The Da Vinci Code. When the curator of the Louvre is killed, a Harvard professor and a cryptographer must untangle a web of deceit involving works of Leonardo da Vinci. Amazon.com: The Da Vinci Code: A Novel (Robert Langdon) eBook: Brown, Dan: Kindle Store.

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Inside the Louvre Museum, under the mysterious gaze of the Mona Lisa, a museum curator is gunned down. In his dying moments, he leaves behind a bizarre trail of clues, some written in his own blood. The gunman is a towering albino monk, but police suspect the murderer is a Harvard professor of religious symbols and art.

As the professor races off into the Paris night to prove his innocence, he embarks on a journey through ancient history, art, and the Bible, and the discovery of dangerous truths hidden for 2,000 years -- secrets, that if revealed, could 'devastate the very foundation of Christianity.'

That scene, from the opening pages of “The Da Vinci Code” is, of course, fiction. But readers are told right from the start that 'all descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate.' That provocative statement gives an air of credibility to the book's elaborate conspiracy theories and it's caused millions of readers to wonder how much they really know about Jesus and a woman named Mary Magdalene.

'Fiction, as if it were fact, as if it were history, and say 'Well, this really rocks my world? What I’ve always come to understand about Jesus and the Catholic church is suddenly everything’s up for grabs and that shakes a lot of people up,” says NBC News analyst Father Thomas Williams of Regina Apostolorum Pontifical University.

In the book, the monk kills the curator in a quest for the legendary Holy Grail, a mythical vessel often thought of as the cup that Jesus drank from at the Last Supper. But in “The Da Vinci Code,” the grail takes on an entirely new meaning. It might not be a cup at al, but a secret, the author suggests, that would radically change our understanding of Jesus and the life he led.

To understand that secret and to separate fact from fiction in “The Da Vinci Code,” we pieced together a portrait of the novel's key figure, a woman who lived 2,000 years ago: Mary Magdalene.

Mary Magdalene was born, it is believed, in the town of Magdala, a fishing village on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. She lives in our memory as the Biblical figure with the flowing red hair, a fallen woman until she is forgiven by Jesus.

Harvard Divinity School professor Karen King is an authority on women's roles in the early church and author of a recent book on Mary Magdalene.

Stone Phillips, Dateline correspondent: How important do you think she was to Jesus?

Karen King, Harvard Divinity School professor: Mary Magdalene had to be one of the most important people in Jesus' life. And she's said to be the first witness to the resurrection. That role in his story places her at the center of the Christian message, and, one has to assume, at the center of Jesus' life.

Few scholars doubt that Mary was an important follower, but there is another label that has stubbornly shadowed her through the ages -- prostitute.

Phillips: Was Mary Magdalene a prostitute?

Dr. Ben Witherington, III, Asbury Theological Seminary: No. No, she wasn't. In no text in the New Testament is Mary Magdalene ever said to be an adulterer or a sinful woman.

Even so, in a 6th century Easter sermon, Pope Gregory the Great declared that Mary was a prostitute. Why would he do that? Many believe he simply mixed her up with another Bible figure, an unnamed prostitute who appears just before Mary is introduced in the Book of Luke.

Bart Ehrman, author of 'Truth and Fiction in the Da Vinci Code': They’re clearly different women. But Pope Gregory the Great identified the two and said they were the same. And from that point on, in the 6th century, it came to be thought that Mary Magdalene must have been a prostitute.

But the novel's professor, who's trying to unravel the mystery of the grail, suggests something more sinister behind the slander: a conspiracy by the church to hide the true nature of Mary's relationship to Jesus. The fictional professor points to some tantalizing clues, buried in the sand for almost 1,600 years, that help explain Mary's secret connection to the grail. They're clues that are, in fact, based on something real.

In December 1945 near the Egyptian town of Nag Hammadi, a peasant smashed open an earthenware jar and pulled out more than 50 ancient texts hidden since the 4th century. “The Da Vinci Code” refers to them as scrolls, but they are, in fact, leather bound books, part of a collection known as the Gnostic Gospels. These texts have never been recognized by the church, but some scholars say they contain revealing new insights about Mary.

King: We get these later Gospels that elaborate on these possibilities for what Jesus may have told Mary. And later tradition also sees her as someone who was a leader in the church. And that set of images, make for a strong figure.

Phillips: Not the shy, retiring, passive type?

King: Not the shy retiring, passive type.

In these more recently discovered alternative Gospels, Mary emerges as a kind of original feminist, Jesus' most trusted disciple and advisor, and a rival to the apostle Peter, the fisherman thought to be the first head of the church.

Phillips: I think most people will be surprised to hear that there is a gospel in which she is foremost among the Apostles.

King: According to this Gospel, Mary was the disciple who understood. She was the one who was able to carry on Jesus' teachings.

Phillips: She got it.

King: And to preach the Gospel. She got it.

The novel says passages of the once secret books depict Mary as the true heir to Jesus' church and a threat to its male leaders. But many, like noted Evangelical scholar Darrell Bock, say that's misreading the text.

Dr. Darrell Bock is research professor of New Testament Studies and professor of Spiritual Development and Culture at Dallas Theological Seminary.

Darrell Bock: Now Mary Magdalene is a very important figure in the early church and in the Bible. But it is a misrepresentation to suggest that she held some kind of formal office or had some formal teaching role. We have no real evidence of that at all.

As it is with most figures from the Bible, the portrait of Mary is incomplete. Her life is a puzzle with some intriguing pieces; a scrap of parchment, a few lines in an ancient manuscript. The novel says the truth about Mary and her link to the Holy Grail is 'everywhere once you open your eyes..' including some of the world's greatest works of art. You just have to know how to read the clues.

Phillips: According to this book, 'The Last Supper' by Leonardo Da Vinci, holds the key to the mystery of the Holy Grail.

David Nolta, art historian: It's the crucial image in ‘The Da Vinci Code.’

Are the clues in a crucial image, hiding in plain sight— revealing the dangerous secret behind “The Da Vinci Code”? The bond between Mary and Jesus may have run far deeper than anyone imaged.

Buried deep in the pages of “The Da Vinci Code” is a secret about Mary Magdalene, one the book says the church has suppressed for centuries. If you look carefully, there are clues pointing to it everywhere: in the Bible, in historical documents, and in works of art by Leonardo Da Vinci— complex codes and mysterious messages that the novel claims were cleverly hidden by the artist.

But are they really there?

David Nolta, art historian: He was one of most mysterious people in the history of Western civilization. When people think of the renaissance man, they often think of Leonardo Da Vinci.

Art historian David Nolta teaches a course on “The Da Vinci Code. He considers Leonardo a genius whose work still evokes a deep sense of awe and mystery. His paintings, abundant drawings, and notes, (many of which are written backwards), seem full of secrets and fantasies. Leonardo was an architect, musician, anatomist, and engineer.

Stone Phillips, Dateline anchor: And according to this book, the keeper of the Holy Grail.

Nolta: Right.

According to “The Da Vinci Code,” Leonardo offers the key to the secret of Mary Magdalene and her relationship to Jesus in his masterpiece in Milan, the Last Supper.

The novel turns conventional wisdom on its head with this declaration that 'The Last Supper' doesn't depict 13 men, but 12 men and a woman. Could that be true? For answers, the novel instructs us to take a closer look at the figure to Jesus' right. We asked Nolta to help us demystify the meaning of the painting. Could it be that the beardless apostle, always believed to be St. John, is really a woman? And if so, who is she?

Phillips: Big hunter. This figure does appear to be more feminine than any other figure in the painting.

Nolta: I totally agree, most feminine.

If that's true, what could the painting be telling us? The book points to another clue. The 'M' evoked by the outline of the central figures could actually be a secret code that stands for Mary Magdalene.

Nolta: You can find an 'M', certainly… which could stand for Mary Magdalene.

Or the book says it could stand for something far more provocative, like matrimonio or marriage. Could Mary Magdalene and Jesus have been husband and wife? “The Da Vinci Code” claims the Last Supper practically shouts out that they were a pair. To find out if there's any truth to this radical claim, we must travel back 2,000 years.

Mary and Jesus are thought to have come from Galilee. Mary, some believe, was from a prosperous fishing family and Jesus was a Jewish preacher with a reputation for performing miracles.

The New Testament says they came together when Jesus cast out Mary's 'seven demons,' spirits once thought to represent her wayward past. But today, it is widely seen as a metaphor for illness, perhaps epilepsy.

Soon, the Bible says that Mary was traveling the countryside with Jesus and even contributing money to his ministry. She was with him during his final days in Jerusalem, one of the few followers to remain by his side at his moment of death.

Phillips: How significant a figure was Mary Magdalene in Jesus' life?

Karen King, Harvard divinity school professor: Mary Magdalene had to be the most important woman in Jesus' life, perhaps other than his mother. He surrounded himself by a group that followed him. Jesus loved her more than the others. The question is, why?

Margaret Starbird, author: I think they were a couple. I think he found her irresistible.

Author Margaret Starbird, whose controversial research on Mary Magdalene is cited in “The Da Vinci Code,” says there's no need to look to art for clues of an intimate relationship between Mary and Jesus. All you have to do, she says, is read the New Testament. It's right there in the Book of John.

Starbird: When Mary Magdalene comes to the garden to mourn for Jesus and to anoint him for his final anointing and finds him resurrected in the garden, she is overjoyed.

Before Jesus ascends to heaven, Mary reaches out to him and he tells her 'do not touch me.'

Starbird: He's saying 'I can't stay with you now' and she's trying to hold on. It's not just a touch. It's an embrace. If she weren't married to him, she wouldn't have dreamed of touching him.

Most scholars and of course the Catholic Church refute the notion that the scene in the garden suggests anything intimate between Jesus and Mary. But Starbird says that outside of the Bible, in those unrecognized gospels found in the Egyptian desert, there are more clues, like phrases from the Gospel of Phillip that say Mary Magdalene 'always walked with the Lord' and is 'the one who was called his companion.'

Phillips: Would the word 'companion' translate to 'spouse'?

King: It can mean spouse as well as companion.

Others say 'companion' might simply mean a spiritual companion or fellow traveler. But “The Da Vinci Code” quotes another line in the same passage as proof that Jesus and marry shared a sexual relationship. It reads, 'Christ loved her more than all the other disciples and used to kiss her often on her mouth.'

But many scholars, like Bart Ehrman author of 'Truth and Fiction in the Da Vinci Code,' say that's stretching the truth.

Bart Ehrman, author of 'Truth and Fiction in the Da Vinci Code': The manuscript that has the Gospel of Philip has holes in it. And so there are places where the words don't come through. And so what it says is that Jesus loved blank. And frequently blank kiss blank on the blank. So it looks like Jesus is kissing Mary Magdalene somewhere on her body but we don't know where.

Phillips: That's all we've got.

Ehrman: That's all we got.

Phillips: Literally holes in the story.

So the picture is incomplete. But wherever Jesus kissed Mary, other scholars add, it doesn't tell us anything more about their relationship.

Phillips: Are there other instances of Jesus kissing other disciples?

Dr. Ben Witherington, III, Asbury Theological Seminary: Oh sure. Absolutely. And of course, you have the famous one that's in the reverse where Judas kisses Jesus to identify him when he's betrayed. What we know about early Jewish culture is that this was the traditional greeting.

And, as for the book's claim that a married Jesus makes infinitely more sense than our view of Jesus as a bachelor, scholarly opinion is mixed.

Elaine Pagels: It's certainly true that most Jewish men got married. Rabbis in particular. And it could well be that Jesus was married.

Witherington: It was the norm and it was normal that Jews got married. Were there a lot of notable exceptions? Absolutely there were. And Jesus could be one.

But one thing scholars agree on is this: nowhere in the New Testament or in any other Christian teachings does it spell out whether or not Jesus was married. That's because it never happened. But for others, that silence is rich with possibility.

King: If there were any definitive piece of evidence that Jesus and Mary were married, it would have been told many times.

Phillips: That's a secret that would not have kept.

King: What we really have is silence, and silence is pregnant with many kinds of meaning.

But what if there was a reason for that silence, a truth, says “The Da Vinci Code,” that if revealed, was far more threatening to the church than a marriage?

At the heart of the mystery unraveled in “The Da Vinci Code” lies the enigmatic figure of Mary Magdalene. For centuries she was dismissed as a reformed prostitute, but Dan Rrown re-imagines her as a powerful figure who not only followed—but married—Jesus of Nazareth.

And the book also implies that there’s more to her story than that—a truth so startling that it could rock the very foundations of Christianity. Again, the novel says the answer is hidden all around us.

One set of clues brings us to a sleepy village along the Mediterranean coast of France.

There is a legend there that is said to reveal the truth about Jesus and Mary Magdalene. It is the place where an oarless boat full of refugees from the Holy Land washed ashore not long after Jesus was crucified.

Margaret Starbird, author: They landed on the coast of France and brought with them the Holy Grail.

Among those onboard was Mary Magdalene, who, the legend says, settled there and raised a daughter named Sarah.

Starbird: She's pre-adolescent in 42 AD, which means she's between 9 and 12 years old in 42 AD. And so the timing is right in the legend.

But in “The Da Vinci Code,” Sarah is no mere legend. She exists and her lineage is the most astonishing revelation of the story. Sarah, the novel proclaims, is the daughter of Jesus and Mary Magdalene. This, the book says, is the true secret of the Holy Grail: That Jesus' marriage to Mary Magdalene produced a child, a little girl, who grew up in the South of France. According to the legend, Sarah bore children of her own, carrying on her father's bloodline. It flowed through generations, eventually reaching the French royal family, and from there, the rest of the world.

There is, of course, no birth certificate, or entry in some ancient ledger telling of Sarah's arrival or who her parents might have been. For clues, the book once again leads us right back to Leonardo DaVinci and the Last Supper. It is one of many renaissance depictions of Jesus and his Apostles sharing Passover on the night before his crucifixion.

But Leonardo's version leaves out an important icon. Jesus' chalice, the legendary Holy Grail, is missing. And according to “The Da Vinci Code,” its absence is no mistake. It's just another clue leading us to the truth about Mary Magdalene.

The book says the painting literally spells it out. First, there's that 'M' which could stand for 'Magdalene' or 'marriage.' Then, there's another clue found by tracing the line formed by the central figures -- a 'V,” the shape of the missing chalice and the ancient symbol for female fertility, conjuring the image of a mother's womb.

And so, the book concludes, Da Vinci is trying to tell us that Mary Magdalene was the 'holy vessel' who carried 'the royal bloodline of Jesus Christ' by bearing his child.

Starbird: And probably a girl child since the vessel, the shape, the cup is actually a feminine symbol.

But why would Leonardo bury these symbols in his masterpiece?

Stone Phillips: The book depicts Leonardo Da Vinci as a subversive slipping hidden messages into his art.

David Nolta, art historian: Uh-huh.

Phillips: The artist's eccentricities projected an admittedly demonic aura.

Nolta: He was a man of a considerable range of activities, certainly.

Leonardo's activities, according to “The Da Vinci Code,” included leading a secret brotherhood, a group entrusted with protecting the truth about Jesus, Mary and their child -- The Priory of Sion.

Richard Leigh, co-author 'Holy Blood, Holy Grail': The original Priory of Sion was established in 1099 by the Crusaders after Jerusalem fell.

You won't find the Priory of Sion mentioned in any conventional biography of Leonardo DaVinci, but the book says that for proof of his membership, all you have to do is look in the French National Library at a collection of papers called the Secret Documents or Dossiers Secret.

Leigh: Dossiers Secret are documents deposited anonymously in the Bibliotheque Nationale.

Richard Leigh was among the first to evaluate the documents which were, in fact, discovered in the library in the 1970s. The documents include a directory of leaders, called grand masters, men whose mission, Leigh says, was to hide the secret of the bloodline, then pass it down through the ages.

Leigh: Leonardo appears on the list of grand masters. There's no question that he was also connected with the figures who immediately proceed and immediately follow him on the list.

The list opens with obscure French noblemen, but goes on to read like the contents table of an introductory course to Western civilization.

Leigh: Obviously when we first saw the names, names like Leonardo, Botticelli, Newton, we were skeptical. On the other hand if you wanted to concoct a list of illustrious figures, why include so many non-entities? And why not bring in more? Why not have Goethe on the list for example? Why not have Shakespeare?

A generation ago, Leigh poured over these enigmatic papers, matching them point by point to documented French history and local legends -- including the story of Jesus and Mary Magdalene, and a girl named Sarah. It all points, he says, towards a cataclysmic possibility.

Leigh: That there were progeny or at least one child from this union and that a bloodline continued.

Could these cryptic documents reveal some ancient knowledge and could they hold the key to finding the heirs of Jesus living among us today?

In the book, they are startling truths that have been protected and passed down through the ages by the members of an elite secret society called the Priory of Sion.

And while “The Da Vinci Code” is, once again, fiction, page one opens with these words -- 'fact: The Priory of Sion, a European secret society founded in 1099, is a real organization.' And if that society is real, some readers reason, then the secret it holds about Jesus and Mary must be real, too. But does the Priory of Sion exist?

Bill Putnam, archeologist: On page one or page two, it says, ‘fact.’ The large word, ‘fact.’ My reaction was screams.

“The Da Vinci Code” isn't the first book to make a case that the Priory of Sion and its secrets about Mary and Jesus are real. A similar story was first told in 1982 in a non fiction book called 'Holy Blood, Holy Grail.'

Co-authors Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln remember the controversy all too well.

Henry Lincoln, co-author 'Holy Blood, Holy Grail': What we have now with ‘The Da Vinci Code’ Is repeat of what happened about 20 years ago when ‘Holy Blood, Holy Grail’ was published.

Richard Leigh,co-author 'Holy Blood, Holy Grail': The whole thing turned into a circus.

To separate fact from fiction in both books, you have to understand the true story at the heart of 'Holy Blood, Holy Grail,' one that began more than a 100 years ago, in a tiny village in the south of France called Rennes le Chateau.

It all centers around a man named Sauniere. the same name author Dan Brown gave the curator in “The Da Vinci Code.” The real-life Sauniere was a young, penniless priest. But soon after he began renovating a church, all of that changed. He became rich, which left many in town wondering how he came by his fortune and what secrets it might hold..

Local legend has it Sauniere found some mysterious documents hidden deep in the church's altar.

Lincoln: The priest, in repairing his church, supposedly found some parchments. These parchments contained secret messages.

Secret messages, it was said, that led the priest to a buried treasure. But when the authors of 'Holy Blood, Holy Grail' analyzed the parchments, they came up with a different theory: Sauniere had stumbled onto not gold and jewels, but evidence of a secret society that had been guarding the descendents of Jesus and Mary Magdalene for centuries.

The clues, they say, are there in the parchments. If you look closely enough you can find the letters, 'Sion' and 'PS,' code for the Priory of Sion.

Lincoln: Nobody knows anything about the Priory of Sion.

To find out more about the Priory, the authors headed to the French National Library, and soon, made another discovery, a list of Priory leaders, or grand masters. The same list is featured in “The Da Vinci Code.”

Leigh: We checked all of these, even those that seemed irrelevant to the main story, and they all checked out.

But that wasn't all. The same files contained papers filled with elaborate family trees, genealogies and codes that seemed to directly tie a line of French kings and queens to the descendants of Jesus and Mary Magdalene.

Leigh: If we read the clues they provided correctly they claim, one, Jesus was married. At some point subsequent to the crucifixion Jesus' wife or widow, as the case, might be escaped either pregnant or with child to the South of France. Around 496 AD this blood line supposedly intermarries with the royal line of the Francs.

Could this radical -- even sacrilegious -- story be the real secret the priest stumbled onto all those years ago? And did he use that knowledge to extort money from someone, the Church perhaps, to keep silent?

Leigh: Whom could he blackmail? Well, he could blackmail the Vatican.

The authors followed the documents further and it wasn't long before those family trees led them to the doorstep of an eccentric Frenchman named Pierre Plantard.

Lincoln: Pierre Plantard was a charming man. I liked him very much.

Plantard was the soft-spoken son of a butler and a cook, who'd lived an unremarkable life as a low ranking government paper-pusher. But when the authors interviewed Plantard, a grander story emerged. Plantard said that the Priory of Sion was real and that he was a member.

Leigh: When we first established contact with members of Priory, Plantard was their official spokesman.

But in this 1979 BBC documentary interview, Plantard went one step further.

Lincoln:Can you tell us whether the Priory of Sion still exists today.
Plantard: At this moment Priory of Sion still exists.
Lincoln: Monsieur Plantard, you have supported the Priory of Sion.
Plantard: We have supported Sion and Sion has supported us.
Lincoln: We? Who are we?
Plantard: We. I am speaking of the Merovingian line.

The same royal line described on the family trees— which raised the possibility that Plantard wasn't just a member of the priory, but also perhaps, a descendant of Jesus and Mary Magdalene.

And in 1982, they laid out the following theory in their non-fiction book: The Priory of Sion was a real organization that had been protecting the untold story of Jesus, Mary and their French descendants for centuries. A generation later, The Priory of Sion appeared in the “The Da Vinci Code,” on that page labeled 'fact.”

There was just one problem.

Putnam: The whole thing is made up.

Archeologist Bill Putnam is one of several scholars, historians, and journalists who have called The Priory of Sion nothing more than a modern-day con.

Putnam: It's the greatest hoax in my experience.

By comparing the Priory documents to other paperwork, Putnam concluded that the grand master list, the family trees, the secret 'Sion' and 'PS' codes were all a hoax, fabricated by none other than Pierre Plantard.

Putnam: He's a very strange man. He's a very strange man. One might call him a fantasy worker.

Putnam says the deception began when Plantard heard legends about the French priest and his unexplained wealth and decided to fabricate coded parchments that would appear to explain the mystery of the priest's fortune.

Putnam: He creates a body called the Priory of Sion and argues that this had been in existence for 1,000 years.

Next, Putnam says, Plantard planted the list of priory grand masters and those family trees linking him to French royalty in the French National Library.

So why would Plantard go to all this trouble?

Putnam: He got the idea that he ought to be King of France, believe it or not.

Pierre Plantard died in 2000. But Priory of Sion lives on in the pages of “The Da Vinci Code.”

And if you're wondering how that priest, Sauniere, amassed that mysterious fortune, it had nothing to do with unearthing secrets about the Holy Grail. It turns out he was accused of selling mail-order prayer services for the dead -- a scandal that got him suspended from the pulpit. It appears all other explanations for the mystery are simply fiction.

Unless, of course, like some true believers, you think the fake documents, the Sauniere mystery, and Plantard's story are just another smokescreen. Perhaps the Priory of Sion has managed, once again, to avoid detection— still carefully guarding its holy secret about Mary Magdalene. Are they eluding -- as “The Da Vinci Code” suggests, the all powerful Roman Catholic Church?

Lincoln: The simple facts are there are no facts. We just don't know.

Fascination with “The Da Vinci Code” has become so intense that some at the Vatican fear believers may be treating Dan Brown's fiction as Gospel truth. Worshipers there for Good Friday services heard a sermon condemning the book. It was an extraordinary reaction to a secular work of art and not the only response from church leaders.

Last month in Genoa, an Italian Cardinal told Catholics not to buy the novel, calling it, 'a sack full of lies against the Church.'

'I think there's a serious concern, says Father Thomas Williams, an NBC News consultant and dean of theology at a college affiliated with the Vatican. “It certainly has elements that are a little hostile to the Catholic Church, especially the organization Opus Dei.'

Opus Dei is a small, Catholic group that's featured prominently in “The Da Vinci Code.” The albino monk who kills the curator and four others is a member. Aspects of the organization are painted as secretive and ruthless, portrayals that Opus Dei members and many Catholics say is flat out wrong.

Stone Phillips, Dateline correspondent: No Albino monk hit men?

Father Williams: I haven't met one yet.. I know members of Opus Dei who are wonderful very good normal people, believing Christians, wonderful members of society. And I think they have been hurt by this.

Phillips: I guess if you're inclined to be suspicious of an institution like the church this is certainly going to feed that.

Father Williams: It is a mysterious institution. You can fit a lot in there. You can create conspiracies because of the richness of its history and this fascinates people.

Dan Brown declined to comment on accusations that the book is anti-Catholic or anti-Christian. He does, however, address the issue on his Web site, which reads:

This book is not anti-anything. It's a novel.. The vast majority of devout Christians understand this fact.

At a lecture in New Hampshire recently, the author spoke for the first time about the controversy his novel has created.

'You don't have to believe a single word of this story to enjoy it, to engage in the debate, to remiain open-minded to perspectives that make us think, perspectives that challenge us to ponder why we believe what we believe,' says Brown.

And how does Brown feel about the avalance of books the 'Da Vinci Code' has spawned?

Brown: I think these books are absolutely wonderful. These authors and I obviously disagree but the dialogue that' sbeing created is powerful and positive. The more vigorously we all consider and debate thes topics, the better understanding of our own spirituality.

In February, two of the authors of Holy Bood, Holy Grail sued Dan Brown's publisher for copyright infringement and lost. Even the judge in that case seemed to embrace the fever: He embedded a code into his ruling, an obscure reference to a BRitish naval ship, a code that was ultimately cracked.

Still, 'The Da Vinci COde' phenomenon continues. In the U.S., the movie is number one at the box office, and around the world, the film was the second biggest opening ever.

Outside of the theatre, there are tours— 'Grail Trails' that draw fans from all over the world to the story's European locations.

And in Milan, you'll find fans scouring that Leonardo Da Vinci masterpiece for clues. Is there that 'M' for marriage? That 'V' symbolizing Mary’s womb or the chalice?

Art historian David Nolta says he could have saved them the trip.

David Nolta, art historian: As I tell my students, you can find almost every letter in the alphabet in this picture. You can make the V into a W, if you turn it upside down.

Phillips: You don't think that's intentional on Leonardo's part.

Nolta: Not at all. Any more than it's intentional that you and I, sitting here like this right now, years from now, someone could see this tape and read into the form of our two bodies… And with the proof that one of us, or not both of us, were vegetarians and promulgating vegetarianism.

And as for the novel's claim that St. John, the feminine-looking figure to the right of Jesus, is really Mary Madeline, Prof. Nolta told us that most painters of that era represented St. John that way.

And finally, when it comes to the big question at the heart of “The Da Vinci Code,” nearly every scholar we spoke to had the same thing to say.

Phillips: Is there any historical evidence that Jesus fathered any children?

Bart Ehrman, author of 'Truth and Fiction in the Da Vinci Code': No. There's not one scrap of historical evidence.

Dr. Ben Witherington, III, Asbury Theological Seminary: No evidence whatsoever.

Karen King, Harvard Divinity School professor : There's no evidence at all.

“The Da Vinci Code,” an amalgam of truth and fiction, fact and hoax, sacred and profane, has clearly enthralled millions. But when last chapter is read, and readers pause to reflect, just what might they think?

Ehrman: I'd say to readers that they should enjoy it as a work of fiction and not take it's fictional claims as factual claims.

And as for the historical Mary Magdalene, that alluringly mysterious woman so critical to “The Da Vinci Code,” she remains forever shrouded in the mists of legend and faith, a saintly and human image, all in the eye of the beholder.

© 2013 MSNBC Interactive. Reprints Double dragon neon download pc.

'Long before Columbus,' she said, 'people from Europe visited this part of the world. We know that because they find a lot of stuff around here that just doesn't fit what we were taught in school. I think the Knights Templar visited this place and stashed their treasure.' It was interesting, and there is a lot of evidence that Europeans had visited North America well before Columbus set foot here. But then the story got stranger.' In fact, I think the Knights Templar knew something about Jesus that the church has been hiding from us for years. I think Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene, and they had a child.

There are lots of ancient documents that have been suppressed by the official church to prove it. The Holy Grail isn't actually the cup that Jesus drank from at the last supper—it's the hidden bloodline of Jesus!'

I knew immediately that she had been reading Holy Blood, Holy Grail, written by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln. The book raises questions about the Christian church's historical understanding of Jesus, suggesting—among other things—that He was married, had a child, and did not actually die on the cross. As the book hit stores across the nation, a Los Angeles Times book review proposed that the book was, 'Enough to seriously challenge many traditional Christian beliefs, if not alter them.' The book did not, obviously, topple the Christian church and for a good reason. No credible historian took it seriously because the weight of historical evidence clearly contradicts it. Furthermore, even though many people are easily romanced by a good conspiracy theory, this one was far enough off the wall that most people simply didn't buy it—until it was reincarnated in a new format when The Da Vinci Code hit bookstores.The Da Vinci Code has sold more than 40 million copies, and Hollywood recently splashed its contents across the big screen.

The Da Vinci Code hits a chordThis time the strange theory hit a chord with much of the general public. The Da Vinci Code has sold more than 40 million copies, and Hollywood recently splashed its contents across the big screen. Then in a move almost certainly calculated to maximize publicity for the magazine, National Geographic announced that it was in possession of an ancient 'gospel' that presents an alternate version of the events surrounding Jesus' death: the gospel of Judas (Even though many people seem to assume that this document has only recently been unearthed, it was actually discovered years ago).An obscure theory has suddenly been pushed to the forefront of public discussion. Popular news magazines are running stories about it. The television airwaves are full of 'davinciesque' specials. Christian churches are voicing their concern over all the publicity Dan Brown's book is receiving.Christians, of course, are naturally troubled by the book and for good reason. If the theories presented by Dan Brown are true, then the foundations of a two-thousand-year-old Christianity have been essentially ripped out from under the church.

Among other things, the claims presented in the book include: False claimsJesus was married to Mary Magdalene and fathered a child with her. Jesus intended for Mary Magdalene to become the head of the Christian church, but because of a patriarchal conspiracy, the concept of the 'sacred feminine' was rejected and her role in the formation of the early church was stolen from her. The church has suppressed women ever since. Jesus was never considered to be divine by the early church; this was an idea adopted by the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D.

The four Gospels presented in the New Testament were put there by the Roman Emperor Constantine to cover up what had been done. Many other 'gospels' that revealed the truth were covered up.Secret societies, like the Knights Templar and the Priory of Zion (a group whose members are said to have included such luminaries as Sir Isaac Newton and Leonardo Da Vinci) have carefully guarded these facts for centuries in the face of oppression from the organized Christian church. Verifiable facts?The book, of course, is sold in the fiction section of the bookstore, and no publisher has yet made the claim that it is historically verifiable. Yet the clever manner in which Dan Brown presents his material has, while not convincing many people, still confused them. An author's note in the book assures us that 'all descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate.' This gives the average reader—who is understandably not widely educated in ancient Christian history—the distinct impression that The Da Vinci Code is at least historical fiction, based on real events.The lines between fact and fiction have been carefully blurredThat's where the essence of the concern over the book really lies. The lines between fact and fiction have been carefully blurred, making it seem as if many of the strange theories listed above might actually be true.

The reality is that The Da Vinci Code is wildly inaccurate.Take, for example, the book's suggestion that the Dead Sea scrolls contain some of Christianity's earliest documents (the assumption is made that these were suppressed by the early Christian church) - a claim that is utterly impossible. The Dead Sea scrolls are exclusively Old Testament documents.Additionally, the ancient manuscripts discovered at Nag Hammadi in the 1940s are said to contain the 'earliest' Christian documents. This simply isn't true. The writings of the New Testament were all completed before the first century expired; the books discovered at Nag Hammadi, at the earliest, date back to the late second century. (The one exception would be the gospel of Thomas which might date back as early as 130AD. This still puts it many years after the books of the New Testament were completed). The four gospelsThe story presented in The Da Vinci Code also seeks to persuade us that the four Gospels we now have in the New Testament are only there because of the political ambitions of the Roman Emperor Constantine.

This supposedly happened at the Council of Nicea (325 AD), when the church needed Matthew, Mark, Luke and John to prove their newly-adopted theory that Jesus was divine. They purportedly selected the four Gospels we have today from as many as eighty other 'gospels' which told a different story.This assertion is utter nonsense, as any well-versed historian can tell you.

There was no occasion on which the church sorted through eighty documents. Additionally, the veracity of the New Testament Gospels had been well established by the Christian church for hundreds of years before the Council of Nicea, which is proven by the fact that earlier church writings make constant reference to them as authoritative documents.

The so-called 'other gospels' are never mentioned in any list of books considered authoritative for the Christian.The so-called 'other gospels' are never mentioned in any list of books considered authoritative for the Christian.There is also no record of the Council of Nicea making the decision that Jesus was divine. This was a doctrine well understood by the Christian church since the first believers wrote about His miracles and His claims to Godhood. The only topic of discussion at Nicea dealing with Christ's divinity had to do with how God the Son related to God the Father—but the fact of His divinity was not questioned, nor introduced for the first time.Constantine would have been a relatively easy target for the likes of Dan Brown, because he did make a number of questionable decisions that are well recorded throughout history. We know, for example, that his influence allowed some pagan ideas to drift into the thought patterns of the Christian church. But Constantine did not create the canon of the New Testament or invent the notion of Christ's divinity.

Those notions are utter fiction and a deliberate assault on the well-documented historicity of the Christian faith. Was Jesus really married to Mary Magdalene?And what of the claim that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene? This was supposedly hidden from us for a number of reasons, including the way established Christianity frowns upon sexual relationships—including those found within the context of marriage. While the Christian church at large has, on occasion, taken a less-than-healthy attitude toward positive sexual relationships, this assertion is simply wrong. The New Testament book of Hebrews makes it abundantly clear that 'marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled.'

(Hebrews 13:1) Marriage in Christian teaching does not diminish the sanctity of the individual; it rather elevates it.If Jesus had been married (He was, after all, fully human in addition to being fully God), it would not have been a sin. The book of Ephesians—written in the mid-first century—uses marriage as a striking illustration of the sacred relationship of Jesus to His church. Listen to the words of Jesus Himself:And He answered and said to them, 'Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said, For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh? So then they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.' Matthew 19:5, 6How could marriage be considered as defiling when God Himself thought of it?How could marriage be considered as defiling when God Himself thought of it?

And yet Dan Brown insinuates that the early Christian believers had a poor view of it and covered up the 'fact' that Jesus was married. The fact is that Jesus did not marry, and there is not one shred of ancient historical evidence to prove it - in or out of the biblical record. An appeal is made to the ancient Gospel of Philip, which was probably written sometime in the late 3rd century, because of the mention that Mary Magdalene was a 'companion' of Jesus, and that He often kissed her. There are a number of things that I should probably point out: Other gospelsThe gospel of Philip is not an eye-witness account like the four canonical gospels. Even if threads of the genuine story of Jesus can be found in it, it is still a work of fiction. A 'companion' is hardly a spouse. Many people greeted each other with a kiss in Jesus' day—it does not mean it was sexual in nature.

Judas greeted Jesus with a kiss on the night of His betrayal.Just what are these strange 'other gospels' that Dan Brown and others refer to in their attempt to overthrow the traditional understanding of Jesus' life? As Christianity spread in the early centuries, so did problems and distortions of the Christian message. Among these groups were the Gnostics, who adopted a rather incredible version of the story of salvation. They believed that an inferior god—known as the Demiurge—created the material world we live in.

According to their understanding, this was a grave mistake, because a material existence is less than ideal. We should have never been created to live a physical existence in the first place. The mission of Jesus Christ, in Gnostic theology, was to set us free from the prison of the material world and the mistakes of the Creator. They wrote a number of so-called 'gospels' and other books—the vast majority of which were written more than 100 years after the books of the New Testament - to espouse these views. The Gnostic world viewThe gnostic world view is in direct competition with the view presented in both the Old and New Testaments. In opening chapters of Genesis, we are told that creation was 'very good,' and that it was man's rebellion against God that corrupted it.

In the New Testament, we discover that Jesus Himself is the Creator. (See passages like John 1:1-3, Colossians 1:16, 17, Hebrews 1:1-3. So much for the idea that Jesus wasn't understood to be divine by Christian believers until the fourth century!)He came to set us free from the consequences of our rebellion against the Creator through His sacrificial death at the cross, not from the physical, material world.

In fact, the Bible clearly indicates that we will eventually be restored to a newly-created world for all eternity once the effects of sin have been eradicated. (See Isaiah 65:17-25, Revelation 21-22)What is particularly interesting is the appeal to the ancient Gnostics to both elevate the status of women and endorse sexuality that seems to permeate The Da Vinci Code. In reality, the Gnostics spurned the physical world (including sexual relationships), and demeaned women to a degree that would have been unimaginable for the early Christian church. Take, for example, this saying taken from number 114 from the gospel of Thomas:Simon Peter said to him, 'Let Mary leave us, for women are not worthy of life.' Jesus said, 'I myself shall lead her in order to make her male, so that she too may become a living spirit resembling you males. For every woman who will make herself male will enter the kingdom of heaven.' It is hardly a ringing endorsement on the value of womanhood.

In other Gnostic writings found at Nad Hammadi, Jesus warns his disciples to pray somewhere that women are absent and to destroy the 'works of womanhood.' The appeal to Gnostic writings to elevate the 'sacred feminine' is strange indeed, given the anti-female tone found in many of them. In the New Testament Gospels, you will never find a statement from Jesus that demeans women.

Gnostic gospels: not good newsAs accomplished New Testament scholar Ben Witherington III points out, the Gnostic gospels really can't be called gospels at all:The term gospel ('Good News') is not just a Christian term, but rather one that was already in use in the Greco-Roman world.' .the term gospel ('Good News') is not just a Christian term, but rather one that was already in use in the Greco-Roman world before the canonical gospels were written.

Because the ancient world didn't have a free market economy, public gifts from higher-status persons were what greased the wheels of society and commerce. Emperors were lauded for their good deeds of benefaction and their triumphs in wars. The 'gospel' was good news about actions taken on behalf of the people by the emperor (or another wealthy person). The benefactors weren't in the main, praised for their great philosophical or wise utterances.When early Christians picked up the term gospel, they had in mind the goods news of things Jesus had done, while also including some of his teachings.' (Ben Witherington III, The Gospel Code (Downer's Grove, Ill.: Intervarsity Press, 2004), p. 97)All four of the New Testament gospels drive relentlessly toward the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

His teachings are emphasized, but they inevitably lead us to the cross and what Christ accomplished there in our behalf. They underscore the fact that we cannot save ourselves, so God did something to save us. That is why these four books are gospels—Good News.The gnostic 'gospels,' on the other hand, do not tell the story of God becoming man and giving His life to save sinners. Instead, they present a different Jesus, one who speaks in mysterious riddles and vague philosophical sayings. This is because the Gnostics, far from being more pluralistic and accepting than the early Christians, were terrible elitists who believed that only people who were mentally capable of achieving hidden mystic knowledge would find salvation.The door was not open to all; others were despised as inferior and unworthy. The Gnostics essentially left you on your own to find salvation. The God who created you, they said, was incompetent and made a terrible blunder when He did it.

If you can't seem to wrap your head around secret knowledge, there is no hope for you. That is not good news. It is not a gospel. The Da Vinci Code: rejection of good newsWhy has The Da Vinci Code struck such a chord with so many people? Why would somebody choose to reject the real good news of Christian belief—the divinity of Christ and His victory over the grave in our behalf? It's hard to tell. Maybe it has something to do with the scandals in the Christian world over the last couple of decades that have rocked the faith of so many people in things they used to count on.

That's possible, but I somehow doubt that is all that's going on.If we accept the Bible as true, it is an admission that the Creator has some claims on our lives.If we accept the Bible as true, it is an admission that the Creator has some claims on our lives. The misunderstanding is that somehow, these claims will enslave us and rob us of the liberty we crave. Nothing could be further from the truth. When you come face to face with Jesus Christ, you will discover that the Bible is reliable and the words of Jesus present both hope and truth. 'If you abide in My word,' said Jesus, 'you are My disciples indeed.

And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.' (John 8:31)What is freedom? For Dan Brown and others, freedom appears to be a release from the claims of the biblical Christ. But in the end, this leaves you with a serious problem that forces you into unimaginable bondage: you have to sort out your sin problem all by yourself. You become a slave to the material world, fighting to escape it with all your might.

That's not freedom. As Jesus stated, 'Whoever commits sin is a slave to sin. And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever.

Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.' (John 8:34)God does not offer us slavery in the New Testament Gospels; He offers us the chance to become sons and daughters of the Most High God. And He offers us this opportunity through what Jesus accomplished at the cross. A conspiracy to hide the truth?Has there been a historical conspiracy to hide the truth?

The Bible describes it well:But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. 2 Corinthians 4:3, 4The Da Vinci Code is a deliberate attempt to keep the truth of the Gospel — the Good News of what Jesus has done for you — out of your hands.There is a cover-up taking place, and The Da Vinci Code, ironically, is part of it. It's a deliberate attempt to keep the truth of the Gospel - the Good News of what Jesus has done for you—out of your hands. The so-called 'light' of The Da Vinci Code, in reality, is a shroud of darkness being thrown over the hope that God wants you to have.So why does Dan Brown feel the need to present an alternate version of Christianity? Why not simply reject the Christian faith all together? Many years ago, the New Testament Scriptures predicted that in the last days, just before Jesus returns, there would be those 'having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!'

(2 Timothy 3:5)There is no question about it: a Jesus who did not die for us and was not divine is an attempt to have a form of Christianity that denies the power behind it. It has been stripped of all hope. This is the real problem with Dan Brown's Jesus. Without the resurrection of God's Son, the grave will be the end for all of us:For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.

If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable. But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead.

For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ's at His coming. 1 Corinthians 15:13-20 A book without hopeIt's hard to imagine someone who is truly delighted in the message of The Da Vinci Code—at least if they understand what Dan Brown is really saying. Where is the hope? Where is the Good News?

Where is God?Our generation is susceptible to the ideas presented in The Da Vinci Code because for most of us, it's been a while since we've looked at what the Bible actually says about Christ and what He did for us. Why not take a fresh look at the biblical gospels and the major themes of the Bible? I think you'll be amazed at how much more meaningful they are for your life than the Jesus of the best-sellers list and the silver screen.- Pastor Shawn Boonstra.