Top 10 Errors of the Da Vinci Code

The Da Vinci Code, a popular suspense novel by Dan Brown, generated a
great deal of criticism and controversy after its publication in 2003.
Additional criticisms were directed towards the book’s inaccurate
descriptions of European art, history, architecture, and geography. The
Author, in the opening pages of the book, claims that, aside from the
modern characters, the book is completely factual. This is a list of
the biggest errors in the book.

1. Da Vinci’s The Last Supper
The contention that Mary Magdalene is depicted sitting next to Jesus in
Leonardo’s famous The 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
right of Christ, also wearing blue and red, is usually identified as
John the Apostle, who was customarily depicted in the Renaissance
period as a beardless, often “effeminate” youth with very long hair.
The “femininity” of the figure can be attributed to Leonardo’s artistic
training in a workshop of the Florentine School, which had a long
tradition of often depicting young males as sweet, pretty, rather
“effeminate” persons.

2. Priory of Sion
The portrayal of the Priory of Sion as an ancient organization
connected to goddess-worship is incorrect: The actual “Priory of Sion”
was founded in 1956 by Pierre Plantard, Andre Bonhomme and others, not
in 1099 as claimed in the book, and it was named after a mountain in
France, not the biblical Mount Zion. Les Dossiers Secrets was a forgery
created by Philippe de Cherisey for Plantard. Plantard, under oath,
eventually admitted that the whole thing was fabricated.

3. 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. Silas, the murderous “Opus Dei monk”, uses a cilice and
flagellates himself. 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. Critics
charge Brown of greatly sensationalizing the practice of such
mortifications and exaggerating the extent of their practice. It is
impossible to gain the kind of wounds Silas is described as having from
a normal cilice.

4. Rosslyn Chapel
The Chapel is a major feature in the last part of the novel, though
many incorrect assertions were made about the structure. For example,
Brown’s book states that the Chapel was built by the Knights Templar,
and contains a six-pointed Star of David worn into the stone floor
although such star has ever been seen in the floor. Many sources say
that Dan Brown never visited the Chapel till after the publication of
his Da Vinci Code book, and most of his material came from previously
published material. Another claim is that the name “Rosslyn” is a form
of the phrase “Rose line”, and that a line starting in France also runs
through the Chapel. In fact, the name “Rosslyn” comes from two Celtic
words: “ros,” meaning promontory or point, and “lyn”, meaning
waterfall. As far as the “secret code” that Brown claims exists in the
chapel, most recently father and son team, Thomas and Stuart Mitchell,
have shown that it is most likely a piece of music. They have decoded
the music and you can hear it here. I wonder if Dan Brown plans to give
them the reward he offered for its decoding.

5. Problems with Paris
Several claims about the Church of Saint-Sulpice in Paris are disputed.
While there is a brass line running north-south through the church, it
is not a part of the Paris Meridian, which passes about 100 meters east
of it. The line is instead more of a gnomon or sundial/calendar, meant
to mark the solstice and equinoxes. Further, there is no evidence that
there was ever a temple of Isis on the site. The reference to Paris
having been founded by the Merovingians (Chapter 55) is false; in fact,
the city was settled by Gauls by the 3rd Century BC. The Romans, who
knew it as Lutetia, captured it in 52 BC under Julius Caesar, and left
substantial ruins in the city, including an amphitheater and public
baths. The Merovingians did not rule in France until the 6th century
AD, by which time Paris was at least 800 years old. The novel claims
that the top of the Centre Pompidou can be seen from the Arc du
Carrousel (chapter 3). This is incorrect. The book erroneously places
Versailles to the north-west of Paris, when actually it is
approximately 25 kilometers west-south-west of Paris city centre.

6. 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

7. Mary Magdalene
Historians have disputed the claim that Mary Magdalene was of the tribe
of Benjamin. There is no mention of this in the Bible or in 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
heritage. Mary Magdalene is revered as a saint in France; a cave in the
Sainte-Baume mountains of Provence, where she is believed to have
lived, is a popular pilgrimage site. It is believed that she died and
is buried there.

8. Gnosticism
The book claims that the Gnostic Gospels (e.g. the Gospels of Thomas,
Philip, Mary Magdalene, and the recently rediscovered Judas) are far
older, less corrupted, and more accurate 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, while the canonical four
are thought by most scholars to date from the 1st Century or early 2nd
Century. In the story, a character claims that the label “heretic” was
used only after the Nicene Council (325 AD), in order to persecute
Gnostics. In fact, St Irenaeus used the term “heresy” to label Gnostic
teachings in the second century, long before the Church had any
political power to persecute anyone.

9. Geography
The book’s storyline that the “Albino Monk” was arrested in France,
imprisoned in Andorra and escaped to Spain, demonstrates the lack of
basic research that would be gleaned from a quick glance at a map or
tourist guide. It is improbable that someone arrested along the French
coast would be imprisoned in another country (in this case Andorra
which is a different jurisdiction and several hundred kilometers away
up in the Pyrenean mountains). After the scene in the Temple Church,
London, the heroes of the story take the tube from Temple Station to
King’s College. In fact King’s College is nearer to the Temple Church
than to Temple Station, and any tube journey would have carried them
further away from King’s College. At the start of chapter 104, (Rosslyn
Chapel), Brown states “The chapel’s geographic coordinates fall
precisely on the north-south meridian that runs through Glastonbury”.
This statement is incorrect: Rosslyn Chapel lies on longitude 3:07:13
west and Glastonbury Tor 2:42:05 west. Brown appears to have confused
geographic north with magnetic north.

10. Assorted errors
Albinos typically have very poor vision; in fact, many are legally
blind. It is therefore highly unlikely that the albino Silas could ever
become an expert marksman, or even that he could drive.
It is stated that the Dead Sea Scrolls were found in “the 1950s,” when
in fact the initial discovery was made in 1947, with additional
documents being located up to 1956.
In his lecture on the Divine Proportion, Langdon states that the
proportion of male to female bees in a hive is always in this ratio.
This is false, as the ratio can vary widely and is nonetheless usually
greater than the Divine Proportion.
In the novel, Brown says the gnostic gospels found in Nag Hammadi,
Egypt, in 1945, were “scrolls.” They were actually codices- individual
pages bound together as books.