Da Vinci Code: Fact or Fiction? Heresy or Irrelevance?

Image courtesy of The Jerusalem Post

For the second time in three years, Hollywood is looking on in suspense as a film connected to the life and crucifixion of Jesus arrives in theaters amidst a global barrage of controversy. The Da Vinci Code, the film adaptation of Dan Brown's massive worldwide bestseller, premieres in theaters across the globe this weekend and opened in Israel on Thursday, with little but promotional trailers and the novel itself available to suggest what the movie might contain.

That, of course, hasn't stopped Catholics and other observant Christians around the world from protesting the new movie, which cost an estimated $125 million and would surprise few show business insiders if it matched the soaring box office totals of The Passion of the Christ, the previous religiously-themed movie to spark rancorous debate with its take on Jesus' last days.

And while Israel has so far been spared the demonstrations and legal protests that have taken place as far away as South Korea and India, interest in the film is running high, despite the country's Jewish-majority population. Brown's 2003 novel has topped local bestseller charts in both Hebrew and English, indicating that Israel has done its part in contributing to the book's phenomenal international sales, which, according to the author's website, have now topped 60 million copies. Fact or fiction?

And then this:

With less than two weeks before the release of the Sony Pictures version of Dan Brown's megaselling The Da Vinci Code, worries continue to mount among traditional Christians about both the book's and the movie's impact. But should non-Christians be concerned?

Yes, we should. Jews in particular need to be aware of the gift Dan Brown has given, in all innocence, to anti-Semites.

As everyone knows by now, Brown uses a gripping suspense story set in the present to inform us that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene, and that he has descendants living in Europe today. Furthermore, the members of this surviving Jesus family have been protected for centuries by an altruistic secret organization, the Priory of Sion, which is locked in combat with a sinister, violent Catholic group, Opus Dei.

That latter seeks to keep the secret of Jesus' paternity from getting out. Behind Opus Dei stands the Catholic Church. For millennia, the church has perpetrated what the film calls "the biggest cover-up in human history." Should non-Christians be concerned?

Mark Alexander