Articles of Interest

Dan Brown was asked by host Matt Lauer. "How much of this (book)is based
on reality in terms of things that actually happened?" Brown emphatically
replied, "Absolutely all of it...is historical fact." NBC Today -
October 10, 1005.

1. Fiction: The Priory of Sion is an ancient group charged with protecting
the secret of the real Holy Grail, and Leonardo da Vinci was a Grand Master
of the Prior of Sion.

Fact: The Priory of Sion was established in 1956 by a crackpot Frenchman
who was exposed as a fraud in the media in the 1980's. The documents claiming
Leonardo's role were forged and planted in French archives in the 1960's. Since
there was no Priory of Sion in the way that the Da Vinci Code describes it, Leonardo
couldn't have been a part of it.

2. Fiction: Politics determined what Gospels made it into the Bible.

Fact: By the mid-second century, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were widely
accepted as the foundational texts of Christianity. The criteria had nothing to do with gender
or power. It was all about whether they reflected the witness of the apostles about Jesus,
how old they were, and how useful they were for the entire church, instead of just a small group.

3. Fiction: Constantine invented the divinity of Christ in AD 325.

Fact: Even a cursory look at textual evidence shows that Christians
worshipped Jesus as Lord long before Constantine's reign. The Council of Nicaea
was called to address a heresy called Arianism, which taught that Jesus wasn't fully divine.

4. Fiction: Jesus and Maray Magdelene were married.

Fact: The Gospels are all very forthright about Jesus' familial
relations, and they don't hide the existence of Mary Magdalene, either.
If they had been married, there would have been no reason to hide the fact.

5. Fiction: Mary Magdalene is in Leonardo's Last Supper painting.

Fact: There are only 13 people in the painting (Jesus plus the 12 disciples).
Leonardo himself indicates in his notations that the youthful
Renaissance portrayal is the Apostle John, not Mary.

(Adapted from the article by Amy Welborn, USA Today, May 15, 2006)