Truth and Fiction in The Da Vinci Code

A Historian Reveals What We Really Know about
Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and Constantine

Hardcover | $20.00
240 pages | Nov 2004
ISBN13: 9780195181401
ISBN10: 0195181409

Paperback | $12.95
240 pages | Mar 2006
ISBN13: 9780195307139
ISBN10: 0195307135

About the Book • Table of Contents • Reviews • Sample Content

A staggeringly popular work of fiction, Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code has stood atop The New York Times Bestseller List for well over a year, with millions of copies in print. But this fast-paced mystery is unusual in that the author states up front that the historical information in the book is all factually accurate. But is this claim true?

As historian Bart D. Ehrman shows in this informative and witty book, The Da Vinci Code is filled with numerous historical mistakes. Did the ancient church engage in a cover-up to make the man Jesus into a divine figure? Did Emperor Constantine select for the New Testament--from some 80 contending Gospels--the only four Gospels that stressed that Jesus was divine? Was Jesus Christ married to Mary Magdalene? Did the Church suppress Gospels that told the secret of their marriage? Bart Ehrman thoroughly debunks all of these claims. But the book is not merely a laundry list of Brown's misreading of history. Throughout, Ehrman offers a wealth of fascinating background information--all historically accurate--on early Christianity. He describes, for instance, the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls (which are not Christian in content, contrary to The Da Vinci Code); outlines in simple terms how scholars of early Christianity determine which sources are most reliable; and explores the many other Gospels that have been found in the last half century.

Ehrman separates fact from fiction, the historical realities from the flights of literary fancy. Readers of The Da Vinci Code who would like to know the truth about the beginnings of Christianity and the life of Jesus will find this book riveting.

Acknowledgements
Introduction
Part I: The Emporer Constatine, the New Testament, and the Other Gospels
1. The Role of Constatine in Early Christianity
2. The Discoveries of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Nag Hammadi Library
3. The Other Gospels
4. Constatine and the Formation of the New Testament Canon
Part II: Jesus and Mary Magdalene
5. The Historical Sources for Jesus
6. The Historical Jesus of our Sources
7. Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and Marriage
8. The Feminine in Early Christianity
Epilogue
Notes
Index

Reviews

"A very readable treatment of some very difficult themes."

--Publishers Weekly

"No less interesting than the book it is responding to.... An enjoyable and very accessible tour of a complex subject, Truth and Fiction in the Da Vinci Code is a book that fans of Brown's novel will no doubt find just as engaging."

--St Petersburg Times

Sample Content

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• Chapter 7: Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and Marriage

Sample Content

• Ten Factual Errors in The Da Vinci Code

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Truth and Fiction in The Da Vinci Code

A Historian Reveals What We Really Know about Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and Constantine

Table of Contents

Reviews

Sample Content

Sample Content

Buy this Book

A Historian Reveals What We Really Know about
Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and Constantine