A history lesson

Berg's writings are peppered with historical references that members take as established fact and are meant to reinforce a particular message Berg is trying to impart. (just think of his Holocaust denials) In the following compilation, Berg relates what he claims to be a true story about Leonardo da Vinci. However, in a new, comprehensive biography of da Vinci, the story as uncovered by the meticulous historian is very different.


BITTERNESS!--The Deadly Root that Devours & Destroys! (From Dad & Mama's Letters--Compiled by Apollos.) DFO 2672 Comp.11/90

10. The way that bitterness can hinder your ministry & effectiveness is illustrated in the following true story about the great artist & engineer, Leonardo da Vinci: Just before he commenced work on his famous painting of "The Last Supper" he had a violent quarrel with a fellow painter. He was so enraged & bitter that he decided to paint the face of his enemy, the other artist, into the face of Judas, & thus take his revenge by handing the man down in infamy & scorn to succeeding generations. The face of Judas was therefore one of the first that he finished, & everyone could easily recognise it as the face of the painter with whom da Vinci had quarreled.

11. But when he came to paint the face of Jesus, he could make no progress. Something seemed to be baffling him, holding him back, frustrating his best efforts. At length he came to the conclusion that the thing that was checking & frustrating him was the fact that he had painted his enemy into the face of Judas. He therefore painted out the face of Judas & commenced anew on the face of Jesus, & this time with the success which the ages have acclaimed.

12. How clearly this incident shows us that we cannot at one & the same time be painting the features of Christ into our own life, & be painting another face with the colours of enmity & hatred. To become more Christ-like, & to accomplish what the Lord wants you to do, surely all bitterness & hatred must be "put away" & "laid aside."

Now compare Berg's anecdote with a passage from this comprehensive new biography:

"Leonardo da Vinci: Flights of the Mind" by Charles Nicholl, Viking Penguin, 2004, pp. 297-98

"Of the face of Judas in Leonardo's Last Supper there is a well-known anecdote in Vasari: how the prior of the Grazie constantly badgered Leonardo `to hurry up and finish the work', and complained of the artist's dilatoriness to the Duke. In response Leonardo told Ludovico he was still
searching for a face evil enough to represent Judas, but that if he did not succeed `he could always use the head of that tactless and impatient prior' as a model. At this the Duke roared with laughter, and `the unfortunate prior retired in confusion to worry the labourers working in his garden.' This is one of those Vasarian anecdotes that proves to have a kernel of truth, or at least of contemporary witness. The story is lifted from the Discorsi of Giambattista Giraldi Cintio, published in 1554, and Cintio in turn had it from his father, Cristoforo Giraldi, a Ferrarese diplomat who knew Leonardo personally in Milan. The Giraldi version of the story purports to be a record of Leonardo's own words:

"It remains for me to do the head of Judas, who was the great betrayer, as you all know, and so deserves to be painted with a face that expresses all his wickedness ... And so for a year now, perhaps more, I have been going every day, morning and evening, down to the Borghetto, where all the base and ignoble characters live, most of them evil and wicked, in the hope that I will see a face which would be fit for this evil man. And to this day I have not found one ... and if it turns out I cannot find one I will have to use the face of this reverend father, the prior."

"Whether or not the story is true, we are close here to an authentic recording of Leonardo. This is how Cristoforo Giraldi, who knew him, remembers or imagines him speaking: 'Ogni giorno, sera e mattina, mi sono ridotto in Borghetto . . .'"


Note some of the obvious differences between the two accounts:

-Berg claims, without qualification, that the story is true,whereas a real historian is very careful in declaring historical facts.

-Berg claims that the face of Judas was the first one finished and Christ's the last, whereas the evidence points to just the opposite, that Judas was the last one finished

-Berg says that the face da Vinci used as a model for Judas was a fellow artist with whom he had a violent quarrel, whereas the evidence is that there was no quarrel or enmity with a fellow artist involved.

I think that on any number of historical issues we would find similar errors and even deliberate misleadings in many of Berg's writings. Though this particular anecdote is not too important in itself, it demonstrates how Berg misinterpreted and misused history, or was completely ignorant, which is important when it comes to more weighty matters such as the Holocaust.