by Jon R. Welker

In this article, our efforts will be to shed some light on various forms of what could be labeled "neo-Gnosticism." The reason we are visiting this subject has to do with the popularity of Dan Brown's novel, The DaVinci Code, which has been on the nationwide bestseller lists pretty consistently since it was published by Doubleday in 2003. It was 87 weeks at the top of the New York Times bestseller list, and by the first of this year over 10 million copies had been sold. The novel has now been adapted for the screen and will be released to theaters on May 19, 2006. Oscar-winning actor Tom Hanks will star as one of the leading men, and the picture will be directed by Ron Howard and produced by his business partner Brian Grazer, the same people behind A Beautiful Mind, the 2001 Oscar-winning film. This means the views expressed in Dan Brown's novel will receive an even greater audience.

CONSPIRACY OR ENTERTAINMENT?

David Klinghoffer, of the National Review, has stated:

Such a book has set off a pretty loud pealing of the electric chimes at the front door of the culture. In the case of Dan Brown's The DaVinci Code, what's so special exactly? That depends on what makes conspiracy theories so fascinating."

It seems that the fascination in our culture with "conspiracy theories" is what makes this book and the concepts portrayed therein so appealing. So, what makes for a good "conspiracy"? It's important to keep in mind that a conspiracy doesn't have to be real, as surely as the one Dan Brown conjures up is not, in spite of the fact that he includes a preface boldly headlined "FACT." Yet one requirement in any conspiracy theory is an intricate array of lore.

Moreover, a worthwhile conspiracy needs to explain something that you probably didn't know needed explaining before, and it needs to link to a truth, or at least a pseudo-truth. In the case of The DaVinci Code, we're talking about just plain old entertainment. But, now this is important, the conspiracy theory at the center of Dan Brown's bestseller was not invented by him - it has been around for years. And, it's a juicy one! It involves selective readings and interpretation of a number of apocryphal writings regarding Mary Magdalene and her relationship with Jesus of Nazareth. A number of non-canonical writings claim to record dialogues between Mary and the Risen Christ, or between her and the Apostles. There is among these Gnostic works, a so-called "Gospel of Mary," though the "Gospel of Philip" is also frequently cited, as is a document known as "Pistis Sophia" (Faith Wisdom). All of these works portray a Mary in quite a different role than the one outlined in the four Biblical Gospels.

SOME HISTORY...

Very little was known about these extra-Biblical writings until just before the 20th century. A German Egyptologist in 1896 bought a codex containing a portion of the "Gospel of Mary." Other fragments of this work were also found among papyri discovered at Oxyrhynchus, Egypt. Then, later in 1945 when the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered, a copy of the "Gospel of Philip," along with other Gnostic texts, were found in a sealed jar near the Egyptian town of Nag Hammadi. And in the following decades, the interest and study of Mary Magdalene has been further stimulated by the contents of these additional Gnostic texts.

THE NEW AGENDA "MAKEOVER"

Here is where we enter what Mikkel Dahl might have called "the land of mist illusion," for it is a domain engulfed in the fog of conspiracy. So let us do some "connecting of the dots" helping us to arrive at the present fascination with The DaVinci Code "fairy-tale" novel. But before considering the plot of Dan Brown's book, it would be well to consider what the recent decades of the study of Mary Magdalene in the context of Gnostic texts has created. In the language of the modern TV reality shows, Mary Magdalene has undergone an "EXTREME MAKEOVER." The old Mary Magdalene, former prostitute and roll model for fallen women, is "out." That which is "in" is a reinvented Magdalene, and according to your preferences, wife or mistress of Jesus of Nazareth; mother of His child, apostle to the Apostles (and/or spiritually and intellectually superior to these male disciples); and high priestess of an Egyptian religion. Yes, her new persona has been "made over" or "made up" by a number of feminist theological writers and scholars. Even three separate female characters with the name Mary have been "morphed" into one: Mary Magdalene, from whom Christ exorcised 7 demons (Lk. 8:2), the otherwise unidentified "sinner" who anointed and wiped Christ's feet in the presence of a Pharisee (Lk. 7), and Mary of Bethany (Jn. 11:1).

There is no consensus among historical and traditional Christian writers as to the interconnectedness of these three Marys. However, there is a broad spectrum of views about how Mary should now be considered. Foremost is the Mary portrayed in some Gnostic texts, particularly the "Gospel of Mary," who has been elevated as the cause célèbre of feminist writers. She is now portrayed as the new "queen of heaven" in their effort to change our understanding of history, Christianity, and the very character of God.

Because she was the first to encounter the Risen Christ and was sent by Him with a message to the Apostles, feminist writers have instilled immense importance to Mary Magdalene. Yet herein is an irony. The designation "apostle to the apostles" was attached to her by such early church fathers as Hippolytes and Augustine in the 3rd and 4th centuries. But according to these modern feminist Mary advocates, it was the Gnostics who actually venerated her and claimed that the church was guilty of having downplayed her importance.

In general, contemporary writers draw heavily on Gnostic texts in their efforts to repaint Mary Magdalene to conform to their causes which include radical feminism, anti-church (particularly anti-Catholic) biases, the ordination of women into the priesthood, neo-Gnostic and New Age sentiments, and, of course, the ever-present conspiracy theories. It is on the basis of these selective readings and interpretations of such apocryphal writings that the "lore" is now promulgated regarding Mary's "unique relationship" to Jesus the Christ.

THE PLOT SICKENS...

Here is where we pick up on the plot of Dan Brown's bestseller. What is at stake in The DaVinci Code is nothing less than traditional Christianity itself. The Holy Grail, according to Brown, is not a holy cup, but rather holy blood, referring to the lineage of Jesus of Nazareth. And Jesus, the Founder of Christianity, had a daughter, Sarah, by Mary Magdalene…! Therefore, so goes this theory, this would overturn some of the central beliefs of Christians. Even some Orthodox Jews who can't be accused of pleading on behalf of Christian dogma, find that this "holy blood" theory - of Jesus having descendants - is too nutty to merit serious consideration, considering that any suggestion that such a fact would have been kept secret for 2000 years is absurd. Now, let us consider the plot….

The book opens with the murder of an elderly curator at the Louvre museum in Paris, France. This curator is shown to be harboring a secret, that if revealed would destroy the very foundations of Christianity. In his dying moments, the curator prostrates himself in the form of Leonardo DaVinci's "Vitruvian man." He leaves a series of numeric and cryptographic clues with his own blood that could decode the fatal secret. And then he dies in a symbolic position at the foot of the Mona Lisa. Then we see the interweaving of a Gnostic character into the plot. The murder is investigated by Sophie Neveu (new wisdom?), a beautiful French police cryptologist, and Robert Langdon, a Harvard expert in ancient symbolism. Neveu and Langdon find clues that lead them to the "Holy Grail." Their research causes them to investigate two secret groups, the Priory of Zion, a secret society with a long history which boasts members such as Botticelli and Isaac Newton, and the conservative Catholic organization Opus Dei. Both these groups do not want the Grail to be found.

But as it turns out, the Grail isn't the cup that Christ drank out of at the Last Supper. Instead, we are to believe, the true Grail is Mary Magdalene who held the blood of Jesus in her womb while bearing his children! Now the conspiracy plot grows in intensity. The Roman Catholic Church, fearing that the truth would undermine its authority, presented Mary as a prostitute and altered documents which allegedly reported Christ's marriage to her in their attempt to diffuse any claim that Jesus has a surviving blood line and that He was no more than a mere man. In other words, Dan Brown's yarn claims that almost everything about the Christian faith and Jesus is false. So there, in a nutshell, you have it.

REVISIONIST CONTORTIONISM

In the accompanying articles in this Update, a number of these concepts are considered. It is unfortunate that various writings have been manipulated so that what little we know of Mary Magdalene is used to advance religious and social agendas foreign to the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. By resorting to writings of uncertain origin, and quoting very selectively from them without any regard to context, some writers have reconstructed her to fit a New Age, revisionist, and feminist agenda. As for example, the report in the Gospel of Philip of Jesus kissing Mary is interpreted as proof of a sexual or marriage relationship without any regard to the fact that the same Gospel speaks with contempt of sex because it is a physical act. Kissing was a form of greeting, and is referred to as such in other Nag Hammadi texts, such as the alleged writings of the Apostles Paul and Peter.

RETURN TO REASON

Here let me end this article by quoting from David F. Lloyd who cites James Robinson, Professor Emeritus at Claremont Graduate University. Professor Robinson spearheaded much of the translation and research work in the Nag Hammadi texts. He therefore knows and understands the context of the writings. He states:

The later [Gnostic] gospels do not imply, much less divulge, any sexual tie with Jesus. The rehabilitation of Mary Magdalene in modern times to her rightful position as Jesus' very loyal disciple, who stuck with Him to the bitter end, should not be trivialized (or sensationalized) by projecting on her what may be no better than one's own sexual fantasies.

So how are we to view Mary of Magdala? Now let me quote David F. Lloyd:

In the Apostolic Writings, we read of her presence at the events surrounding Christ's death and resurrection. She then disappears from the scene, simply because she is no longer an important part of the ensuing accounts. In short, the Mary Magdalene of the Bible is portrayed as neither more nor less than a devout follower of Christ.

Now I encourage you to give careful consideration to the articles which follow, if for no other reason than you could be put in a place or given the opportunity to discuss the matter with friends and family who may have encountered Dan Brown's The DaVinci Code, or end up seeing Ron Howard's film to be released next Spring. And remind them - it's just a movie, for entertainment, and caution them against receiving its message as a depiction of factual events.