Bob Dylan And The DylavincI Code (Part V)

by Larry Fyffe

Just then a bolt of lightning 
Struck the courthouse out of shape
And while everybody knelt to pray
The drifter did escape
(Drifter's Escape)

Clues that pop up in the song lyrics of Bob Dylan indicate that the Dylavinci Code (discovered by our intrepid research team at Untold Dylan headquarters) agree with the Christian legend that Mary Magdalene, and her sister Martha, along with Lazarus, journey to southern France, the land of oaks, after Jesus is supposedly crucified:

And as they led Him away
They laid hold of one Simon, a Cyrenian
Coming out of the country
And on him they laid the cross
(Luke 23:26)

According to the legend, Mary, Martha and Lazarus endeavour to convert the French pagans; in symbolic language akin to gnostic writings, Martha is responsible for the killing of a sphinx-like creature similar to the beast featured in Greek mythology.

So encoded in the song lyrics quoted beneath:

Ring them bells Sweet Martha for the poor man's son
Ring them bells so the world will know that God is one
Oh, the shepherd is asleep
Where the willows weep
And the mountains are filled with lost sheep
(Ring Them Bells)

Quickly noticed by our biblical scholars is that the “shepherd” Jesus, a Jewish rabbi, is missing, and that God is not referred to as a Trinity. Nor is there any mention of ‘original sin’ as interpreted by St. Jerome in the Vulgate Bible.

The Christian legend has it that Mary dies in France, but, according to the Dylavinci Code, Jesus and His pregnant wife Mary Magdalene simply split up in France for safety reasons, and the two later meet in Tangier, Morocco.

Gathered from the following Dylanesque clue provided in the song lyrics quoted beneath, Jesus being cast as the narrator therein:

If you see her, say 'Hello'
She might be in Tangier
She left here last early spring
Is living there I hear
(If You See Her Say Hello)

In his typical ‘character sketch’ approach to interpreting Dylan’s lyrics, David Weir concludes that the narrator of the above song lyrics is “bitter, dominating, false, inconsistent…”

Dear reader, you can tell the sad-eyed lady Mary Magdalene that this isn’t so.

Strawberry Fields await her:

Night speeds by, and we, Aeneas, lose it in lament
Here comes the place where cleaves our way in twain
The road, the right, toward Pluto's dwelling place goes
And leads us to Elysian Fields
And the left hurries us to our doom
(Virgil: The Aeneid, Book VI ~ translated)

The breaking of the Dylavinci Code lies exclusively beyond the locked doors of the Untold Archives Department:

Wisdom, who is called barren, is the mother of angels
The companion of the Saviour is Mary Magdalene
And He kissed her often on the lips
(Gospel Of Philip)

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