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Summary

Recommended

Book Description:
"Witherington, a New Testament scholar at Asbury Theological Seminary, intends in this volume to add his voice to the growing criticism of Brown's novel. Each chapter treats an issue—the formation of the canon, the 'married Jesus' theory, etc.—and then offers a wealth of background material to support an evangelical Christian viewpoint."

Ben Witherington has added yet another volume to the growing and impressive array of books that has been written recently in order to expose the abysmal research prevalent in Dan Brown's "The Davinci Code". Anyone that is somewhat familiar with Witherington's work would soon realize that his going up against Brown brings a whole new meaning to the word "mismatch." In fact, it was somewhat surprising to see a top New Testament scholar even take the time to deal with the nonsense presented by Brown; although, Darrell Bock did so earlier (in a book we have not reviewed) and admittedly, as The Gospel Code progresses, we see less and less of Brown and his book until they practically disapper. However, Witherington pulls no punches as he succinctly, yet persuasively, exposes several of the misuses of sources and/or historical errors presented by Dan Brown.

Witherington begins with an introductory chapter, followed by a chapter discussing the potential veracity of the idea of Jesus being married to Mary Magdalene. The wedding at Cana (John 2) and the controversial fragmented passage from the "Gospel of Philip" (63:32-36) are among the topics of discussion in this chapter. In the 3rd chapter, with Brown's claim that the Gnostic "gospels" were earlier documents than the canonical Gospels in mind, Witherington delves into some of the evidence for the authenticity of Mark, Matthew, Luke, John, and Acts. That is, he demonstrates the reasons why we can be confident that the books were penned by the end of the 1st century A.D., and are based on eyewitness testimony. In the next chapter, Brown's claim regarding Constantine's alleged "forming of the canon" is debunked. Included in this chapter are some interesting summaries of the Christological beliefs of some of the prominent early church fathers, including Irenaeus, Tertullian, and Origen. This laid some foundation regarding the beliefs of the church of the first few centuries, which led into a section where Constantine's true role in the formation of the canon was detailed. In chapter 5, Witherington examines the relevant Gospel material regarding Mary Magdalene, in order to give the reader a (much) more historically plausible role that she played in Christ's ministry. Chapter 6 is reserved for a helpful discussion of the Nag Hammadi documents, and chapter 7 for the Gospel of Thomas. These chapters are characterized by the exhibition of some of the inconsistencies and incompatibilities of the Gnostic documents with Judeo-Christian Scripture and Tradition. The thesis of feminists like Elaine Pagels, who promotes the Gnostic writings, are also scrutinized in light of the data from these writings and the New Testament. In the last 3 chapters, the book moves further away from critiquing "The Da Vinci Code" and more into a general defense of New Testament Christianity; at some points you may forget the book was even supposed to be about that book! In chapter 8, a discussion of the canon is included, which details why the books that made it into the canon made it and why those that didn't make the cut did not make it. Chapter 9, with the claims of Marcus Borg in mind, is devoted to a brief defense of miracles, the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the acceptance of the Bible as God's Word. In chapter 10, Witherington propounds some of the historical evidence for Christ's claims of divine Sonship. Finally, Witherington wraps up the book in a postscript, and rounds it off with a very eloquent poem that he actually wrote himself! It appears that Ben is multi-talented. The book also contains a section of end-notes, where some concepts are expounded in more depth than what Witherington delves in the actual text.

Witherington obviously could have gone into much more detail with the various topics that he discussed in this book, and if you're looking for detailed critiques of non-religious ideas in Brown's book (i.e., art history) you are better off with this one instead. However, the book is written on a popular level, and its main purpose was to demonstrate some of the absurdities inherent in the religious claims of "The Da Vinci Code" and how this work of fiction simply cannot be taken seriously as a possible reconstruction of the person and life of Jesus Christ. As expected, Witherington was easily successful in accomplishing this endeavor.