church afraid of female
leaders? How intimate was
she with Jesus? Does the
debate over the child obscure
a more profound role for
Mary in the future of
Christianity? "Most people
who read The Da Vinci
Code have no way of
separating historical fact
from literary fiction," says
Bart Ehrman, chairman of the
religious studies department
at the University of North
Carolina and author of Truth
and Fiction in the Da Vinci
Code.
Celibate. Take the book's
notion that Jesus had to be
married because celibacy was
condemned according to
Jewish custom. The Essenes,
a sect that shared Jesus's
expectation of an apocalypse,
were unmarried, celibate
men, Ehrman points out.
Furthermore, there is no
mention of Jesus's wife in the
Bible or in any ancient
sources.
Joy feelings magazine
The book's main character,
Leigh Teabing, says the
Gnostic Gospel of Philip calls
Mary a "companion" or
spouse to Jesus. But the
Greek word the Gospel
uses, koinônos, means simply
friend or associate, Ehrman
says. The text says Jesus
kisses Mary, but Jesus kissed
all his disciples; the gesture
was not considered
sexual. Still, the Gospel of
Philip does not completely
dispel the possibility that
Jesus and Mary had a sexual
relationship, says theologian
Bruce Chilton.
Ehrman also disputes the
novel's claim that Jesus
intended for Mary
Magdalene, not Peter, to lead
the church: In the secondcentury Gospel of Mary,
supposedly the source of
these instructions, Jesus
discusses the soul's salvation,
Ehrman says, not who will
guide his mission. Indeed, in
another Gnostic text, the
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