The Da Vinci Code is beyond my area of real expertise so I have refrained from comment on this now current topic, but since some very knowledgeable people are taking it apart I feel compelled to put in my two centavos worth. The more you read about the Bible and the reconstruction of all the stories the more you will be struck with the same "insights" . It is code. The Bible doesn’t mean what it says because the writers or tellers of the stories would have been killed had they told the truth so they created all these documents in order to communicate with one another safely. Once you establish this you can say that the Bible says anything you want it to say.

The major fiction in Dan Brown’s thrilling and entertaining tale is that Constantine was an atheist and rewrote sections of the Bible himself; purged the deity of Magdalene because they hated women; and I leave it to you to find a picture of Magdalene in the famous painting of The Last Supper---hat tip: some good acid makes Magdalene appear; great rack and an ass to die for. The undisputed facts about Constantine are that he had converted to Christianity, caused three huge churches to be built by his mommy after he killed his wife and son (how's that for Christian?): The Church of the Nativity at Bethlehem, Church of the Eleona on Jerusalem's Mount of Olives, The Hagia Sophia (Holy Wisdom). and Hagia Eirene (Holy Peace). The Dan Brown story "proves" that Constantine was a Pagan because he was only baptized on his death bed; that is true, BUT he leaves out the fact that everybody was baptized on their death beds so that sin would be cleansed and they could go straight to Heaven. There is a different sacrament called Extreme Unction offering an avoidance of Purgatory under certain circumstances (no recent homocides, etc.) that was added later. What is really crucial about the Da Vinci Code is that many of the Dead Sea Scrolls written in 100AD match exactly with Bible written in the 12th century. So much for Constantine's revisionism; it didn't happen. A word of caution here as well. The Dead Sea Scrolls were written by the Essenes, a community of esoterics who were in rebellion against both the Old Testament sacrifice system and the New Testament Messiah. It is also worthy to note that the notoriously Left, Rockefeller Foundation, is involved in rewriting the Bible in light of Dead Sea Scroll fragments, fragments that include the confiscation of personal property to the group and the coming of two Messiahs: one a religious prophet, the other a civil leader.

The Da Vinci Code is a story, and just a story, without much historical truth in it. Good starting reference point is HERE