In a few short years, Dan Brown’s 2003 novel, The Da Vinci Code, became one of the most widely read books of all time. The 2006 Ron Howard Hollywood movie starring Tom Hanks only made the novel all the more popular.

Why such a blockbuster for a novel about Jesus?

Because it was well-written? Because it was well-researched?

No, the real reason The Da Vinci Code caught fire was because it served up a juicy heretical tidbit as its main course: the suggestion that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married and that they produced children. Not only did Brown’s story suggest Jesus had a normal married relationship with a woman, the driving force behind the book’s plot-line is that the bloodline of Jesus and Mary still continues.

In other words, the “scandal” of the Jesus story is that there are d…