A 'Da Vinci Code' Study Guide

Use this resource to help clarify your thoughts and focus discussion about the book and movie.

BY: Richard Smoley

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Are you confused about "The Da Vinci Code" and the strong reactions it's received from both supporters and detractors? You're not alone. No novel sells 50 million copies without hitting some kind of nerve in the popular imagination. The following Study Guide is intended to help spur personal thought and group discussion about the many spiritual issues raised in "The Da Vinci Code." It was created by Richard Smoley, who has more than 25 years of experience studying and practicing the Western mystical tradition.

Why Is "The Da Vinci Code" So Compelling?

The key probably lies in the secrets it mentions--a strange alternative history of the last 2,000 years, starting with the claim that Jesus Christ was married to Mary Magdalene.

Points to Consider:

• According to the novel, Jesus’ and Mary Magdalene’s descendants included the Merovingians, dynastic rulers who led what is now France from the fifth to the eighth centuries C.E. This theory holds that even after the Merovingians fell from power, the sacred bloodline survived. That would mean descendants of Jesus could be alive today.

• This sacred bloodline was known as the sang réal, meaning “royal blood” in Old French, according to"The Da Vinci Code." Later it became known as the Sangreal, which later produced its English equivalent, the “Holy Grail.” Although the Holy Grail is usually imagined as the cup that Christ used at the Last Supper, according to Brown’s novel, the real Grail is actually this “royal blood,” this sacred bloodline.

• Old legends in Europe say the couple did have children, who were eventually brought either to France or England (the versions differ). But these are legends, and there isn’t much, if any, documentation to prove they are true.

For More Information:
• "The Da Vinci Code"--Faith, Doubt, and the Search for Truth: Beliefnet's full "Da Vinci" coverage

• "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" (New York: Dell, 1983), by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln, inspired many of the ideas in "The Da Vinci Code." Baigent and Leigh recently sued Brown for plagiarism in an unsuccessful but highly publicized case. A good discussion of why the suit lost can be found on the website Out-Law.com.

• John Matthews’ "Sources of the Grail" (Hudson, N.Y.: Lindisfarne, 1998) is the best single-volume collection of the original Grail texts, which date from the Middle Ages. (The texts don’t talk about a sacred bloodline, though.

Questions to Ponder:

• Do you find "The Da Vinci Code" compelling? If so, why?

• Do you believe that the Grail could have been a sacred bloodline

• Would it change your beliefs to know that Jesus had surviving descendants?

How Many of The Claims in the Story Are True?
There are a lot assertions presented as fact in the novel. A number of these can be verified. But the theories in it are extremely speculative. The evidence for these theories is not very strong.

Points to Consider:

• "The Da Vinci Code" is a novel. Brown would have been within his rights to make up everything in it.

• Most of the novel’s theories are considered by mainstream scholars to fall into the category of “fringe” or “alternative” history--popular accounts of mysteries in the past that are based on highly circumstantial evidence. Very few scholars take these theories seriously.

• Brown himself has said, “The documents, rituals, organization, artwork, and architecture in the novel all exist,” but he goes on to say that he makes no claim to advocate “any of the ancient theories discussed by fictional characters. Interpreting those ideas is left to the reader.”

For More Information:

• Watch an exclusive Beliefnet video, "Demystifying 'Da Vinci'": www.beliefnet.com/templechurch

• Brown’s views can be found on his Web site: http://www.danbrown.com.

• A good online source on alternative Christianity is the Gnosis Archive: www.webcom.com/gnosis/.

Questions to Ponder:

• Do you think the theories in "The Da Vinci Code" are valid?

• Does "The Da Vinci Code" misinform the public, as some of its critics allege?

• If the novel’s theories are true, do they threaten the hierarchy of the Christian Church as it exists today?

Was Jesus Married to Mary Magdalene?

The evidence that they were married is very slim. The Bible doesn’t say whether Jesus was married or not. The evidence that Jesus and Mary Magdalene had offspring is even slimmer.

Points to Consider:

• There is an apocryphal text--that is, one that didn’t make it into the Bible--called the Gospel of Philip. It says Jesus was very fond of Mary Magdalene and used to kiss her often. The other disciples complained, “Why do you love her more than all of us?” According to the Gospel, Jesus replied, “Why do I not love you like her?” (The answer would presumably be obvious.)

• The Gospel of Philip is a late work. It was probably written 200 years after Jesus’ life. Most scholars don’t attach much value to it as a historical source.

For More Information:

• Were Jesus and Mary Magdalene Married? A Beliefnet Scholarly Smackdown

• "The Nag Hammadi Library in English" (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1977), edited by James M. Robinson, contains the Gospel of Philip as well as an extremely brief Gospel of Mary Magdalene.

• Rosamonde Miller, a Gnostic bishop in California, belongs to an order that traces its origins back to Mary Magdalene and has only recently gone public: http://www.gnosticsanctuary.org.

Questions to Ponder:

• If Jesus was married, do you think the Bible would have mentioned it?

• Would it affect your faith if you learned that Jesus was married?

• What authority should alternative sources--such as Gospels that didn’t make it into the Bible--have on matters of faith?

So Who Was Mary Magdalene Really?

The earliest evidence suggests that she was a disciple of Christ’s who enjoyed very high status in early Christianity.

Points to Consider:

• The Gospels describe Mary Magdalene as the first person to learn that Jesus had risen from the dead, so she was sometimes known as “the Apostle to the Apostles.”

• Some of the earliest Christian texts describe Mary Magdalene as having a status that was equal, if not superior to, the Twelve Apostles.

• Some scholars say that as men began to dominate the church hierarchy, and women were relegated to second place, the figure of Mary Magdalene was also pushed into the background.

• In medieval times, Mary Magdalene was equated with the woman taken in adultery whom Jesus saves from stoning (John 8:1–11), and Christian legend and art began to depict her as a repentant whore.

• The Gospels themselves give no reason to connect Mary Magdalene with the woman taken in adultery.

For More Information:

• Mary Magdalene & the Feminine Divine, an audio slide show and other features.

• The best book on Mary Magdalene and her role in history is probably Susan Haskins’s "Mary Magdalene: Myth and Metaphor" (New York: Riverhead, 1995).

• A more spiritual outlook can be found in Siobhán Houston’s book, "Invoking Mary Magdalene: Accessing the Wisdom of the Divine Feminine" (Boulder, Colo.: Sounds True, 2006).

Questions to Ponder:

• Who do you think Mary Magdalene really was?

• Do you believe that today it’s possible to have a spiritual connection with her?

• Do you feel that men and women should have equal status in religion?

Continued on page 2: Gnosticism & the Holy Grail »

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Richard Smoley is the author of many books, including 'Inner Christianity,' 'Hidden Wisdom' (coauthored with Jay Kinney), and 'Forbidden Faith: The Gnostic Legacy from the Gospels to The Da Vinci Code. His Web site is www.innerchristianity.com.