Valentinus, his disciplesand other gnostic teachers,as well. These books, like Tlte
Wr r cH Hu Nr s
Gospel of Philip, have survived to this day and I, as a seminarian, had to read both these Gnostic documents and the responseto these documents by various bishops and teachersof the Church like Irenaeusand Clement ofAlexandria.
"During 300 years of witch hunts the Church burned at the stake an astounding5,000,000women" Langdon, Langdon characterasserts,that Sunday is the Harvard professor,saysto his French indeed the "Day of the Sun" in English. love interest, Sophie. In fact, even nonAnd Saturday, by the way, is "Saturns Christian historians now agree that Day' and not the Jewish Sabbath. the number of people - both men and Thursday is "Thor's Day." It is true that women - executedbenveen 1400-1800 Tu e o R y s o F TH Ew E E K the names for the days of the week in for suspectedwitchcraft was somewhere "Even Christianiry's weekly holy day modern English have all been adapted between 30,000 to 50,000. Modern was stolen from the pagans,"the Teabing from ancient mythologies. But in Greek, scholars suggest that perhaps 100,000 characterdeclares."Originally," Langdon things are very different. Only three days such trials were held between 1450 and adds, "Christianity honored the Jewish have names in Greek: Paraskevi,the Day 1750, with somewherebetween 30,000 Sabbath of Saturday, but Constantine of Preparation for the Sabbath; Sa\.vato, to 50,000 execurions, of which 25o/o shifted it to coincide with the pagan's the Sabbath dap and Kyriake, the Lord's 7,500 to 12,500 - were men. It is also veneration of the sun. To this day, most Day. After the Lord's Day, the days of the clear that desoite the involvement of churchgoers attend services on Sunday week are merely numbered; Deutera, the Church authorities, the vast majority morning with no idea that they are there of those condemned as witches were in Second Day (Monday'; Tiete, the Third on account of the pagan sun god'sweekly Day (Tuesday)and so on. In the Greek of fact condemned by local secular courts. trihrrre - l ,rrA " tr" the New Testament as well as in modern Of course,here, as throughout the book, whenever Mr. Brown uses the word Nothing could be further from the Greek to this day, there is no confusion "church" he is always referring to the truth. As a matter of pure and simple fact, regarding the Judeo-Christian origins of Roman Catholic Church and this book the New Testament records quite clearly the names for the days of the week. contains a clear anti-Roman Catholic that Christians gathered for worship on bias. But it is a simple fact that many the day of Christ's resurrection from the witch-hunts took place in Protestant dead, the day afier the Sabbath (Mark countries like England and her colonies 16:2) or the Lord's Day ("Kyriake" in "The Jervish tetragramaton YH\flH (for exampie, one need only recall the the original Greek) as it is described in - the sacredname of God - derived from infamous witch trials in Salem, MA). Revelation 1:i0. This ancient practice Jehovah,an androgynous physical union Interesdngly enough, in the Orthodox is also referred to in Acts 20:7 and b e rw e e nthe mascul i neJah and the preChurch, there never developedan Office i Corinthians l6:2. Furthermore, a Hebraic name for Havah." of the Inquisition as in the Roman number of post-New Testament writers Catholic Church; nor were there ever like St. Ignatius of Antioch (executed This is completely false! As any any witch-hunts or trials. in 115 AD) and St. Justin the Martyr first year seminary student can tell (executed in 155 AD) to name only you, Jehovah is actually a 16'h century two, confirm the practice of Christians rendering for the King JamesVersion of A CoNsprRAcY? gathering for worship on Sunday. the HebrewYH\X&{ using the vowels for "Everyone lovesa conspiracy,"thinks Constantine "shifted" nothing. All that the word 'Adonai" or "Lord," the word Langdon and indeed, this is perhapsone Constantine did in the year 321AD was which was read by devout Jewswhenever grant legal status as a holiday within they came acrossGod's name in the text reason why 7he Da Vinci Code fascinates the Empire to a centuries-old apostolic of the Old Gstament becausethey felt so many people and still dominates 7be practiceof,the Church. the actual name of God was too awesome New York Times bestseller list. Brownt conspirators in this rwo millennia long ro b e p ronouncedby human l i ps. But we also need to look at the cover-up include the Roman Catholic question of language. It is true, as the Church, the Knights Templaa Opus
Yuws
S ummer2006
page17