Chapter 57 Chapter Fifty-Five

Sophie sat on the couch next to Langdon, drinking tea and scones, enjoying the delicious food.Sir Ray Teabing smiled and paced awkwardly up and down in front of the fire.The prosthetic leg hit the ground, making a "ding ding" sound. "About the Holy Grail," Teabing said in a preachy tone, "many people just want to know where it is, and I'm afraid I'll never be able to answer that question." He turned and stared at Sophie. "However, the more important question should be: What is the Holy Grail?" Sophie felt that both men were very concerned about this.

Teabing continued, "To fully understand the Holy Grail, you must first understand the Bible. How much do you know about the New Testament?" Sophie shrugged and said, "Not at all, really. I was raised by a man who believed in Leonardo da Vinci." Teabing was both surprised and appreciative of this. "What an enlightened man. Great! Then you must know that Leonardo is one of the keepers of the secret of the Holy Grail. He keeps it in his writings." "Yes, Robert said so too." "So, do you know what da Vinci thought of the New Testament?" "have no idea."

Teabing happily pointed to the bookshelf opposite, and said, "Robert, please take that "The Tale of Da Vinci" from the bottom of the shelf." Langdon walked across the room, found a large art book on a shelf, brought it back, and set it on the table.Teabing turned the book to Sophie, opened the heavy cover, pointed to a few lines of quotations on the back cover and said, "These are taken from da Vinci's notes on polemics and methods of thinking." He pointed to one of them "I think you'll find that this line is relevant to what we're discussing."

Sophie read the words above. Many deliberately create illusions and false miracles to deceive the masses. ——Leonardo da Vinci Teabing pointed to another line: "There are more." Ignorance blinds our eyes and leads us astray.Ah! Poor people on earth, open your eyes! —Leonardo da Vinci Sophie felt a chill. "Is Da Vinci talking about the Bible?" Teabing nodded and said, "Leonardo's view of the Bible has a direct relationship to the Holy Grail. In fact, Da Vinci drew the real Holy Grail, and I'll show it to you in a moment. However, we You have to talk about the Bible first." Teabing paused, then smiled and said, "Everything you need to know about the Bible can be summed up in a single sentence from the great church physician, Martin Percy." Teabing Clearing his throat, he said loudly, "The Bible is not a fax from heaven."

"what did you say?" "Honey, the Bible was made by man, not by God. The Bible didn't magically fall from a cloud. It was created by man to record tumultuous times in history. Over the years, it has survived Numerous translations and additions. There has never been a definitive Bible." "Oh." "Jesus was an enormously influential historical figure, perhaps the most enigmatic and most inspiring leader the world has ever known. As the prophesied savior, he overwhelmed kings, inspired millions, and founded A new philosophy. As a descendant of King Solomon and King David, Jesus had every right to claim the throne of King of Judea. It is not surprising, then, that his life was recorded by thousands of followers.” Teabing Pausing, taking a sip of tea, and returning the cup to the mantelpiece, he continued: "The original New Testament is thought to have more than eighty gospels, but only a few have survived, Among them are "Matthew's Gospel", "Mark's Gospel", "Luther's Gospel" and "John's Gospel", etc." Sophie asked, "Who completed the work of collecting the Gospels?"

"Aha!" Teabing burst out with great enthusiasm. "This is the greatest irony of Christianity! The Bible as we know it today was put together by the pagan emperor Constantine the Great in Rome." Sophie said, "I thought Constantine was a Christian." Teabing said disdainfully, "Not at all. He was a pagan all his life and was only baptized on his deathbed because he was powerless by then. During Constantine's lifetime, the official religion in Rome was sun worship." Christianity - believe in the religion of the 'invincible sun', and Constantine was the archbishop at the time. Unfortunately, however, a religious riot in Rome intensified. Three hundred years after Jesus was crucified, his followers It grew exponentially. Christians and pagans began to clash, and the contradictions intensified. Finally, the two sides even threatened to divide Rome into two. Constantine was determined to intervene in this matter. In 325 AD, he decided to use one religion to unify Rome. That's Christianity."

Sophie asked in surprise, "Why would a pagan emperor choose Christianity as the state religion?" Teabing laughed. "Constantine was a very shrewd businessman. Because he saw that Christianity was on the rise, he just wanted to support the side that could win. Historians still have the heroism of Constantine." Cai Weiluo is greatly appreciated, because he actually converted those sun worshippers to Christianity. He incorporated pagan signs, dates and rituals into the growing Christianity, thus creating a hybrid acceptable to both parties. religion." Langdon said: "It is actually a metamorphosis. Many traces of paganism can be found in Christian symbols. The Egyptian sun disc was transformed into a halo on the head of a Catholic saint. Isis, the ancient Egyptian goddess of fertility, embraced her son Horo, the god of light. Si's murals provided the blueprint for the portrait of the Virgin Mary holding the baby Jesus. Almost all Catholic ceremonies—such as the bishop's crowning, the altar, the singing of praises in the liturgy, and the receiving of the Holy Communion, etc.—are directly From those early occult pagan religions."

Teabing sighed: "Don't let a semiotician study Christian icons. None of those icons belong to Christianity itself. The pre-Christian god Mystra—in Persian mythology is called the 'Son of God' ' or 'Light of the World', the God of Light - was born on December 25th. He was buried in a stone tomb after his death and resurrected three days later. In addition, December 25th is also the ancient The birthday of the god of the underworld, the beautiful man Adonis in ancient Greek mythology, and Dionysus, the god of wine. The newly born God Krishna will also be enshrined with gold and frankincense. Even the weekly Sunday of Christianity is Stolen from heretics."

"Why do you say this way?" Langdon said: "Originally, Christianity observes the Jewish Sabbath, but Constantine changed it to the day when pagans worship the sun." He paused and said with a smile: "Today, Most people will go to church on Sunday morning. But they don't know that it is the day when pagans worship the sun god once a week, which is the 'Sun Day'." Sophie was dazed. "So, is this all about the Holy Grail?" Teabing said: "It has nothing to do with it at all. Please listen to me. In this great religious integration, Constantine needed to strengthen the cornerstone of the new Christianity, so he formed the famous 'Nicaea Federation' to unite the world's church."

Sophie knew that Nicaea was the birthplace of the Nicene Creed. "At this convention people debated and voted on many aspects of Christianity, things like the date of Easter, the role of bishops and the administration of the sacraments, and of course the divinity of Jesus," Teabing said. "I don't quite understand. What does divinity mean?" Teabing exclaimed, "Before that time, my dear, Jesus' followers thought he was a mortal prophet, a man of great power and power. But anyway, he was a man, a man." "Not the Son of God?" Teabing said, "No. 'Jesus is the Son of God' was an official statement that was voted on at the Council of Nicea."

"Wait a minute. You're saying Jesus' divinity was a result of a vote?" Teabing added: "The results of the vote were relatively close and almost failed. But in any case, establishing the divinity of Jesus is crucial to the further unification of the Roman Empire and the strengthening of the power of the Vatican Center. By means of establishing the divinity of Jesus , Constantine turned Jesus into a god detached from the human world and whose power cannot be violated. This not only opened the prelude to the pagans further challenging Christianity, but also made the followers of Christ only through the Roman Catholic Church—— The only sure divine way - to atone for one's own sin." Sophie glanced at Langdon and nodded in approval. Teabing continued: "The establishment of Jesus as Messiah was critical to the full functioning of the Roman Church and the government of the Roman Empire. Many scholars have claimed that the early Roman Church stole Jesus from his original followers and obliterated him. As the gist of man, wrap him in the cloak of an inviolable god, and thereby amplify their own power. I have written several books on this." "Those devout Christians send you a hateful letter every day?" Teabing disagreed: "Why would they send that letter? The vast majority of educated Christians know the history of Christianity and that Jesus was a great and capable man. Constantine's sleazy political sleight of hand doesn't take away one bit The greatness of Jesus. No one would say that Jesus was a liar, or deny that he walked the world and inspired millions to a better life. All we are saying is that Constantine made a significant impact by using Jesus and dignified status have shaped Christianity today." Sophie glanced at the art book in front of her, eager to leave and look at Da Vinci's painting of the Holy Grail. Teabing sped up his speech: "The twist here is that since Constantine did not make Jesus a god until four hundred years after his death, there are thousands of documents still in circulation that record Jesus' mortal life. In order to rewrite history, Constantine knew he had to take bold action. Thus, the most far-reaching event in the history of Christianity happened." Teabing paused, staring at Sophie, and continued: "Constantine Order and finance a new Bible that cuts out the Gospels that extol the virtues of Jesus as a mortal and embellishes those that describe Him as Godlike .The earlier Gospels were banned and burned." Langdon took up the conversation: "It is very interesting that those who choose to ban books instead of reading the "Bible" formulated by Constantine are called heretics. The word 'pagan' came from that time. Latin The word 'pagan' means 'choice'. Those who 'choose' the true history of Christianity became the first batch of 'pagans' in the world who were excluded from Christianity." Teabing said: "Let Fortunately for historians, a portion of the gospel that Constantine tried to destroy survives. The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in a cave near the ancient Palestine village of Qom in the Jewish Desert in the 1950s. And, of course, the Coptic Scrolls, which were discovered in Nag Hannah in 1945. These documents not only tell the true story of the Holy Grail, but also show unequivocally that Jesus was a mortal priest. Of course, the Vatican In order to maintain its tradition of deceiving the people, it tried to prevent the publication of these ancient scrolls. Why did they do this? The reason is simple. The Bible was actually written by people with ulterior motives. Those who made the mortal Jesus Christ a god and used his influence to bolster their own power." Langdon disputes this. "However, it is also important to know that the desire of the contemporary Holy See to suppress these documents is indeed based on their sincere belief in Jesus. Of course, this belief is from their established perspective. Today's Vatican Center is composed of those who are very pious. consisted of believers who actually believed that the negative material was perjury." Teabing sat comfortably on the chair opposite Sophie, and said with a smile, "As you can see, our professor is much more merciful to the Church of Rome than I am! But anyway, he's right, Today's priests do think that these negative materials are perjury. However, this is also understandable. After all, the "Bible" formulated by Constantine for thousands of years is their only truth. No ^ can get more than those enlightened Much enlightenment." Langdon said, "What he meant was that we believe in the God that our fathers passed on to us." Teabing retorted, "No, I mean, everything our fathers taught us about Jesus is false. About the Holy Grail." Sophie looked at the words of Da Vinci in the book again.Ignorance blinds our eyes and leads us astray.Ah! Poor people on earth, open your eyes! Teabing picked up the book and turned to the middle. "Finally, before I show you Da Vinci's painting of the Holy Grail, take a look at this." He turned to a colored picture that took up two full pages. "I think you must recognize the fresco." Was he joking? Sophie was looking at a world-famous painting - Leonardo da Vinci's fresco for the Chapel of Gratitude near Milan - The Last Supper.The weathered fresco depicts Jesus announcing to his disciples that he would be betrayed. "I know the painting." "Then allow me to play a little trick. Please close your eyes." Sophie closed her eyes, wondering what tricks he was going to play. Teabing asked, "Where is Jesus sitting?" "middle." "Okay. So, what food are they handing out and enjoying?" "Bread." Do you even need to ask? "Very well. So, what are they drinking?" "Wine, they're drinking." "Very good. One last question. How many glasses are there on the table?" Sophie froze for a moment, then immediately realized it was a trap.After the meal, Jesus took the wine cup and passed it to his disciples in turn, sharing the wine.She said, "One. And a goblet." Jesus' cup.holy grail. "Jesus passed on a goblet like the one Christians use today at communion." Teabing sighed and said, "Then open your eyes." Sophie opened her eyes to see Teabing smiling smugly at her.She looked down at the painting, and to her surprise, everyone at the table was holding a cup in their hand, even Jesus.There are thirteen cups.And these glasses are flat glass shot glasses.There are no goblets in the painting at all.There is no Holy Grail. Teabing blinked and said, "Strange, isn't it? According to the "Bible" and the legend of the Holy Grail, the Holy Grail should appear at this time. But the strange thing is that Da Vinci seems to have forgotten to draw the Holy Grail." "The art experts are sure to be aware of this problem." "You will be surprised to find that most experts either did not notice the anomaly in the painting, or deliberately turned a blind eye to it. In fact, this mural is the key to the secret of the Holy Grail. Da Vinci painted this secret majestically On The Last Supper." Sophie eyed the painting eagerly. "Does this fresco tell us what the Holy Grail is?" Teabing said softly, "It's not a thing, it's a person. The Holy Grail isn't an object. In fact, it's... a person."