“Decoding” seems to be the word in vogue these days, especially as folks await the film version of Dan Brown’s popular novel. With all the hype and corresponding negative critiques of the story, I confess not being able to resist entering the fray.

The book as a work of fiction with its captivating tale of murder against the background of the curious history of the Knights Templar is engaging. I confess I enjoyed the story, though I felt compelled to make my own critical notes in the margins of the volume (which I had received from another student of the Bible with his own marginal notes!). So many historical references were simply wrong! The more recent sensationalized report of the publication of the “Gospel of Judas” only adds to the public fascination with these ancient tales.

Allow me to offer a few personal comments by way of background for people who will be subjected to the media’s musings when the film is released next week.

The heart of our Christian Gospel is the jubilant announcement of the Lord’s Resurrection. All four of our canonical evangelists have written a report which can be distilled into that fundamental conviction. When St. Paul wished to summarize the basic components of the authentic Christian Gospel for the new converts in Corinth (in about AD 51), he cited the four-fold creed which he passed on just as he himself had received it, namely the fact that the Lord died for our sins according to the Scriptures, was buried, rose according to the Scriptures and was seen by many different groups of the early disciples (1 Cor 15:3-7). That’s the real heart of the matter and always has been.

Swirling about within first century society, however, were many different forms of Gnostic religion, namely convictions that human salvation could be achieved simply by being initiated into special revealed knowledge. The sources for those religious approaches to God were found in Jewish, Greek and Near Eastern myths of all stripes, some of them very exotic and far fetched with multiple creators, endless mediators and often very negative assessments of human nature and the fleshly existence we share.

A common element to them all was a dislike for the physical nature of our human existence and a rejection of the cross. By contrast, the Gnostics offered to the chosen elite a hope for life giving secret revelation. Since that same idea of revelation which gives eternal life is one of the more profound themes in the Gospel of John, some early Christian groups spun off on their own and became wildly heretical.

Second century Christian writers such as St. Irenaeus of Lyon, whom we hold as an early orthodox witness to our faith, refer to these groups often and reject them as unacceptable. The actual writings of their Gnostic opponents are for the most part, however, only known through those Christians who refuted them. Consequently, it is exciting to find a full text, as has occurred several times over the past century, with the “Gospel of Judas” being the most recent example.

Moreover, countless legends about the travels of early Christian figures abound in the areas adjacent to the Mediterranean. They were, after all, by the Lord’s mandate missionaries par excellence! Christian communities often imagined their respective founders to be wandering apostles and evangelists. India claims Thomas as its own, and Egypt claims Mark.

In an age that sought miracles of healing from shrines with important relics, religious communities were only too happy to provide an object of veneration for visiting pilgrims. Medieval history abounds with such fanciful legends. In that fashion, Mary Magdalen has long been associated with Marseilles, France. A serious scholar of early history would be very dubious about such claims.

Since the biblical renewal in the middle of the last century Catholics have venerated Mary Magdalen as the person mandated to bring the news of the Resurrection to the 11 … the “Apostle to the Apostles.” The release of the film will be an excellent “teachable moment,” enabling the church to speak of the true glories of that unique witness to the Lord’s death for the life of the world, not the foolish fables of the novel.

The suggestion, often found in the popular fiction of our day, that the church has ruthlessly suppressed the publication of these “dangerous and shocking” histories is utter nonsense. Catholic Christians have always known about them. Only in a society fascinated by hints of conspiracy and unfortunately saddened by all too real accounts of the church’s less than edifying bouts of secrecy would such tales find credence.

Any serious decoding should result in historical accuracy, not flights of fancy dressed as history.

P.S.: By the way, anyone wanting to read a more balanced view of the folks associated with the Opus Dei movement might do well to seek out John Allen’s recent (2005) volume, “Opus Dei.”