{"id":34,"date":"2009-04-21T10:30:00","date_gmt":"2009-04-21T10:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/kingdomofpriests\/2009\/04\/is-dan-brown-good-for-the-jews.html"},"modified":"2009-04-21T10:30:00","modified_gmt":"2009-04-21T10:30:00","slug":"is-dan-brown-good-for-the-jews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/kingdomofpriests\/2009\/04\/is-dan-brown-good-for-the-jews.html","title":{"rendered":"Is Dan Brown Good for the Jews?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Da Vinci Code<\/span> author is finally coming out on September 15 with his new title, expected to go to press with an initial run of 5 million copies<\/a>. I can’t wait, and I’m entirely serious about that. He’s a fabulous storyteller. Yet a note of warning to my fellow Jews who dismissed Catholic complaints about the earlier book, with its theme of conspiracy theories. It’s about a massive coverup by the Catholic Church of evidence that Jesus sired offspring.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
The new novel, The Lost Symbol<\/span>, was previously titled The Solomon Key<\/span>. Now according to Biblical tradition, Solomon held the key to interpreting the language of animals and plants — whatever exactly that means. (Interestingly, the Quran too picks up this enigmatic bit of midrash, or Biblical interpolation.)<\/div>\n
\n
<\/div>\n
The basis of the tradition is a verse in 1 Kings, customarily translated:<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

And [Solomon] spake of trees, from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall: he spake also of beasts, and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of fishes.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

Somehow I don’t think Dan Brown wrote a novel about\u00a0that<\/span>.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

It seems predictable that the story involves conspiracy theories — as does, indeed, Brown’s other novel that I’ve read,\u00a0Angels & Demons<\/span>, the movie version of which\u00a0appears on May 15<\/a>. This is his bread and butter.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The problem with it is that a culture primed to see conspiracies — and our culture really is primed, and this is far from the only evidence — is never a good thing for Jews. Why? Because\u00a0in conspiracy culture Jews traditionally have figured as the spider at the center of the web<\/a>. Nothing at all about this implicates Brown himself. Repeat 10 times.<\/span> But the phenomenon is still worrisome.\u00a0<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The culture he powerfully encourages — he waters its garden — is nothing to celebrate, whether for Christians or Jews.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Da Vinci Code author is finally coming out on September 15 with his new title, expected to go to press with an initial run of 5 million copies. I can’t wait, and I’m entirely serious about that. He’s a fabulous storyteller. Yet a note of warning to my fellow Jews who dismissed Catholic complaints…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":72,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books-media"],"yoast_head":"\nIs Dan Brown Good for the Jews? - Kingdom of Priests<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/kingdomofpriests\/2009\/04\/is-dan-brown-good-for-the-jews.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is Dan Brown Good for the Jews? - Kingdom of Priests\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Da Vinci Code author is finally coming out on September 15 with his new title, expected to go to press with an initial run of 5 million copies. 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