Jeruselem
25-01-2005, 13:50
Official Ruling of the Jeruselem Trinity Council
After deliberations with senior members of Jeruselem's religious community and several prominent Jeruselem authors, it has been ruled the book The Da Vinci Code written by Dan Brown is not to be sold in Jeruselem by any organisation for commercial or other purposes.
It was ruled this book, even though it is being sold as a piece of fiction, had too many inaccuracies used to support it's plot. The author Dan Brown claims to use real historical and factual evidence to write this book, but the council found several blatant errors which contradict this stance.
For example, the author's explanation of name of God.
A glaring error is found in character Robert Langdon’s explanation of the origin of the tetragrammaton —YHWH (pronounced as Yahweh)— the sacred name of God, which observant Jews believe should not be uttered. Langdon claims that YHWH comes from the name Jehovah, which he insists is an androgynous union between “the masculine Jah and the pre-Hebraic name for Eve, Havah.” A quick trip to the encyclopedia (or theological dictionary, if you prefer) shows that Langdon is wildly off the mark. The name “Jehovah” didn’t even exist until the thirteenth century at the earliest (and wasn’t common until the sixteenth century), and is an English word. It was created by artificially combining the consonants of YHWH (or JHVH) and the vowels of Adonai (which means “Lord”), the name substituted for YHWH in the Old Testament by Jews. The Hebrew—not “pre-Hebraic”—word for Eve is hawwâ, (pronounced “havah”), which means “mother of all living.” There is absolutely nothing androgynous about any of this, but that dubious assertion is in keeping with the neognostic flavor of the novel.
The decision is final.
After deliberations with senior members of Jeruselem's religious community and several prominent Jeruselem authors, it has been ruled the book The Da Vinci Code written by Dan Brown is not to be sold in Jeruselem by any organisation for commercial or other purposes.
It was ruled this book, even though it is being sold as a piece of fiction, had too many inaccuracies used to support it's plot. The author Dan Brown claims to use real historical and factual evidence to write this book, but the council found several blatant errors which contradict this stance.
For example, the author's explanation of name of God.
A glaring error is found in character Robert Langdon’s explanation of the origin of the tetragrammaton —YHWH (pronounced as Yahweh)— the sacred name of God, which observant Jews believe should not be uttered. Langdon claims that YHWH comes from the name Jehovah, which he insists is an androgynous union between “the masculine Jah and the pre-Hebraic name for Eve, Havah.” A quick trip to the encyclopedia (or theological dictionary, if you prefer) shows that Langdon is wildly off the mark. The name “Jehovah” didn’t even exist until the thirteenth century at the earliest (and wasn’t common until the sixteenth century), and is an English word. It was created by artificially combining the consonants of YHWH (or JHVH) and the vowels of Adonai (which means “Lord”), the name substituted for YHWH in the Old Testament by Jews. The Hebrew—not “pre-Hebraic”—word for Eve is hawwâ, (pronounced “havah”), which means “mother of all living.” There is absolutely nothing androgynous about any of this, but that dubious assertion is in keeping with the neognostic flavor of the novel.
The decision is final.