Kenneth Bailey Resource on The Da Vinci Code

When Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ was released in 2004, many in the church community prophesied worldwide revival. Critics predicted increased persecution of Jews by Christians. Here we are two years later, and what has actually happened? As we look back to that time, the word that comes to mind is hyperbole…with a capital "H."

With just twenty-four days until The Da Vinci Code opens in theaters, some of that same hyperbolic frenzy has emerged. Dan Brown's book has spawned an entire cottage industry of resources designed to help us make sense of the book and the upcoming movie. Debate and dialog about the story will only increase over the coming weeks. Not everyone who would like to will have hours to spend getting up to speed on the issues. So today, I want to nominate my favorite resource for learning all you need to know in one short hour.

Kenneth E. Bailey, Th.D., renowned author and lecturer in New Testament studies, produced a DVD last year called Decoding the Da Vinci Code: Historical Reality vs. Murder Mystery Mythology. Bailey gives a lecture that engages Brown's book from a scholarly perspective. It is unnecessary to read Brown's book to get a great deal out of this presentation, which is highly accessible to the general public.

While hardly a hyperventilating alarmist, Bailey does not see Brown's book as entirely benign. Bailey invites us to imagine a novel accusing Jews (or another religion) of falsifying their sacred texts and developing a secret society that hunts down and kills anyone who dares to expose them. The howls of outrage would be deafening, but it is deemed great entertainment when the subject is Christianity. Bailey suspects that much of what drives interest in the novel is what he calls the "Gnostic heretical itch," the desire to have secret knowledge to which only a select few have access.

I think most disturbing to Bailey is Brown's blurring of fact and fiction in this story leaving the impression that Brown's description of scholarly research is true. Yes, the book is fiction and clearly identified as such. Yet, at the front of the book, Brown has a page identifying what is factual. The last sentence states:

“All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate.” (my emphasis)

I think it is this that Bailey primarily takes issue with. He gives anecdotal evidence of the problems these claims have already made in the general public's mind. Personally, I think this provides a wonderful opportunity for discussion about Scripture, but that, of course, presumes we can be conversant on the topic. I think Bailey's presentation helps us do just that.

Bailey walks us through the formation of the gospels, bringing insight that few others can about the New Testament culture as it relates to the formation of Scripture. He explains that Jesus would have communicated his teachings orally as a rabbi. It was a conscious decision not to write them down. As soon as teachings were written down, they were out of the hands of the rabbi, and writers could alter them with no rebuttal from the rabbi. Limiting the transmission to oral communication, where disciples memorized and recited the teachings to each other in community, gave the rabbi and his students control over the preservation of the teachings. Only when the church began to expand rapidly, and the apostles were fading from the scene, was there a felt need to put the teachings in writing.

Bailey also lays out his theory about how the gospel of Luke was written. He references the first four verses of the book of Luke, where Luke wrote:

Since many have undertaken to set down an orderly account of the events that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed on to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word, I too decided, after investigating everything carefully from the very first, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the truth concerning the things about which you have been instructed. (NRSV)

When and where did Luke have the opportunity to examine other sources and confer with eyewitnesses? Bailey notes the "we" passages in the book of Acts, Luke's second volume, continuing the storyline from his gospel account. Luke frequently writes in Acts that "we" went here and there, but in other passages, he refers to Paul and his companions as "he" and "they" went here and there. Bailey believes that Luke is being very literal here. He notes that "we" arrive in Jerusalem in Acts 21:17-18. But then Paul is taken to Caesarea and imprisoned for two years. The "we" disappears from the description of events until Acts 27:1, when "we" set sail for Italy. Bailey believes that Luke wrote his gospel, or at least a first edition, during these two years. Acts obviously would have been written later. This two-year period would have been in the late 50s C.E., less than thirty years since Jesus died. Eyewitnesses to the events of Jesus' life would have still been numerous. What written sources existed would have been easily accessible. Furthermore, the eyewitnesses would have been looking over Luke's shoulder to either confirm or discredit Luke's presentation.

From here, Bailey turns to events that unfolded up to the time of Constantine and their impact on the formation of Scripture. All but maybe a half dozen books (2 and 3 John, 2 Peter, Hebrews, Jude, Revelation) were recognized as authoritative. These other books were included not long after Constantine's departure. Constantine had nothing to do with forming the canon or manufacturing a "myth" about Jesus' divinity.

Bailey goes on to address several other issues raised by The Da Vinci Code but closes, noting that the Gnostic literature has hardly been suppressed from the public. The "secret" documents in Brown's book have been available in print to the general public for at least one hundred years, and new finds have been widely studied and discussed throughout the church. There is no conspiracy or cover-up.

I have only touched on a few of the interesting details from the presentation. There is much more. The DVD presentation contains no flashy special effects or computer animations. It is merely a recording of Dr. Bailey seated in front of a camera, conversing with the viewers. Bailey's style is always engaging, and his presentation of complex subject matter is easily accessible to the general public. I highly recommend it if you want to quickly get at the essential elements of the controversy surrounding The Da Vinci Code from a scholarly perspective. At $15, it is a steal.

(To order a copy, click here.)

Comments

[Quotidian Grace]

I love Bailey's expression, "the Gnostic heretical itch"! Must be the same itching that St. Paul worried would afflict the ears of the faithful as they tired of sound teachings and wanted to wander into myths.

[Michael Kruse]

Yup! And it seems there is an awful lot of scratching going on these days. *grin*