Has Christianity given Paganism a bad reputation?

Possibly one of the most outrageous claims of The Da Vinci Code is that somehow paganism was morally superior to Christianity and Judaism, but the goodness of paganism was tarnished by the church that Constantine established. The dictionary defines ‘pagan’ as one who is not a Christian, Muslim, or Jew. That definition distinguishes religions who believe in one god – monotheism, versus religions who believe in many gods. Paganism was practiced by every culture that the Jews, and later the Christians, encountered. I would like to take some time to discuss paganism, fertility worship, and how the Bible responds to paganism.

Paganism was practiced in various forms as the dominant religion of the people groups neighboring the people of God in the Bible. Moses led the Jews out of Egypt, where paganism was practiced. Joshua led the people of God into the promised land, at the expense of Canaanite pagan worshippers. When the nation of Israel fell into sin, it was almost always by joining other peoples in pagan worship. The New Testament was written in the backdrop of the Roman Empire, whose official religion was paganism.

The emphasis of The Da Vinci Code is on the worship of fertility gods and goddesses within paganism. Paganism included many practices that would offend the American reader of the twenty-first century which Dan Brown conveniently left out of his book. The Pharaohs of Egypt were worshipped as gods and given the kind of power rarely seen in our modern world. They could make the dictators of recent years look benevolent. They would order an execution for any minor offense. One example is the account of the birth of Moses which speaks of a pagan Pharaoh who ordered the death of all male Hebrew children. Child sacrifice was fairly common in paganism as a means of achieving the favor of the gods. The more innocent the offering, the greater the blessing from the gods.

Fertility worship meant that people would go to a temple, bring an offering, bow to the god or goddess, and engage in sexual activity with a male or female prostitute. The desired outcome of this worship and sexual encounter was that the worshiper’s wife would conceive a male child (and not a female) or the worshiper’s crops would grow. To the secular American world view, the idea of sex as worship is an enticing idea, so long as it is separated from the rest of ancient paganism.

Feminism is a modern issue both within and outside the church. I believe that Dan Brown unfairly makes his historical figures friendly to women’s issues, while movements like the historical church are painted as anti-women. To illustrate, is a female temple prostitute in the first Century liberated or enslaved? The first century church included men and women who had come to faith and freedom in Christ and left their enslavement of temple prostitution. Dan Brown would disagree with my interpretation of freedom for women in the first century. Reading modern feminism into ancient religions is easily twisted by the historian’s bias.

On page 125 of The Da Vinci Code the book argues that the feminine was removed from ancient worship at the supposed establishment of the church in the fourth through sixth centuries AD. I will get to a response to that version of history later, but let me include two fairly lengthy quote from The Da Vinci Code,

The once hallowed act of Hieros Gamos – the natural sexual union between man and woman through which each became spiritually whole – has been recast as a shameful act. Holy men who once required sexual union with their female counterparts to commune with God now feared their natural sexual urges as the work of the devil, collaborating with his favorite accomplice . . . Woman (page 125). The days of the goddess were over. The pendulum had swung. Mother Earth had become a man’s world, and the gods of destruction and war were taking there toll. The male ego had spent two millennia running unchecked by its female counterpart. The Priory of Sion believed that it was this obliteration of the sacred feminine in modern life that had caused what the Hopi Native Americans called koyanisquatsi – “life out of balance” - an unstable situation marked by testosterone – fueled wars, a plethora of misogynistic societies, and a growing disrespect for Mother Earth (page 125, 126).

There is plenty in this quote that I will not take the time to discuss, such as Native American religion and the Christian world view that calls people to take care of the earth versus the idea to worship Mother Earth. The question I will stay with is whether ‘sex as temple worship’ is ever compatible with Biblical worship, past or present.

I would define the context of the Jewish religion as that which was practiced from the time of Moses through the time of Jesus. As a note of history, Moses led the people of Israel out of Egypt where in the desert Jewish religion was established. The Law was given, including the Ten Commandments. The Ark of the Covenant was built during the time of Moses and Jewish temple worship was started with the Ark in a tent until Solomon built the permanent Temple. Foundational to the Jewish faith is the fact that God gave them their religion. It did not evolve from paganism and it cannot be attributed to the intelligence or charisma of Moses. To remove the sections of the books of Moses that include “God says” is to leave the Jews with no religion.

In this context The Da Vinci Code includes this quote,

"Langdon’s Jewish students always looked flabbergasted when he first told them that the early Jewish tradition involved ritualistic sex. In the Temple, no less. Early Jews believed that the Holy of Holies in Solomon’s Temple housed not only God but also His powerful female equal, Shekinah” (page 309).
Temple worship before the God of Israel was never promoted by godly priests, encouraged by the prophets, or practiced by men and women of Scripture who were held in high regard. There may have been some fertility worship practiced by early Jews in non-Jewish temples with an example of Judah visiting who he thought was a temple prostitute in Genesis 38. I would emphasize that this account took place before the time of Moses and the giving of the Law.

Following the time of Moses, evil leaders like King Ahab and his wife Jezebel brought worship of Baal (male deity) and Asherah (female deity) into the temple and religious life at Jerusalem. God’s first response was seven years of no rain. The prophet of God at this time was Elijah. Jezebel was killing the prophets of God and leading the nation of Israel in worship of these pagan gods. After seven years of famine, Elijah called for a showdown between the God of Israel and the prophets of Baal. I Kings 18 tells the story of God sending down fire from heaven on Mount Carmel, while the prophets of Baal shouted for Baal to send fire and even cut themselves to no avail. The Bible is clear that God is highly offended by pagan fertility worship within the Jewish Temple. Our modern culture continues to use the name Jezebel as an expression of an evil woman.

A clear expression of a biblical view of sexual relations is found in Leviticus 18 which begins,

The LORD said to Moses, “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘I am the LORD your God. You must not do as they do in Egypt, where you use to live, and you must not do as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you. Do not follow their practices. You must obey my laws and be careful to follow my decrees. I am the LORD your God. Keep my decrees and laws, for the man who obeys them will live by them. I am the LORD’” (Lev. 18:1-5). The chapter goes on to describe 17 different sexual relationships that God forbids. Most have to do with not sleeping with relatives, but notable for today is condemnation of homosexual sex. There is one non-sexual sin listed in the chapter which reads, “Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molech, for you must not profane the name of your God. I am the LORD” (Lev. 18:21). I suggest that it is clear that sexual sin in the day of Moses was very closely tied to pagan worship. Moses is saying in a nutshell that the followers of the LORD (Yahweh) are not to be like the pagan worshippers whom they encounter in the other nations.

I return to the above quote from page 309 of The Da Vinci Code which speaks of God and “His powerful female equal, Shekinah.” The Hebrew word Shekinah is the product of two words, ‘sakan’ meaning ‘to dwell, abide, or live among’ and ‘Yahweh,’ the personal name of God. When Shekinah is used it is simply an expression of the presence of this same God who is most often described as male.

While I’m on the topic of Dan Brown’s distortion of the name for God I include the following quote, “The Jewish tetragrammaton YHWH – the sacred name of God – in fact derived from Jehovah, an androgynous physical union between the masculine Jah and the pre-Hebraic name for Eve, Havah.” (page 309) The truth in this sentence is that YHWH is the sacred name for God. The rest of the sentence is fiction. Jehovah is a name for God which developed in English and was made popular by the King James Version of the Bible in 1611. The ancient Jews had so much respect for the personal name of God that they preferred to use Adonai (meaning Lord) instead of saying Yahweh. The Hebrew of the Bible is written without vowels so YHWH is Yahweh. Jewish scribes later added vowels and placed the vowels of Adonai in the word YHWH to help the readers. Jehovah is a combination of the consonants of Yahweh and the vowels of Adonai. Point being, Yahweh does not derive from Jehovah (it’s the other way around) and Jehovah is not the merging of the feminine and masculine. My best guess is that Dan Brown came up with his idea for “Jah” while listening to the music of Bob Marley.

Related to the topic of fertility worship is the idea that the church has dirtied sex to make itself the avenue to God, rather than sexual pleasure. It is fair to say that over time celibacy was exalted by the priesthood and the church has at times been guilty of dirtying sex, even within marriage. Much of the dirtying of sex by the church came during the Middle Ages when celibacy became a requirement for the priesthood and few Christians had access to what the Bible taught about sex.

The Bible teaches that sex and marriage are God’s ideas. Song of Solomon is a book in the Old Testament that is about sexual attraction between lovers. This book has been historically used as poems read at a Jewish marriage. It should be noted that the book of Song of Solomon has made many Christians uncomfortable over the years because of how descriptive it is of sexual union, being even more graphic in Hebrew than in English. Some Christian teachers have tried to reconcile their prudish view of sex and the Song of Solomon by saying that the book really describes the relationship between Jesus and the Church. It is clear that God designed sex as something good in the right relationship.

The Bible is also consistent in condemning sex outside of marriage. The Ten Commandments include, “You shall not commit adultery.” (Ex 20:14) King David is judged for sleeping with Bethsheba, a woman married to another man. The Old Testament gives guidelines for divorce and remarriage so that sex can stay within the marriage relationship. The account of the virgin birth of Jesus includes the detail that Joseph wanted to quietly divorce Mary when it was learnt that she was pregnant in the time of their engagement. Clearly it was not acceptable for an unmarried woman in the first century Jewish world to be pregnant.

To complicate the issue is that fact that the Apostle Paul advocated the goodness of celibacy in I Corinthians 7 because the unmarried person freed from family responsibilities can be concerned with working in the church. The same chapter encouraging celibacy includes “But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.” (I Cor 7:9) Paul takes a very balanced approach to the issue of singleness verses marriage, and the underlying principle is that sex is for the marriage relationship.

To summarize the Bible’s teaching on sex, it is intended for marriage as a gift from God, sex outside of marriage is sinful, and celibacy is a good option for those who desire to follow the example of Paul (and Jesus), but is not morally superior.

The Pagan view of sex advocated by The Da Vinci Code, clearly stands in contradiction to the Jewish and Christian teachings on sex and marriage. Any attempt to make them compatible comes at the expense of an accurate portrayal of history.

Next:

Could Christianity largely be the product of Constantine's creation?