There have been widespread criticisms of the book reflecting antiquated Protestant calumnies against Catholicism (for example, on the BBC's Sunday program on 24 July 2005), or more general anticlerical traditions. On 15 March 2005, Tarcisio Cardinal Bertone, Archbishop of Genoa and former second-in-command of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, castigated the book and those who sell it on grounds of anti-Catholic bias, calling it "a throwback to the old anti-clerical pamphlets of the 1800s," and a "gross and absurd" distortion of history, full of "cheap lies." The Archbishop also objected to the book's portrayal of the Opus Dei, the Roman Catholic prelature.

On Easter Sunday, 2006, the Archbishop of Canterbury also attacked the book in his Easter sermon, asserting that the Bible was not compiled as a conspiracy to hide the truth, but was inspired by God. In May 2006, the primary topic on the televised religious program The Coral Ridge Hour was The Da Vinci Code, with the host repeatedly referring to Brown and his work as "deceptive". And brochures entitled, "The Da Vinci Code: A Catholic Response", have been distributed in Catholic churches, to address the facts & fiction of the book and movie.

History of Jesus

In the story, the "Holy Grail" is not a chalice, but rather a bloodline sprung from the union of Jesus and Mary Magdalene. This idea is not original to Brown; it was previously hypothesised by others, including Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh in their nonfiction 1982 book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail. The claim has been characterized by many textual and historical scholars as unevidenced and unlikely. (Burstein, 2004)

According to the story, prior to AD 325, Christ was considered no more than a "mortal prophet" by his followers, and it was only as a consequence of Emperor Constantine's politicking and a close vote at the First Council of Nicaea that Christianity came to view him as divine. This has been debated by various authors with extensive reference to the Bible and the Church Fathers, sources that pre-date the First Council of Nicaea (see also The Church in Crisis: A History of the General Councils, 325–1870 (1964) by Philip Hughes). According to these sources, at the Council, the central question was whether Christ and God were homoousios, "of the same substance", and thus one — or whether instead Christ was homoiousios, "of a similar substance", and thus the first created being, inferior to the Father, but still superior to all other beings (see Arianism). The vote was 316 to 2.

In the story, a character claims that the label "heretic" was used only after the Nicene Council, in order to persecute gnostics. In fact, Irenaeus used the term "heresy" to label Gnostic teachings in the second century, long before the church had any political power to persecute anyone.

The "sacred feminine" and Mary Magdalene

Characters in the book claim that "the sacred feminine" has been suppressed by Christianity. However, the Catholic and Orthodox Churches give special veneration to Mary, the mother of Jesus. Catholicism calls her the "Mother of God", in the sense that she bore God (Jesus) in her womb and gave birth to him. This is echoed by the title "God-bearer" (Theotokos) in Orthodox teaching. Catholicism also holds her to be free of Original Sin, and both churches teach that her body, along with her soul, entered Heaven at the end of her earthly life (see Assumption and Dormition).

While one interpretation of the Gospels suggests that Jesus did not accord her any privileges and treated her with a seeming indifference, he also tells the beloved disciple to watch over and care for her as he would his own mother, as he hangs from the cross. It is also pointed out that at the wedding feast of Cana, Jesus obeys Mary when he performs the miracle of turning water into wine before his official ministry begins. It is also worth mentioning that according to the Gospels, women were the first to hear of Christ resurrected, as opposed to men.

Historians have also disputed the claim that Mary Magdalene was of the tribe of Benjamin. There is no mention of this in the Bible or in any other ancient sources. The fact that Magdala was located in northern Israel, whereas the tribe of Benjamin resided in the south, weighs against it. Furthermore, Paul was a Benjamite but makes no mention of this supposed marriage.

In chapter 58 it is suggested that the marriage of Jesus and Mary Magdalene created a "potent political union with the potential of making a legitimate claim to the throne". This idea comes from a fundmental misunderstanding of the dynatic relations within ancient Israel. While the first King of Israel and Judah, according to 1st Samuel, was indeed Saul of the tribe of Benjamin, both he and his son and heir, Jonathan, were killed at Mt. Gilboa by the Phillistines (1st Samuel 31). After Saul, the kingship passed to David of the tribe of Judah, and the kingship of the southern kingdom of Judah remained within the house of David until the Babylonian Captivity. In the northern kingdom of Israel, a new dynasty was established by Jeroboam of the tribe of Ephraim aftrthe death of David's son, Solomon(1 Kings 14). While the northern kingdom passed through several dynasties, never again did the tribe of Benjamin hold the kingship in either Israel or Judah. If the genaeology of Matthew 1 is to be believed, Jesus would already have had a claim to the throne of Israel through his ties to the house of David; a marriage with one of the tribe of Benjamin would not have strengthened this claim, as the original Benjamite king, Saul, had left no direct heirs through which the title could have been claimed by a Benjamite successor, nor would membership within the tribe of Benjamin afford any dynastic claims, nor would these claims pass down to Mary Magdalene, as authority within Jewish household would pass through the firstborn son.

Characters in the book also claim that Mary Magdalene was labeled a prostitute by the Church. Pope Gregory I did make a connection between figures mentioned in the Gospel of Luke, chapters 7 and 8, one of whom is Mary Magdalene, described as a victim of demonic possession: "Mary who is called Magdalene, out of whom seven devils were gone forth" (Luke 8:2). Gregory equated her with Mary of Bethany and an unnamed female "sinner". Later, Mary was also equated with the "woman taken in adultery" in the Gospel of John, increasingly connecting Mary with sexual sins.

It is true that Catholic tradition has tended to defend these integrations in contrast to other Christian traditions (see the Catholic Encyclopedia), but there is no evidence that Catholic officials introduced this identification to defame Mary, who is considered a saint. However the "promotion" of adultery into prostitution arises from Mary's role as patron saint of repentant sinful women. The euphemistic term "magdalen" has been used to refer to repentant prostitutes because of this (see Magdalen Asylum), becoming attached to Mary herself.

The contention that Mary Magdelene is depicted sitting next to Jesus in Leonardo's famous "Last Supper" is disputed by virtually all art historians. Since there are twelve disciples (including Judas), one would have to be missing for Mary to be present. The figure to the left of Christ, wearing blue and red, is usually identified as St. John, who was customarily depicted in the Renaissance period as a beardless, often effeminate-looking youth. Some speculators, before and after Brown, have entertained the idea that John was depicted in this way to hint that he was Mary Magdalene, but this is a decidedly minority view.

Most other depictions of the Last Supper also present a very young St. John, as it was traditionally believed that he was identical with the Evangelist of the same name. He is usually seated next to Jesus because he was also identified to be the disciple whom Jesus loved. The "femininity" of the figure can be attributed to Leonardo's artistic training in a workshop of the Florentine School. The Florentine School had a long tradition of often depicting young males as sweet, pretty, rather effeminate persons.

Brown points out the absence of the traditional chalice (the "Holy Grail") in the painting as proof that Leonardo considered Mary Magdalene the "real" Grail. Jesus's left hand is pointing to bread and his right to a unadorned cup, of which there are many in the painting. However, the painting was intended to portray a scene from the Gospel of John, depicting the moment where Jesus tells the Apostles that one of them is going to betray him, not the blessing of the bread and wine.

Opus Dei

The depiction of Opus Dei as a monastic order which is the Pope's "personal prelature" is inaccurate. In fact, there are no monks in Opus Dei, which has primarily lay membership and whose celibate lay members are called numeraries. Moreover, Opus Dei encourages its lay members to avoid practices that are perceived as fundamentalist to the outside world.. The term personal prelature does not refer to a special relationship to the Pope; it means an institution in which the jurisdiction of the prelate is not linked to a territory but over persons, wherever they be. However, some members of Opus Dei do practice voluntary mortification of the flesh, as has been a Christian tradition since at least St. Anthony in the 3rd century and has also been practised by Mother Teresa, Padre Pio and slain archbishop Óscar Romero.

Early Israelites

While a character in the book claims that the early Israelites worshipped the goddess Shekinah as the equal to Yahweh, in fact, the term Shekinah (derived from Hebrew for "dwelling") does not appear in early Judaism at all, but was used in later Talmudic Judaism to refer to the "dwelling", or presence of God among his people. The term is used to describe a spiritual radiance.

It is also suggested that the term Jehovah is an androgynous physical union between the masculine Jah and the pre-Hebraic name of Eve, Havah. YHWH (sometimes rendered Yahweh) is an ancient name while Jehovah is a medieval coinage created by inserting the vowels of Adonai into Yahweh. Neither name has any connection to the name of Eve. It is generally believed that the four Hebrew letters that forms the Tetragrammaton (Yud, Hay, Vav, Hay) represent the tenses of the Hebrew word for to be – Quoting Exodus 3:14–15 (KJV), "And God said unto Moses, "I am that I am [...]". Actually, the phrase in Hebrew is "eh-yeh asher eh-yeh", which in English translation would be "I will be who (or what or that) I will be" as well as "I am who (or what or that) I am." Therefore, The Verb emphasizes God's absolute being.

The Vatican

In the story, it is repeatedly said that the Vatican was the center of power in the early Catholic Church, including reference to "the Vatican" suppressing gnostic writings in the 4th century. Until the early Renaissance, the papal palace was in different locations, ranging from the cathedral of St. John Lateran, to Anagni, to Avignon. It was not until the 15th century that there was anything like official power in the vicinity of the Vatican Hill in Rome. In the 4th century, the Vatican was little more than a church and cemetery by the side of the road. Also, St. Peter's is referred to as a cathedral; it is technically a church. St Peter's is the second largest church in the world, and covers 5.7 acres; only the Basilica of Our Lady of Peace of Yamoussoukro is larger. The Pope's Cathedral Church (as it is more correctly called) is St. John Lateran, some distance away from the Vatican. St. Peter's is actually a basilica – a church of pilgrimage, built to house relics, in this case, those of Saint Peter.

Early Christian history

Characters in the novel suggest that the date of Christmas, the titles "Son of God" and "Light of the World" (the latter applied to Jesus in John, but applied to Jesus' disciples in Matthew), the virgin birth, Jesus' burial in a stone tomb and resurrection three days later were all copied from the pre-Christian devotion to Mithras. It is true that scholars believe there was a great deal of give and take of symbols and rituals, but the specifics are hard to discern.

It is stated that Christians observed the sabbath on Saturday until Constantine I changed the day to Sunday to syncretize it with the pagan veneration of the Sun. Sunday is mentioned as the Christian day of worship in several of the 1st Century Epistles of Paul, though Paul never specifically stated that Sabbath observation had ended with the adoption of Sunday worship.

The Bible

Constantine is asserted to have ordered the seizure and burning of the non-canonical Gospels; this is inaccurate. The Emperor did have Arius exiled for his views that Jesus was a created being, divine but less than God the Father. Constantine has the writings of Arius and his followers burned but this did not include any Gospels. Furthermore, Arianism did not call for the acceptance of Gnosticism or its Gospels.

The book also claims that the Gnostic Gospels (e.g. the Gospels of Thomas, Philip, and Mary Magdalene) are far older and less corrupted than the four included in the Bible. With the possible exception of Thomas, the other Gospels date from the 2nd Century through the 4th Century. It is also an error to assert that these Gospels focused more on Jesus' humanity. The other Gospels we are aware of, for the most part, treat Jesus as more otherworldly and lack the humanizing detail of the biblical accounts.

The assertions that the Dead Sea Scrolls, discovered in 1947, contain lost or hidden gospels is also false. The scrolls contain books of the Old Testament, apocryphal and pseudepigraphic books, and manuals used by the Jewish Essene community at Qumran. All of the scrolls were written before the time of Christ; no Christian documents - orthodox, Gnostic, or otherwise - have ever been found at this site.

Non-Abrahamic mythology and religion

The assertion that the original Olympics were held "as a tribute to the magic of Venus" (Chapter 6), that is, Aphrodite: Although the origins of the Olympic festivals remain in obscurity, it has been well documented that they were religious festivals in honor of Zeus and Pelops, not Aphrodite.

The book claims that the Egyptian gods Amun and Isis represent a divine couple. In Egyptian (and later, Greco-Roman) mythology, Isis was never the spouse of Amun, but of Osiris (god of the underworld). Amun's spouse was Mut. Dan Brown also misleadingly claims that Amun was the god of masculine fertility, which was in fact Min. Nevertheless, in a late phase of Amun worship, he was merged with Min as Amun-Min. Brown spells the name "Amon", which is a common variant form, though "Amun" is now normative. This is necessary to make the claim that the name forms part of an anagram of "Mona Lisa", however it also raises the question whether Brown intended to refer to the Hellenized version of the cult, in which the name is normally spelled "Ammon". Some of the confusion may come from Margaret Murray's debunked historical claims of secretive European worship of Ammon during the Middle ages. Murray's theories were a major influence on Wicca.

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