I have spoken to many friends who are troubled by The Da Vinci Code. Their faith in Christ is challenged, perhaps even shaken.

Is it true, as Dan Brown claims, that the deity of Jesus Christ was invented by the Church in the fourth century? That the early disciples considered Jesus only as a human?

Specifically, Brown’s “fiction based on fact” states that “Jesus was viewed by His followers as a mortal prophet... a great and powerful man, but man nonetheless... Jesus’ establishment as ‘the Son of God’ was officially proposed and voted on by the Council of Nicaea... A relatively close vote at that”.

Let’s put these assertions to the test by considering the writings of Ignatius. He lived in the second century, at least two hundred years before the Council of Nicaea. As he travelled to Rome to face martyrdom, the aged bishop of Antioch wrote several letters to churches and individuals. I quote:

“Ignatius, who is also Theophorus... to the church that is beloved and enlightened through the will of Him who willed all things that are, by faith and love towards Jesus Christ our God.” (Romans 1).

“Await the One who is above every season, the Eternal, the Invisible, the One who for our sake became visible… who for our sake suffered, who endured in every way for our sake.” (Polycarp 3).

“There is one physician, of flesh and of spirit, generate and ingenerate, God in man, true life in death, both from Mary and from God… Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Ephesians 7).

Here, in the first generation after the Apostles and two centuries before Nicaea, Ignatius expressed the faith of the early Church. The early Christians believed that Jesus is God, eternal, and that he also became man. The Da Vinci Code is not fiction based on fact; it is based on historical absurdities, plain lies.

The Council of Nicaea was convoked to correct the heresy proposed by Arius, namely that Jesus was not eternally God. Of about 300 bishops, only two did not sign the creed. According to Brown that was “a relatively close vote”! It was not exactly a cliffhanger!

Christ claimed to be the Son of God. His enemies considered him a blasphemer and crucified him; his disciples believed in his name and worshipped him. The bishops at Nicaea simply reaffirmed the doctrine of the deity of Christ recorded in four gospels and the epistles, cherished by the Church from the beginning, and sealed by the blood of thousands of martyrs.

J. Mizzi

ATTARD