-breaker is essential reading for those who want the true story about Jesus and his followers and who want to properly decode and debunk the speculative ruminations of The Da Vinci Code.

—Michael J. Wilkins, Ph.D.

Professor of New Testament Language and Literature at

Talbot School of Theology, Biola University (La Mirada, CA)

We live in a Jesus-haunted culture, but also in a culture that is largely biblically illiterate. In such circumstances almost anything can pass for truth about early Christianity—even the wildly popular The Da Vinci Code. We may be thankful that a careful New Testament scholar like Darrell Bock has taken time to break that code, and more importantly critique the very dubious historical scholarship that undergirds it—a scholarship that tries to suggest Gnosticism was really the original and true Gospel early Christians believed, or at least it was a viable form of the Christian faith from the beginning. With careful attention to primary sources, which are copiously cited and analyzed, Bock shows this is simply a myth. . . .

I recommend this book to everyone who has read The Da Vinci Code and wondered about its alleged historical claims. The Da Vinci Code is entertaining fiction, but it remains just that—fiction. As for Bock’s Wheaton College and Graduate School book, Breaking the Da Vinci Code, it is historical scholarship of a sober and sane sort. Sell your copy of The Da Vinci Code and buy this book!

—Dr. Ben Witherington, III

Professor of New Testament, Asbury Theological Seminary

Few books have captured America’s attention like The Da Vinci Code, and too many Americans have been unable to discern between a good read and good research. Brown’s book starts with a page outlining the facts that he used as a basis for his book and then tears into a story that far too many have forgotten is fiction. Darrell Bock has done a great service to those interested in helping their friends decipher truth from fiction in The Da Vinci Code. If your friends love to read, they may have read Dan Brown’s book. If you love your friends, you should read Breaking the Da Vinci Code, which is a great book of facts that can serve a world too often mislead by fiction.

—Todd Wagner

Pastor,Watermark Community Church, Dallas

In Breaking the Da Vinci Code, Darrell Bock carefully and thoroughly leads us through Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code, unraveling the truth from the theory and the fact from fiction. This is a must read for anyone wishing to come to a definitive conclusion on Jesus Christ, Mary Magdalene, and their relationship.

—Larry Moody

President, Search Ministries, and Chaplain to the PGA Golf Tour

Ordinarily, an entire book would hardly be necessary to refute the errors in a novel—just a trenchant review article. Yet Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code is so packed with historical error, deception, and falsehood, as well as outright hostility to the truths of Christianity, that it does indeed take a book to correct the record. Breaking the Da Vinci Code is a welcome literary antidote against literary poison.

—Paul L. Maier

Professor of History and author of More Than a Skeleton

The Da Vinci Code has now been deciphered for what it really is. As a reputable New Testament scholar, Darrell Bock examines the history and literature of the early centuries and thereby rightfully decodes the claims of the novel that the authority of the Gospels and the deity of Jesus Christ were fourth-century creations. If Dan Brown had done the historical and theological spadework that Darrell Bock has done in Breaking the Da Vinci Code, a good mystery novel could have still been the result without the errors of revisionist history.

—Mark Bailey

President, Dallas Theological Seminary

It is a shame when novels are foisted on the American public as if they were historical. It is even more a shame when large swaths of the American public are tricked into thinking historic Christianity is somehow threatened in the process. But that seems to be precisely what Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code has accomplished, and so a responsible reply is needed. Darrell Bock gives more than that—he provides an interesting, suspense-filled breaking of the various codes in Brown’s book, showing what the true history of early Christianity is and highlighting the tendentious agendas of The Da Vinci Code. On top of that, Bock’s Breaking the Da Vinci Code is succinct and eminently readable. A must for all who are confused by Brown’s portrayal of fiction as fact.

—Craig L. Blomberg, Ph.D.

Distinguished Professor of New Testament, Denver Seminary

If you are looking for careful historical answers to the baffling assumptions of The Da Vinci Code, Bock provides them. If you are looking for what theories of Christian origins inspired Dan Brown, Bock reveals them. If you are looking for what Mary Magdalene was really like, Bock describes her. In short, the code behind The Da Vinci Code needs to be cracked, and Bock cracks it.

—Scot McKnight

Karl A. Olsson Professor in Religious Studies

at North Park University, Chicago

BREAKING

THE

DA VINCI

CODE

ANSWERS TO THE QUESTIONS

EVERYONE'S ASKING

DARRELL L. BOCK, PH.D.

00_01_BreakingDaVinciCode_0005_005

Copyright © 2004 by Darrell L. Bock

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or other—except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Nelson Books titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, fund raising, or sales promotional use. For information, please e-mail [e-mail].

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations noted NIV are from the HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations noted RSV are from the REVISED STANDARD VERSION of the Bible. Copyright © 1946, 1952, 1971, 1973 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked NET are taken from New English Translation [computer file]: NET Bible.—electronic edition.—Dallas, TX: Biblical Studies Press, 1998. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Bock, Darrell L.

    Breaking the da Vinci code : answers to the questions everybody’s asking / Darrell L. Bock.

        p. cm.

    Includes bibliographical references.

    ISBN 0-7852-6046-3 (hardcover)

    ISBN 0-7852-8014-6 (tradepaper)

   1. Brown, Dan, 1964– Da Vinci code. 2. Mary Magdalene, Saint—In literature.

 3. Christian saints in literature. 4. Jesus Christ—In literature. 5. Christianity in literature. I. Title.

    PS3552.R685434D3 2004

    813'.54—dc22                                                       2004002522

Printed in the United States of America

06 07 08 09 RRD 5 4 3 2 1

00_01_BreakingDaVinciCode_0007_002

To my wife, Sally Bock, and her two sisters,

Martha Sheeder and Elizabeth Volmert,

who encouraged me to write this book and asked

many of the good questions it answers.

CONTENTS

Foreword

Introduction

Code 1: Who Was Mary Magdalene?

Code 2: Was Jesus Married?

Code 3: Would Being Single Make Jesus Un-Jewish?

Code 4: Do the So-Called Secret, Gnostic Gospels Help Us Understand Jesus?

Code 5: How Were the New Testament Gospels Assembled?

Code 6: Does Mary’s Honored Role As Apostle Match the Claims of the New School?

Code 7: What Is the Remaining Relevance of The Da Vinci Code ?

Code 8: The Real Jesus Code

Appendix: Leonardo’s Last Supper

Selected Bibliography

Glossary

About the Author

FOREWORD

Millions of people who subscribe to the Judeo-Christian faith tradition believe that there is only one God, Creator of the universe (Gen. 1:1–2:24). They further believe that the women and men of what the New Testament calls the world turned away from their Creator. In this way sin entered the world (Gen. 3:1–11:32; Rom. 5:12). God, however, so loved the world that He sent His only Son (John 3:16). This preexistent Son of God entered the human story by taking on human flesh (John 1:14). It is interesting that the New Testament reports of this event do not open with the same emphases in telling the beginning of the story, with only John explicitly affirming Jesus’ preexistence. The gospel of Mark does not suggest that Jesus was the incarnation of a preexistent Son, and Matthew (Matt. 1–2) and Luke (Luke 1–2) tell of a human birth, the result, however, of the initiative of the Spirit of God. Only the gospel of John presents Jesus’ entry into the human story as the incarnation of the Word of God who existed in union with God from before all time (John 1:1–2, 14).

Across the New Testament, from Paul to Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John, and the less-well-known documents such as 1 Peter and the letter of James, a similar variety of stories tell of the way Jesus of Nazareth offered humankind the possibility of returning to a union of peace and love with God, and returning to be with that God at the end of all human history. Continuing a Jewish understanding of history, Christians believe that God made all things well at the beginning, and that the same order and beauty will be reestablished at the end of time. But the in-between-time, between the original glory narrated in the book of Genesis and the promise of the future glory noted throughout the Old and the New Testaments, also has been transformed. According to the New Testament and all subsequent Christianity, the death and resurrection of Jesus have generated a new creation. Human beings no longer have to wait for the end of time for the restoration of God’s order. Because of the death and resurrection of Jesus, a newness of life and freedom may be found in the Christian community. Experiencing baptism into Christ Jesus and sharing in a faith community anticipate God’s promises, and believers live in the joyful tension between the given of the now generated by the life, teaching, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and the enduring hope of God’s promise of final glory.

There are, of course, many variations on this central statement of the Christian faith. In the best sense of the word story, this Christian story (an account of God’s action that cannot hope to exhaust the facts but gives witness to truth by means of narrative) is the source of faith, love, and hope for millions of people.Yet small but extremely vocal groups of serious scholars, many of them working in important scholarly centers, some of which exist because their founding figures wished to reflect seriously upon the Christian story, have been working to demolish this account. Attempts to undermine the Christian tradition—to show that it is a fraud, with no basis in fact or reason—are not new. What is interesting about the contemporary attempts to do so is