The Da Vinci Code: Who Was Mary Magdalene Series

WHO WAS MARY MAGDALENE?

Beyond The Da Vinci Code – Part 8

Tonight we’re in part eight of our series Beyond The Da Vinci Code and the question that we’re going to tackle is Who was Mary Magdalene?

I. QUOTES FROM THE CODE

As you know if you’ve read the book, Mary Magdalene is central to Dan Brown’s conspiracy theory. (has her own website: www.belovedDisciple.org)

According to the book, the Holy Grail was never a cup, it was not a chalice that Jesus passed around the table at the Last Supper nor was it the cup that caught the blood of Christ at the Cross as Grail Legend would have it. Instead, according to the Da Vinci Code, the Holy Grail was a person, but not just any person, as Dan Brown notes, the Holy Grail is…

"A woman who carried with her a secret so powerful, that if revealed, it threatened to devastate the very foundation of Christianity!" 239.

Apparently, this woman had a secret that if allowed to get out would be the downfall of Christianity.

Who was this woman you ask and what was her secret?

Well, according to the book, this woman was Mary Magdalene and her secret was that she and Jesus were married and had a daughter by the name of Sarah.

So, the Holy Grail was not a cup that held the blood of Christ, instead it was Mary Magdalene who held the blood of Christ in the form of a baby in her womb.

Now, the book claims that the marriage between Jesus and Mary is "a matter of historical record", and Da Vinci was certainly aware of that fact. The Last Supper [painting] practically shouts at the viewer that Jesus and Magdalene were a pair." 244

SHOW PICTURE OF THE LAST SUPPER

Dan Brown is convinced that the person sitting to Jesus’ right is not the Apostle John as we’ve been led to believe and who almost every Art historian believes as well, but in fact Mary Magdalene. But not only that, when you look at the painting, you see that Jesus and Mary have a space between them that forms the shape of a "V".

This "V" shape is an ancient pagan symbol representing the sacred feminine. This sacred feminine is basically the female side of God, but we’ll get to that, in two weeks when we talk about whether or not Christianity borrowed pagan symbols and practices. Oh yea, Dan Brown says that Christianity is not a new religion, it’s just a collection of different pagan religions that were fused together to make what only appeared to be a new religion.

So, in the painting you see this "V" shape as well as another important letter, the letter "M"…do you feel like you’re watching Sesame Street yet?

"Frontline is sponsored tonight by the letter "V" and the letter "M".

Leigh Teabing, a former British Royal Historian and religious historian (216) is one of the main characters in the book and he says to Sophie who is the main woman character:

"’…if you view Jesus and Magdalene as compositional elements rather than as people, you will see another obvious shape leap out at you.’

Sophie saw it at once. To say the letter leapt out at her was an understatement. The letter was suddenly all Sophie could see. Glaring in the center of the painting was the unquestionable outline of an enormous, flawlessly formed letter "M".

’A bit too perfect for coincidence, wouldn’t you say?’ Teabing asked. Sophie was amazed. ’Why is it there?’ Teabing shrugged. ’Conspiracy theorists will tell you it stands for Matrimonio or Mary Magdalene. To be honest, nobody is certain. The only certainty is that the hidden M is no mistake.’" 243-45

The implication of course is that Leonardo Da Vinci knew of the secret marriage and clearly revealed it in his painting of "The Last Supper". (236)

The book also concludes that the proof of their marriage is a "matter of historical record" as well as the fact that Jesus couldn’t have been a bachelor because He was a Jew:

Teabing says: "…the social decorum during that time virtually forbids a Jewish man to be unmarried. According to Jewish custom, celibacy was condemned, and the obligation for a Jewish father was to find a suitable wife for his son. If Jesus were not married, at least one of the Bible’s gospels would have mentioned it and offered some explanation for His unnatural state of bachelorhood." 245

Now the question is what historical records is Teabing referring to that record this marriage of Jesus and Mary? Answer, the documents found at Nag Hammadi that we know as the Gnostic Gospels.

Teabing says that these Nag Hammadi documents are:

"…the earliest Christian records" 245

And that they "do not match up with the gospels in the Bible" 245-246