While Dan Brown makes it clear in The Da Vinci Code that the novel is historical fiction, on the first page, Brown claims: “All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate.†With such an introduction, one can see why confusion among readers easily results when Brown has one fictional authority say things such as: “More than...
more While Dan Brown makes it clear in The Da Vinci Code that the novel is historical fiction, on the first page, Brown claims: “All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate.†With such an introduction, one can see why confusion among readers easily results when Brown has one fictional authority say things such as: “More than eighty gospels were considered for the New Testament, and yet only a relatively few were chosen for inclusion.†and several pages later adds: “The earlier gospels were outlawed, gathered up, and burned.†These and many other glaring historical inaccuracies resulted in popular author and Chair of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina, Bart Ehrman, writing Truth and Fiction in The Da Vinci Code (TAFITDVC) upon the urging of his editor at Oxford University Press.
Ehrman is no longer an evangelical Christian. He grew up in the Episcopal Church, attended Moody Bible Institute, and Wheaton College, before journeying to Princeton Theological Seminary and undertaking studies in textual criticism. He has a rapidly growing corpus of his own filled with provocative titles. As such, what he writes in TAFITDVC will likely be read by many as well, and, one wonders how this book relates to his other writings. Does his endeavor to clarify misinformation end up subverting his previous statements? I submit that he simplifies more than undermines his other writings in TAFITDVC. But, Ehrman also shows or suggests a thing or two about how he does history (and writes), and these have beneficial implications upon how Christians should think about the Bible’s canonicity, and their confidence as they come to interpret what they read, even after reading Ehrman
Ehrman’s answer to The Da Vinci Code is worth reading. The nature of “other gospels†is clarified. Historical inaccuracies are enumerated. The Gospels we have in the NT canon are to be held up as without peer, and so we should be confident in reading them as a whole. But, TAFITDV must be taken with a large grain of salt. What truly happened is not always novel.
Reading TAFITDVC, however, one finds little that Ehrman does not state elsewhere - in his numerous previous books. Nonetheless, because he is attempting a straightforward refutation of some of Brown’s error in The Da Vinci Code, Ehrman ends up simplifying what he scatters amongst his numerous texts. Function forces form.
Evangelicals should be ready to give consideration to the questions being asked by the readers of Dan Brown, TAFITDV, and Bart Ehrman’s other works. Earnest inquiry should be welcomed, and interpretation should be done carefully, especially in light of greater awareness of text critical issues. But, there are answers, and Christians can be confident in the entire canon.
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