A Christian Response to The Da Vinci Code

Nashotah House Theological Seminary, 2006

Lecture 2 (7 February 2006):    Dr. Timothy Johnson, Nashotah House

Did Jesus write ‘Q’ or live at Qumran?

1. The Da Vinci Code is a novel, but makes factual claims about Christian history and Scripture.

a. The novel displays “genre confusion”:

§ Is this historical fiction?  If so, shouldn’t the facts cited be accurate?

§ If this is not historical fiction, shouldn’t the author disclaim accuracy?

b. The novel intimates (at p. 256) that Jesus wrote the lost “proto-Gospel” known as “Q,” and that this document contains an accurate record of Jesus’ life and ministry.

2.   “Q” is the name derived from the German word “quelle” (“source”), and is a term coined in the nineteenth century by German Biblical critics.

      a.   The term “Q” has no connection at all with Qumran.

      b.   A lost source (“Q”) has been proposed as one explanation for why many similarities    

exist between passages in the Gospel of Luke and the Gospel of Matthew.

            i.   Luke and Matthew are based in part on the Gospel of Mark, which was written

                 first.

            ii.  In addition to those parts based on Mark, Luke and Matthew have other similar-

                 ities, which may be explained if they share another common source.

      c.  “Q” is a part of the “Two Source Hypothesis” in Biblical criticism:

            i.   The Two Source Hypothesis is a useful theory.

ii.  But it remains theory.

d.   No credible Biblical scholar would suggest that “Q”–if it existed–was authored by Jesus.

3.   Qumran was a community of Jews living in the Judean desert, near the Dead Sea.

      a.   The community was made up of Jews practicing a form of ascetical denial, based on

            an apocalyptic world-view.  This group was likely the Essenes.

      b.   The Qumran Community preserved Biblical texts carefully.  These texts were dis-

            covered in 1946–47, and are known as the “Dead Sea Scrolls”.

1) The Dead Sea Scrolls contain no New Testament material,

2) They include examples of fragments from all books in the Old Testament, except Esther. 

c. The Qumran Community existed from about 250 B.C. and was destroyed by the Romans in A.D. 70.  No evidence exists that Jesus was ever at Qumran.

4.   The Da Vinci Code (p. 231) claims that there has never been a definitive version of the Bible.

      a.   No book has ever been preserved more carefully in all of history.

      b.   More than 24,000 ancient manuscripts exist, with the differences between them being

            relatively minor.

5.   Other claims and half-truths:

      a.   In ancient Judaism, ritualistic sex was engaged in in the Temple (p. 309):

Response:  No evidence for this claim whatsoever exists.  Sex with “temple prostitutes” was a feature of the cults of Asherah in the ancient Near East.  The cults of Asherah were an “abomination” in the eyes of the Jews.

i.   The high priest entered the “Holy of Holies” only once each year, on Yom Kippur.

      b.   In the innermost sanctuary of the Temple were YAHWEH (the LORD, depicted as a male god) and “Shekinah,” with Shekinah being the female counterpart to YAHWEH (p. 309):

Response:  All Scriptural history contradicts this.  “Shekinah” is the Hebrew word that  refers to the LORD “dwelling,” His “glory” or “presence,” as found in the cloud atop Mt. Sinai when Moses received the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20)

i.   In terms of gender, “Shekinah” has no female connotation whatsoever.

      c.   The name for God, “Jehovah,” derives from a combination of YAHWEH and

            Shekinah (p. 309).

Response:  “Jehovah” is an artificial name.  When the LORD revealed His name to Moses (Exodus 3.14), He gave His name as “I AM.”  The verb construction for this in

Hebrew may be understood as “YHWH.”  No orthodox Jew will use the holy Name, and reads “Adonai” (“Lord”) instead of YHWH when reading the Hebrew Bible.

            i.   “Jehovah” is a combination of the consonants of YHWH (“J” being the German

“Y”), and the vowels of Adonai.

            ii.  This combination is not found in the Biblical era, being first used in the 16^th

century by Christian writers.

      d.   “The Bible is a product of man, my dear, not of God” (p. 231):

Response: 2 Tim. 3.16:  “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for

teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.”

            2 Pet. 1.21:  “For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke

from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”

            “An Outline of the Faith” (the “Catechism”) of the Episcopal Church, Book of   Common Prayer p. 853:  “We call [the Holy Scriptures] the Word of God because

            God inspired their human authors, and because God still speaks to us through the

            Bible.”

            Article VI of the “Articles of Religion” (Book of Common Prayer, p. 868): Holy

            Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation: so that whatsoever is not read

            therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not required of any man …

Orthodox principles on the authority of Scripture:  Scripture is:

§ “God breathed,” not a human invention.

§ Useful for teaching, reproof, correction, training in righteousness.

§ Sufficient for salvation.