Thursday, June 01, 2006
The Da Vinci Code and Church History
A few more things about The Da Vinci code, in relation to the history of th early church (with help from comrades on this forum).
Dan Brown claims that in the fourth century, Constantine chose the four gospels out of 80 possibilities, implying that any of the others could have been chosen. Which ignores Irenaeus in the second century pointing out that there are only four authentic gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and the doctrine that the Holy Spirit helped the true gospels to be chosen.
Brown claims that Constantine was a pagan, only baptised on his deathbed because he was too weak to protest. Almost certainly wrong - Constantine was converted at the Battle of Milvian Bridge in 312, but was not baptised until on his deathbed, as was common among many rulers of that time and later, so they could continue doing ruler-like things such as having people killed, which they couldn't do after they were baptised. In fact, I have been told that Constantine actually recovered a bit after his deathbed baptism, and was quite irritated at the fact. There's also the whole 'avoiding post-baptismal sin' thing that people were quite keen on back then.
Good old Dan claims Constantine shifted observance of the Sabbath on Saturday to Sunday to honour the sun god. But this shift happened in the first century, and was (of course) to honour the resurrection.
He claims that until 325 and the Nicene council, Jesus had always been regarded as just a mortal prophet. Jesus' divinity was only established by a vote. But the opposite is more true: the main heresy of the second century was docetism, where people claimed that Jesus, divine, only appeared to be human. And no-one at Nicea would have thought that Jesus was just a mortal man - the question was whether he was equal or not (from the same being) to God the Father. But everyone (even the Arians) agreed that he existed before all creation, that through him creation was made, etc etc. Brown also had Teabing claim that the vote was close - it wasn't. Only about four bishops didn't sign up, compared to about 300 who did. Brown has Teabing explaining that this established the Roman Catholic church as the only sacred channel - whereas it was mainly the eastern churches who were represented at Nicea (there were only a handfull of western bishops present), and who didn't and still don't recognise Rome as being over them in authority.
Technorati Tags:The Da Vinci Code, Early Church History
Dan Brown claims that in the fourth century, Constantine chose the four gospels out of 80 possibilities, implying that any of the others could have been chosen. Which ignores Irenaeus in the second century pointing out that there are only four authentic gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and the doctrine that the Holy Spirit helped the true gospels to be chosen.
Brown claims that Constantine was a pagan, only baptised on his deathbed because he was too weak to protest. Almost certainly wrong - Constantine was converted at the Battle of Milvian Bridge in 312, but was not baptised until on his deathbed, as was common among many rulers of that time and later, so they could continue doing ruler-like things such as having people killed, which they couldn't do after they were baptised. In fact, I have been told that Constantine actually recovered a bit after his deathbed baptism, and was quite irritated at the fact. There's also the whole 'avoiding post-baptismal sin' thing that people were quite keen on back then.
Good old Dan claims Constantine shifted observance of the Sabbath on Saturday to Sunday to honour the sun god. But this shift happened in the first century, and was (of course) to honour the resurrection.
He claims that until 325 and the Nicene council, Jesus had always been regarded as just a mortal prophet. Jesus' divinity was only established by a vote. But the opposite is more true: the main heresy of the second century was docetism, where people claimed that Jesus, divine, only appeared to be human. And no-one at Nicea would have thought that Jesus was just a mortal man - the question was whether he was equal or not (from the same being) to God the Father. But everyone (even the Arians) agreed that he existed before all creation, that through him creation was made, etc etc. Brown also had Teabing claim that the vote was close - it wasn't. Only about four bishops didn't sign up, compared to about 300 who did. Brown has Teabing explaining that this established the Roman Catholic church as the only sacred channel - whereas it was mainly the eastern churches who were represented at Nicea (there were only a handfull of western bishops present), and who didn't and still don't recognise Rome as being over them in authority.
Technorati Tags:The Da Vinci Code, Early Church History
