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Breaking The Da Vinci Code : Answers to the Questions Everybody's Asking

Breaking The Da Vinci Code : Answers to the Questions Everybody's Asking

List Price: $19.99
Your Price: $13.59
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The best of the bunch
Review: The people who wrote the last couple negative reviews seem more to be taken in by Dan Brown. Bock is indeed a scholar but yet his book is simple and understandable. It gives a clear look at Brown's claims and why they are false. I recommend this book over the others out there. The Wall Street Journal called this "the best of the bunch" when it comes to books about The DaVinci Code.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Big Dissapointment; Try a different "Cracking the DVC" book.
Review: There's about a dozen or so books out today on the subject of the Da Vinci Code. "Cracking the Code", "Da Vinci Decoded", "Fact and Fiction and the Da Vinci Code", "De-Coding Da Vinci". Out of the dozen or so that are out, I've read or skimmed through 5 or 6 of them, and of them this is the worst.

This book has a very nice presentation. The cover design is very good, the author's credentials are listed on the cover, and there are good blurbs on the back. The description on the book jacket flap makes this book out to be just what you're looking for.

Wrong. This book is not effective at all. First off, the approach the author makes to de-coding Da Vinci makes no sense. For example, in the first chapter, "Who was Mary Magdalene?" he uses the Bible to show evidence that Jesus was in fact not married to Mary Magdalene. This is stupid for two reasons.

1)The novel claims that the Bible is a cover-up, so how can you use the accused cover-up to disprove the theory. That doesn't prove anything.

2)He deeply investigates the four canonical gospel to show that Jesus wasn't married, he'll say like "After you read the verse in John 10, you'll see that it wouldn't make sense for Jesus to be married if you also read Luke 7". You don't need to examine the gospels to see if Jesus wasn't married. If you simply read through them there is no way you could get the inkling he was married, AT ALL. So what's the point? Stupid.

So in the end, this book was a major dissapointment. Thankfully, there ARE some EXCELLENT books out there that actually do what this book attempted. If you're going to buy just one book de-bunking the Da Vinci Code, make it "Secrets of the Code" or "Cracking the Code", not this horrible attempt.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Cut to the chase
Review: These books that are using the Da Vinci Code to advance another agenda really bug me. Just go through the book and clear up the mistakes, answer the questions. We don't need the evangelizing, and so on. I resent books like this.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Dismissing The Da Vinci Code
Review: This book is a hoax, it has nothing to do with breaking the Da Vinci Code. The name was simply used to tie it to Dan Brown's book so that this shallow attack on Dan Brown would sell more copies. The book dismisses everything contained in the Da Vinci Code - in most instances simply stating that the views contained therein cannot be proven and must therefore be wrong, even though there is no proof to the contrary. Bock is more concerned with protecting the status quo than he is with exploring the issues brought up by Dan Brown. Why doesn't he address why Da Vinci placed Mary Magdalene on the right hand of Jesus at the Last Supper? My guess is that he can't explain it - and thereby would be promoting the mystique he is trying to suppress. Dan Brown's book is fiction and I never accepted it as fact, but Bock is about as convincing in defense of his views as the Inquisition was in condemning Galeleo's view that the Earth revolves around the Sun. In the end, I was left wondering if there is more to the Da Vinci Code than I had previously believed. My advise is to skip this book and buy "Holy Blood, Holy Grail."

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Best Christian Rebuttal Yet!
Review: This book is the third title I have read of Christian rebuttals to "The DaVinci Code." While the first two books were good, this one is the best yet. Bock's points are clear, concise, and easy to follow. The author here doesn't simply advance his own agenda, but instead offers a defense to the various accusations leveled against Christianity in the best-selling fictional novel.

Bock gives detailed attention to Mary Magdalene, a personality central to Brown's hypothesis. Bock explains logically and historically why the idea of Jesus being unmarried as a Jewish rabbi is completely acceptable. Bock then addresses the lack of credibility of the secret, Gnostic gospels. He emphasizes that they were considered as non-authoritative long before the Council of Nicea in A.D. 325.

The author here also makes a few points of his own about the mindset present in "The DaVinci Code" and why it has such a powerful appeal to today's society. If you want to read just one book to provide a scholarly, Christian rebuttal, this title is it. The insight contained in these pages is well worth the price.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Informative
Review: This book was very informative. If you go to this book looking for an easy answer to all the questions rought up in the Da Vinci Code, you will be let down. The book is riddled with quotes from early church fathers and ancient Gnostic "gospels". I really enjoyed this but it contains a lot of info and can be boring if you are not too interested in the topic. This is the best book that talks of the Davinci Code!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: RIP OFF
Review: This book, contrary to its misleading title, is not about "Breaking the Da Vinci Code." Bock entirely omits repsonding to three of the THE most important things in Brown's novel:

1. Da VInci's paintings
2. Goddess worship
3. Ancient religion

Reading through this thing made me feel like Gene Hackman in the movie Birdcage, where he can't understand what's going on and says, "I feel like I'm insane." Same thing. Here's a book about Da Vinci, but guess what?-it doesn't talk about Da Vinci!

Waste waste waste = really irritated. And I blew my last book money ration for this month on this thing. Well, I hope Bock is happy. Maybe I could write "Da Vinci for Dummies," yet inside really talk about everything else but. Maybe I'd make some cash too. Good going Bock.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Title Lies
Review: This is NOT a breaking of Da Vinci's codes. This is NOT a book that answers the questions "everybody's asking."

Instead, Bock just presents a treatise that defends Christianity as a religion, beginning with Constantine's era around 325 A.D.

As other reviewers have commented, this is a most shocking display of false advertising in that Bock steers clear of making any attempt to address what Dan Brown has said about hidden codes in Leonardo's Da Vinci's works of art-terrible.

Bock also ignores other important aspects of Brown's book: for example, goddess worship, ancient religions, symbology. Bock seems completely out of touch with what people are really asking.

Don't waste your money fellow readers.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z Boring Book by Bock
Review: This is yet another attempt to cash in on Dan Brown's brilliant thriller "The Da Vinci Code". It is as dull and uninteresting a book as you will find this year. Bock's book is a bust. It may appeal to the PH.D. crowd, but if you are seeking a book that enhances the information in "The Da Vinci Code", this one is a pass. Save your money unless you have trouble sleeping at night.


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