Dan Brown’s Lies—On Analysis of The Da Vinci Code from the Persperctive of Historical Criticism.doc

丹布朗的谎言从历史批判角度分析达芬奇密码dan browns lieson analysis of the da vinci code from the persperctive of historical criticismabstract:dan browns novel the da vinci code and the film which was adapted from it went around the whole world. it exposes the origion and the secrets about christianity from a new perspective. this novel shocked the christianity and made the christian scared, meanwhile they had strong indignation about it, even most of them treated it as the heresie of christianity. because of lacking of the creed and history of christianity, many people cant understand the overturned meaning of this novel to the faith and basis of western countries. although something in it may be inaccurate, it tells us that we cant worship any religion blindly. history is rigorous, and we should use our knowledge to digest history correctly and rethink our attitude towards the world. this essay will mainly introduce the relevant history of some symbols in this novel, also it will expose the lies dan brown told and correct the wrong history he wrote. the purpose of the paper hope people can know some true history of christianity and can understand this novel correctly.key words: the da vinci code; dan brown; mary magdalene; christianity; 摘要：丹布朗的小说达芬奇密码以及根据此小说改编的电影风靡了全世界。它从一个全新的角度揭示了基督教的起源和隐藏的秘密，因此，他使基督教上上下下都惶恐不安，同时，基督教徒也把它视作基督教的异端邪说。由于缺乏对基督教历史的认识，许多人并不能理解这部小说对西方国家的信仰及其本源的颠覆性意义。尽管其中一些解释不够准确，但却告诉我们不能盲目的信仰宗教。历史是严谨的，我们应该用我们的知识来正确认识历史并重新审视我们的世界观。本论文主要介绍在这本小说中一些象征的相关历史，揭穿丹布朗的谎言，纠正他所说的错误历史。希望人们能正确认识基督教的历史并且能正确的解读这本小说。关键词：达芬奇密码; 丹布朗; 抹大拉的玛丽亚; 基督教contentsi. introduction a. a brief introduction to dan brow1b. the outline of the da vinci code.1ii. the inaccuracies in the da vinci code.2a. mary magdalene.2 1. alleged marriage to jesus.22. mary in leonardos the last supper.3b. the bible.4c. opus dei.5d. leonardo da vinci.6e. the knights templar7f. the priory of sion10iii.the effects of the da vinci code on western countries.10a. the effects on museum literature.10b. the effects on religion.10iv.conclusion.11works cited.12i. introductiona. a brief introduction to dan browndan brown was born in 1964 , a best-selling book author is the most famous american writers. his work include the new york times bestseller list ranked the top the da vinci code, this book is also one of historys best-selling novel. a week of the year, dan browns four novels appear on the new york times bestseller list. his novels have been translated into 40 published in various languages around the world. dan brown graduated from philips exeter academy and amherst college, graduated in philips exeter academy english professor. 1996 , the code-breaking and secret government organizations interested in promoting his creation of his first novel-digital fortress , the book quickly became a best-seller effective in the united states ranked first. novels written by the national security bureau, the line between personal privacy and national security in the paper. dan brown in this novel after another successor to the trap of politics, national security and high-tech theme. dan browns father was a well-known professor of mathematics, was awarded the presidential award for mathematics, and her mother is a religious musician. such a conflict between science and religion in the family environment, he later became the inspiration for his work angels and demons by the source. it has science and religion theme of the relationship between the horror thriller written both novels, switzerland, a european nuclear research center, wrote the vatican, his welcome actor, the harvard symbol expert robert langdon, in the latter part of the novel will appear in paris, london and washington.b. the outline of the da vinci codewhile in paris on business, harvard symbologist robert langdon receives an urgent late-night phone call: the elderly curator of the louvre has been murdered inside the museum. near the body, police have found a baffling cipher. while working to solve the enigmatic riddle, langdon is stunned to discover it leads to a trail of clues hidden in the works of da vinci clues visible for all to see yet ingeniously disguised by the painter. langdon joins forces with a gifted french cryptologist, sophie neveu, and learns the late curator was involved in the priory of sion-an actual secret society whose members included sir isaac newton, botticelli, victor hugo, and da vinci, among others. in a breathless race through paris, london, and beyond, langdon and neveu match wits with a faceless powerbroker who seems to anticipate their every move. unless langdon and neveu can decipher the labyrinthine puzzle in time, the priorys ancient secret and an explosive historical truth will be lost forever.ii. the inaccuracies in the da vinci code a. mary magdalen1. alleged marriage to jesusthe da vinci code claims the holy grail is not a chalice but a bloodline sprung from the marital union of jesus and mary magdalene. this idea is not original to brown; but previously hypothesized by others, including michael baigent and richard leigh in their non-fiction book the holy blood and the holy grail. many textual and historical scholars have characterized this claim as without evidence. the church fathers, while admittedly making claims years after jesus had died, were unanimous in their belief that jesus was celibate.although the book is correct that it was a cultural norm for jewish males (especially rabbis) to be married, there were exceptions to the rule, like the essenes. as portrayed in the canonical gospels, jesus was not a rabbi in the traditional sense of the jewish office it would become after ad 70, but an informal teacher; the gospel of mark refers to him as the carpenter.women in the gospels were usually identified with husbands or male relatives, especially if they shared their names with others. for example, there are many mentions of women called mary, all designated differently. there is mary the mother of jesus, mary magdalene, mary the mother of james and joses, mary the mother of james, the other mary, and mary of bethany, the sister of lazarus and martha. mary magdalene stands out from most of the other marys as she is not directly associated with any man. mary magdalene means mary of magdala, just as jesus the nazarene means jesus of nazareth. some researchers have claimed that, if indeed she was married to jesus, she should have been designated, following custom, mary the wife of jesus instead. however, her special distinction as the magdalene is taken by supporters of the jesus and mary bloodline theory (and other non-traditional christians) as simply a sign of her specialness within the early church.according to the da vinci hoax, the use of the term bride of christ for the church in some of the letters of paul (ephesians 5:25-27, 2 corinthians 11:2-3) and the book of revelation suggests that jesus was not married. the authors of that work also speculate that the recorded words of jesus that those people who can remain celibate, for the kingdom of heavens sake should do so(matt. 19:12) were made in response to criticisms of his own celibacy. the title bride of christ (or christ as nymphios) is also used allegorically for the well-known legends on catherine of alexandria.in the novel, the gospel of philip refers to mary magdalene as jesus companion, and says aramaic scholars know that this means wife. however, james m. robinson, an authority on the gnostic gospels, has pointed out that companion was not necessarily a sex-related term. also, the gospel of philip is in coptic, translated from greek, so there is no word in the text for aramaic scholars to consider. the gospel of philip depicts mary as jesuss koinonos, a greek term indicating a close friend, companion or, potentially, a lover. however, in context of gnostic beliefs, gnostic writings use mary to illustrate a disciples spiritual relationship with jesus, making any physical relationship irrelevant.2. mary in leonardos the last suppervirtually all art historians dispute that leonardos famous the last supper depicts mary magdalene beside jesus. the figure to the left of christ, also wearing blue and red, is usually identified as john the apostle, who is identified to be the disciple whom jesus loved seated next to jesus and who was customarily depicted in the renaissance period as a beardless, often effeminate youth with very long hair. the femininity of the figure can be attributed to leonardos artistic training in a workshop of the florentine school, which had a long tradition of often depicting young males as sweet, pretty, rather effeminate persons. some speculators, before and after brown, have entertained the idea that john was depicted in this way to hint that he was mary magdalene, but this is decidedly a minority view. however, in rough sketches of the painting, the person next to jesus is actually labeled as john.even so, dan brown points out the absence of the traditional chalice (the holy grail) on the table in the painting as proof that leonardo considered mary magdalene the real grail. however, there is no established tradition of depicting a chalice in scenes of the last supper. some paintings do depict a chalice, others cups or wine-glasses. leonardo depicts unadorned glasses filled with red wine. it could be argued that leonardo eschewed traditional iconography for contemporary realism.another explaination concerns the biblical scene leonardo intended to depict. scholars have suggested that the text the artist had in mind was john, where jesus announces that one of his disciples will betray him. the scene depicted therefore shows the disciples reactions to jesus words and the figure of john can be seen leaning over to confer with peter, seated further to his right. furthermore, in the gospel of john, jesus does not institute the eucharist (identifying bread and wine with his own body and blood) at the last supper and may have led the artist to think that the inclusion of a chalice was not necessary as it was not spoken of in his chosen passage of scripture.it has been claimed that the painting does appear to contain a conventional chalice on a shelf above the head of the leftmost apostle. this detail was made visible due to the restoration of the painting. however most art historians consider this to depict decorative panelling on a door, as in close up it is seen to extend downwards as a vertically symmetrical pattern.b. the biblebrown is inaccurating in asserting that constantine collated the present biblical canon and ordered the burning of the non-canonical gospels, while editing others to suit his purposes. the emperor exiled arius and burned his works for his view that jesus was a created being, divine but less than god the father, but arius did not write any gospels. furthermore, arianism did not call for the acceptance of gnosticism or its gospels. however, the church hierarchy did attack various gnostic teachings over history.the books claim of the gospels being systematically edited after the first council of nicaea is false, because of the impossible task of tracking down thousands of copies going around the christian world (there was no master registry of gospel manuscripts). the attitude that brown has towards pre-nicean christians is that until that moment in history, jesus was viewed by his followers as a mortal prophet a great and powerful man, but a man nonetheless. there are multiple passages in the new testament that may be interpreted to mean that jesus considered himself divine and was held to be thus by his followers. for example, the gospel of john has the apostle thomas say my lord and my god in jesuss presence, and paul writes in 1 corinthians 8:6: yet for us there is but one god, the father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one lord, jesus christ. the official church canon was not decreed by constantine; indeed, debate about the inclusion of the apocrypha or deuterocanonical books continued after his time. the council of nicaea did not debate the canonical books, but about the relationship between jesus and god. constantine had very limited say in the council.the book also claims that the gnostic gospels (e.g. the gospels of thomas, philip, mary magdalene, and the recently rediscovered judas) are far older, less corrupted, and more accurate than the four included in the bible. with the possible exception of thomas, the other gospels date from the 2nd century through the 4th century, while the canonical four are thought by most scholars to date from the 1st century or early 2nd century. gnostic gospels also do not focus more on jesus humanity. the other gospels we are aware of, for the most part, treat jesus as more otherworldly and lack the humanizing detail of the biblical accounts. the assertion of more than eighty gospels written, with only the familiar four chosen as canonical, greatly exaggerates the number of gnostic gospels written. there were indeed many gnostic writings, but only a few claimed to be gospels. some of these so-called gospels are only so called by some writers today. to these writers is also attributable the false identification of the writer of the gnostic gospel of mary as mary magdalene. it is in fact not claimed within the work or by historical tradition that mary magdalene wrote that short work.c. opus deiopus dei, formally known as the prelature of the holy cross and opus dei, is an organization of the roman catholic church that teaches the catholic belief that everyone is called to holiness and that ordinary life is a path to sanctity. the majority of its membership are lay people, with secular priests under the governance of a prelate (bishop) appointed by the pope. opus dei is latin for work of god, hence the organization is often referred to by members and supporters as the work.the depiction of opus dei as a monastic order which is the popes personal prelature is inaccurate. in fact, there are no monks in opus dei, which has primarily lay membership and whose celibate lay members are called numeraries. but it may be explained by the fact that silas is referred to as a monk mostly by the protagonists, langdon and neveu, who are shown to have little knowledge of opus dei. the word numerary is used to refer to silas, by actual opus dei members such as the person at opus dei centre in london.moreover, opus dei encourages its lay members to avoid practices that are perceived as fundamentalist to the outside world. the term personal prelature does not refer to a special relationship to the pope; it means an institution in which the jurisdiction of the prelate is not linked to a territory but over persons, wherever they be.silas, the murderous opus dei monk, uses a cilice and flagellates himself. some members of opus dei do practice voluntary mortification of the flesh, as has been a christian tradition since at least st. anthony in the 3rd century and has also been practised by mother teresa, padre pio, and slain archbishop scar romero. saint thomas more and catherine of aragon, queen of england both wore hairshirts in the tudor era. critics charge brown of greatly sensationalizing the practice of such mortifications and exaggerating the extent of their practice.critics have accused the book of depicting the society as misogynistic, a claim which the societys defenders say has no basis in reality, because half of the leadership positions in opus dei are held by women.defenders also say that the novels allegations of dealings between john paul ii and the society concerning the vatican bank also have no basis in reality. allegedly due to these dealings, opus deis founder was declared a saint just 20 years after his death. in real life, josemara escriv was canonized 27 years after his death; admittedly faster than some othersbut this is attributed to streamlining of the whole process and john paul iis decision to make escrivas sanctity and message known.in the novel, the head of opus dei travels alone and makes momentous decisions on his own. in real life, the head of opus dei is usually accompanied by two other priests called custodes or guardians. decision-making in opus dei is collegial: i.e., the head has only one vote.a part of the books acknowledgments page is dedicated to five sources within opus dei itself, three active members and two former members. the opus dei information office though has asserted that dan brown never interviewed any active member of opus dei. also, the opus dei awareness networks website is brought up within the narrative. this may indicate their web pages have been used as research source for the novels.d. leonardo da vincithe contention that the mona lisa was painted by leonardo as a self-portrait has been dismissed, as the female subjects historical identity has been discovered to be lisa del giocondo, a point that was confirmed in 2005. as for the claim that the title mona lisa is a coded reference to the egyptian gods amon and isis, this title was not applied to the painting until the nineteenth century. mona is a contraction of madonna (meaning my lady or madam); lisa is proven to be derived from lisa del giocondo.the last supper was a commission and was the wall of a dining room in the convent of santa maria delle grazie in milan, italy. the notion of the last supper showing mary magdalene instead of