The Da Vinci Code: From Dan Brown’s Fiction to Mary Magdalene’s Faith

by Garry Williams

Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code  was a hugely successful novel that was translated into over forty different languages and earned Brown many millions of dollars. It is a book that captivates its readers’ attention and leads them on a thrilling story of history, murder, intrigue and religion. Many have found that the way the story hangs together speaks to them in a new way and has changed how they think about Christianity. Television programmes have been aired with people speaking passionately for, and against, the central themes of the book. Prior to his appointment as the Director of the John Owen Centre at London Theological Seminary, Garry Williams taught Church History and Doctrine at Oak Hill Theological College in London, England. Here he answers seven of the key claims raised by Dan Brown’s book and points you towards a story even more intriguing – and more firmly based on fact.

Genres: Nonfiction

64 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2006

Reviews

[Sophie · Rating 1 out of 5]

First, most of the reviews for this book appear to be for Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code, which is incorrect. This book is a 60-page response that attempts to convince readers that Dan Brown's work of fiction is not based on as much fact as fans would like to believe.

Regardless of what you want to believe about Jesus and Mary and the their potential offspring, Garry Williams' The Da Vinci Code comes across as a weak argument. I felt like Williams cherry-picked a couple of minor points in Brown's work of fiction to go "ah-ha! you got it wrong!", and then proceeded to claim that the rest must be bunk too. Several of his claims seem to go back on themselves or try to connect unrelated bits of information. For example, Brown claimed there were more Gospels of the Bible, but the Bible says there weren't, so there weren't. (I'm not a Bible scholar, so I have no idea - but Williams would be more convincing if he had actual outside evidence.) Brown said men in Jesus's time were very unlikely to be unmarried, but Williams says one group (tribe?) did have a lot of holy men who didn't marry, so Jesus could have also been unmarried - but doesn't say that Jesus was in this tribe, or that this practice was known to occur in other tribes.

The second chapter is focused on convincing readers that the Gospels were written and copied over and over for two millennia, near perfectly. While I appreciate the argument that oral traditions were more important in that time and could have been passed down for generations with accuracy... Williams fails to even acknowledge that people might have intentionally changed the stories! We know people rewrite history - whether to suit their own purposes, or just to present someone in a better light - and I find it near impossible to believe these documents made it to today without any embellishment or editing.

[John Gervais · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thats right, I read it... Don't judge me ;)

[Andri · Rating 5 out of 5]

adventurous, informative, interesting,well written, smart

[Prateek shukla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great way of telling the story and got idea to bridge the science with art.

[Fatima Zohra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un livre passionnant et plain de mystères.

[Eliane Naehe · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fast-paced thriller with fascinating historical and religious puzzles. Critics often note formulaic writing and historical inaccuracies that undermine its credibility.

[Nico Prahl]

A fast-paced thriller with fascinating historical and religious puzzles. Critics often note formulaic writing and historical inaccuracies that undermine its credibility.

[Alberto Virma · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fast-paced thriller with fascinating historical and religious puzzles. Critics often note formulaic writing and historical inaccuracies that undermine its credibility.

[Todd Jaquez]

A fast-paced thriller with fascinating historical and religious puzzles. Critics often note formulaic writing and historical inaccuracies that undermine its credibility.

[Martine Beaudreau · Rating 4 out of 5]

excellent roman!

[Banyan Donye · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice book

[Sydney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Had a ton of what you could call "anti Christian" themes in it. Calling Jesus a human and not the son of God, along with other stuff that I won't say because it would spoil the book. Good pace and very interesting other wise. I read the YA adaptation but couldn't find it on Goodreads so my book may have been slightly different from this.