Hidden Meanings, Masonic Secrets, Google and Enlightenment

He has done it again! Another best selling book by Dan Brown about Robert Langdon's journeys to find secrets surrounding the mysterious history of faith. (Note: Spoiler alert! Just got done reading the book myself and I am glad no one spoiled it for me so don't read below unless you want to know what happens... and if you want to know what happens that is cheating in my opinion. This is not sparknotes.com, it is my blog so don't expect to get all the information... ok back to the point).

Sadly, what I would like to inform people is that if Robert Langdon had known his Bible and the origin of languages better, he would have understood for himself that what Katherine and Peter Solomon were telling him was not logical. (Mental image of the new Star Trek movie where Spock looks at the Captain and says "His logic is sound"... but in this case "His logic is not sound").

Sometimes I wonder how much of the information that Dan Brown presents is his own opinion (which he has no scholarly proof of), his made-up ideas (which are quite far fetched), and stuff from poorly informed (and un-scholarly) websites he found by Google-ing (or on Wikipedia... not scholarly either!).

Don't get me wrong, I really do love the concept of fictional books that relate historical questions or myths to modern life. (If you are looking for other authors like Dan Brown try Raymond Khoury and Kate Mosse). But I tend to find it more entertaining when I come at then with a quizzical eye, ready to question if what I am reading is true.

Sometimes, an obvious slip up occurs and I can tell that the author is clueless on the subject (like when Raymond Khoury tried to tell us that the Second Temple of Jerusalem was more beautiful than the first... nope sorry, people were distressed by how "ugly" it was in comparison to the one Solomon built). Other times, there is a subtle consciousness that he may not be right and the desire to look it up in a textbook or in the case of this book, the Hebrew and Greek Lexicons.

I wish I could quote the page numbers that cited some of the slips, but I was listening to the audio-book on a long drive... which made it more difficult for me to find them. However, I will mention one slip that had me almost crying I was laughing so hard. Robert Langdon and Katherine Solomon are discussing what had been deciphered from the stone pyramid. It was Latin (which is one language I do not know but bear with me), and it read "Jeova Sanctus Unus."

Katherine translates this as "One true God" but it may also mean "God's holy one" (contextually is more often the first use but it needs to be noted that it has been translated the other way as well). But the funny part is when Katherine goes on the mental process of what "Jeova" means. She relates it back to Hebrew "Jehovah" which she says is a Hebrew name for God in the Old Testament. Haha!

Ok Hebrew scholars... what is the problem with this word?? Firstly, it is not a word! Properly transliterated it would be "Yehowah" (The J goes to Y for yod, the V goes to W for waw) Ok now, take out the vowels, because Hebrew was originally consonantal, and you get Y-H-W-H, the divine name. This name was never to be spoken, so instead the reader would say "Adonai" when they got to the name in the scripture readings. When the Masoretes came around and added their systems of vowels to the consonantal language, they added the vowels of "Adonai" to YHWH. Many years later some people misread this as "Yehovah". (Please note that the transliteration above may not make much sense because the vowels' English equivalents are spelled differently but the pronunciation makes sense if you think about it).

There are more language goofs, plus a few smatterings of misquoted Bible passages, and quite a few misinterpreted apocalyptic passages. What is the point I am trying to get at? A word of caution to those who read these books religiously (haha no pun intended), but make sure you take everything at face value, do not read too much into these books. Remember that they are works of fiction, meant purely for entertainment. If you want to know more, use JSTOR or Google Scholar to find the information from a trusted source. (And word of advice to Dan Brown and his editors, you are probably making millions from these books, maybe it is time to hire a religion scholar to help you do the proper research so you are getting crap from the religious circles! Someone like Me? Wishful thinking I know!)

Well, I will leave you with a very good discussion that I have redacted (just like on the CIA server in the book... I am good at this sort of thing...)

Peter Solomon: "If the Bible does not contain hidden meaning, then why have so many of history's finest minds... become so obsessed with studying it?"

Robert Langdon: "Peter, you know I find this topic fascinating. and I can understand that it might be tempting for bright minds to imagine the Scriptures contain hidden meaning, but it makes no logical sense to me.... Teachers teach... We speak openly. Why would the prophets-the greatest teachers in history-obscure their language? If they hoped to change the world, why would they speak in code? Why not speak plainly so the world can understand?" (pages 490&491).

Langdon has an interesting question (and I don't think Solomon's answer was right so I did not want to include it). Gnostics searched for a hidden meaning within the words spoken by Jesus and they were considered heretics... so wouldn't finding a hidden meaning in the text be like looking for this secret gnosis (aka Enlightenment)?

Biblical scholars are not searching for a deeper meaning, we are searching for better ways of understanding the way the text was meant to be understood... if that makes any sense... That is how Biblical scholars differ from the people Dan Brown mentions in his book. Because we are not trying to find the secret meanings... we are trying to understand the facts.

P.S. Again I want to say I was not trying to be harsh to Dan Brown... the book was wonderfully written and I thoroughly enjoyed it. But it was fictional, so please remember that.