This book is a great FICTIONAL read, and will probably be an excellant movie. BTW, I am Catholic so I may have to sneek in to the movie (;.
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This book is a great FICTIONAL read, and will probably be an excellant movie. BTW, I am Catholic so I may have to sneek in to the movie (;.
There was a great documentary on the discovery channel (that bastion for conservative Christian thought) that pretty much disproved Brown's premise.
Time is your friend. Impulse is your enemy. -John Bogle
The way I view this movie and book is that even though it is false, if it gets people to "Seek the Truth" like it states, people will find God (because he is the Truth). Also, if it becomes water cooler talk at work or school and we (Christians) are knowledgeable and ready to explain why this is false and the Bible is true, then this can be turned into a way to connect and witness to people.
So do you guys not believe that DaVinci hid Mary in The Last Supper? It looks like a female, dressed in the same colors, yet opposite of Jesus, a distinct V or W to symbolize the female symbol or woman, the slashing of the neck by Peter along with the knife in the hand. Was it all pretty coincedental or was there something lost or covered up in History that DaVinci was trying to tell us?
What about the Templar Knights? Why did the Pope all of a sudden decide to start pursuing the knights for heresy after telling the King of France to blow it out of his rear for a long time before suddenly changing his mind? Did they know something? Why did they have to escape to England to dodge the inquisitors? What did they have or know that the Pope wanted? Why did they try and catch them in England when their fortunes were left? Why was it necessary for them to form a secret society for survival while there? Why do the Mason's still bear the same symbolism that resonates with the female male union?
Ever wonder why Catholics will not let Mason's become Catholic?
...and one on the history channel...and one on the national geographic channel...and one on tlc. none of them found any evidence to directly support the theory but found plenty to refute it.Originally Posted by johnnylightnin
It's just a "fiction" book, loosely based on history.. It is one hypothesis of Christian history told in the form of a murder mystery. Take the book for what it is. The movie will be great I'm sure, even if it is half as good as the book.
1. john is almost always represented as an effeminate-looking young man. the figure in the "last supper" has no breasts and i can just as easily see the figure of a man as i could a woman. as far as the shape is concerned: yeah, i can see a V and an M but i see also an L an S another V, etc. if you're looking for it you can find it. question: how do you know it's peter represented with his hand at the controvesial figure's throat?--it's because peter is almost always represented as a gray-haired man with a bald head...just like john is almost always represented as an effeminate young man. if you say that that figure is mary i can just as easily say that the other is not peter. also, the colors you mentioned are also worn by the figure to the right of john/mary and most of that hafl of the table is wearing close to the same colors...it is possible that da vinci (who didnt' like to do frescos) just didnt' feel like mixing a different color or he mixed too much red and blue and didn't want to waste it (that statement has as much validity the "it looks like a woman"...being that it is complete conjecture).
2. the knights templar were the first (what we would call) bankers. the would loan money to travelers giving them coded promisory notes, which the traveler could redeem at any temple...they charged interest...they had a lot of money. with money comes power. the pope saw them as a threat and decided that he would claim they were pagans and have them rounded up and dealt with. pope didn't want to share power so he eliminated the threat.
3. as to the "male/female union" symbol in masonism: the free masons were originally stone masons...they use the square and the compass in their craft...it makes sense that it would be incorporated into their symbol. the fact that one points up and one down could be much more easily explained as the most pleasant-looking use of space. i know they are secretive and everything bu that doesn't mean everything associated with them has to have a deeper meaning.
I think there are way too many people getting uptight about the book and movie in the media. I am a catholic, born and raised, and I read the book. I couldn't put it down and normally I don't like to read much. I have read all of Dan Brown's books and enjoyed each of them.
I found a quote from his website that sums up what I think about the book:
"These real elements are interpreted and debated by fictional characters. While it is my belief that some of the theories discussed by these characters may have merit, each individual reader must explore these characters' viewpoints and come to his or her own interpretations. My hope in writing this novel was that the story would serve as a catalyst and a springboard for people to discuss the important topics of faith, religion, and history." FAQ
I think Dan Brown brilliantly makes us think and delve into our faith more deeply. This book encouraged me to read more of the Bible, have discussions of faith with priests and friends and has allowed me to strengthen my faith as a result of exploring it. Alot of officials are viewing this as a challenge of faith and completely closing off their minds to a varying viewpoint.
BTW, if you think Da Vinci Code was bad, read Angels and Demons where the Pope's second in command is trying to organize an election of a new pope and re-energize the Roman Catholic faith.
1. http://images.search.yahoo.com/searc...1,319&ei=UTF-8
I see a lump of a breast in one photo. I see a necklace. I don't know if that was common for men or women to wear in those days, but something to consider. I also see a tear on the cheek. Who would cry first?
2. True they were. The King of France wanted the power and money. The Pope stood behind the Knights until Friday the 13th (can't remember the year). That is when the Pope declared them heretics and decided to go after them. The reason why is what we will never know. Most were jailed, burnt at the stake, while some got away. Those that got away ended up in Scottland. The Pope and King of France tried to get inquisitors into England to catch them. When the King of England finally relented and allowed a handful of inquisitors into the country, they captured very few of the Knights. By this time, the knights had set up shop with the Stone Masons forming a secret society. I don't know, but I just don't see why Stone Masons would have a need to Sever heads and limbs from bodies for exposing publically of one's secrets of the stone mason trade.. Pretty tough guild to be in I guess..??
3. Right.
db-
this is a full pic of the last supper.
look at Jesus' neck...he has the same type of trim the other figure does, there is also a disciple standing to the right with a similarly-designed neck-trim (but it blends more with his tunic...he is also, incidently, wearing similar colors). if that was what you are talking about, don't think it's a necklace...there is what i see as a crack in the plaster that goes across the figure's chest where one would expect a necklace to be, but it's line carries through into the figure's clothes at an angle that a chain would not take.
i see no breast so will just have to disagree there.
I found this article online that explains some of the problems with the book:
for the complete article follow this link...http://www.rbcdavincicode.org/
This novel, however, is more than a page-turning murder mystery. The Da Vinci Code is a conspiracy theory that leaves many readers wondering whether everything they have believed about Christ and the Bible is wrong.
The Da Vinci Code begins with a lengthy list of acknowledgments and then a "fact page" designed to leave the impression that the novel is based on careful research of little-known facts.
One of the book's main characters is Robert Langdon, a fictional Harvard professor of religious symbology. Claiming years of research, the professor maintains that for 1,700 years, the church has been covering up the real truth about Jesus. His views are later echoed by a fictional British royal historian referred to as Sir Leigh Teabing who says things like, "almost everything our fathers taught us about Christ is false" (The Da Vinci Code, p.235).
What many readers fail to keep in mind is that The Da Vinci Code is fiction. Worse yet, the story rests not on careful research, but on a documented fraud passed off as truth. The idea that Leonardo was a member of The Priory of Sion is based on a document proven by a French court of law to be a forgery and a hoax (The Truth Behind The Da Vinci Code by Richard Abanes, Harvest House Publishers, pp.48-57).
The Da Vinci Code's "alternative view of history" also falsely states that Jesus was not regarded as a God until the fourth century when the Roman emperor Constantine decided it was in his own political interests to unite the empire by giving Jesus "an impenetrable cloak of divinity" (The Da Vinci Code, p.233).
The ancient texts found at Nag Hammadi, however, were not "lost books of the Bible," as Teabing claims. They were the writings of a mystery religion known as Gnosticism. Gnostics viewed spirit as good and matter as evil. They denied the physical body and crucifixion of Jesus and emphasized a secret knowledge received only by those initiated into the religion. The early church rejected their teachings long before Constantine.
On the basis of such research, scholars assure us that our Bible is a highly reliable representation of the original manuscripts. In The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable, F. F. Bruce writes, "To sum up, we may quote the verdict of the late Sir Frederic Kenyon, a scholar whose authority to make pronouncements on ancient MSS was second to none: 'The interval then between the data of original composition and the earliest extant evidence become so small to be in fact negligible, and the last foundation for any doubt that the Scripture have come down to us substantially as they were written has now been removed. Both the authenticity and the general integrity of the books of the New Testament may be regarded as finally established' "
I believe that one of the major problems with the novel is that people who do
not know any better, do not realize that the book is in fact fiction and not
reality. It also causes believeing christians to question the Bible.
Sometimes fiction is based on shreds of truth. Here are copies of the parchment that Plantard based his fictional Priory of Sion on.
http://www.ordotempli.org/parchment1.jpg
http://www.ordotempli.org/parchment2.jpg
The story goes that the priest who found these parchments hidden away behind an alter stone in his church suddenly became very wealthy after his visit to a Bishop. Supposedly, these parchments led him to clues and a significant discovery. It is theorized that the Church bought his silence leading to his sudden wealth. The church claims he was selling pentences.
Anyway, it all makes for a good conspiracy theory and best selling novel soon to be released movie.
it does, except that there is no evidence the father berenger sauniere ever actually found these documents...but rennes-les-chateau, where he was preist, is one crazy church. he did get a lot of money suddenly and that has never been explained. after he died, his housekeeper, rather than allow the government to audit the church's financial records, burned them...she was supposedly supposed to reveal the secret at some specific time but had a debilitating stroke before that time came and could no longer speak.
the priory was real during the time of the templars but it was never what the "dossier secrets" claim it was. leonardo, newton, boticcelli were never members of it much less grand masters (not to say they were not members of another society).
the "history" in the book, to anybody willing to do honest study, will invalidtae itself. i do agree that overall this has been a benefit to the church, because it actually got christians to start thinking about what and why they believe. like i said earlier: it's not the stuff concerning the bible that bothers me about the book...it's the skewed histories that some take as fact and ignore scholars (secular and religious), who say, "but, that's not how it happened," in favor of a mystery novelist who carefully selected hypothetical histories to perpetuate as fact.
one point that i have been trying to get across..nicely put
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