Truth and Fiction in The Da Vinci Code: A Historian Reveals What We Really Know about Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and Constantine

by Bart D. Ehrman (Author)

99 customer reviews

ISBN-13: 978-0195181401

ISBN-10: 9780195181401

Why is ISBN important?

Have one to sell? Sell on Amazon

Added to

Unable to add item to List. Please try again.

Share <Embed>

Condition: Used - Good

In Stock. Sold by Jenson Books Inc, Fulfilled by Amazon

Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.

154 Used from $3.00

FREE Shipping on orders over $25.

Deliver to France

Turn on 1-Click ordering

Only 1 left in stock - order soon.

Sold by HKL Resources and Fulfilled by Amazon. Gift-wrap available.

This item ships to France. Want it Friday, Oct. 19? Order within and choose AmazonGlobal Priority Shipping at checkout. Learn more

List Price: $21.00
Save: $6.01 (29%)

26 New from $3.44

Deliver to France

Turn on 1-Click ordering

More Buying Choices

26 New from $3.44 154 Used from $3.00 9 Collectible from $3.98

189 used & new from $3.00

See All Buying Options

Free Two-Day Shipping for College Students with Amazon Student

A staggeringly popular work of fiction, Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code has stood atop The New York Times Bestseller List for well over a year, with millions of copies in print. But this fast-paced mystery is unusual in that the author states up front that the historical information in the book is all factually accurate. But is this claim true?
As historian Bart D. Ehrman shows in this informative and witty book, The Da Vinci Code is filled with numerous historical mistakes. Did the ancient church engage in a cover-up to make the man Jesus into a divine figure? Did Emperor Constantine select for the New Testament--from some 80 contending Gospels--the only four Gospels that stressed that Jesus was divine? Was Jesus Christ married to Mary Magdalene? Did the Church suppress Gospels that told the secret of their marriage? Bart Ehrman thoroughly debunks all of these claims. But the book is not merely a laundry list of Brown's misreading of history. Throughout, Ehrman offers a wealth of fascinating background information--all historically accurate--on early Christianity. He describes, for instance, the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls (which are not Christian in content, contrary to The Da Vinci Code); outlines in simple terms how scholars of early Christianity determine which sources are most reliable; and explores the many other Gospels that have been found in the last half century.
Ehrman separates fact from fiction, the historical realities from the flights of literary fancy. Readers of The Da Vinci Code who would like to know the truth about the beginnings of Christianity and the life of Jesus will find this book riveting.

Frequently bought together

Total price: $21.90

These items are shipped from and sold by different sellers. Show details

Buy the selected items together

This item:Truth and Fiction in The Da Vinci Code: A Historian Reveals What We Really Know about Jesus, Mary… by Bart D. Ehrman Hardcover $14.99
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
Sold by HKL Resources and ships from Amazon Fulfillment.
FREE Shipping on orders over $25. Details
The Mammoth Book of Cover-Ups: The 100 Most Terrifying Conspiracies of All Time by Jon E. Lewis Paperback $6.91
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
FREE Shipping on orders over $25. Details

Customers who bought this item also bought

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

This shopping feature will continue to load items. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading.

Terry Phelps Ph.D.

1

Paperback
$7.95
Bart D. Ehrman

976

Paperback
$13.43
Jon E. Lewis

50

Paperback
$6.91
Bart D. Ehrman

112

Hardcover
$15.40
Bart D. Ehrman

219

Paperback
$13.31
Dan Brown

4,931

Paperback
$7.99

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Ehrman, chair of religious studies at UNC-Chapel Hill, has written widely on the subject of early Christian documents and the formation of the biblical canon. While acknowledging that Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code is an exciting mystery novel, Ehrman questions some of its historical claims. Focusing on 10 areas of concern, including the role Constantine played in the formation of the both the church and the Bible and the evidence for Jesus' personal involvement with Mary Magdalene, Ehrman reviews the historical record and demonstrates that Brown's history behind the mystery is seriously flawed. Ehrman is not concerned with theology; he has no interest beyond that of the professional historian who wants to arm the everyday reader with sound research and helpful historical perspective. His is a documentary approach, avoiding speculation and theory. This tone distinguishes the book from many other responses to Brown's novel that uphold a particular theological agenda. Ultimately, Ehrman believes that readers should not try to learn history from speculative fiction. This is a very readable treatment of some difficult themes, such as the reasons for the exclusion of some early gospels from the canon and the enormous influence of recent archeological discoveries. Readers at every level will appreciate this book.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* There are have been several books debunking Dan Brown's enormously popular Da Vinci Code; often the rebuttals have been coated with hostility. Ehrman, a biblical historian, does it better. Using the novel as a jumping-off point, he offers a highly readable introduction to the historical Jesus as well as a brief primer on biblical exegesis. Not an easy task to provide such complex material for a pop-fiction audience, but Ehrman succeeds brilliantly. He immediately gives Brown's book its due; it's a page-turner, and there is no need to refute that. But the book is filled with many historical inaccuracies, everything from claiming the Dead Sea Scrolls were Christian documents to the idea that all the Jewish men of the era were married. (The assumed writers of the scrolls were celibate.) Ehrman uses each inaccuracy as an opportunity to explain how biblical scholarship works. The topics he touches on include how historians assess documentation, the Gnostic gospels in Christian thought, the role of Constantine in the formation of a Christian empire, and the role of women in the early church. Everyone loves conspiracies and secrets, which makes it a bit melancholy to watch Ehrman remove the veil from the Jesus story. Even the most devoted Da Vinci Code fan, however, will be forced to agree that Ehrman succeeds at separating historical fact from literary fiction. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product details

Hardcover: 240 pages
Publisher: Oxford University Press (November 1, 2004)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 9780195181401
ISBN-13: 978-0195181401
ASIN: 0195181409
Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 1.1 x 5.7 inches
Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 99 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #616,803 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #283 in Books > Christian Books & Bibles > Bible Study & Reference > New Testament > Biography
- #355 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Mythology & Folk Tales > Fairy Tales
- #1002 in Books > Textbooks > Humanities > History > Ancient

Would you like to tell us about a lower price?
If you are a seller for this product, would you like to suggest updates through seller support?

Be the first video

Your name here

Try the Kindle edition and experience these great reading features:

See Kindle Edition

Customer reviews

Write a customer review

See all 99 customer reviews

Top customer reviews

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Sauropod

Quickie rehash of an earlier Bart Ehrman book

January 8, 2017

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I made the mistake of purchasing this book right after reading Ehrman's earlier effort, Lost Christianities. Before long, it became apparent that large sections of Truth and Fiction in The Da Vinci Code were copied verbatim, or almost verbatim, from that other book. We're talking about straight cut-and-paste copying, with a few offhand allusions to Dan Brown's book thrown in.

For example, Truth and Fiction's entire, lengthy description of the discovery of the Nag Hammadi library, as well as the detailed description of those books and other Gnostic writings, has been taken from Lost Christianities with virtually no changes.

Clearly, Truth and Fiction was quickly cobbled together to capitalize on the popularity of Brown's novel. If you've already read Lost Christianities, you'd be better off rereading it, since very little in this one is new. If you haven't read Lost Christianities, I'd recommend it over Truth and Fiction; it's both more serious and more comprehensive — not to mention more original!

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

Not Helpful

Comment

Simon Manley

Did we really need this book?

September 22, 2013

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I guess there must be some people out there who thought Dan Brown's thriller was a serious, scholarly essay aiming to rewrite the history of Christianity. If so, I suspect Bart Ehrman's book will be beyond them: it is the work of a respected scholar who has written dozens of books on the history of the bible and its era. With meticulous attention to detail, the book plods through the long catalogue of errors, inaccuracies, misconceptions and outright howlers in The Da Vinci Code. As a way of learning about the history of the bible, of Jesus of Nazareth and the various political figures of the era, the strategy of believing Dan Brown and then having Bart Ehrman set you straight has little to recommend it. You would be much better off starting with some of Ehrman's other books which explain the historical basis of the bible stores without the baggage of debunking an entertaining fantasy.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Not Helpful

Comment

M. Lilliquist

Excellent book for the non-expert

May 4, 2006

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Bart Ehrman is a widely respected Biblical scholar with particular expertise on early Christianity and with a gift for popularizing his field, and so he is perhaps the perfect person to write this book. This is his least academic and most "popular" book to date, which fits in with the none-too-serious attitude that he takes towards Dan Brown's bestselling novel. Like most of us, Erhman thinks that the Da Vinci Code was an engaging murder mystery, but some people have taken Brown's historical assertions as if they were historical fact. Just as a matter of professional interest, Erhman would like to set the record straight. In the process of this good-natured debunking, Ehrman actually does an excellent job of teaching the reader not only about early Christianity, but also about the methods and reasoning used by professional historians to try to uncover the truth about the distant past.

A word need to be said about what this book is not. Ehrman is a religious scholar, and so that is his focus. He does not talk about art history or Templar conspiracies or Vatican politics or the Opus Dei. These he leaves to other people.

What he does do, convincingly, is show that orthodox Christianity is not a patriarchal conspiracy hatched by Emperor Constantine to suppress an original and authentic feminine Christianity, that rival Gnostic forms of Christianity did not believe in a fully human Christ (quite the opposite), and that there is good reason to reject any idea of a marriage between Jesus and Mary Magdalene. As Ehrman says, none of this is a surprise to people knowledgeable in the field.

The true value of this book, I think, is not that it sets the record straight on Dan Brown's fictional bestseller. Rather, this book does an outstanding job of demonstrating the methods and reasoning that historians use to try to use potentially unreliable texts to reveal the historical facts behind those texts. He does so by continually asking probing questions and then indicating the ways in which credible answers can be found for those questions. Along the way, Ehrman provides a fine introduction to early Christianity and to the historical Jesus. Not bad for a quick read.

My only criticism of the book is that Ehrman quotes over and over from the same few passages from Brown's book. The repetition gets a bit tiresome and almost smacks of text-padding. I suppose he's just drawing from his long experience as a teacher: it never hurts to repeat yourself. Recommended!

7 people found this helpful

Helpful

Not Helpful

Comment

A concise introduction to the religious claims of "The Da Vinci Code"

October 2, 2006

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

Having read "The Da Vinci Code" some time ago, I wanted to read an unbiased book that addressed the religious issues that were brought up in that excellent novel. That automatically disqualifies any book written by someone seeking to prove the status quo in orthodox church teaching. Therefore, Bart Ehrman seemed to be one of the better choices left...expert in New Testament and Christian history, yet not a Christian seeking to prove Christianity is right and Dan Brown is wrong.

This he has done with flair in this abbreviated history of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and Constantine, if indeed it can be called a history. It
more shows what we can pay attention to in the sources we have, which sources are the best, and why those sources are the best. He spends much of the book explaining how a true historian must look at the past, and applies it to this issue. If you are looking for more information about the Priory of Sion, Opus Dei, Leonardo Da Vinci, art, or other subjects like that brought up in Brown's book, this is *NOT* the book you are looking for.

In the end you will be left with the inevitable conclusion that most of what is in Dan Brown's book is fiction (even the parts he labels as
fact), with few exceptions. No, I wouldn't dare give you all the juicy details (nor is there room to do so), but I can say you will be left wanting to read many of the other books Ehrman as written that you will find referenced in the footnotes in the back of the book if you have further interest in history of Christianity. (That was a minor irritation -- the footnotes would have been better in the actual text at the bottom of the page.) If you are a Christian, some of the information given will possibly cause you to question your faith, as Ehrman did upon learning much about the history of Jesus, Christianity, and the Church.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Not Helpful

Comment

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

This shopping feature will continue to load items. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading.

Bart D. Ehrman

976

Paperback
$13.43
Bart D. Ehrman

112

Hardcover
$15.40
Dan Brown

4,931

Paperback
$7.99
Bart D. Ehrman

244

Paperback
$15.27
Bart D Ehrman

74

Paperback
$14.76
Bart D. Ehrman

566

Paperback
$9.27

Pages with related products. See and discover other items: dallas cowboys history

Truth and Fiction in The Da Vinci Code: A Historian Reveals What We Really Know about Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and Constantine

Turn on 1-Click ordering

Turn on 1-Click ordering

Frequently bought together

Customers who bought this item also bought

Sponsored products related to this item (What's this?)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

From Booklist

Product details

Related Video Shorts (0)

Be the first video

Try the Kindle edition and experience these great reading features:

Customer reviews

Filter by popular topics in reviews

Top customer reviews

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Most recent customer reviews

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Truth and Fiction in The Da Vinci Code: A Historian Reveals What We Really Know about Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and Constantine

Sorry, there was a problem.

Sorry, there was a problem.

Buy used On clicking this link, a new layer will be open $7.81 On clicking this link, a new layer will be open

Turn on 1-Click ordering

Buy new On clicking this link, a new layer will be open $14.99 On clicking this link, a new layer will be open

Turn on 1-Click ordering

Frequently bought together

Customers who bought this item also bought

Sponsored products related to this item (What's this?)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

From Booklist

Product details

Related Video Shorts (0)

Be the first video

Try the Kindle edition and experience these great reading features:

Customer reviews

Filter by popular topics in reviews

Top customer reviews

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Most recent customer reviews

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Buy used On clicking this link, a new layer will be open

$7.81 On clicking this link, a new layer will be open

Buy new On clicking this link, a new layer will be open

$14.99 On clicking this link, a new layer will be open