The Da Vinci Fraud

Was Leonardo Da Vinci a member of the "Priory of Sion," a secret society reaching all the way back to the Crusades? Does his famous painting, "The Last Supper," contain a hidden code about this society’s most precious secret? Did Jesus father children by Mary Magdalene? What was the Holy Grail?
The best-selling novel The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown has stirred the popular imagination by cleverly interweaving theories about such questions with a fast-paced fictional narrative. Many readers have been so swept away by the drama of this murder mystery that they have accepted Brown’s fictional reconstruction of Christian origins and medieval history as established fact.
New Testament scholar Robert M. Price, a member of the prestigious Jesus Seminar, examines the creative uses of history in Brown’s novel, showing that, however intriguing Brown’s fictional speculations may be, the real facts behind the novel are even more fascinating.
What does the best historical evidence say about the possibility that Jesus might have survived the crucifixion? How did the Gospels come to be accepted as the established accounts of Jesus’ life and why were other Gnostic traditions suppressed? How did the Roman Emperor Constantine figure in the development of Christian dogma? What was Mary Magdalene’s role in early Christianity and how was it adapted in later attempts to develop a "sacred feminine" element in Christianity? These are some of the important questions about Christianity that Dr. Price pursues in this engrossing discussion of Christian history.
Price combines sophisticated historical analysis with completely accessible and witty prose in this enlightening, factually based analysis of Brown’s speculative bestseller.

In this accessible answer to the Gospel according to Brown, Price, a member of the Jesus Seminar, examines the facts behind (or perhaps not to be found anywhere near) The Da Vinci Code. Price starts by describing the falsifications and misconceptions associated with what Brown asserts was the role of the Priory of Sion and the Templars in his projection of the story of the Christ, and then steps through everything from the nature of the Grail, the Crucifixion, the Gnostics, the development of christology and the canon, the questions of the Magdalene, and the motivations for creating a story that exists quite outside of that of Jesus. Price's bibliography is especially helpful for settling those seemingly eternal cocktail party debates. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Library Journal

In the wake of Dan Brown's enormously popular The Da Vinci Code, an ever-burgeoning number of books debunking its historical claims have been published. New Testament scholar and Jesus Seminar member Price (The Incredible Shrinking Son of Man: How Reliable Is the Gospel Tradition?) attempts to stir the pot of controversy further. In fact, The Da Vinci Code merely serves as a convenient foil, allowing Price to expound ad nauseam on the faults and inconsistencies of Christianity, past and present. Yes, in early Christian times there were multiple beliefs about Jesus that were either absorbed or suppressed by the emergent Church. Yes, the development of the Christian canon was a complex, piecemeal, all-too-human affair. Yes, the Gospels are not historical eyewitness accounts of Jesus' ministry. And, yes, there are parallels between Christian rituals and beliefs and various paganisms. None of this, however, justifies the author's cartoonish characterizations and latent condescension. For a more sober treatment of the subject, try Bart Ehrman's Truth and Fiction in The Da Vinci Code or, better yet, his more scholarly Lost Christianities. Not recommended.-Lee Ehlers, Greenville Cty. Lib. Syst., SC Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Robert M. Price (Selma, NC) is the editor (with Jeffery Jay Lowder) of The Empty Tomb: Jesus Beyond the Grave and The Journal of Higher Criticism. He is also the author of The Incredible Shrinking Son of Man: How Reliable Is the Gospel Tradition?, Deconstructing Jesus, The Widow Traditions in Luke-Acts, and Beyond Born Again.