Mystery and suspense, secrecy and conspiracy, and murder.
And it’s
fiction, right? I mean, we certainly can’t rely on Dan Brown/Ron Howard when it
comes to third and fourth century history, can we?
Most of these gnostic writings were written in the second and third centuries
while all four gospels in the New Testament date from 45-95 AD, depending on
which gospel you are talking about.
While the Da Vinci Code
maintains that these gnostic writings presented a mortal Jesus, the fact is
gnostics typically portrayed Jesus not as a man, but as a phantom-like
super-spiritual being. He did not feel pain, or hunger – he did not have
any feelings, or passions, and he certainly would not have
indulged in sexual relations. This view of Jesus was common and is referred to
by scholars as docetism. Many Christian writers in the second and third
centuries argue against this view.
While the gnostic texts typically
over-emphasized the heavenly, or spiritual nature of Jesus, the early church
certainly believed that Jesus was more than mortal. From Paul’s text which
states that “though he was in his very nature God, he lowered himself and took
on the form of a servant,” to the famous declaration of Thomas to the risen
Jesus, “My Lord and my God.” For those who try to claim that we are
misrepresenting these first century documents, we have Ignatius of Antioch (cir.
107-120 AD),
“There is one Physician who is possessed both of flesh and
spirit; both made and not made; God existing in flesh; true life in death; both
of Mary and of God; first possible and then impossible, even Jesus Christ our
Lord.” (Ephesians 7)
So we have a very early, nonbiblical witness agreeing
with the New Testament.
But how can we trust the New Testament if Constantine had such political
motivations for putting it together? First, there is not one single historical
document that makes this claim – not even the gnostic writings! We have three
ancient writers who tell us about the Council of Nicaea and none of them report
any discussion about the selection of New Testament documents.
The New Testament was not finalized with a vote, it was not
found in a clay jar like the Dead Sea Scrolls. The documents that became the New
Testament were all written before the end of the first century. Most were
embraced as inspired apostolic writings right away. As early as the second
century we read writers like Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Tertullian and Clement of
Alexandria quoting most of these apostolic writings as “the scriptures.”
Probably 90-95% of the New Testament can be reconstructed from the quotations of
these four early writers. These writers do not have 100% agreement on which
documents are “inspired,” but by 250 AD Christian writers are much more in
agreement, and by 300 AD the agreement is almost complete. The agreement on
which documents were included was a dynamic evolution – it was more about
“lesser” documents gradually being dropped than a dogmatic insistence on the
“right” documents. Were documents ever collected and burned to suppress their
influence? Yes, from time to time this happened, but never in the measured,
systematic, and global fashion that it stated in the Da Vinci Code. The
Roman Empire was unable to stamp out Christianity and the idea that the early
Christian Church could systematically stamp out gnosticism is an overly
simplistic and naive notion. Did the winners write Christian history as
Teabing stated? Yes. Did the early Christian writers expunge all contrary
opinion and thus re-write the history? If they did, there is no clear
historical evidence for it – they did an unbelievably thorough job of it. Even
the Nag Hammadi texts cannot be used to prove this conspiracy theory.
So
in the end, what can we believe?
The clear historical evidence is that the
New Testament accounts are the most reliable documents we have concerning the
life, death, and resurrection of the human figure known as Jesus of
Nazareth.
Whether or not you believe that Jesus was resurrected from the
dead, ascended into heaven, and declared both Lord and God remains a matter of
faith. It cannot be proven scientifically, but neither can it be proven false.
It can, however, be proven through experience. Millions of people living
in every nation of the world have experienced the reality of this faith.
You can know the forgiveness of sins.
You can know this resurrected
Jesus
R.A. Baker
Ph.D. Ecclesiastical History
The Da Vinci Code: Fact,
Fiction, or Faith?