The difficulty I had reading through "The Da Vinci Code" with that in mind was that most of the descriptions of ancient documents, in fact, are not factual—they’re part of his fiction. But people reading the book aren't equipped to separate the fact from the fiction.
But Dr. E! That's true of the Bible too.....people are no more equipped to pare fact from fiction in that set of texts than in the Da Vinci Code.....it's interesting to see the level of effort scholars are putting into responding to a piece of modern fiction about the Bible. One wonders why so much energy is expended on setting people straight on the Da Vinci Code, but so much less on outreach to the public on the nature of the Biblical texts themselves, and on separating fact from fiction in those texts. I interact with lay Christians every day on this topic, and it is simply astounding how little people know about them. Perhaps if scholars had put more energy into educating people originally, they wouldn't have to spend so much time setting the record straight on the Da Vinci Code.....
Which reminds me. If you haven't put your articles on the Internet, NT scholars, it is never too late!
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