Blatant Errors in TDVC
Rusty Miller and Mark Roberts
This page contains a list of some of the more blatant historical mistakes to be found in The Da Vinci Code. We will list the claim from the book (page numbers refer to the hardback version) in bold, followed by the truth. The point should be clear. If Brown cannot be trusted with simple historical facts, why should we trust him on important biblical matters?
Brown says the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in the 1950s (234). They were found in 1947. He says they are among the earliest Christian records (234). They dont mention Christianity.
The Aramaic term translated "companion" in the Gospel of Philip actually means lover or spouse (246). The Gospel of Philip was written in Coptic (Egyptian), and borrows the word translated "companion" from Greek. It contains no Aramaic, and the Greek word means companion and is commonly used of friends and associates.
The Gnostic gospels portray Jesus as a mere human, not divine (234). The opposite is true. Gnostic gospels were only concerned with Jesus divine nature.
Early Christians honored the Jewish Sabbath. Constantine changed it to Sunday (232-233). The New Testament (Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:2), early Christian writers (Ignatius, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus) and even pagans (the historian Pliny the Younger) all speak of Christians meeting on Sunday.
The name Mona Lisa is an anagram of Amon Lisa, signifying a reference to goddess worship (121). The painting was not even called Mona Lisa during the lifetime of Leonardo.
A key character is a monk in the Catholic order Opus Dei (278). Opus Dei has no monks.
Brown reports there are 666 panes in the glass pyramid at the Louvre (21). The architect of the pyramid (I.M. Pei) says there are 698.
The Olympics were held on an 8 year cycle to honor Venus (36). The Olympics were held on a 4-year cycle to honor Zeus.
Tarot cards were devised to pass along ideas banned by the Catholic church (92). The origins of tarot cards is unknown.
Leonardos painting, The Madonna of the Rocks is a 5 tall canvas that a character threatens to destroy by pushing through the canvas (133). In truth, The Madonna of the Rocks is 6 6" and, like most of Da Vincis paintings, is painted on a solid piece of wood, making it far too heavy for one person to take off the wall. It would also be impossible to destroy by tearing or pushing a knee through it.
The Church of Saint Sulpice in Paris is built over the ruins of an ancient temple to the Egyptian goddess, Isis. Not surprisingly, since Paris is a long way from Egypt, this is blatantly untrue.
The term cryptex refers to a puzzle that protects information written on the scroll contained inside. Another name for scroll is codex (199). A codex is distinctively different from a scroll. A codex is a book with pages.
Any gospels that described earthly aspects of Jesus life had to be omitted from the Bible (244). The Gospels contain much of Jesus earthly life and accent his humanity, including Him weeping (John 11:35) and that He had parents (Luke 2:51).
The Merovingians founded Paris (257). Actually, the city was settled by Gauls by the 3rd Century BC. The Merovingians did not rule in France until the 6th century AD, by which time Paris was at least 800 years old.
Early Jews believed the Holy of Holies housed not only God but His female equal, Shekinah (309). This is absolutely false and without any merit or supporting evidence of any kind. Shekinah means "glory" and refers to the glory of God that filled the Temple. There are no female deities in Jewish thought.
Brown reports that a SmartCar gets 100 kilometers per liter (138). In truth, the range is 17-24 kilometers per liter.
The Priory of Sion is a real organization, with Grand Masters that include Leonardo Da Vinci, Isaac Newton, Victor Hugo and Claude Debussy. Its presence was discovered among Les Dossiers Secret in the Bibliotheque Nationale de France (page 1). The Priory of Sion is neither ancient or real. Its founders, in the 1950s, admitted it was a fraud in court, under oath. None of the famous Grand Masters ever served as such because the Priory doesnt exist.
There are repeated anachronistic reference to the Vatican as the center of power in the early Catholic Church, including reference to "the Vatican" suppressing Gnostic writings in the 4th century. Until the early Renaissance, the papal palace was in many different locations, including France. It was not until the 15th century that the Vatican Hill began to exercise power. In the 4th century, the Vatican was little more than a church and cemetery by the side of the road.