The Da Vinci Code

In Teabing’s cavernous study, Sophie asks about the identity of the Holy Grail which Sir Leigh claims to have a picture of. Teabing points to a much larger version of The Last Supper hanging on his wall. The figure to the right of Jesus, Sophie notices, is not one of the disciples as she had always assumed but a woman: Mary Magdalene. Further, Mary Magdalene was not a prostitute as reputed, but the victim of a “smear campaign” by the Church to delegitimize her importance in Jesus’s inner circle. She was, in fact, his wife. As evidence, Teabing cites their similar clothing; also, the composition of the two figures—connected but leaning away from each other, forming a v within the negative space between them, the symbol for the chalice and for the female womb. As further proof, Langdon cites Jewish custom which held strong taboos against bachelorhood. If Jesus was unmarried, at least one of the historical records would have noted the anomaly. Pulling a copy of The Gnostic Gospels from his shelf, Teabing opens to The Gospel of Phillip, which refers to Magdalene as Christ’s “companion,” which means “spouse” in Aramaic. Further, the gospels contend that Jesus entrusted his nascent church to his wife, and that some of the apostles, Peter specifically, were jealous, not only of her favored status but also of her royal bloodline (she was a descendant of the powerful Tribe of Benjamin).