Dealing with Davinci
West Side Church of Christ
Women: Shine or Shun?
When discussing the claims of the Da Vinci Code with others who are wondering about the
validity of the church’s claims or the alternative theories proposed by the Code or opening
one’s eyes to other possibilities it really does come down to Jesus.
More specifically, the two questions that still confront us from lesson 1:
- Who do you say that I am? Luke 9:18
- What do you think of the Christ? Whose son is he? Matthew 22:42
If we believe that Jesus Christ is the living Lord who walked this earth some 2000 years
ago and was crucified on a cross and lived again and hence lives still—what his words are is
what really matters.
In dialogue with others, when we come to this conclusion all other ‘issues’ can be wrestled
with but they are wrestled with from the viewpoint that Jesus is Lord!
This is a huge difference.
For instance, if Jesus told us to go and kill every non-believer we encountered this would
be his truth and we would obey it. It wouldn’t make sense to outsiders as being a good thing
to do, it would seem barbaric and not a very enlightened view, but to everyone who believed he
was Lord it would be wrestled with in a different way (we would be dealing with the Lord of
all Creation’s words!)
In this series on the Da Vinci Code, I have chosen to embark on a four-session discussion
to get one to the subject of who Jesus ‘really’ is!
Anything else the Code and other theories discuss and debate can be easily handled if one comes
to the conclusion that Jesus really is the Son of God.
But, I have chosen to include this lesson on the place of a woman in the church and her
intended place in the ‘original’ plans of Jesus due to the fact that the book really harps on
this one issue.
The Da Vinci Code repeatedly makes the claims that the church squashed women in order to
promote their masculine agenda all the while knowing that the original Jesus had elevated
women to the same degree (equal status) as males and the church has forever killed it.
Many people could in fact read this book and walk away with the conclusion:
‘I knew it all along that the church is anti-women.’
With this we are put in defensive mode:
do any women ever preach at your church?
See, you put them down too.
Why aren’t women elders in your church?
See, you say you think modern-like, but you don’t.
In the ‘heat of the moment’ your mind could race to passages that might seem to support
this conclusion:
Ephesians 5:22-33, Colossians 3:18,19, 1 Peter 3:1-7, 1 Corinthians 11:2-16, 14:33-38, 1 Timothy
2:8-3:13
One could come to the conclusion that the ‘teachings’ of the Bible in respect to women is
in fact an ‘unwinnable’ one in light of today’s climate.
Let’s look at the real topic at hand:
What the Da Vinci Code claims:
- Christ & his ‘marriage’ to Magdalene->
Leigh Teabing explains: ‘the early church needed to convince the world that the mortal
prophet Jesus was a divine being. Therefore, any gospels that described earthly aspects of
Jesus’ life had to be omitted from the Bible. Unfortunately for the early editors, one
particularly troubling earthly theme kept recurring in the gospels. Mary Magdalene…More
specifically, her marriage to Jesus Christ.’ (P.264)
Teabing: ‘Jesus as a married man makes infinitely more sense than our standard biblical view
of Jesus as a bachelor.’ Sophie Neveu: ‘why?’ Robert Langdon: ‘Because Jesus was a Jew…and
the social decorum during that time virtually forbid a Jewish man to be unmarried. According
to Jewish custom, celibacy was condemned, and the obligation for a Jewish father was to find a
suitable wife for his son. If Jesus were not married, at least one of the Bible’s gospels
would have mentioned it and offered some explanation for His unnatural state of bachelorhood.’
(P.265)
Teabing reads the following from the gospel of Philip:
‘And the companion of the Saviour is Mary Magdalene. Christ loved her more than all the
disciples and used to kiss her often on her mouth. The rest of the disciples were offended by
it and expressed disapproval. They said to him, ‘Why do you love her more than all of us?’
…As any Aramaic scholar will tell you, the word companion, in those days, literally meant
spouse.’ (P.266)
Teabing: ‘the marriage of Jesus and Mary Magdalene is part of the historical record.’
(P.265)
Teabing: ‘Behold, the greatest cover-up in human history. Not only was Jesus Christ married,
but He was a father. My dear, Mary Magdalene was the Holy Vessel. She was the chalice that
bore the royal bloodline of Jesus Christ. She was the womb that bore the lineage, and the vine
from which the sacred fruit sprang forth!’ (P.270)
Is this possible?
Could the real records be that Jesus was married to Magdalene?
Why don’t the gospels mention his bachelorhood?
It sure seems like Jesus and Magdalene were close!
- The Real Scandal of Magdalene->
Sophie asks about the reputation of her being a prostitute to which Teabing replies:
‘Magdalene was no such thing. That unfortunate misconception is the legacy of a smear
campaign launched by the early church. The church needed to defame Mary Magdalene in order to
cover up her dangerous secret—her role as the Holy Grail.’ (P. 264)
Teabing quotes the following from the Gospel of Mary: ‘And Peter said, ‘Did the Saviour
really speak with a woman without our knowledge? Are we to turn about and all listen to her?
Did he prefer her to us?’ And Levi answered, ‘Peter, you have always been hot-tempered. Now I
see you contending against the woman like an adversary. If the Saviour made her worthy, who
are you indeed to reject her? Surely the Saviour knows her very well. That is why he loved her
more than us.’….Jesus suspects He will soon be captured and crucified. So He gives Mary
Magdalene instructions on how to carry on His Church after He is gone. As a result, Peter
expresses his discontent over playing second fiddle to a woman. I daresay Peter was something
of a sexist.’ (P. 268)
Where did Mary the prostitute come from anyway?
Was it a smear campaign to remove her from power?
Was Peter not intended to take a prominent role in the church?
By the way, was it Peter or Constantine that was responsible for the male power grab?
- Jesus & Feminism->
Teabing: ‘Jesus was the original feminist. He intended for the future of His church to be in
the hands of Mary Magdalene.’ (P.268)
Langdon: ‘the Priory’s tradition of perpetuating goddess worship is based on a belief that
powerful men in the early Christian church ‘conned’ the world by propagating lies that devalued
the female and tipped the scales in favour of the masculine….Constantine and his male
successors successfully converted the world from matriarchal paganism to patriarchal
Christianity by waging a campaign of propaganda that demonized the sacred feminine,
obliterating the goddess from modern religion forever.’ (P.133)
Again the goal of this book in ‘re-educating’ the world about the identity of Jesus is to
replace God the Father with the pagan ideas of god and goddess!
Langdon: ‘The power of the female and her ability to produce life was once very sacred, but
it posed a threat to the rise of the predominantly male Church, and so the sacred feminine was
demonized and called unclean. It was man, not God, who created the concept of ‘original sin,’
whereby Eve tasted of the apple and caused the downfall of the human race. Woman, once the
sacred giver of life, was now the enemy.’ (P.258)
Teabing: ‘Sadly, Christian philosophy decided to embezzle the female’s creative power by
ignoring biological truth and making man the Creator. Genesis tells us that Eve was created
from Adam’s rib. Woman became an offshoot of man. And a sinful one at that. Genesis was the
beginning of the end for the goddess.’ (P.259)
Haven’t we heard for so long how Eve destroyed creation by eating the fruit?
Langdon’s thoughts: ‘The Catholic Inquisition published the book that arguably could be
called the most blood-soaked publication in human history. Malleus Maleficarum—or the Witches
Hammer—indoctrinated the world to the dangers of freethinking women and instructed the clergy
how to locate, torture, and destroy them. Those deemed witches by the Church included all
female scholars, priestesses, gypsies, mystics, nature lovers, herb gatherers, and any women
suspiciously attuned to the natural world. Midwives also were killed for their heretical
practice of using medical knowledge to ease the pain of childbirth—a suffering, the church
claimed, that was God’s rightful punishment for Eve’s partaking of the Apple of Knowledge,
thus giving birth to the idea of Original Sin. During three hundred years of witch hunts, the
Church burned at the stake an astounding five million women.’ (P.134)
Now, I have always heard about this and I believe it to be true!
What could explain it but a simple hatred of women?
Where did this hatred come from?
What do we do with all of these claims?
Can we say anything at all about them?
What is the truth?
- Jesus & His Marriage!
Would it disprove divinity if Jesus the man were in fact married?
The Bible says marriage is honourable and if Jesus were married it does not mean he was
imperfect or solely human. However, the question is ‘was he married?’
The whole book’s plot is that the Priory of Sion (see appendix at back of lesson book) is
focused on protecting secrets about Magdalene’s marriage to Jesus and their child.
What about that stuff about Jewish culture demanding rabbis and men to be married?
Simply false!
Nowhere is it ever required that a Jewish Rabbi or prophet was to be married. Instead, he had
a specific job or task to perform which would be his life’s work. Jesus joins the list of
people such as Elijah, Elisha, Jeremiah & John the Baptist as those who were not married.
Subsequently, Paul would fit this group as well.
Speaking of Paul—the mention of the fact that the gospels don’t explain away his bachelorhood,
how about 1 Corinthians 9:5?
If Paul was trying to prove he could be married, why not mention Jesus’ marriage as legitimacy,
but he simply doesn’t although he uses Peter’s and others as legitimacy.
What of the ‘record of history’ business?
Simply false!
There is no record of any marriage even in the ‘gospels’ that are not in the Bible (see lesson
3). What about the phrase ‘companion’?
First, the only manuscript we have of this gospel is in Coptic not Aramaic.
Second, the term never carries with it a requirement to mean a sexual or marital relationship
(e.g. Philemon:17).
‘Companion’ most likely meant here ‘sister’ in a spiritual sense.
Third, the Gnostic gospels saw sexual behaviour as evil so it would be highly unlikely that
they would be interested in promoting one!
Look at the quote again: ‘The companion is Mary of Magdala. Jesus loved her more than his
students. He kissed her often on her face, more than all his students, and they said, ‘Why do
you love her more than us?’ The saviour answered, saying to them, ‘Why do I not love you like
her? If a blind man and one who sees are together in darkness, they are the same. When light
comes, the one who sees will be light. The blind man stays in darkness.’
(Lutzer, 2004 see list of Helpful Aids at back of lesson book)
A couple of things:
- face is not in copy of manuscript—scholars fill in the blank with mouth, face or forehead
etc. We simply do not know what it says.
- If Magdalene was his wife what a stupid question for the disciples to ask!
- If he kissed her on the mouth/face, he must also have kissed his students there as well
just not as often!
- Magdalene’s History!
No one in the history of the church has ever attempted to demonize Mary Magdalene.
Isn’t the notion of her ‘prostitution’ proclaimed by the church?
Yes and No!
Where did all of this come from?
In 591 A.D. Pope Gregory was giving a sermon on the redemption of Mary Magdalene by Jesus
Christ. He based his sermon on Luke chapters 7 & 8 as well as inferences from John 11:2
The confusion comes from this:
In Luke 7:36-50 a sinful woman anoints Jesus with expensive perfume and is forgiven.
In John 11:2—Mary the sister of Lazarus we are told is one who anointed Jesus.
In Luke 8:1-3—Mary Magdalene is the first listed among the women who faithfully followed
Jesus and as one who had been healed of seven demons (a lot).
Put two and two together and you get this:
Mary Magdalene had seven demons, which means she was extremely sinful, which means she is the
same Mary who anointed Jesus, which is the same woman of Luke 7 who was extremely sinful.
What could be more extremely sinful than say a prostitute?
Hence, the scandal of Mary being a prostitute!
Clarity time:
The Mary of John 11 is Mary of Bethany not Mary of Magdala—two different people altogether.
There is not a connection between Magdalene in chapter 8 and the sinful woman of chapter 7! It
wouldn’t be normal to not name her and then immediately name her.
Having seven demons did not translate into being sinfully sinful but horribly oppressed by the
devil.
Mary Magdalene is not demonized in the scriptures but honoured highly.
In fact, the gospels portray her in a higher light than they do Peter.
Instead of their being jealousy between them, there is companionship.
She is the first to witness about the resurrection (John 20) and it is to Peter & John.
Some things about Pope Gregory:
- Sermon in 591 A.D.—270 years after the supposed demonizing effort was to take place
according to the DVC!
- Pope Gregory while getting the sermon wrong probably spoke it out of a sincere purpose:
the redemptive work of Jesus, not the horrible Magdalene.
- The Catholic Church herself corrected this in 1969
- Jesus the Feminist, Church the Chauvinist!
Where do we start with this?
- There never has been a matriarchal society in history. The Christian religion did not
take this away.
- The church has always viewed the serpent in the Garden of Eden story as the enemy and
not women. (By the way, how did the church ever convince the Jews to change their scripture
to make Genesis 1-3 fit the church’s plans 300 years after Jesus?)
- Genesis 3:15—through the seed of the woman! The Bible has always identified the role
women play in the producer of life! (For instance see the writings of Paul in 1
Corinthians 11:12 and 1 Timothy 2:15)
- Jesus did make women equal with men though their roles would be different! Galatians
3:28. In the home both are equal but different:
one is the father the other is the mother and they are not to compete for each other’s position.
- The church has always profited from the efforts of faithful women though never when
competing with men or seeking to dominate men. There were far more women followers in the
early church than male followers. (So much for male dominated church)
- Women are more favourably mentioned in the Bible than in other writings.
- Women treated with much more honour in Bible than other ancient societies:
Plato: ‘Anyone who lived well for his appointed time would return home to his native star and
live an appropriately happy life; but anyone who failed to do so would be changed into a
woman at his second birth.’
(Kirkwood p.62, 2005—see list of aids at back of lesson book)
If women have been so demonized, how do you explain the church’s views about Mary, the mother of
Jesus?
The New Testament tells us of the Samaritan woman’s telling others about Jesus (John 4),
the worthy women who supported Jesus and the disciples with their funds (Luke 8),
Mary & Martha serving and listening to Jesus (Luke 10:38-42),
the women being the last at the cross (Mark 15:47) and the first at the tomb (Mark 16:1),
the women who were the first to hear the news of the resurrected Christ (Mark 16:6)
and the one who first saw him (John 20:11-18).
What do we do then with this supposed ‘suppressing’ of women?
1 Corinthians 11:2-16, 14:33-38, 1 Timothy 2:8-15
The passages that do speak of different roles for men and women, and even husbands and wives,
are part of the overall trust and submission we give to God.
It really is a matter of trust in the God who entered our world in the form of Jesus Christ and
died for our sins and rose again to bring us life and that by submitting to Him we trust that
He knows what is best for us.
These passages are not about a woman having to submit to a man, but men and women having to
submit to God.
Equal, but different is the Bible and specifically the New Testament’s views.
What about the witch hunts?
The Da Vinci Code makes claims that seem very believable and dreadful about what the church did
in the so-called witch-hunts.
What is the truth?
Did the church burn over 5 million witches?
The history of this horrible period is far from this number. In total there were roughly 110,000
trials during the witch hunt phase. Approximately 48% ended in execution. What many do not
know is that around 20% of those were men. In reality there were less than 50, 000 witches
killed.
Important to note:
- This still is terrible to have happened by people claiming to be followers of Jesus
Christ.
- The Catholic Church did not start the witch-hunt, but common people did and the
church became involved many years later.
- What one church may or may not have done does not translate to all churches in
agreement with this mindset or attitude.
- What do people make of the church’s persecution of the male Protestant leaders?
Or about the Protestant persecution of other groups such as the Anabaptists?
The Da Vinci Code simply is false when it comes to telling the real story behind the church’s
history of dealing with gender issues.
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