The Golden Legend
The Life of Saint Mary Magdalen
ere followeth the life of Saint Mary Magdalene, and first of her name.
Mary is as much to say as bitter, or a lighter, or lighted. By this be understood three things that be three, the best parts that she chose. That is to say, part of penance, part of contemplation within forth, and part of heavenly glory. And of this treble part is understood that is said by our Lord: Mary hath chosen the best part, which shall not be taken from her. The first part shall not be taken from her because of the end, which is the following of blessedness; the second because of continuance, for the continuance of her life is continued with the contemplation of her country. The third by reason of perdurableness; and forasmuch as she chose the best part of penance, she is said: a bitter sea, for therein she had much bitterness. And that appeared in that she wept so many tears that she washed therewith the feet of our Lord. And for so much as she chose the part of contemplation withinforth, she is a lighter, for there she took so largely that she spread it abundantly. She took the light there, with which after she enlumined other, and in that she chose the best part of the heavenly glory, she is called the light. For then she was enlumined of perfect knowledge in thought, and with the light in clearness of body. Magdalene is as much as to say as abiding culpable. Or Magdalene is interpreted as closed or shut, or not to be overcome. Or full of magnificence, by which is showed what she was tofore her conversion, and what in her conversion, and what after her conversion. For tofore her conversion she was abiding guilty by obligation to everlasting pain. In the conversion she was garnished by armour of penance. She was in the best wise garnished with penance. For as many delices as she had in her, so many sacrifices were found in her. And after her conversion she was praised by overabundance of grace. For whereas sin abounded, grace overabounded, and was more, etc.
Of Mary Magdalene.
Mary Magdalene had her surname of Magdalo, a castle, and was born of right noble lineage and parents, which were descended of the lineage of kings. And her father was named Cyrus, and her mother Eucharis. She with her brother Lazarus, and her sister Martha, possessed the castle of Magdalo, which is two miles from Nazareth, and Bethany, the castle which is nigh to Jerusalem, and also a great part of Jerusalem, which, all these things they departed among them. In such wise that Mary had the castle Magdalo, whereof she had her name Magdalene. And Lazarus had the part of the city of Jerusalem, and Martha had to her part Bethany. And when Mary gave herself to all delights of the body, and Lazarus entended all to knighthood, Martha, which was wise, governed nobly her brother's part and also her sister's, and also her own, and administered to knights, and her servants, and to poor men, such necessities as they needed. Nevertheless, after the ascension of our Lord, they sold all these things, and brought the value thereof, and laid it at the feet of the apostles. Then when Magdalene abounded in riches, and because delight is fellow to riches and abundance of things; and for so much as she shone in beauty greatly, and in riches, so much the more she submitted her body to delight, and therefore she lost her right name, and was called customably a sinner. And when our Lord Jesu Christ preached there and in other places, she was inspired with the Holy Ghost, and went into the house of Simon leprous, whereas our Lord dined. Then she durst not, because she was a sinner, appear tofore the just and good people, but remained behind at the feet of our Lord, and washed his feet with the tears of her eyes and dryed them with the hair of her head, and anointed them with precious ointments. For the inhabitants of that region used baths and ointments for the overgreat burning and heat of the sun. And because that Simon the Pharisee thought in himself that, if our Lord had been a very prophet, he would not have suffered a sinful woman to have touched him, then our Lord reproved him of his presumption, and forgave the woman all her sins. And this is she, that same Mary Magdalene to whom our Lord gave so many great gifts. And showed so great signs of love, that he took from her seven devils. He embraced her all in his love, and made her right familiar with him. He would that she should be his hostess, and his procuress on his journey, and he ofttimes excused her sweetly; for he excused her against the Pharisee which said that she was not clean, and unto her sister that said she was idle, unto Judas, who said that she was a wastresse of goods. And when he saw her weep he could not withhold his tears. And for the love of her he raised Lazarus which had been four days dead, and healed her sister from the flux of blood which had held her seven years. And by the merits of her he made Martelle, chamberer of her sister Martha, to say that sweet word: Blessed be the womb that bare thee, and the paps that gave thee suck. But, after Saint Ambrose, it was Martha that said so, and this was her chamberer. This Mary Magdalene is she that washed the feet of our Lord and dried them with the hair of her head, and anointed them with precious ointment, and did solemn penance in the time of grace, and was the first that chose the best part, which was at the feet of our Lord, and heard his preaching. Which anointed his head; at his passion was nigh unto the cross; which made ready ointments, and would anoint his body, and would not depart from the monument when his disciples departed. To whom Jesu Christ appeared first after his resurrection, and was fellow to the apostles, and made of our Lord apostolesse of the apostles, then after the ascension of our Lord, the fourteenth year from his passion, long after that the Jews had slain Saint Stephen, and had cast out the other disciples out of the Jewry, which went into divers countries, and preached the word of God. There was that time with the apostles Saint Maximin, which was one of the seventy-two disciples of our Lord, to whom the blessed Mary Magdalene was committed by Saint Peter, and then, when the disciples were departed, Saint Maximin, Mary Magdalene, and Lazarus her brother, Martha her sister, Marcelle, chamberer of Martha, and Saint Cedony which was born blind, and after enlumined of our Lord; all these together, and many other christian men were taken of the miscreants and put in a ship in the sea, without any tackle or rudder, for to be drowned. But by the purveyance of Almighty God they came all to Marseilles, where, as none would receive them to be lodged, they dwelled and abode under a porch tofore a temple of the people of that country. And when the blessed Mary Magdalene saw the people assembled at this temple for to do sacrifice to the idols, she arose up peaceably with a glad visage, a discreet tongue and well speaking, and began to preach the faith and law of Jesu Christ, and withdrew from the worshipping of the idols. Then were they amarvelled of the beauty, of the reason, and of the fair speaking of her. And it was no marvel that the mouth that had kissed the feet of our Lord so debonairly and so goodly, should be inspired with the word of God more than the other. And after that, it happed that the prince of the province and his wife made sacrifice to the idols for to have a child. And Mary Magdalene preached to them Jesu Christ and forbade them those sacrifices. And after that a little while, Mary Magdalene appeared in a vision to that lady, saying: Wherefore hast thou so much riches and sufferest the poor people our Lord to die for hunger and for cold? And she doubted, and was afraid to show this vision to her lord. And then the second night she appeared to her again and said in likewise and adjousted thereto menaces, if she warned not her husband for to comfort the poor and needy, and yet she said nothing thereof to her husband. And then she appeared to her the third night, when it was dark, and to her husband also, with a frowning and angry visage like fire, like as all the house had burned, and said: Thou tyrant and member of thy father the devil, with that serpent thy wife, that will not say to thee my words, thou restest now enemy of the cross, which hast filled thy belly by gluttony, with divers manner of meats and sufferest to perish for hunger the holy saints of our Lord. Liest thou not in a palace wrapped with clothes of silk. And thou seest them without harbour, discomforted, and goest forth and takest no regard to them. Thou shalt not escape so ne depart without punishment, thou tyrant and felon because thou hast so long tarried. And when Mary Magdalene had said thus she departed away. Then the lady awoke and sighed. And the husband sighed strongly also for the same cause, and trembled.
And then she said: Sir, hast thou seen the sweven that I have seen? I have seen, said he, that I am greatly amarvelled of, and am sore afraid what we shall do. And his wife said: It is more profitable for us to obey her, than to run into the ire of her God, whom she preacheth. For which cause they received them into their house, and ministered to them all that was necessary and needful to them. Then as Mary Magdalene preached on a time, the said prince said to her: Weenest thou that thou mayst defend the law that thou preachest? And she answered: Certainly, I am ready to defend it, as she that is confirmed every day by miracles, and by the predication of our master, Saint Peter, which now sitteth in the see at Rome. To whom then the prince said: I and my wife be ready to obey thee in all things, if thou mayst get of thy god whom thou preachest, that we might have a child. And then Mary Magdalene said that it should not be left, and then prayed unto our Lord that he would vouchsafe of his grace to give to them a son. And our Lord heard her prayers, and the lady conceived. Then her husband would go to Saint Peter for to wit if it were true that Mary Magdalene had preached of Jesu Christ. Then his wife said to him: What will ye do sir, ween ye to go without me? Nay, when thou shalt depart, I shall depart with thee, and when thou shalt return again I shall return, and when thou shalt rest and tarry, I shall rest and tarry. To whom her husband answered, and said: Dame, it shall not be so, for thou art great, and the perils of the sea be without number. Thou mightest lightly perish, thou shalt abide at home and take heed to our possessions. And this lady for nothing would not change her purpose, but fell down on her knees at his feet sore weeping, requiring him to take her with him. And so at last he consented, and granted her request. Then Mary Magdalene set the sign of the cross on their shoulders, to the end that the fiend might not empesh ne let them in their journey. Then charged they a ship abundantly of all that was necessary to them, and left all their things in the keeping of Mary Magdalene, and went forth on their pilgrimage. And when they had made their course, and sailed a day and a night, there arose a great tempest and orage. And the wind increased and grew over hideous, in such wise that this lady, which was great, and nigh the time of her childing, began to wax feeble, and had great anguishes for the great waves and troubling of the sea, and soon after began to travail, and was delivered of a fair son, by occasion of the storm and tempest, and in her childing died. And when the child was born he cried for to have comfort of the teats of his mother, and made a piteous noise. Alas! what sorrow was this to the father, to have a son born which was the cause of the death of his mother, and he might not live, for there was none to nourish him. Alas! what shall this pilgrim do, that seeth his wife dead, and his son crying after the breast of his mother? And the pilgrim wept strongly and said: Alas! caitiff, alas! What shall I do? I desired to have a son, and I have lost both the mother and the son. And the mariners then said: This dead body must be cast mto the sea, or else we all shall perish, for as long as she shall abide with us, this tempest shall not cease. And when they had taken the body for to cast it into the sea, the husband said: Abide and suffer a little, and if ye will not spare to me my wife, yet at least spare the little child that cryeth, I pray you to tarry a while, for to know if the mother be aswoon of the pain, and that she might revive. And whilst he thus spake to them, the shipmen espied a mountain not far from the ship. And then they said that it was best to set the ship toward the land and to bury it there, and so to save it from devouring of the fishes of the sea. And the good man did so much with the mariners, what for prayers and for money, that they brought the body to the mountain. And when they should have digged for to make a pit to lay the body in, they found it so hard a rock that they might not enter for hardness of the stone. And they left the body there Iying, and covered it with a mantle; and the father laid his little son at the breast of the dead mother and said weeping: O Mary Magdalene, why camest thou to Marseilles to my great loss and evil adventure? Why have I at thine instance enterprised this journey? Hast thou required of God that my wife should conceive and should die at the childing of her son? For now it behoveth that the child that she hath conceived and borne, perish because it hath no nurse. This have I had by thy prayer, and to thee I commend them, to whom I have commended all my goods. And also I commend to thy God, if he be mighty, that he remember the soul of the mother, that he by thy prayer have pity on the child that he perish not. Then covered he the body all about with the mantle, and the child also, and then returned to the ship, and held forth his journey. And when he came to Saint Peter, Saint Peter came against him, and when he saw the sign of the cross upon his shoulder, he demanded him what he was, and wherefore he came, and he told to him all by order. To whom Peter said: Peace be to thee, thou art welcome, and hast believed good counsel. And be thou not heavy if thy wife sleep, and the little child rest with her, for our Lord is almighty for to give to whom he will, and to take away that he hath given, and to reestablish and give again that he hath taken, and to turn all heaviness and weeping into joy. Then Peter led him into Jerusalem, and showed to him all the places where Jesu Christ preached and did miracles, and the place where he suffered death, and where he ascended into heaven. And when he was well-informed of Saint Peter in the faith, and that two years were passed sith he departed from Marseilles, he took his ship for to return again into his country. And as they sailed by the sea, they came, by the ordinance of God, by the rock where the body of his wife was left, and his son. Then by prayers and gifts he did so much that they arrived thereon. And the little child, whom Mary Magdalene had kept, went oft sithes to the seaside, and, like small children, took small stones and threw them into the sea. And when they came they saw the little child playing with stones on the seaside, as he was wont to do. And then they marvelled much what he was. And when the child saw them, which never had seen people tofore, he was afraid, and ran secretly to his mother's breast and hid him under the mantle. And then the father of the child went for to see more appertly, and took the mantle, and found the child, which was right fair, sucking his mother's breast. Then he took the child in his arms and said: O blessed Mary Magdalene, I were well happy and blessed if my wife were now alive, and might live, and come again with me into my country. I know verily and believe that thou who hast given to me my son, and hast fed and kept him two years in this rock, mayst well re-establish his mother to her first health. And with these words the woman respired, and took life, and said, like as she had been waked of her sleep: O blessed Mary Magdalene thou art of great merit and glorious, for in the pains of my deliverance thou wert my midwife, and in all my necessities thou hast accomplished to me the service of a chamberer. And when her husband heard that thing he amarvelled much, and said: Livest thou my right dear and best beloved wife? To whom she said: Yea, certainly I live, and am now first come from the pilgrimage from whence thou art come, and all in like wise as Saint Peter led thee in Jerusalem, and showed to thee all the places where our Lord suffered death, was buried and ascended to heaven, and many other places, I was with you, with Mary Magdalene, which led and accompanied me, and showed to me all the places which I well remember and have in mind. And there recounted to him all the miracles that her husband had seen, and never failed of one article, ne went out of the way from the sooth. And then the good pilgrim received his wife and his child and went to ship. And soon after they came to the port of Marseilles. And they found the blessed Mary Magdalene preaching with her disciples. And then they kneeled down to her feet, and recounted to her all that had happened to them, and received baptism of Saint Maximin. And then they destroyed all the temples of the idols in the city of Marseilles, and made churches of Jesu Christ. And with one accord they chose the blessed Saint Lazarus for to be bishop of that city. And afterward they came to the city of Aix, and by great miracles and preaching they brought the people there to the faith of Jesu Christ. And there Saint Maximin was ordained to be bishop. In this meanwhile the blessed Mary Magdalene, desirous of sovereign contemplation, sought a right sharp desert, and took a place which was ordained by the angel of God, and abode there by the space of thirty years without knowledge of anybody. In which place she had no comfort of running water, ne solace of trees, ne of herbs. And that was because our Redeemer did do show it openly, that he had ordained for her refection celestial, and no bodily meats. And every day at every hour canonical she was lifted up in the air of angels, and heard the glorious song of the heavenly companies with her bodily ears. Of which she was fed and filled with right sweet meats, and then was brought again by the angels unto her proper place, in such wise as she had no need of corporal nourishing. It happed that a priest, which desired to lead a solitary life, took a cell for himself a twelve-furlong from the place of Mary Magdalene. On a day our Lord opened the eyes of that priest, and he saw with his bodily eyes in what manner the angels descended into the place where the blessed Magdalene dwelt, and how they lifted her in the air, and after by the space of an hour brought her again with divine praisings to the same place. And then the priest desired greatly to know the truth of this marvellous vision, and made his prayers to Almighty God, and went with great devotion unto the place. And when he approached nigh to it a stone's cast, his thighs began to swell and wax feeble, and his entrails began within him to lack breath and sigh for fear. And as soon as he returned he had his thighs all whole, and ready for to go. And when he enforced him to go to the place, all his body was in languor, and might not move. And then he understood that it was a secret celestial place where no man human might come, and then he called the name of Jesu, and said: I conjure thee by our Lord, that if thou be a man or other creature reasonable, that dwellest in this cave, that thou answer me, and tell me the truth of thee. And when he had said this three times, the blessed Mary Magdalene answered: Come more near, and thou shalt know that thou desirest. And then he came trembling unto the half way, and she said to him: Rememberest thou not of the gospel of Mary Magdalene, the renowned sinful woman, which washed the feet of our Saviour with her tears, and dried them with the hair of her head, and desired to have forgiveness of her sins? And the priest said to her: I remember it well, that is more than thirty years that holy church believeth and confesseth that it was done. And then she said: I am she that by the space of thirty years have been here without witting of any person, and like as it was suffered to thee yesterday to see me, in like wise I am every day lift up by the hands of the angels into the air, and have deserved to hear with my bodily ears the right sweet song of the company celestial. And because it is showed to me of our Lord that I shall depart out of this world, go to Maximin, and say to him that the next day after the resurrection of our lord, in the same time that he is accustomed to arise and go to matins, that he alone enter into his oratory, and that by the ministry and service of angels he shall find me there. And the priest heard the voice of her, like as it had been the voice of an angel, but he saw nothing; and then anon he went to Saint Maximin, and told to him all by order. Then Saint Maximin was replenished of great joy, and thanked greatly our Lord. And on the said day and hour, as is aforesaid, he entered into his oratory, and saw the blessed Mary Magdalene standing in the quire or choir yet among the angels that brought her, and was lift up from the earth the space of two or three cubits. And praying to our Lord she held up her hands, and when Saint Maximin saw her, he was afraid to approach to her. And she returned to him, and said: Come hither mine own father, and flee not thy daughter. And when he approached and came to her, as it is read in the books of the said Saint Maximin, for the customable vision that she had of angels every day, the cheer and visage of her shone as clear as it had been the rays of the sun. And then all the clerks and the priests aforesaid were called, and Mary Magdalene received the body and blood of our Lord of the hands of the bishop with great abundance of tears, and after, she stretched her body tofore the altar, and her right blessed soul departed from the body and went to our Lord. And after it was departed, there issued out of the body an odour so sweet-smelling that it remained there by the space of seven days to all them that entered in. And the blessed Maximin anointed the body of her with divers precious ointments, and buried it honourably, and after commanded that his body should be buried by hers after his death.
Hegesippus, with other books of Josephus accord enough with the said story, and Josephus saith in his treatise that the blessed Mary Magdalene, after the ascension of our Lord, for the burning love that she had to Jesu Christ and for the grief and discomfort that she had for the absence of her master our Lord, she would never see man. But after when she came into the country of Aix, she went into desert, and dwelt there thirty years without knowing of any man or woman. And he saith that, every day at the seven hours canonical she was lifted in the air of the angels. But he saith that, when the priest came to her, he found her enclosed in her cell; and she required of him a vestment, and he delivered to her one, which she clothed and covered her with. And she went with him to the church and received the communion, and then made her prayers with joined hands, and rested in peace.
In the time of Charles the great, in the year of our Lord seven hundred and seventy-one, Gerard, duke of Burgundy might have no child by his wife, wherefore he gave largely alms to the poor people, and founded many churches, and many monasteries. And when he had made the abbey of Vesoul, he and the abbot of the monastery sent a monk with a good reasonable fellowship into Aix, for to bring thither if they might of the relics of Saint Mary Magdalene. And when the monk came to the said city, he found it all destroyed of paynims. Then by adventure he found the sepulchre, for the writing upon the sepulchre of marble showed well that the blessed lady Mary Magdalene rested and lay there, and the history of her was marvellously entailed and carved in the sepulchre. And then this monk opened it by night and took the relics, and bare them to his lodging. And that same night Mary Magdalene appeared to that monk, saying: Doubt thee nothing, make an end of the work. Then he returned homeward until he came half a mile from the monastery. But he might in no wise remove the relics from thence, till that the abbot and monks came with procession, and received them honestly. And soon after the duke had a child by his wife.
There was a knight that had a custom every year to go a pilgrimage unto the body of Saint Mary Magdalene, which knight was slain in battle. And as his friends wept for him Iying on his bier, they said with sweet and devout quarrels, why she suffered her devout servant to die without confession and penance. Then suddenly he that was dead arose, all they being sore abashed, and made one to call a priest to him, and confessed him with great devotion, and received the blessed sacrament, and then rested in peace.
There was a ship charged with men and women that was perished and all to-brake, and there was among them a woman with child, which saw herself in peril to be drowned, and cried fast on Mary Magdalene for succour and help, making her avow that if she might be saved by her merits, and escape that peril, if she had a son she should give him to the monastery. And anon as she had so avowed, a woman of honourable habit and beauty appeared to her, and took her by the chin and brought her to the rivage all safe, and the other perished and were drowned. And after, she was delivered and had a son, and accomplished her avow like as she had promised.
Some say that Saint Mary Magdalene was wedded to Saint John the Evangelist when Christ called him from the wedding, and when he was called from her, she had thereof indignation that her husband was taken from her, and went and gave herself to all delight, but because it was not convenable that the calling of Saint John should be occasion of her damnation, therefore our Lord converted her mercifully to penance, and because he had taken from her sovereign delight of the flesh, he replenished her with sovereign delight spiritual tofore all other, that is the love of God. And it is said that he ennobled Saint John tofore all other with the sweetness of his familiarity, because he had taken him from the delight aforesaid.
There was a man which was blind on both his eyes, and did him to be led to the monastery of the blessed Mary Magdalene for to visit her body. His leader said to him that he saw the church. And then the blind man escried and said with a high voice: O blessed Mary Magdalene, help me that I may deserve once to see thy church. And anon his eyes were opened, and saw clearly all things about him.
There was another man that wrote his sins in a schedule and laid it under the coverture of the altar of Mary Magdalene, meekly praying her that she should get for him pardon and forgiveness, and a while after, he took the schedule again, and found all his sins effaced and struck out. Another man was holden in prison for debt of money, in irons. And he called unto his help ofttimes Mary Magdalene. And on a night a fair woman appeared to him and brake all his irons, and opened the door, and commanded him to go his way; and when he saw himself loose he fled away anon.
There was a clerk of Flanders named Stephen Rysen, and mounted in so great and disordinate felony, that he haunted all manner sins. And such thing as appertained to his health he would not hear. Nevertheless he had great devotion in the blessed Mary Magdalene and fasted her vigil, and honoured her feast. And on a time as he visited her tomb, he was not all asleep nor well awaked, when Mary Magdalene appeared to him Iike a much fair woman, sustained with two angels, one on the right side, and another on the left side, and said to him, looking on him despitously: Stephen, why reputest thou the deeds of my merits to be unworthy? Wherefore mayst not thou at the instance of my merits and prayers be moved to penance? For sith the time that thou begannest to have devotion in me, I have alway prayed God for thee firmly. Arise up therefore and repent thee, and I shall not leave thee till thou be reconciled to God. And then forthwith he felt so great grace shed in him, that he forsook and renounced the world and entered into religion, and was after of right perfect life. And at the death of him was seen Mary Magdalene, standing beside the bier with angels which bare the soul up to heaven with heavenly song in likeness of a white dove. Then let us pray to this blessed Mary Magdalene that she get us grace to do penance here for our sins, that after this life we may come to her in everlasting bliss in heaven. Amen.
http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/golden230.htm
sabato 13 dicembre 2008
lunedì 4 febbraio 2008
SCHOLARLY SMACKDOWN:WERE MARY MAGDALENE AND JESUS MARRIED?
BELIEFNET
Scholarly Smackdown: Were Mary Magdalene and Jesus Married?
One Bible scholar says there's no evidence. Another argues that John's gospel and a Gnostic text offer clues to a marriage.
Long before the debut of Dan Brown's "Da Vinci Code," people have speculated on Mary Magdalene's relationship to Jesus. Beliefnet recently asked two biblical scholars with opposing views to weigh the evidence and defend their conclusions about the woman from Magdala.
Bart D. Ehrman is the Chair of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina. He has published numerous books including "Truth and Fiction in The Da Vinci Code," "Misquoting Jesus," and the recent "Peter, Paul, and Mary Magadalene."
Dr. Barbara Thiering, a retired academic, is the author of "Jesus the Man" (1992), published in the U.S. as "Jesus and the Riddle of the Dead Sea Scrolls."
Round 1 Round 2
Bart Ehrman Bart Ehrman
Barbara Thiering Barbara Thiering
From: Bart Ehrman
To: Barbara Thiering
Date: May 11, 2006
Dear Dr. Thiering,
As you know, most scholars who study the New Testament and early Christianity are persuaded that Jesus was single and celibate, like the Essenes before his day (and afterwards) and like the Apostle Paul. In particular, there are compelling reasons for thinking that Jesus was not married to Mary of Magdala.
Because I know you disagree, I would be interested in your answers to these questions:
(1) If Jesus was married to Mary, why is there not a single reference to the marriage in any source in the ancient world? You can list all of the gospels we know besides the canonical four--the Gospels of Peter, Thomas, Philip, Mary, the Nazareans, the Ebionites, the Hebrews, and so on. In none of these gospels is there a solitary reference to Jesus' marriage to Mary. Plus, it's not just the Gospels. There is no reference to Jesus and Mary being married in any Christian (or non-Christian, for that matter) writing of any kind from the ancient world. Modern historians, of course, can only argue about historical probability based on surviving evidence. But what evidence is there for Jesus and Mary being married? There's not a single reference to it in any historical source.
(2) On a related point, if Mary was important in Jesus' earthly life (for example, during his public ministry prior to his death), why do the two have almost no contact with each other in the Gospels? To the surprise of many people who owe their knowledge of Jesus more to Hollywood than to the New Testament, Mary is scarcely ever mentioned in Jesus' company in the four Gospels of the New Testament--our earliest and best sources for knowing about the historical Jesus. In these sources, our only first-century records of Jesus' life, how often is Mary associated with Jesus during his public ministry? Once. And only in the company of other women.
We are told in Luke 8:1-3 (this is the one and only reference to Mary in connection with Jesus before his crucifixion) that Mary, Joanna, Susanna, and a group of other women all accompanied Jesus and the Twelve on their itinerant preaching ministry in Galilee, and were provided with the funds they needed. We are also told in Luke that Mary is the one who had seven demons cast out from her, but we are not told that Jesus was the one who performed the exorcism. If Mary was married to Jesus, wouldn't she figure more prominently in the stories? Wouldn't she be named throughout his public ministry? At least sometimes? Or a few times? As it is, she is no more prominent than, say, Joanna. And far less prominent than Mary of Bethany (a different woman from the Judean town of Bethany; the other Mary comes from the Galilean town of Magdala) or Martha, Mary of Bethany's sister.
(3) If Mary was married to Jesus, why is she identified the way she is, as Mary of Magdala? All of the Marys of the New Testament are given some kind of qualifying description to differentiate them from one another. Mary was such a common name and peasants didn't have last names. We have Mary "the mother of Jesus," Mary "who came from Bethany," and Mary "who came from Magdala," for example. Each Mary is identified by the distinguishing feature that makes her stand out from the others. Now, if this particular Mary was in fact married to Jesus as his lifelong spouse and lover, couldn't you imagine some way to identify her more distinctively from the others, other than the fact that she came from a fishing village on the shore of the Sea of Galilee?
(4) The early Christian writers have no trouble mentioning Jesus' other relatives: his mother Mary, his father Joseph, four of his brothers by name, his sisters. All of these are mentioned in the New Testament Gospels. If Jesus was married, why would his spouse not be mentioned as such? In short, as exciting and titillating as it is to imagine that Jesus was married, and even married with children, there are compelling reasons for thinking that he was not married--at least, not married to Mary Magdalene. Anyone who thinks that he was married needs to provide some evidence; something more than wild, intriguing, captivating speculations with no historical basis. Sometimes, historical fact simply isn't as juicy as modern fiction.
Having said that, I don't want to minimize the importance of Mary Magdalene. According to some of our traditions, she and other women saw Jesus get crucified, saw where he was buried, and on the third day, were the ones who found his tomb empty. In some of the later traditions (not our earliest ones), Mary Magdalene was the first to declare that Jesus was raised from the dead. If this tradition is historical, one could argue that Mary, in fact, started Christianity! That's about as important as a person can be. But, it does not mean that she was Jesus' lover and had his children. That's a different question. And for that, we need historical evidence which, regrettably, is completely lacking.
I look forward to your response.
From: Barbara Thiering
To: Bart Ehrman
Date: May 11, 2006
Dear Dr. Ehrman,
Thanks for opening up the discussion so cogently. May I reply on each point by saying that the available evidence needs to be taken more fully into account?
Your first point is that there is no evidence that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene. My reply is that students of both the Bible and the Gnostic gospels would not agree. There is good evidence, and in the case of the Bible, it has always been there.
In the "Gospel of Philip" (found in the Gnostic codices at Nag Hammadi), these words are clearly readable, in spite of the holes in the manuscript: "There were three who always walked with the Lord: Mary his mother, and her sister, and Magdalene, the one who was called his companion." Later on in the same document we read: "And the companion of the [...] Mary Magdalene [...loved ] her more than [all] the disciples [and used to] kiss her [often] on her [...]. The rest of [the disciples...] said to him, 'Why do you love her more than all of us?' The savior answered and said to them, 'Why do I not love you like her?'"
The significance of this passage has been weakened by some scholars' assigning an unlikely late date to the "Gospel of Philip," insisting that it was composed after 250 CE. But, the very words of the "Gospel of Philip" show that it was written before 70 CE when there was still "Hebrews"--Jews who had recently become Christians. The earlier a document is, the more likely it is to be historical.
In the New Testament itself, a woman identified as Mary of Bethany in John's gospel "took a pound of costly ointment of pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the ointment" (12:3). This is a direct allusion to Song of Solomon 1:12: "While the king was on his couch, my nard gave forth its fragrance." The Song of Solomon verses refer to the wedding liturgy of the kings at the time of David; it is clear that John's text delicately alludes to the wedding of Jesus and Mary Magdalene.
Your second point is that if Mary was married to Jesus, she would be featured more prominently in the Gospels. Here, you are not taking into account the strong evidence that Jesus came from the Essenes. It does not work to argue from present-day middle class society to the Essene society of 2000 years ago.
Essenes were very different from mainstream Jews in that they tried to avoid sex. Some were monastics, total celibates. But the members of the Essene dynastic lines, the second order of Essenes that the historian Josephus describes, had to marry in order to continue their lines. Jesus was a descendant of the line of David (Romans 1:3). Joseph, whom I take to be Jesus' biological father, was a descendant of the royal house of David, as the genealogies in both Matthew's and Luke's Gospels state. Essene dynasts went outside the monastery to have sex with their wives at regular intervals, then went back to the ascetic life. Their wives certainly did not go around with them. The Essenes and many early Christians regarded women as the agents of sin, as certain early Christian writings such as 1 Timothy 3:13-15 and similar statements by the patristic writers illustrate.
The years of Jesus' ministry described in the Gospels period were those in which Jesus lived outside the Essene monastery, the three-year trial marriage of Essene custom that Josephus describes (Jewish War 2, 160-161). Mary Magdalene appears with Jesus at key moments. She was the same person as Mary of Bethany. "Bethany," meaning "House of the Poor," was a name for the Therapeutae, a Jewish sect described by Philo of Alexandria, to which Mary Magdalene belonged. She was not a demoniac or a prostitute. Here, and at all points, the pesher has to be taken into account. The pesher is a new way of reading the Gospels, learned from the Dead Sea Scrolls.
According to the pesher of the Gospels, a "demoniac" was a militant zealot. Mary was a freedom fighter with nationalist opinions that Jesus "cast out"—that is, he persuaded her to change her politics. The full historical background of the first century has to be taken into account.
Your third point, about the name "Mary," overlooks Philo's description of the Therapeutae. They were ascetics based in Egypt closely related to the Essenes. Their worship centered on Exodus imagery, and included a liturgy with a choral dance. The Therapeutae, unlike the monastic Essenes, had women members. In the liturgy, the male choir was led by a man acting as a "Moses" and the female choir by a woman acting as a "Miriam," the sister of Moses. "Miriam," translated as "Mary," was a title. ("Joseph" was also a title, as were "Jacob," "Abraham," "Isaac," "Moses," and "Elijah.") Once this is recognized, a woman with the title Miriam (Mary) is understood as a holder of the office of the chief woman of the Therapeutae. The mother of Jesus had held that role, and his wife continued it.
From: Bart Ehrman
To: Barbara Thiering
Date: May 22, 2006
Dr. Thiering,
Thank you for your lively and imaginative response to my initial posting. I too will try to give a point-by-point response.
I'm afraid I strongly disagree that scholars of biblical studies and early Christianity think there is evidence that Jesus and Mary were married. Quite the contrary; there is scarcely a bona fide scholar in the field who thinks they were married. Of the hundreds of biblical and patristic scholars whom I know personally, who attend the meetings of the Society of Biblical Literature and the North American Patristics Society, I don't know of a single one who subscribes to this view.
You quote the Gospel of Philip in support, but you don't explain the quotations. In one verse, we are told that Mary was Jesus' "companion." The word used there is a Greek loan word (the Gospel itself is in Coptic, not in Aramaic as Dan Brown claims) that is not the word for spouse; it is koinwnos, a word that means "associate," or "someone that one spends time with." I am Dale Martin's koinwnos this week (we're at the beach), but I can assure you, we're not married.
The other passage indicates that Jesus kissed Mary. Possibly in our own context we might take this to mean that they were engaged in sexual activity (though not necessarily that they were married!). But anyone who reads the Gospel of Philip as a whole realizes that this sexual conclusion is being imported into the text, not drawn from it. The Gospel of Philip refers to kissing in another passage, where its meaning is quite clear. Christians kissed each other in the early communities as part of the liturgical ritual (passing the "kiss of peace"). According to Philip, this is because the Word of God is communicated, from one person to another, by means of the mouth. And so kissing is a statement that a revelation is being delivered from one person to another. Jesus "kissed" Mary: this means that he gave her a special revelation from on high.
As to the date of the Gospel of Philip: I don't know of any Coptologist or scholar of early Gnosticism (I know dozens, and have read dozens of others) who date it, as you do, prior to 70 CE. This past month I have had occasion to spend time with Elaine Pagels, Marvin Meyer, Stephen Emmel, Zlatko Plese, and other Gnostic scholars in one context or another. None of them--nor the editors of the text in Coptic nor any of the translators of the text in any of the modern languages--dates it that early, to my knowledge. So what is your evidence that everyone else is wrong? Surely it is not the fact that the text mentions "Hebrews:" I read a 19th-century novel last week that mentioned the Hebrews, and it was written about 150 years ago!
I'm afraid your reference to Jesus' anointing by Mary of Bethany is also not relevant. This is a different woman from Mary of Magdala, as virtually all biblical scholars have always known. "Mary" was one of the most common names in first-century Palestine. To differentiate different Marys from one another, in a world in which lower classes didn't have last names, identifying features of each one were cited.
So one Mary is "the mother of Jesus"; another is Mary "who came from Bethany"; another was "Mary who came from Magdala." Bethany, of course, was a city in Judea near Jerusalem. Magdala was a fishing village in the north, on the Sea of Galilee. The fact that these two women came from two different places--and are explicitly identified as such--shows that they cannot have been the same person.
I also have to say that the entire thesis that Jesus was connected with the Essenes is not at all plausible historically. This is not just my private view. When I wrote a book on the historical Jesus six years ago or so, I read about 50 books by leading scholars on aspects of the historical Jesus, many of them by the world's leading scholars on the relationship of Jesus to Judaism (Ed Sanders, Geza Vermes, Jim Charlesworth, Paula Frederiksen--name any name). None of them finds this connection worth discussing at any length. The evidence is simply too overwhelming on the other side. Jesus did not have the characteristics of the Essenes. They were concerned about maintaining their ritual purity, keeping themselves away from the defiling influences of Jewish "sinners." Jesus didn't care at all about ritual purity (or he cared very little about it), and spent so much of his time with "sinners" that even people the Essenes felt were defiled (Pharisees/Sadducees) thought he had gone too far.
Finally, there is not a solitary reference in any of our sources that links Mary to the Therapeutae (about which, I might add, we know very, very little). For one thing, Mary was from rural Galilee. Do you have any ancient source that explicitly refers to the presence of Therapeutae in Galilee? Josephus, for example? Pliny the Elder? The New Testament? Philo? Anyone?
Again, thanks for your lively response. I have a feeling neither one of us is going to convert the other!
From: Barbara Thiering
To: Bart Ehrman
Date: May 22, 2006
Dear Dr. Ehrman,
Thank you for your reply. As you have probably foreseen, I feel that each of your disagreements with the evidence I brought forward comes from conservative opposition to new sources that would be damaging to traditional Christian beliefs. Your approach is not to explain, but to explain away.
My article giving the full reasons why the Gospel of Philip was written before 70 CE was published in the Journal of Higher Criticism, vol. 2, no. 1, Spring 1995, pp. 102-111. You have misrepresented my point about its statements on "Hebrews" by saying it was a "mention." It is the starting point of the Gospel of Philip that some people were still "Hebrews," as Paul was before his conversion (Philippians 3:5-6), and some had just become Christian. The New Testament's epistle to Hebrews has the same context.
In the Beliefnet smackdown, "Is the Da Vinci Code Anti-Christian?", I gave my opinion that we are in the middle of a new kind of Reformation, one that is inevitable because of social changes and advances in knowledge. The Protestant Reformation is a model for what is happening now. Luther and the Reformers taught that "every peasant at the plough" was capable of learning for himself by reading the Bible, setting aside the priestly domination that encouraged ignorance and idolatrous cultism. The only new learning he could offer at that time was the Bible.
Now, there is reason to say that the Bible itself has become the idol, one that must be superseded by spiritually aware people in favor of the knowledge to which we all have access. Universal education has made a vast difference to worldviews. We can no longer live in the first century CE.
The present fashion for TV documentaries on ancient history comes from people's hunger to know all about the past of our culture, including the religious past. People have become aware that a great deal has been kept from them in the name of a religious orthodoxy. That has always been the case with orthodoxy. Thomas Aquinas was condemned by the bishop of Paris for heresy because he took account of new scientific knowledge coming from the East through the Crusades!
My understanding of theological scholarship is that it goes first to the sources, all the available sources, and deals with them directly and thoroughly, setting aside matters of social power and position. That has been the European approach that has brought us so far forward. I think that scholars today should feel similar pressure to study all the new sources that have become available, not reading them superficially and selectively, but with the rigorous reasoning that a sound scientific method requires.
http://www.beliefnet.com/story/191/story_19126.html
Scholarly Smackdown: Were Mary Magdalene and Jesus Married?
One Bible scholar says there's no evidence. Another argues that John's gospel and a Gnostic text offer clues to a marriage.
Long before the debut of Dan Brown's "Da Vinci Code," people have speculated on Mary Magdalene's relationship to Jesus. Beliefnet recently asked two biblical scholars with opposing views to weigh the evidence and defend their conclusions about the woman from Magdala.
Bart D. Ehrman is the Chair of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina. He has published numerous books including "Truth and Fiction in The Da Vinci Code," "Misquoting Jesus," and the recent "Peter, Paul, and Mary Magadalene."
Dr. Barbara Thiering, a retired academic, is the author of "Jesus the Man" (1992), published in the U.S. as "Jesus and the Riddle of the Dead Sea Scrolls."
Round 1 Round 2
Bart Ehrman Bart Ehrman
Barbara Thiering Barbara Thiering
From: Bart Ehrman
To: Barbara Thiering
Date: May 11, 2006
Dear Dr. Thiering,
As you know, most scholars who study the New Testament and early Christianity are persuaded that Jesus was single and celibate, like the Essenes before his day (and afterwards) and like the Apostle Paul. In particular, there are compelling reasons for thinking that Jesus was not married to Mary of Magdala.
Because I know you disagree, I would be interested in your answers to these questions:
(1) If Jesus was married to Mary, why is there not a single reference to the marriage in any source in the ancient world? You can list all of the gospels we know besides the canonical four--the Gospels of Peter, Thomas, Philip, Mary, the Nazareans, the Ebionites, the Hebrews, and so on. In none of these gospels is there a solitary reference to Jesus' marriage to Mary. Plus, it's not just the Gospels. There is no reference to Jesus and Mary being married in any Christian (or non-Christian, for that matter) writing of any kind from the ancient world. Modern historians, of course, can only argue about historical probability based on surviving evidence. But what evidence is there for Jesus and Mary being married? There's not a single reference to it in any historical source.
(2) On a related point, if Mary was important in Jesus' earthly life (for example, during his public ministry prior to his death), why do the two have almost no contact with each other in the Gospels? To the surprise of many people who owe their knowledge of Jesus more to Hollywood than to the New Testament, Mary is scarcely ever mentioned in Jesus' company in the four Gospels of the New Testament--our earliest and best sources for knowing about the historical Jesus. In these sources, our only first-century records of Jesus' life, how often is Mary associated with Jesus during his public ministry? Once. And only in the company of other women.
We are told in Luke 8:1-3 (this is the one and only reference to Mary in connection with Jesus before his crucifixion) that Mary, Joanna, Susanna, and a group of other women all accompanied Jesus and the Twelve on their itinerant preaching ministry in Galilee, and were provided with the funds they needed. We are also told in Luke that Mary is the one who had seven demons cast out from her, but we are not told that Jesus was the one who performed the exorcism. If Mary was married to Jesus, wouldn't she figure more prominently in the stories? Wouldn't she be named throughout his public ministry? At least sometimes? Or a few times? As it is, she is no more prominent than, say, Joanna. And far less prominent than Mary of Bethany (a different woman from the Judean town of Bethany; the other Mary comes from the Galilean town of Magdala) or Martha, Mary of Bethany's sister.
(3) If Mary was married to Jesus, why is she identified the way she is, as Mary of Magdala? All of the Marys of the New Testament are given some kind of qualifying description to differentiate them from one another. Mary was such a common name and peasants didn't have last names. We have Mary "the mother of Jesus," Mary "who came from Bethany," and Mary "who came from Magdala," for example. Each Mary is identified by the distinguishing feature that makes her stand out from the others. Now, if this particular Mary was in fact married to Jesus as his lifelong spouse and lover, couldn't you imagine some way to identify her more distinctively from the others, other than the fact that she came from a fishing village on the shore of the Sea of Galilee?
(4) The early Christian writers have no trouble mentioning Jesus' other relatives: his mother Mary, his father Joseph, four of his brothers by name, his sisters. All of these are mentioned in the New Testament Gospels. If Jesus was married, why would his spouse not be mentioned as such? In short, as exciting and titillating as it is to imagine that Jesus was married, and even married with children, there are compelling reasons for thinking that he was not married--at least, not married to Mary Magdalene. Anyone who thinks that he was married needs to provide some evidence; something more than wild, intriguing, captivating speculations with no historical basis. Sometimes, historical fact simply isn't as juicy as modern fiction.
Having said that, I don't want to minimize the importance of Mary Magdalene. According to some of our traditions, she and other women saw Jesus get crucified, saw where he was buried, and on the third day, were the ones who found his tomb empty. In some of the later traditions (not our earliest ones), Mary Magdalene was the first to declare that Jesus was raised from the dead. If this tradition is historical, one could argue that Mary, in fact, started Christianity! That's about as important as a person can be. But, it does not mean that she was Jesus' lover and had his children. That's a different question. And for that, we need historical evidence which, regrettably, is completely lacking.
I look forward to your response.
From: Barbara Thiering
To: Bart Ehrman
Date: May 11, 2006
Dear Dr. Ehrman,
Thanks for opening up the discussion so cogently. May I reply on each point by saying that the available evidence needs to be taken more fully into account?
Your first point is that there is no evidence that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene. My reply is that students of both the Bible and the Gnostic gospels would not agree. There is good evidence, and in the case of the Bible, it has always been there.
In the "Gospel of Philip" (found in the Gnostic codices at Nag Hammadi), these words are clearly readable, in spite of the holes in the manuscript: "There were three who always walked with the Lord: Mary his mother, and her sister, and Magdalene, the one who was called his companion." Later on in the same document we read: "And the companion of the [...] Mary Magdalene [...loved ] her more than [all] the disciples [and used to] kiss her [often] on her [...]. The rest of [the disciples...] said to him, 'Why do you love her more than all of us?' The savior answered and said to them, 'Why do I not love you like her?'"
The significance of this passage has been weakened by some scholars' assigning an unlikely late date to the "Gospel of Philip," insisting that it was composed after 250 CE. But, the very words of the "Gospel of Philip" show that it was written before 70 CE when there was still "Hebrews"--Jews who had recently become Christians. The earlier a document is, the more likely it is to be historical.
In the New Testament itself, a woman identified as Mary of Bethany in John's gospel "took a pound of costly ointment of pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the ointment" (12:3). This is a direct allusion to Song of Solomon 1:12: "While the king was on his couch, my nard gave forth its fragrance." The Song of Solomon verses refer to the wedding liturgy of the kings at the time of David; it is clear that John's text delicately alludes to the wedding of Jesus and Mary Magdalene.
Your second point is that if Mary was married to Jesus, she would be featured more prominently in the Gospels. Here, you are not taking into account the strong evidence that Jesus came from the Essenes. It does not work to argue from present-day middle class society to the Essene society of 2000 years ago.
Essenes were very different from mainstream Jews in that they tried to avoid sex. Some were monastics, total celibates. But the members of the Essene dynastic lines, the second order of Essenes that the historian Josephus describes, had to marry in order to continue their lines. Jesus was a descendant of the line of David (Romans 1:3). Joseph, whom I take to be Jesus' biological father, was a descendant of the royal house of David, as the genealogies in both Matthew's and Luke's Gospels state. Essene dynasts went outside the monastery to have sex with their wives at regular intervals, then went back to the ascetic life. Their wives certainly did not go around with them. The Essenes and many early Christians regarded women as the agents of sin, as certain early Christian writings such as 1 Timothy 3:13-15 and similar statements by the patristic writers illustrate.
The years of Jesus' ministry described in the Gospels period were those in which Jesus lived outside the Essene monastery, the three-year trial marriage of Essene custom that Josephus describes (Jewish War 2, 160-161). Mary Magdalene appears with Jesus at key moments. She was the same person as Mary of Bethany. "Bethany," meaning "House of the Poor," was a name for the Therapeutae, a Jewish sect described by Philo of Alexandria, to which Mary Magdalene belonged. She was not a demoniac or a prostitute. Here, and at all points, the pesher has to be taken into account. The pesher is a new way of reading the Gospels, learned from the Dead Sea Scrolls.
According to the pesher of the Gospels, a "demoniac" was a militant zealot. Mary was a freedom fighter with nationalist opinions that Jesus "cast out"—that is, he persuaded her to change her politics. The full historical background of the first century has to be taken into account.
Your third point, about the name "Mary," overlooks Philo's description of the Therapeutae. They were ascetics based in Egypt closely related to the Essenes. Their worship centered on Exodus imagery, and included a liturgy with a choral dance. The Therapeutae, unlike the monastic Essenes, had women members. In the liturgy, the male choir was led by a man acting as a "Moses" and the female choir by a woman acting as a "Miriam," the sister of Moses. "Miriam," translated as "Mary," was a title. ("Joseph" was also a title, as were "Jacob," "Abraham," "Isaac," "Moses," and "Elijah.") Once this is recognized, a woman with the title Miriam (Mary) is understood as a holder of the office of the chief woman of the Therapeutae. The mother of Jesus had held that role, and his wife continued it.
From: Bart Ehrman
To: Barbara Thiering
Date: May 22, 2006
Dr. Thiering,
Thank you for your lively and imaginative response to my initial posting. I too will try to give a point-by-point response.
I'm afraid I strongly disagree that scholars of biblical studies and early Christianity think there is evidence that Jesus and Mary were married. Quite the contrary; there is scarcely a bona fide scholar in the field who thinks they were married. Of the hundreds of biblical and patristic scholars whom I know personally, who attend the meetings of the Society of Biblical Literature and the North American Patristics Society, I don't know of a single one who subscribes to this view.
You quote the Gospel of Philip in support, but you don't explain the quotations. In one verse, we are told that Mary was Jesus' "companion." The word used there is a Greek loan word (the Gospel itself is in Coptic, not in Aramaic as Dan Brown claims) that is not the word for spouse; it is koinwnos, a word that means "associate," or "someone that one spends time with." I am Dale Martin's koinwnos this week (we're at the beach), but I can assure you, we're not married.
The other passage indicates that Jesus kissed Mary. Possibly in our own context we might take this to mean that they were engaged in sexual activity (though not necessarily that they were married!). But anyone who reads the Gospel of Philip as a whole realizes that this sexual conclusion is being imported into the text, not drawn from it. The Gospel of Philip refers to kissing in another passage, where its meaning is quite clear. Christians kissed each other in the early communities as part of the liturgical ritual (passing the "kiss of peace"). According to Philip, this is because the Word of God is communicated, from one person to another, by means of the mouth. And so kissing is a statement that a revelation is being delivered from one person to another. Jesus "kissed" Mary: this means that he gave her a special revelation from on high.
As to the date of the Gospel of Philip: I don't know of any Coptologist or scholar of early Gnosticism (I know dozens, and have read dozens of others) who date it, as you do, prior to 70 CE. This past month I have had occasion to spend time with Elaine Pagels, Marvin Meyer, Stephen Emmel, Zlatko Plese, and other Gnostic scholars in one context or another. None of them--nor the editors of the text in Coptic nor any of the translators of the text in any of the modern languages--dates it that early, to my knowledge. So what is your evidence that everyone else is wrong? Surely it is not the fact that the text mentions "Hebrews:" I read a 19th-century novel last week that mentioned the Hebrews, and it was written about 150 years ago!
I'm afraid your reference to Jesus' anointing by Mary of Bethany is also not relevant. This is a different woman from Mary of Magdala, as virtually all biblical scholars have always known. "Mary" was one of the most common names in first-century Palestine. To differentiate different Marys from one another, in a world in which lower classes didn't have last names, identifying features of each one were cited.
So one Mary is "the mother of Jesus"; another is Mary "who came from Bethany"; another was "Mary who came from Magdala." Bethany, of course, was a city in Judea near Jerusalem. Magdala was a fishing village in the north, on the Sea of Galilee. The fact that these two women came from two different places--and are explicitly identified as such--shows that they cannot have been the same person.
I also have to say that the entire thesis that Jesus was connected with the Essenes is not at all plausible historically. This is not just my private view. When I wrote a book on the historical Jesus six years ago or so, I read about 50 books by leading scholars on aspects of the historical Jesus, many of them by the world's leading scholars on the relationship of Jesus to Judaism (Ed Sanders, Geza Vermes, Jim Charlesworth, Paula Frederiksen--name any name). None of them finds this connection worth discussing at any length. The evidence is simply too overwhelming on the other side. Jesus did not have the characteristics of the Essenes. They were concerned about maintaining their ritual purity, keeping themselves away from the defiling influences of Jewish "sinners." Jesus didn't care at all about ritual purity (or he cared very little about it), and spent so much of his time with "sinners" that even people the Essenes felt were defiled (Pharisees/Sadducees) thought he had gone too far.
Finally, there is not a solitary reference in any of our sources that links Mary to the Therapeutae (about which, I might add, we know very, very little). For one thing, Mary was from rural Galilee. Do you have any ancient source that explicitly refers to the presence of Therapeutae in Galilee? Josephus, for example? Pliny the Elder? The New Testament? Philo? Anyone?
Again, thanks for your lively response. I have a feeling neither one of us is going to convert the other!
From: Barbara Thiering
To: Bart Ehrman
Date: May 22, 2006
Dear Dr. Ehrman,
Thank you for your reply. As you have probably foreseen, I feel that each of your disagreements with the evidence I brought forward comes from conservative opposition to new sources that would be damaging to traditional Christian beliefs. Your approach is not to explain, but to explain away.
My article giving the full reasons why the Gospel of Philip was written before 70 CE was published in the Journal of Higher Criticism, vol. 2, no. 1, Spring 1995, pp. 102-111. You have misrepresented my point about its statements on "Hebrews" by saying it was a "mention." It is the starting point of the Gospel of Philip that some people were still "Hebrews," as Paul was before his conversion (Philippians 3:5-6), and some had just become Christian. The New Testament's epistle to Hebrews has the same context.
In the Beliefnet smackdown, "Is the Da Vinci Code Anti-Christian?", I gave my opinion that we are in the middle of a new kind of Reformation, one that is inevitable because of social changes and advances in knowledge. The Protestant Reformation is a model for what is happening now. Luther and the Reformers taught that "every peasant at the plough" was capable of learning for himself by reading the Bible, setting aside the priestly domination that encouraged ignorance and idolatrous cultism. The only new learning he could offer at that time was the Bible.
Now, there is reason to say that the Bible itself has become the idol, one that must be superseded by spiritually aware people in favor of the knowledge to which we all have access. Universal education has made a vast difference to worldviews. We can no longer live in the first century CE.
The present fashion for TV documentaries on ancient history comes from people's hunger to know all about the past of our culture, including the religious past. People have become aware that a great deal has been kept from them in the name of a religious orthodoxy. That has always been the case with orthodoxy. Thomas Aquinas was condemned by the bishop of Paris for heresy because he took account of new scientific knowledge coming from the East through the Crusades!
My understanding of theological scholarship is that it goes first to the sources, all the available sources, and deals with them directly and thoroughly, setting aside matters of social power and position. That has been the European approach that has brought us so far forward. I think that scholars today should feel similar pressure to study all the new sources that have become available, not reading them superficially and selectively, but with the rigorous reasoning that a sound scientific method requires.
http://www.beliefnet.com/story/191/story_19126.html
MARY MAGDALENE BY BARBARA THIERING
Mary Magdalene
© 2007 Dr. Barbara Thiering
The information about Mary Magdalene has been given in various contexts in other parts of this site, but I have been asked to bring it all together in a biography. It is undoubtedly a matter of the greatest popular interest at the present time. What is given here is the historical evidence, to be distinguished from the myth that is rapidly forming.
To begin at the beginning:
Christianity began in the movement called Essene, one of the major world-views among Jews in the 1st centuries BC and AD. They had been very much influenced by Greek thought, which regarded sexual activity as debasing.
Essenes believed that the holiest kind of life was one that renounced sex and marriage altogether, practiced by monastics and hermits. But they had another purpose also, to preserve the great dynasties of the Zadokite priests and the Davids, who had once ruled the Jerusalem temple but had now lost power. They solved the problem by instituting a second order, one that allowed sex only for the sake of having sons.
The dynasts lived normally in monasteries, but when they reached their late thirties they left temporarily for a marriage, preferably with a young girl in her teens. A first wedding permitted them to live together for a trial marriage, then when the girl was three months pregnant, there was a second wedding from which there could be no divorce. The man returned to the monastery after the birth, to come back to his wife only after intervals of years for further conceptions. The girl lived in a female community, continuing as a nun.
The rigors of the sexual discipline caused occasional breaches. One such lapse gave rise to the story of the Virgin Birth. Joseph was a descendant of the Davids, destined to regain the kingship if the Essenes achieved their aim of returning to power. He had entered the long betrothal period preceding the first wedding, with the young girl Mary. Only a few months before their wedding, during the restrained courtship that was permitted, they had given way to passion, and Jesus was conceived. From the strict Essene viewpoint he was illegitimate, and could not inherit. From a more liberal viewpoint such as was held by some asssociated ascetics, he was legitimate, and their political purposes would be served if he became king. By the use of double meanings, the word Virgin could simply mean a nun, as Mary had been. Popular Greek thought welcomed the story of the Virgin Birth that was composed to cover what had actually happened.
Jesus when he reached maturity was bound by the same rule, and there was no pre-nuptial sex in his case. His bride was Mary Magdalene. Several facts about her become apparent from the pesher, the device for giving yet concealing the actual history. One was that she was 27 years old when she married Jesus, not a young girl, and there is an indication that she had been married previously and was a widow. She had been married to a priest, and so came within the rules for permissible Essene marriages.
The other fact about her, expressed by saying that she had had “seven demons” was that she belonged to the political party of the Magians, and she shared their vigorous militant ideals. Magians were Essenes who had scholarly schools in the Diaspora, but held looser views on morality that earned them the title of “seekers-after-smooth-things”. Its leader in the time of Jesus was Simon Magus, and Jesus and Mary Magdalene were close friends of Simon and his mistress Helena. Helena like Simon appears under many pseudonyms, one of them Martha.
In March 33 AD, the season of the crucifixion, Mary Magdalene was three months pregnant with Jesus’ child. Their second wedding took place on the Wednesday before Good Friday, Mary figuring as the woman with the alabaster cruse of ointment. Jesus underwent crucifixion for the reason that he was a political associate of the anti-Roman militants Simon Magus and Judas Iscariot. Jesus and Simon were rescued by a conspiracy of their friends. From that central experience the story of the Resurrection arose. It had the same character as the Virgin Birth, told in a double way that revealed yet concealed what had actually happened.
A daughter was born to Mary Magdalene in September 33 AD. She was named Tamar, the name of the virgin daughter of King David. In its Greek form it was Damaris. She appeared under that name at a later stage of Acts, at the time of her marriage to Paul, who by then was the closest confidant of Jesus.
Two sons were born next, at the intervals of time required by the Essene rule. Jesus Justus, named after his father with the added title meaning that he was the David crown prince, was born in June, 37 AD, and another son, whose name is not given, was born in March 44 AD.
That same season, March 44 AD, was that of the real climax of the history. It was the season of the assassination of Agrippa I, whose presence during the gospel period had been one of the factors causing Simon Magus and Jesus to be at enmity with him. His young son Agrippa II became his successor. He had been tutored by Paul, with the result that Christianity became established in his court. At the same time, the tolerance of the benign emperor Claudius caused many to change their politics. Jesus with Paul joined the pro-Roman court of Agrippa II, while Simon Magus remained with the militants, operating from their base in Damascus, but working also on the Tiber Island in Rome.
For Mary Magdalene, committed to the military method of spreading Judaism against Roman paganism, Jesus had betrayed all they had worked for. She separated from him and initiated a divorce, soon after the birth of their third child. The legalities of the divorce were carried out by Paul, who as a former Pharisee condoned divorce. He also officiated at the second wedding of Jesus, to Lydia. It took place in Philippi in Macedonia, for the Christian party was by now based in Europe, looking to Rome rather than Jerusalem.
What happened to Mary Magdalene? Since Simon Magus remained active in Rome, in a rival mission to that of the Christians under Peter, it is likely that she took comfort by remaining with Simon, in the form of mission that she believed was the true one. The history of John Mark gives a clue to her movements. He had been the “eunuch” for Jesus’ first marriage, a celibate who acted for both husband and wife during their separations. He departed from the Christians at the time of the schism with Simon Magus, and had no further association with Jesus, his place as “eunuch” being taken by Luke for the second marriage. In 58 AD John Mark under his own name of Eutychus was reconciled with Paul and the Christians, as told in the “miracle” of the “raising from the dead” of Eutychus. It is possible that Mary Magdalene had died, although of course there could be other reasons for the change.
Had she gone to the south of France, as recent writers exploiting their version of the hidden history have claimed? My answer would be No, when the evidenced political history is taken into account.
There would be good reason for believing that the descendants of Jesus were driven from Rome to the south of France at the time of the Diocletian persecutions of the 90’s. Estates of the Herods had been established there, in Lyons and Vienne, by earlier Herods in their banishment. Mission would be continued from there, in the revised form that had been brought about by Jesus and Paul.
But they remained remote mission stations, bases for a further drive into the darkest untamed regions of the world such as France, and that barbaric region at the ends of the earth, England. The great leaders of the ascetic orders did not risk going there themselves, but sent servants using their name because they taught their doctrine. Joseph of Arimathea, who was James the brother of Jesus, did not go to England himself. He died in Jerusalem in 62 AD. But he had sent a servant who formed communities holding a sacred meal, with the revered cup of wine that signified initiation.
Mary Magdalene would have remained the titular head of female ascetic communities in the Magian tradition, stemming from some of the Herodian houses in the south of France. They had been established very early, and would have looked to her as their remote great leader, a visionary figure from whom their inspiration came. That would be the reason for the persistence of the tradition about her in those regions. The slender clues have, however, been built up in the interests of the lucrative tourist trade, a familiar phenomenon in our own times.
With better intentions have been those feminists who have seen reason for a cult of Mary Magdalene, as a corrective to the denigration of women that has always been practiced by the Church. Some gnostic literature upholds her as a teacher, and she would have filled that role because women were appointed as the instructors of Gentiles in their first stages of education towards initiation. Gentiles were called “children”, to whom the women were “Mothers”.
But have we not moved beyond the cult of human beings, both of Jesus or of any female? Is it not a form of idolatry to worship representatives of ourselves? “God” is far greater than the human. We are now in the midst of one of the major theological crises, the challenging of the notion of “God” that itself is a human construct. It also has its regrettable oversimplifications, but it is timely.
http://www.pesherofchrist.infinitesoulutions.com/index_Magdalene.html
© 2007 Dr. Barbara Thiering
The information about Mary Magdalene has been given in various contexts in other parts of this site, but I have been asked to bring it all together in a biography. It is undoubtedly a matter of the greatest popular interest at the present time. What is given here is the historical evidence, to be distinguished from the myth that is rapidly forming.
To begin at the beginning:
Christianity began in the movement called Essene, one of the major world-views among Jews in the 1st centuries BC and AD. They had been very much influenced by Greek thought, which regarded sexual activity as debasing.
Essenes believed that the holiest kind of life was one that renounced sex and marriage altogether, practiced by monastics and hermits. But they had another purpose also, to preserve the great dynasties of the Zadokite priests and the Davids, who had once ruled the Jerusalem temple but had now lost power. They solved the problem by instituting a second order, one that allowed sex only for the sake of having sons.
The dynasts lived normally in monasteries, but when they reached their late thirties they left temporarily for a marriage, preferably with a young girl in her teens. A first wedding permitted them to live together for a trial marriage, then when the girl was three months pregnant, there was a second wedding from which there could be no divorce. The man returned to the monastery after the birth, to come back to his wife only after intervals of years for further conceptions. The girl lived in a female community, continuing as a nun.
The rigors of the sexual discipline caused occasional breaches. One such lapse gave rise to the story of the Virgin Birth. Joseph was a descendant of the Davids, destined to regain the kingship if the Essenes achieved their aim of returning to power. He had entered the long betrothal period preceding the first wedding, with the young girl Mary. Only a few months before their wedding, during the restrained courtship that was permitted, they had given way to passion, and Jesus was conceived. From the strict Essene viewpoint he was illegitimate, and could not inherit. From a more liberal viewpoint such as was held by some asssociated ascetics, he was legitimate, and their political purposes would be served if he became king. By the use of double meanings, the word Virgin could simply mean a nun, as Mary had been. Popular Greek thought welcomed the story of the Virgin Birth that was composed to cover what had actually happened.
Jesus when he reached maturity was bound by the same rule, and there was no pre-nuptial sex in his case. His bride was Mary Magdalene. Several facts about her become apparent from the pesher, the device for giving yet concealing the actual history. One was that she was 27 years old when she married Jesus, not a young girl, and there is an indication that she had been married previously and was a widow. She had been married to a priest, and so came within the rules for permissible Essene marriages.
The other fact about her, expressed by saying that she had had “seven demons” was that she belonged to the political party of the Magians, and she shared their vigorous militant ideals. Magians were Essenes who had scholarly schools in the Diaspora, but held looser views on morality that earned them the title of “seekers-after-smooth-things”. Its leader in the time of Jesus was Simon Magus, and Jesus and Mary Magdalene were close friends of Simon and his mistress Helena. Helena like Simon appears under many pseudonyms, one of them Martha.
In March 33 AD, the season of the crucifixion, Mary Magdalene was three months pregnant with Jesus’ child. Their second wedding took place on the Wednesday before Good Friday, Mary figuring as the woman with the alabaster cruse of ointment. Jesus underwent crucifixion for the reason that he was a political associate of the anti-Roman militants Simon Magus and Judas Iscariot. Jesus and Simon were rescued by a conspiracy of their friends. From that central experience the story of the Resurrection arose. It had the same character as the Virgin Birth, told in a double way that revealed yet concealed what had actually happened.
A daughter was born to Mary Magdalene in September 33 AD. She was named Tamar, the name of the virgin daughter of King David. In its Greek form it was Damaris. She appeared under that name at a later stage of Acts, at the time of her marriage to Paul, who by then was the closest confidant of Jesus.
Two sons were born next, at the intervals of time required by the Essene rule. Jesus Justus, named after his father with the added title meaning that he was the David crown prince, was born in June, 37 AD, and another son, whose name is not given, was born in March 44 AD.
That same season, March 44 AD, was that of the real climax of the history. It was the season of the assassination of Agrippa I, whose presence during the gospel period had been one of the factors causing Simon Magus and Jesus to be at enmity with him. His young son Agrippa II became his successor. He had been tutored by Paul, with the result that Christianity became established in his court. At the same time, the tolerance of the benign emperor Claudius caused many to change their politics. Jesus with Paul joined the pro-Roman court of Agrippa II, while Simon Magus remained with the militants, operating from their base in Damascus, but working also on the Tiber Island in Rome.
For Mary Magdalene, committed to the military method of spreading Judaism against Roman paganism, Jesus had betrayed all they had worked for. She separated from him and initiated a divorce, soon after the birth of their third child. The legalities of the divorce were carried out by Paul, who as a former Pharisee condoned divorce. He also officiated at the second wedding of Jesus, to Lydia. It took place in Philippi in Macedonia, for the Christian party was by now based in Europe, looking to Rome rather than Jerusalem.
What happened to Mary Magdalene? Since Simon Magus remained active in Rome, in a rival mission to that of the Christians under Peter, it is likely that she took comfort by remaining with Simon, in the form of mission that she believed was the true one. The history of John Mark gives a clue to her movements. He had been the “eunuch” for Jesus’ first marriage, a celibate who acted for both husband and wife during their separations. He departed from the Christians at the time of the schism with Simon Magus, and had no further association with Jesus, his place as “eunuch” being taken by Luke for the second marriage. In 58 AD John Mark under his own name of Eutychus was reconciled with Paul and the Christians, as told in the “miracle” of the “raising from the dead” of Eutychus. It is possible that Mary Magdalene had died, although of course there could be other reasons for the change.
Had she gone to the south of France, as recent writers exploiting their version of the hidden history have claimed? My answer would be No, when the evidenced political history is taken into account.
There would be good reason for believing that the descendants of Jesus were driven from Rome to the south of France at the time of the Diocletian persecutions of the 90’s. Estates of the Herods had been established there, in Lyons and Vienne, by earlier Herods in their banishment. Mission would be continued from there, in the revised form that had been brought about by Jesus and Paul.
But they remained remote mission stations, bases for a further drive into the darkest untamed regions of the world such as France, and that barbaric region at the ends of the earth, England. The great leaders of the ascetic orders did not risk going there themselves, but sent servants using their name because they taught their doctrine. Joseph of Arimathea, who was James the brother of Jesus, did not go to England himself. He died in Jerusalem in 62 AD. But he had sent a servant who formed communities holding a sacred meal, with the revered cup of wine that signified initiation.
Mary Magdalene would have remained the titular head of female ascetic communities in the Magian tradition, stemming from some of the Herodian houses in the south of France. They had been established very early, and would have looked to her as their remote great leader, a visionary figure from whom their inspiration came. That would be the reason for the persistence of the tradition about her in those regions. The slender clues have, however, been built up in the interests of the lucrative tourist trade, a familiar phenomenon in our own times.
With better intentions have been those feminists who have seen reason for a cult of Mary Magdalene, as a corrective to the denigration of women that has always been practiced by the Church. Some gnostic literature upholds her as a teacher, and she would have filled that role because women were appointed as the instructors of Gentiles in their first stages of education towards initiation. Gentiles were called “children”, to whom the women were “Mothers”.
But have we not moved beyond the cult of human beings, both of Jesus or of any female? Is it not a form of idolatry to worship representatives of ourselves? “God” is far greater than the human. We are now in the midst of one of the major theological crises, the challenging of the notion of “God” that itself is a human construct. It also has its regrettable oversimplifications, but it is timely.
http://www.pesherofchrist.infinitesoulutions.com/index_Magdalene.html
venerdì 1 febbraio 2008
REVISIONING MARY MAGDALENE BY KIMBERLY BURGE
Reviews
Revisioning Mary Magdalene
An opportunity for more inclusive expressions in the church.
by Kimberly Burge
"Mary stood outside the tomb, crying" (John 20:11). My NIV Study Bible has a footnote for this verse: "Perhaps Jesus appeared first to Mary because she needed him most at that time." Apparently justification is needed by these scholars for Jesus' decision to share the good news of his resurrection with Mary Magdalene; after all, as a woman, her testimony could not hold up in a court of law. (I'm still searching the footnotes on why Jesus wanted to appear to Peter, James, and John.)
Rereading this passage recently, I was reminded of what a difficult time Christians have had for 2,000 years accepting and acknowledging the enormous role Mary Magdalene played in the Easter story, and indeed throughout Christ's ministry. Mary Magdalene has been canonized, revered, modeled, reviled, blamed, excused, feared, and dismissed by church leaders and the faithful alike. She has been idealized as the penitent prostitute (even though passages only refer to seven demons being driven from her); this for a woman who appears in only a handful of scriptural verses. Now several studies are taking a new look at this enigmatic woman and the complicated roles thrust upon her by the church and society.
Susan Haskins' book, Mary Magdalen: Myth and Metaphor, presents an exhaustive study of the cult and mythology that has surrounded this "apostle to the apostles." Beginning with the references in each gospel, Haskins shows how Mary Magdalene's story became interwoven with other (often unnamed) women in the Bible, particularly Mary of Bethany and, in Luke's gospel, the woman—a sinner, assumed by many interpretations to be a prostitute, although again that is not at all clear—who anoints Christ's feet. Hence the subsequent, and inaccurate, depiction of Mary Magdalene as a repentant prostitute.
Pope Gregory the Great, at the end of the sixth century, did his part in creating the muddle by declaring that these three women were one and the same, thus reducing the number of women characters in the scriptures and re-creating them to serve the patriarchal needs of the church. From such a foundation, Haskins meticulously traces the development of Mary's public persona—and the general attitudes toward women's sexuality—in art, literature, church pronouncements, and public perceptions.
Perhaps most revealing of these social judgments are the artistic depictions of Mary presented in the book. Nearly 100 illustrations—from a wall painting, circa A.D. 240, of Mary approaching the tomb to a 1991 poster advertising a Louvre exhibit and featuring Gregor Erhardt's naked figure of the saint—comprise an extraordinary range of portrayals that allows Haskins further comment. Haskins pays particular attention to the frequency and ways in which Mary was depicted naked, most often with explicitly erotic overtones that occasionally, in the case of Victorian times, for example, degenerate into pornography.
The inclusion of all of these illustrations certainly augments Haskins' development of her subject. The detail from one in particular, Botticelli's "Lamentation," has particularly haunted me. In this painting of the Pieta grouping, Mary Magdalene "cradles [Christ's] head in her arms, her face pressed against his, her hair falling around him, an image both intimate and tender." Painfully so, I found. The image of Mary, eyes shut tightly, her mouth slightly open, exhaling slowly (I imagine), her breath resting on Christ's lifeless body, speaks to me about Mary's devotion, strength, and commitment to her Lord, in life and death and resurrection. That characterization is one I strive to emulate in my own life, perhaps far more than the weeping, repentant prostitute.
Haskins' study is both fascinating and illuminating. I learned here that the term "maudlin"—defined as "weakly and tearfully sentimental, especially when drunk"—crept into the English language as a variation of the medieval French pronunciation of Magdalene, although Mary Magdalene was never described as drunk in the scriptures.
While the academic and comprehensive nature of the work sometimes makes for a slow read, the dignity and intensity with which Haskins treats her subject made me want to continue on the journey to present times, when new revisionist studies of Mary Magdalene reveal "the true feminine model, one which, according to the gospels, embodies strength, courage, and independence." Haskins writes, "If the ‘victimization' of Mary Magdalene can stand as a metaphor for the historically subordinate position of women in Christianity, now that the woman so long regarded as a penitent sinner has been shown in her true light, then it may be that Christianity's view of woman in history itself requires some kind of radical revision."
While Haskins' book provides a solid grounding in the evolution of this pre-eminent New Testament figure, two other resources expound on the role played by both her and the other early women leaders of Christ's church. The Gospel According to Mary, by Miriam Therese Winter, tells the very familiar story, parables, and teachings of Jesus, but through the imaginary eyes of a first-century woman, using as her sources the female disciples, "women who had been transformed by Jesus."
The book remains faithful to the gospel message and parallels carefully the stories told by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—with the explicit participation of the women highlighted. The healing miracles recounted here particularly illustrate both the determined faith of women who followed Jesus and his limitless compassion, as does his interaction with both women and men throughout this "gospel."
Jesus' reinstatement of Peter is especially poignant from this point of view. Questioning Peter about his capacity to love, Jesus continues to ask, "Peter, do you know that I love you? Forgive yourself, as I have forgiven you." Finally, Jesus pierces Peter's heart: "Can you love yourself as I have loved you?" This "evangelist" writes, "Relieved of his crushing burden of guilt, Peter broke down and wept, saying, ‘Help me to learn to love myself as much as I love you.'" In this version, the love of God flows freely and abundantly in unabashed form. Winter's retelling would weave beautifully into any liturgy or prayer service.
In Mary Ellen Ashcroft's The Magdalene Gospel, storytelling provides the forum for the exchange of these women's experiences. Again a fictionalized account, the women followers are gathered together the day after Jesus' death, grieving, hearing, remembering, and searching for healing. Their stories are told with emotion, raw and unchecked. We hear Mary Magdalene's account, but also those of Mary the mother of Christ; Rhoda, the name given to the woman bent over for 18 years, whom Jesus healed; and Mary and Martha of Bethany. Ashcroft honors these women by allowing their stories to be told from their own points of view.
The tone of the work is, understandably, dark, but occasionally creeps dangerously close to hopelessness. From the vantage point of knowing how the story ends, I found myself wishing that I could have listened to these women speak with the joy of the resurrection. I also found attempts to make the language contemporary sometimes left it stilted instead, while the italicized interjections relaying action and others' reactions to each woman's story was often unnecessarily intrusive. But I think this could make a beautifully staged dramatic piece, and I appreciate the inclusion of so many women usually left in the shadows.
I've just recently turned to Mary Magdalene—disciple of Christ, the woman of the scriptures, not the representation promulgated by the church—as a source of inspiration for my own Christian journey. I'm finding in her, and many other biblical women, characters that are complex and multidimensional, and faith that is both fierce and sustaining. Susan Haskins closes her impassioned book by asking, "Nietzsche wrote that every culture needed myth and was impoverished when it lost or lacked myth. In losing the myth of Mary Magdalene, however, has not our culture not only nothing to lose, but also everything to gain?" As I pray for and work in my own way to see Christ's treatment of women demonstrated more fully in my church, I need Mary the disciple, not the myth.
The Gospel According to Mary: A New Testament for Women. By Miriam Therese Winter. Crossroad Publishing Co., 1993.
The Magdalene Gospel. By Mary Ellen Ashcroft. Doubleday, 1995.
Mary Magdalen: Myth and Metaphor. By Susan Haskins. Riverhead Books, 1993.
Kimberly Burge was an executive assistant at Sojourners when this article appeared.
Revisioning Mary Magdalene. by Kimberly Burge. Sojourners Magazine, March-April 1997 (Vol. 26, No. 2, pp. 51-53). Reviews.
(Source: http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=magazine.article&issue=soj9703&article=970332a)
www.sojo.net
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Phone: (202) 328-8842 • Fax: (202) 328-8757
http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=magazine.article&mode=printer_friendly&issue=soj9703&article=970332a
Revisioning Mary Magdalene
An opportunity for more inclusive expressions in the church.
by Kimberly Burge
"Mary stood outside the tomb, crying" (John 20:11). My NIV Study Bible has a footnote for this verse: "Perhaps Jesus appeared first to Mary because she needed him most at that time." Apparently justification is needed by these scholars for Jesus' decision to share the good news of his resurrection with Mary Magdalene; after all, as a woman, her testimony could not hold up in a court of law. (I'm still searching the footnotes on why Jesus wanted to appear to Peter, James, and John.)
Rereading this passage recently, I was reminded of what a difficult time Christians have had for 2,000 years accepting and acknowledging the enormous role Mary Magdalene played in the Easter story, and indeed throughout Christ's ministry. Mary Magdalene has been canonized, revered, modeled, reviled, blamed, excused, feared, and dismissed by church leaders and the faithful alike. She has been idealized as the penitent prostitute (even though passages only refer to seven demons being driven from her); this for a woman who appears in only a handful of scriptural verses. Now several studies are taking a new look at this enigmatic woman and the complicated roles thrust upon her by the church and society.
Susan Haskins' book, Mary Magdalen: Myth and Metaphor, presents an exhaustive study of the cult and mythology that has surrounded this "apostle to the apostles." Beginning with the references in each gospel, Haskins shows how Mary Magdalene's story became interwoven with other (often unnamed) women in the Bible, particularly Mary of Bethany and, in Luke's gospel, the woman—a sinner, assumed by many interpretations to be a prostitute, although again that is not at all clear—who anoints Christ's feet. Hence the subsequent, and inaccurate, depiction of Mary Magdalene as a repentant prostitute.
Pope Gregory the Great, at the end of the sixth century, did his part in creating the muddle by declaring that these three women were one and the same, thus reducing the number of women characters in the scriptures and re-creating them to serve the patriarchal needs of the church. From such a foundation, Haskins meticulously traces the development of Mary's public persona—and the general attitudes toward women's sexuality—in art, literature, church pronouncements, and public perceptions.
Perhaps most revealing of these social judgments are the artistic depictions of Mary presented in the book. Nearly 100 illustrations—from a wall painting, circa A.D. 240, of Mary approaching the tomb to a 1991 poster advertising a Louvre exhibit and featuring Gregor Erhardt's naked figure of the saint—comprise an extraordinary range of portrayals that allows Haskins further comment. Haskins pays particular attention to the frequency and ways in which Mary was depicted naked, most often with explicitly erotic overtones that occasionally, in the case of Victorian times, for example, degenerate into pornography.
The inclusion of all of these illustrations certainly augments Haskins' development of her subject. The detail from one in particular, Botticelli's "Lamentation," has particularly haunted me. In this painting of the Pieta grouping, Mary Magdalene "cradles [Christ's] head in her arms, her face pressed against his, her hair falling around him, an image both intimate and tender." Painfully so, I found. The image of Mary, eyes shut tightly, her mouth slightly open, exhaling slowly (I imagine), her breath resting on Christ's lifeless body, speaks to me about Mary's devotion, strength, and commitment to her Lord, in life and death and resurrection. That characterization is one I strive to emulate in my own life, perhaps far more than the weeping, repentant prostitute.
Haskins' study is both fascinating and illuminating. I learned here that the term "maudlin"—defined as "weakly and tearfully sentimental, especially when drunk"—crept into the English language as a variation of the medieval French pronunciation of Magdalene, although Mary Magdalene was never described as drunk in the scriptures.
While the academic and comprehensive nature of the work sometimes makes for a slow read, the dignity and intensity with which Haskins treats her subject made me want to continue on the journey to present times, when new revisionist studies of Mary Magdalene reveal "the true feminine model, one which, according to the gospels, embodies strength, courage, and independence." Haskins writes, "If the ‘victimization' of Mary Magdalene can stand as a metaphor for the historically subordinate position of women in Christianity, now that the woman so long regarded as a penitent sinner has been shown in her true light, then it may be that Christianity's view of woman in history itself requires some kind of radical revision."
While Haskins' book provides a solid grounding in the evolution of this pre-eminent New Testament figure, two other resources expound on the role played by both her and the other early women leaders of Christ's church. The Gospel According to Mary, by Miriam Therese Winter, tells the very familiar story, parables, and teachings of Jesus, but through the imaginary eyes of a first-century woman, using as her sources the female disciples, "women who had been transformed by Jesus."
The book remains faithful to the gospel message and parallels carefully the stories told by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—with the explicit participation of the women highlighted. The healing miracles recounted here particularly illustrate both the determined faith of women who followed Jesus and his limitless compassion, as does his interaction with both women and men throughout this "gospel."
Jesus' reinstatement of Peter is especially poignant from this point of view. Questioning Peter about his capacity to love, Jesus continues to ask, "Peter, do you know that I love you? Forgive yourself, as I have forgiven you." Finally, Jesus pierces Peter's heart: "Can you love yourself as I have loved you?" This "evangelist" writes, "Relieved of his crushing burden of guilt, Peter broke down and wept, saying, ‘Help me to learn to love myself as much as I love you.'" In this version, the love of God flows freely and abundantly in unabashed form. Winter's retelling would weave beautifully into any liturgy or prayer service.
In Mary Ellen Ashcroft's The Magdalene Gospel, storytelling provides the forum for the exchange of these women's experiences. Again a fictionalized account, the women followers are gathered together the day after Jesus' death, grieving, hearing, remembering, and searching for healing. Their stories are told with emotion, raw and unchecked. We hear Mary Magdalene's account, but also those of Mary the mother of Christ; Rhoda, the name given to the woman bent over for 18 years, whom Jesus healed; and Mary and Martha of Bethany. Ashcroft honors these women by allowing their stories to be told from their own points of view.
The tone of the work is, understandably, dark, but occasionally creeps dangerously close to hopelessness. From the vantage point of knowing how the story ends, I found myself wishing that I could have listened to these women speak with the joy of the resurrection. I also found attempts to make the language contemporary sometimes left it stilted instead, while the italicized interjections relaying action and others' reactions to each woman's story was often unnecessarily intrusive. But I think this could make a beautifully staged dramatic piece, and I appreciate the inclusion of so many women usually left in the shadows.
I've just recently turned to Mary Magdalene—disciple of Christ, the woman of the scriptures, not the representation promulgated by the church—as a source of inspiration for my own Christian journey. I'm finding in her, and many other biblical women, characters that are complex and multidimensional, and faith that is both fierce and sustaining. Susan Haskins closes her impassioned book by asking, "Nietzsche wrote that every culture needed myth and was impoverished when it lost or lacked myth. In losing the myth of Mary Magdalene, however, has not our culture not only nothing to lose, but also everything to gain?" As I pray for and work in my own way to see Christ's treatment of women demonstrated more fully in my church, I need Mary the disciple, not the myth.
The Gospel According to Mary: A New Testament for Women. By Miriam Therese Winter. Crossroad Publishing Co., 1993.
The Magdalene Gospel. By Mary Ellen Ashcroft. Doubleday, 1995.
Mary Magdalen: Myth and Metaphor. By Susan Haskins. Riverhead Books, 1993.
Kimberly Burge was an executive assistant at Sojourners when this article appeared.
Revisioning Mary Magdalene. by Kimberly Burge. Sojourners Magazine, March-April 1997 (Vol. 26, No. 2, pp. 51-53). Reviews.
(Source: http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=magazine.article&issue=soj9703&article=970332a)
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MARY MAGDALENE FROM BREAKING THE DA VINCI CODE
PART IV
JESUS AND MARY MAGDALENE
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The Da Vinci Code (pp. 247-248)
“‘The woman they are speaking of,’ Teabing explained, ‘is Mary Magdalene. Peter is jealous of her.’ ‘Because Jesus preferred Mary?’ ‘Not only that. The stakes are far greater than mere affection. At this point in the gospels, Jesus suspects that He will soon be captured and crucified. So he gives Mary Magdalene instructions on how to carry on His Church after He is gone. As a result, Peter expresses his discontent over playing second fiddle to a woman. I daresay Peter was something of a sexist.’ Sophie was trying to keep up. ‘This Saint Peter, the rock on which Jesus built His Church?’ ‘The same, except for one catch. According to these unaltered gospels, it was not Peter to whom Christ gave directions with which to establish the Christian Church. It was Mary Magdalene.’ Sophie looked at him. ‘You’re saying the Christian Church was to be carried on by a woman?’ ‘That was the plan. Jesus was the original feminist. He intended for the future of His Church to be in the hands of Mary Magdalene.’”
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The key figure in “The Da Vinci Code’s” grand conspiracy theory is Mary Magdalen. The novel contends that Mary Magdalen was not only a devoted follower of the Lord, but was in fact His lover, His wife, and the mother of His child. It was the Lord’s intent, the novelist insists, that His wife and lover become the leader of the Christian Church after His death. The male leadership of the early church, we are told, fiercely resented the prominence of Mary and she was marginalized and ignored in the years which followed the Lord’s death. That pattern culminated when Constantine and his co-conspirators found it necessary to transform Christianity into a patriarchal religion based upon the identification of Jesus as the Son of God. The facts of Jesus’ marriage to Mary Magdalen, their sexual relationship with one another, the children which were produced by that relationship, and Christ’s intent that Mary become the leader of His Church were then brutally suppressed and denied. Dan Brown goes so far as to describe this effort as “the greatest cover-up in human history.” (Lutzer, p.49) The real truth about the man Jesus, His wife Mary, and the children which their marriage produced was kept alive through secret organizations and cryptic codes focusing on the ancient legend of the “Holy Grail.” Leonardo Da Vinci was supposedly one of the heroes who helped to perpetuate this legacy through his art - thus the novel’s title “The Da Vinci Code.”
In the Gospels of the New Testament Mary Magdalene is one of the most prominent of the Galilean women who followed Jesus in the course of His public ministry. Mary was from the town of Magdala, an important agricultural, fishing and trading center on the southern end of the Sea of Galilee. The Greek name of this town was Tarichaea and its population was predominantly Gentile. Josephus notes that the town had its own hippodrome and was notorious among the Jews for its immorality. Mary is introduced in the Gospel of Luke in this way:
“The Twelve were with Him and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; Joanna the wife of Cuza, the manager of Herod’s household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means.” (Luke 8:2-3)
The seven demons from whom the Lord had delivered Mary Magdalene are also mentioned in Mark 16:9. Mary was included among the courageous core of women who followed Jesus to the cross and remained by His side throughout His execution and burial.
“Some women were watching from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome. In Galilee these women had followed Him and cared for His needs.” (Mark 15:40-41; cf. John 19:25)
“So Joseph brought some linen cloth, took down the body, wrapped it in the linen, and placed it in a tomb cut out of rock. Then he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where He was laid.” (Mark 15:47)
On Easter Sunday morning. Mary is among the women who come out to complete the burial preparations only to discover the tomb empty and the body missing (cf. Matthew 28:1; Mark 16:1;Luke 24:10). John’s Gospel reports that Mary remained outside of the grave weeping and became the first person to encounter the risen Lord Jesus:
“Then the disciples went back to their homes, but Mary stood outside of the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb, and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. They asked her, ‘Woman, why are you crying?’ ‘They have taken my Lord away,’ she said, ‘ and I don’t know where they have put Him.’ At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. ‘Woman,’ He said, ‘why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?’ Thinking He was the gardener, she said, ‘Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have put Him, and I will get Him.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Mary.’ She turned toward Him and cried out in Aramaic, ‘Rabboni!’ (which means Teacher). Jesus said, ‘Do not hold on to Me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to My brothers and tell them, ‘I am returning to My Father and to your Father, to My God and your God.’ Mary Magdala went to the disciples with the news: ‘I have seen the Lord!’ and she told them that He had said these things to her.” (John 19:10-18)
Not only is Mary the first person to encounter the risen Christ, but she is also given the responsibility to announce the resurrection to the apostles who remain in hiding. Dan Brown contends that the Biblical Gospels are nothing more than a conglomeration of fictions concocted by a committee of male chauvinists. These evil conspirators, we are told, invented the concept of all male apostles to contradict and deny the fact that Jesus had actually entrusted the leadership of His Church to Mary Magdalene. If any of this nonsense were true, it is impossible to imagine why the Gospels would continue to portray Mary Magdalene in such a positive fashion. She was indeed, as the ancient fathers of the Church declared, “the apostle to the apostles.”
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The Da Vinci Code - (pp. 244, 247)
“Teabing clarified, ‘The early Church needed to convince the world that the mortal prophet Jesus was a divine being. Therefore any gospels that described earthly aspects of Jesus’ life had to be omitted form the Bible’... ‘But how could Christ have a bloodline, unless...?’ She paused and looked at Langdon. Langdon smiled softly, ‘Unless they had a child.’ Sophie stood transfixed. ‘Behold,’ Teabing proclaimed. ‘The greatest cover-up in human history. Not only was Jesus Christ married, but He was a father. My dear, Mary Magdalene was the Holy Vessel. She was the chalice that bore the royal bloodline of Jesus Christ. She was the womb that bore the lineage from which the sacred fruit sprang forth.’
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The only documentation for any leadership role attributed to Mary Magdalen comes from gnostic writings of the 2nd and 3rd centuries, most notably the famous Nag Hammadi collection uncovered in 1945. (Cf. Notes pp. 29ff.) The dates of the Greek originals upon which the Coptic Nag Hammadi documents were based has been the subject of intense debate among scholars. Those sympathetic to neo-gnosticism often make fabulous claims about the reliability and the antiquity of these writings. They see in these documents a way to undermine and deny the content of historic Christianity. However, responsible historians, without an ideological axe to grind, reject those enthusiastic endorsements and strident attacks as unwarranted. Dr. Phillip Jenkins, of Pennsylvania State University, sums up the consensus of academic opinion:
“In most cases, all that can be known for certain about a given Nag Hammadi document is that the particular manuscript was written before the late fourth century, when it was concealed: the date of composition remains highly uncertain. Conceivably, even at this very late date, the ink might not have been too dry on some of these writings. While the canonical gospels were completed by 100 or so, it is unlikely that any of the Nag Hammadi materials date from much before 150, and most probably were written between about 150 and 250, or later. Indeed, the fact that we find so many efforts in the late second and early third century to specify the orthodox canon may indicate that it was in exactly these years that spurious and heterodox works were pouring forth from their creators in unprecedented numbers.” (Jenkins, pp. 92-93)
While the sources of these texts appear to have been written at least 100 years after the books of the canonical New Testament, they do provide an intriguing glimpse into 3nd Century gnostic thought. Most of the works are “pseudographical,” that is, falsely attributed to authors of the apostolic age to enhance their own authority and stature. At the same time, they reveal the gnostic’s disdain for history and the bewildering, often contradictory, varieties of gnostic philosophy. There is very little new historical information in these writings and the positions taken in one work are often specifically rejected in another. The contrast between these later works composed on the heretical fringes of the early Church and the books of the New Testament - consistent in content and rich in history - is overwhelming.
Both of the unfortunate patterns typical of gnostic writings - anti-historical bias and inconsistency - are evident in the Nag Hammadi documents’ treatment of Mary Magdalen. No additional details about her life or background are provided, and the perspective which they present on any potential leadership role which she may have played in the early church is ambiguous at best.
Mary fares best in “The Gospel of Phillip” (c. A.D. 225). The text describes her as the “companion” of Jesus - “Three Marys walked with the lord; His mother, His sister, and Mary Magdala, His companion.” (Barnstone, p. 267) Later we are told that the other disciples objected to the prominence accorded to Mary Magdalen. In response, Jesus indicates that she is more spiritually perceptive than any of the other disciples: “They said, ‘Why do you love her more than us?’ The savior answered, saying to them, ‘Why do I not love you like her? If a blind man and one who sees are together in darkness, they are the same. When the light comes, the one who sees will see light. The blind man stays in the darkness.’” (Barnstone, p. 273) Another of the gnostic writings that has survived outside of the Nag Hammadi collection is actually attributed to Mary Magdalen, although most scholars believe that “The Gospel of Mary” was not composed until after A.D. 200. Only fragmentary pieces of this text remain which makes its interpretation all the more difficult. But what’s left is enough to cause considerable controversy. Mary recounts the special visions which Jesus had bestowed upon her alone: “Then Mary stood up, greeted them all, and said to her brothers, ‘Do not weep, and do not grieve or be irresolute, for his grace will be fully with you and will protect you. Rather, let us praise his greatness. He prepared us and made us truly human.’ When Mary said this, she turned their hearts to the good and they began to discuss the words of the savior. Peter said to Mary, ‘Sister, we know that the Savior loved you more than other women. Tell us the words of the Savior that you remember, which you know and we do not. We have not heard them.’” (Barnstone, p. 479) Peter’s attitude evidently changed after Mary had spoken as he and his brother Andrew objected to the concept of the Lord granting revelation through the voice of a woman. This provokes a spirited debate among the apostles: “When Mary said this, she fell silent since the Lord had spoken to her of all these things. But Andrew answered, saying to the brothers, ‘Say what you think about what she said. I do not believe that the savior said this. These teachings are of strange ideas.’ Peter also opposed her about all this. He asked the others about the savior, ‘Did he really speak to a woman secretly, without our knowledge and not openly? Are we to turn and listen to her? Did he prefer her to us?’ Then Mary wept and said to Peter, ‘My brother Peter, what do you think? Do you think I concocted this in my heart, or I am lying about the savior? Levi answered, saying to Peter, ‘Peter, you are always angry. Now I see you contending against this woman as against an adversary. If the savior made her worthy, who are you to reject her? Surely the savior knows her very well. That is why he loved her more than us. We should be ashamed and put on the perfect person and be with him as he commanded us, and we should preach the gospel, without making any rule or law other than what the savior said.’” (Barnstone, p. 481) In the second half of the 3rd Century a gnostic gospel entitled “Pistis Sophia” (“The Wisdom of Faith”) was composed which also accords a primary leadership role to Mary Magdalen. Jesus announces to His disciples that Mary and St. John are to lead His Church: “But Mary Magdalene and John the Virgin will surpass all my disciples and all men who shall receive mysteries in the Ineffable, they will be on my right hand and on my left, and I am they and they are I.” (Schneemelcher, p. 366) As in the other texts, Peter expresses the resentment and frustration of the other apostles: “My Lord, we are not able to suffer this woman who takes the opportunity from us, and does not allow any one of us to speak, but she speaks many times.” (Brock, pp. 85-86) Mary notes Peter’s opposition to her role as she complains to Jesus: “My Lord, my mind is understanding at all times that I should come forward at any time and give the interpretation of the words which Pistis Sophia spoke, but I am afraid of Peter, for he threatens me and hates our kind.” (Brock , p. 86)
And yet, at the same time, other prominent gnostic writings like “The Gospel of Thomas,” written in the mid 2nd Century, present a somewhat less flattering picture of the role of Mary: “Simon Cephas said to them, ‘Mary should leave us. Females are not worthy of life.’ Jesus said, ‘Look, I shall guide her to make her male, so she too may become a living spirit resembling you males. For every female who makes herself male will enter the kingdom of heaven.’” (Barnstone, p. 69)
The gnostic writings which advocate a major apostolic role for Mary Magdalen were written in the late 2nd and early 3rd centuries when gnostic heretics were locked in bitter controversy with the defenders of orthodox Christianity. The twenty-seven books of the canonical New Testament had been well established by this time throughout the Church as the definitive source of Christian doctrine. This explains the gnostic attempt to attribute their writings to apostolic authors who had been dead for centuries. One of the major selling points of the gnostic heresy was the argument that gnosticism liberated women from the repressive constraints placed upon them by the Scriptures of Judaism and Christianity. Gnostic women were allowed and encouraged to do the very things which they could not do in Christian churches. The effectiveness of that strategy can be seen in the classic book “Against Heresies” written by Irenaeus, bishop of Lyon in the Roman province of Gaul at the end of the 2nd Century. Irenaeus lamented the susceptibility of Christian women to these clever falsehoods from a gnostic teacher in his region named Marcus. Marcus would entice the women to worship the goddess and join with him in consecrating the elements of her sacrament and prophesying in her name before the congregation of his followers.
“By there is another among these heretics, Marcus by name, who boasts himself as having improved upon his master. He is a perfect adept in magical impostures, and by this means drawing away a great number of men and not a few women, he has induced them to join themselves to him, as to one who is possessed of the greatest knowledge and perfection and who has received the highest power from the invisible and ineffable regions above...Handing mixed cups to the women, he bids them consecrate them in his presence...He devotes himself especially to women and to those such as are well-bred, and elegantly attired, and of great wealth, whom he frequently seeks to draw away as these by addressing them in such seductive words as these, ‘I am eager to make thee a partaker of my Grace...Behold Grace has descended upon thee, open thy mouth and prophesy.’...Some of his disciples too, addicting themselves to the same practices have deceived many silly women and defiled them.” (ANF,1, p. 334-335)
Mary Magdalen, as the most prominent female in the canonical gospels, became the convenient foil of these attacks upon historic Christianity. By presenting her as the beneficiary of unique spiritual insight, designated by Jesus as a preeminent leader of His Church, the gnostics sought to undermine and overcome the authority of the male leadership of orthodoxy and transform the Christian religion. Dan Brown’s uncritical embrace of these questionable and contradictory writings makes him the darling of feminists and neo-gnostics everywhere. That is evidently much more important to him than historical accuracy or credibility. The assertion of an apostolic role for Mary Magdalen is without support in Scripture or the traditions of historic Christianity. The sources upon which The Da Vinci Code selectively depends were written long after the completion of the Bible by false teachers far out of the fringes of the Christian faith.
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The Da Vinci Deception - (pp. 244,247)
“Teabing clarified, ‘The early Church needed to convince the world that the mortal prophet Jesus was a divine being. Therefore any gospels that described earthly aspects of Jesus’ life had to be omitted from the Bible’... ‘But how could Christ have had a bloodline, unless?... ‘She paused and looked at Langdon. Langdon smiled softly, ‘Unless they had a child.’ Sophie stood transfixed. ‘Behold,’ Teabing proclaimed, ‘The greatest cover-up in human history. Not only was Jesus Christ married, but He was a father. My dear, Mary Magdalene was the Holy Vessel. She was the chalice that bore the royal bloodline of Jesus Christ. She was the womb that bore the lineage from which the sacred fruit sprang forth.’”
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The assertion that Mary Magdalene was Jesus’ lover, His wife, and the mother of His children is the central component in The Da Vinci Code’s conspiracy theory. This, we are told again and again, is the great secret which Constantine suppressed, which institutional Christendom sought to eliminate through bloody persecution and witch-hunt for centuries, and which the Renaissance genius Leonardo da Vinci both concealed and conveyed in the masterpieces of his art.
This claim is not new to Dan Brown or his Da Vinci Code. It has been repeatedly advanced in recent years by New Age mystics and amateur conspiracy theorists. Dan Brown’s personal favorite appears to be a 1982 occult classic entitled “Holy Blood - Holy Grail” by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln. (The name of one of the novel’s central characters, “Sir Leigh Teabing” is an anagram based on the names of Baigent and Leigh.) This amazing book purports to reveal the secret history of Christ and the shocking legacy of the Holy Grail. The book asserts not only that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene and fathered children through her, but also that Christ did not die on the cross, and that secret documents concealed beneath the Temple Mount in Jerusalem revealed this secret to the Knights Templar who then dedicated themselves to the perpetuation of Christ’s royal descendants through the Merovingian line of French royalty. In the novel, Sir Leigh Teabing specifically cites this work as the “international bestseller” which “brought the idea of Christ’s bloodline into the mainstream.” (DVC, pp. 253-254) The other works mentioned as authorities in the field to prove that “the royal bloodline of Christ has been chronicled in detail by scores of historians” (DVC, p. 253) are The Templar Revelation by Lynn Pickett and Clive Prince, The Woman with the Alabaster Jar and The Goddess in the Gospels by Margaret Starbird. Richard Abanes offers this telling analysis of the authors cited as authoritative historians:
“None of these authors are, in fact, historians. Starbird holds an M.A. in Comparative Literature and German. Baigent has an undergraduate degree in psychology and has recently been pursuing an M.A. in Mysticism and Religious Experience. And Leigh is ‘ primarily a novelist and a writer of short stories.’ What about Lincoln? He is a BBC television personality and scriptwriter. And Picknett and Prince are actually conspiracy theorists with a penchant for occultism, the paranormal, and UFOs.” (Abanes, pp. 41-42)
Such are the “scores of historians” that document the remarkable theory upon which the entire plot of The Da Vinci Code is based. Lutheran historian Dr. Paul L. Maier argues that despite the zeal of these “sensationalizing authors” that there is not “one spark of evidence from antiquity”, “not a scintilla of evidence anywhere in the historical sources” to suggest that Jesus may have gotten married to Mary Magdalene. (Hanegraff, Maier, p. 18)
In the novel, Teabing pontificates that the marriage of Jesus to Mary Magdalene was “ a particularly troubling earthly theme which kept recurring in the gospels.” (DVC, p. 244) This is not true. There is of course, no reference whatsoever to any such marriage in the canonical gospels of the New Testament. That, Sir Leigh concludes, is the reason why they were included in the canon while other - more accurate documents - were not. Evidently the gospels of which the fictional historian speaks are the gnostic writings of the Fourth Century. But even here there are, in fact, no references to a marriage between Jesus and Mary. The most compelling evidence Brown can produce is a quotation from the gnostic “The Gospel of Phillip.” The passage cited says:
“And the companion of the Savior is Mary Magdalene. Christ loved her more than all the disciples and used to kiss her often on the mouth. The rest of the disciples were offended by it and expressed disapproval. They said to Him, ‘Why do you love her more than all of us?’” ( DVC, p. 246)
Sophie, the novel’s heroine, then makes the obvious observation that these words in no way constitute an affirmation of any marriage between Christ and Mary Magdalene. Professor Teabing goes on to clinch his argument with the assertion that “As any Aramaic scholar will tell you, the word companion in those days literally meant spouse.” (DVC, p. 246) This categorical assertion is false and misleading in every way. Actually, the oldest copy of the Gospel of Phillip extant today is written in Coptic, not Aramaic, and that copy is a translation of an original Greek text. Thus, what an Aramaic term may or may not have meant is hardly relevant. Even if, theoretically, one might argue that the Aramaic word could have been used in an earlier oral tradition - assuming the highly dubious authenticity of this document - the point remains invalid nonetheless. For as Craig Bloomberg of Denver Seminary (a real Aramaic scholar!) will tell you: “no Aramaic or Hebrew words for companion normally mean spouse.” (Abanes, p. 38)
What then does this passage mean when it says that “Christ loved her more than all the other disciples and used to kiss her often on the mouth.”? The answer to that question must be determined from the context of the passage itself and from the use of similar language in other contemporary documents. “The Gospel of Phillip” does not define the relationship between Jesus and Mary Magdalene in terms of physical intimacy or marriage as Dan Brown would have us believe. In fact, the same text goes on to commend Mary for her unique spiritual insight as one who sees the light while the other disciples remain in the darkness. In that regard, The Da Vinci Code’s translation of the text is misleading -“Christ loved her more than all the disciples and used to kiss her often on the mouth.” In the original text both parts of the phrase, not merely the first part as in this translation, are comparative. “The Gnostic Bible,” a standard scholarly translation of the passage, more accurately reads: “The companion is Mary of Magdala. Jesus loved her more than His students. He kissed her often on her face, more than all His students.” (Barnstone, Meyer, p. 273) There is no sexual connotation whatsoever in this language. “The Gospel of Phillip” later quotes Jesus defining the significance of His kiss as an act of spiritual nourishment that leads to spiritual enlightenment: “For it is by a kiss that the perfect conceive and give birth. For this reason we also kiss one another. We receive conception from the grace that is in one another.” (58:30-59:6) The “Apocalypse of James,” another gnostic writing of the same period, uses exactly the same language to describe Christ’s special revelation its author: “And He kissed my mouth. He took hold of me saying, ‘My beloved! Behold, I shall reveal to you those things which neither the heavens nor the archons have known.’” (Olson, Miesel, p. 95)
The Da Vinci Code also contends that Jesus must have been married because “the social decorum during that time virtually forbid a Jewish man to be unmarried.” (DVC, p. 245) Once again, the novel’s assertion directly contradicts the historical evidence. Archaeological exploration near the Dead Sea has indicated that the Jewish Essene community at Qumram included both married and single men and women. The two most prominent non-Christian Jewish writers of the period, Josephus and Philo, both refer to the practice of celibacy among the Jews. Our Lord Himself refers to celibacy when He describes those “who have renounced marriage for the kingdom of God.” (Matthew 19:12) It is also significant to note that in his defense of an apostle’s right to marry if he so chooses, St. Paul cites “the other apostles, the Lord’s brothers, and Cephas” as those who have taken wives. (1 Corinthians 9:5) Surely, if Jesus Himself had been married, Paul would not have failed to mention that fact to conclusively clinch his argument. Once again, The Da Vinci Code’s conclusion is untenable and the evidence cited to support it is inaccurate.
It is not theoretically impossible that Jesus could have chosen to marry. Had He been married there is no reason why He could not have carried on a normal sexual relationship with His wife within the context of that marriage. However, the reality of the personal union of the divine and the human natures in Christ would seem to rule out the possibility of the procreation of children. But the real question is not could Jesus have married - a question which must remain theoretical - but rather, did Jesus marry. As we have noted, there is no hint or suggestion anywhere in Scripture or in the traditions of the ancient church that Jesus was married. All of the modern speculation about a marriage between Jesus and Mary Magdalen is just that, idle speculation without any Biblical or historical basis. Erwin W. Lutzer is correct when he concludes: “The Da Vinci Code bases its conclusions on imaginary data, hoping that gullible readers will give them credence.” (Lutzer, p. 52)
Given our Lord’s single minded commitment to His mission and ministry this should not be surprising. Jesus did not come into this world for Himself. The God/man lived only to accomplish the plan of salvation and to offer His life as the innocent sacrifice for the sins of mankind. And yet, in the language and imagery of Scripture, Jesus is indeed a bridegroom. His perfect bride is not a particular individual, but the entire Church, all the people of God. Thus John the Baptist declared of the Christ : “I am not the Christ, but am sent ahead of Him. The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who awaits the bridegroom awaits and listens for Him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine.” (John 3:28-29) Jesus uses the same imagery of the bridegroom and the bride to describe His earthly ministry: “How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while He is with them? They cannot they have Him with them. But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast.” (Mark 2:19-20; cf. Matthew 22:1-14; 25:1-13) St. Paul used Jesus as the example of the perfect husband. He urged Christian husbands to demonstrate the same selfless love for their wives that Christ has showered upon His bride, the Church:
“Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself up for her, to make her holy cleansing her with the washing with water through the Word, and to present her to Himself as a radiant Church without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.” (Ephesians 5:25-27; cf. Also 2 Corinthians 11:2)
The great theme of the marriage of Christ and His bride, the Church recurs in the Bible’s triumphant conclusion:
“Hallelujah! For the Lord our God Almighty reigns! Let us rejoice and be glad and give Him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and His bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear. (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints.) Then the angel said to me, ‘Write: Blessed are those who are called to the marriage feast of the Lamb.’” (Revelation 19:6-9)
A few verses later, in the closing words of Scripture, the Church plead’s for the glorious return of her victorious Bridegroom in Revelation 22: “The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’” (Revelation 22:17)
For the feminist advocates of New Age religion there is much more at stake here than the status of Mary Magdalen. Mary is perceived to be the personification of all women and her proper recognition will signal the liberation of women from the curse of male domination within the Church. Susan Haskins , author of Mary Magdalen - Myth and Metaphor, writes: “In the radical revision of much of what until now had been accepted interpretations of the early Church and women’s participation in it, Mary Magdalen’s figure has emerged in bold relief, restored to her New Testament role as chief female disciple, apostle to the apostles and first witness of the resurrection. The significance of this re-evaluation has so far gone mostly unacknowledged by the Church or Rome, whilst it is only partially conceded by other churches, because of the residual patriarchalism of those institutions. If the ‘victimization’ of Mary Magdalen can stand as a metaphor for the historically subordinate position of women in Christianity, now that the woman, so long regarded as a penitent sinner has been shown in her true light, then it may be that Christianity’s view of woman in history itself requires some kind of radical revision...From the early centuries of the Christian era, Mary Magdalen has, like the women she represents, been the scapegoat of the ecclesiastical institution, manipulated, controlled, and, above all, misrepresented.” (Haskins, pp. 392-393)
For some in the feminist camp, the agenda is even more ambitious. Margaret Starbird sees in the rehabilitation of the Magdalen not only the liberation of women in the Church, but the restoration of the long suppressed feminine component of the deity and the belated recognition of the divine within every human being, male and female. “When I speak now of reclaiming the lost Bride, I am at once thinking of restoring the historical wife of Jesus to her rightful place at his side, and, at the same time, on a deeper plane, thinking of how this will help to restore the ‘partnership paradigm’ - the imaging of the Divine as both the Bride and Bridegroom - in the holy inner sanctum of our collective psyche...The celibate male image of God worshiped for nearly two thousand years of western civilization is a distorted image that desperately needs to be corrected...At some point in my journey I understood that my original goal had evolved into a much larger purpose. I now realize that I am charged not only with restoring the Bride to Christianity - the Goddess in the Gospels - but also with restoring the partnership paradigm that was the cornerstone of ancient civilizations....The doctrine of the sacred partnership of humanity and divinity in each human individual will be the fundamental tenet of a Church of the Holy Spirit.” (Starbird, pp. 151-153)
http://www.osl.cc/believe/daVinci/BREAKING%20DA%20VINCI%20CODE%204.htm
JESUS AND MARY MAGDALENE
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The Da Vinci Code (pp. 247-248)
“‘The woman they are speaking of,’ Teabing explained, ‘is Mary Magdalene. Peter is jealous of her.’ ‘Because Jesus preferred Mary?’ ‘Not only that. The stakes are far greater than mere affection. At this point in the gospels, Jesus suspects that He will soon be captured and crucified. So he gives Mary Magdalene instructions on how to carry on His Church after He is gone. As a result, Peter expresses his discontent over playing second fiddle to a woman. I daresay Peter was something of a sexist.’ Sophie was trying to keep up. ‘This Saint Peter, the rock on which Jesus built His Church?’ ‘The same, except for one catch. According to these unaltered gospels, it was not Peter to whom Christ gave directions with which to establish the Christian Church. It was Mary Magdalene.’ Sophie looked at him. ‘You’re saying the Christian Church was to be carried on by a woman?’ ‘That was the plan. Jesus was the original feminist. He intended for the future of His Church to be in the hands of Mary Magdalene.’”
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The key figure in “The Da Vinci Code’s” grand conspiracy theory is Mary Magdalen. The novel contends that Mary Magdalen was not only a devoted follower of the Lord, but was in fact His lover, His wife, and the mother of His child. It was the Lord’s intent, the novelist insists, that His wife and lover become the leader of the Christian Church after His death. The male leadership of the early church, we are told, fiercely resented the prominence of Mary and she was marginalized and ignored in the years which followed the Lord’s death. That pattern culminated when Constantine and his co-conspirators found it necessary to transform Christianity into a patriarchal religion based upon the identification of Jesus as the Son of God. The facts of Jesus’ marriage to Mary Magdalen, their sexual relationship with one another, the children which were produced by that relationship, and Christ’s intent that Mary become the leader of His Church were then brutally suppressed and denied. Dan Brown goes so far as to describe this effort as “the greatest cover-up in human history.” (Lutzer, p.49) The real truth about the man Jesus, His wife Mary, and the children which their marriage produced was kept alive through secret organizations and cryptic codes focusing on the ancient legend of the “Holy Grail.” Leonardo Da Vinci was supposedly one of the heroes who helped to perpetuate this legacy through his art - thus the novel’s title “The Da Vinci Code.”
In the Gospels of the New Testament Mary Magdalene is one of the most prominent of the Galilean women who followed Jesus in the course of His public ministry. Mary was from the town of Magdala, an important agricultural, fishing and trading center on the southern end of the Sea of Galilee. The Greek name of this town was Tarichaea and its population was predominantly Gentile. Josephus notes that the town had its own hippodrome and was notorious among the Jews for its immorality. Mary is introduced in the Gospel of Luke in this way:
“The Twelve were with Him and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; Joanna the wife of Cuza, the manager of Herod’s household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means.” (Luke 8:2-3)
The seven demons from whom the Lord had delivered Mary Magdalene are also mentioned in Mark 16:9. Mary was included among the courageous core of women who followed Jesus to the cross and remained by His side throughout His execution and burial.
“Some women were watching from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome. In Galilee these women had followed Him and cared for His needs.” (Mark 15:40-41; cf. John 19:25)
“So Joseph brought some linen cloth, took down the body, wrapped it in the linen, and placed it in a tomb cut out of rock. Then he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where He was laid.” (Mark 15:47)
On Easter Sunday morning. Mary is among the women who come out to complete the burial preparations only to discover the tomb empty and the body missing (cf. Matthew 28:1; Mark 16:1;Luke 24:10). John’s Gospel reports that Mary remained outside of the grave weeping and became the first person to encounter the risen Lord Jesus:
“Then the disciples went back to their homes, but Mary stood outside of the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb, and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. They asked her, ‘Woman, why are you crying?’ ‘They have taken my Lord away,’ she said, ‘ and I don’t know where they have put Him.’ At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. ‘Woman,’ He said, ‘why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?’ Thinking He was the gardener, she said, ‘Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have put Him, and I will get Him.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Mary.’ She turned toward Him and cried out in Aramaic, ‘Rabboni!’ (which means Teacher). Jesus said, ‘Do not hold on to Me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to My brothers and tell them, ‘I am returning to My Father and to your Father, to My God and your God.’ Mary Magdala went to the disciples with the news: ‘I have seen the Lord!’ and she told them that He had said these things to her.” (John 19:10-18)
Not only is Mary the first person to encounter the risen Christ, but she is also given the responsibility to announce the resurrection to the apostles who remain in hiding. Dan Brown contends that the Biblical Gospels are nothing more than a conglomeration of fictions concocted by a committee of male chauvinists. These evil conspirators, we are told, invented the concept of all male apostles to contradict and deny the fact that Jesus had actually entrusted the leadership of His Church to Mary Magdalene. If any of this nonsense were true, it is impossible to imagine why the Gospels would continue to portray Mary Magdalene in such a positive fashion. She was indeed, as the ancient fathers of the Church declared, “the apostle to the apostles.”
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The Da Vinci Code - (pp. 244, 247)
“Teabing clarified, ‘The early Church needed to convince the world that the mortal prophet Jesus was a divine being. Therefore any gospels that described earthly aspects of Jesus’ life had to be omitted form the Bible’... ‘But how could Christ have a bloodline, unless...?’ She paused and looked at Langdon. Langdon smiled softly, ‘Unless they had a child.’ Sophie stood transfixed. ‘Behold,’ Teabing proclaimed. ‘The greatest cover-up in human history. Not only was Jesus Christ married, but He was a father. My dear, Mary Magdalene was the Holy Vessel. She was the chalice that bore the royal bloodline of Jesus Christ. She was the womb that bore the lineage from which the sacred fruit sprang forth.’
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The only documentation for any leadership role attributed to Mary Magdalen comes from gnostic writings of the 2nd and 3rd centuries, most notably the famous Nag Hammadi collection uncovered in 1945. (Cf. Notes pp. 29ff.) The dates of the Greek originals upon which the Coptic Nag Hammadi documents were based has been the subject of intense debate among scholars. Those sympathetic to neo-gnosticism often make fabulous claims about the reliability and the antiquity of these writings. They see in these documents a way to undermine and deny the content of historic Christianity. However, responsible historians, without an ideological axe to grind, reject those enthusiastic endorsements and strident attacks as unwarranted. Dr. Phillip Jenkins, of Pennsylvania State University, sums up the consensus of academic opinion:
“In most cases, all that can be known for certain about a given Nag Hammadi document is that the particular manuscript was written before the late fourth century, when it was concealed: the date of composition remains highly uncertain. Conceivably, even at this very late date, the ink might not have been too dry on some of these writings. While the canonical gospels were completed by 100 or so, it is unlikely that any of the Nag Hammadi materials date from much before 150, and most probably were written between about 150 and 250, or later. Indeed, the fact that we find so many efforts in the late second and early third century to specify the orthodox canon may indicate that it was in exactly these years that spurious and heterodox works were pouring forth from their creators in unprecedented numbers.” (Jenkins, pp. 92-93)
While the sources of these texts appear to have been written at least 100 years after the books of the canonical New Testament, they do provide an intriguing glimpse into 3nd Century gnostic thought. Most of the works are “pseudographical,” that is, falsely attributed to authors of the apostolic age to enhance their own authority and stature. At the same time, they reveal the gnostic’s disdain for history and the bewildering, often contradictory, varieties of gnostic philosophy. There is very little new historical information in these writings and the positions taken in one work are often specifically rejected in another. The contrast between these later works composed on the heretical fringes of the early Church and the books of the New Testament - consistent in content and rich in history - is overwhelming.
Both of the unfortunate patterns typical of gnostic writings - anti-historical bias and inconsistency - are evident in the Nag Hammadi documents’ treatment of Mary Magdalen. No additional details about her life or background are provided, and the perspective which they present on any potential leadership role which she may have played in the early church is ambiguous at best.
Mary fares best in “The Gospel of Phillip” (c. A.D. 225). The text describes her as the “companion” of Jesus - “Three Marys walked with the lord; His mother, His sister, and Mary Magdala, His companion.” (Barnstone, p. 267) Later we are told that the other disciples objected to the prominence accorded to Mary Magdalen. In response, Jesus indicates that she is more spiritually perceptive than any of the other disciples: “They said, ‘Why do you love her more than us?’ The savior answered, saying to them, ‘Why do I not love you like her? If a blind man and one who sees are together in darkness, they are the same. When the light comes, the one who sees will see light. The blind man stays in the darkness.’” (Barnstone, p. 273) Another of the gnostic writings that has survived outside of the Nag Hammadi collection is actually attributed to Mary Magdalen, although most scholars believe that “The Gospel of Mary” was not composed until after A.D. 200. Only fragmentary pieces of this text remain which makes its interpretation all the more difficult. But what’s left is enough to cause considerable controversy. Mary recounts the special visions which Jesus had bestowed upon her alone: “Then Mary stood up, greeted them all, and said to her brothers, ‘Do not weep, and do not grieve or be irresolute, for his grace will be fully with you and will protect you. Rather, let us praise his greatness. He prepared us and made us truly human.’ When Mary said this, she turned their hearts to the good and they began to discuss the words of the savior. Peter said to Mary, ‘Sister, we know that the Savior loved you more than other women. Tell us the words of the Savior that you remember, which you know and we do not. We have not heard them.’” (Barnstone, p. 479) Peter’s attitude evidently changed after Mary had spoken as he and his brother Andrew objected to the concept of the Lord granting revelation through the voice of a woman. This provokes a spirited debate among the apostles: “When Mary said this, she fell silent since the Lord had spoken to her of all these things. But Andrew answered, saying to the brothers, ‘Say what you think about what she said. I do not believe that the savior said this. These teachings are of strange ideas.’ Peter also opposed her about all this. He asked the others about the savior, ‘Did he really speak to a woman secretly, without our knowledge and not openly? Are we to turn and listen to her? Did he prefer her to us?’ Then Mary wept and said to Peter, ‘My brother Peter, what do you think? Do you think I concocted this in my heart, or I am lying about the savior? Levi answered, saying to Peter, ‘Peter, you are always angry. Now I see you contending against this woman as against an adversary. If the savior made her worthy, who are you to reject her? Surely the savior knows her very well. That is why he loved her more than us. We should be ashamed and put on the perfect person and be with him as he commanded us, and we should preach the gospel, without making any rule or law other than what the savior said.’” (Barnstone, p. 481) In the second half of the 3rd Century a gnostic gospel entitled “Pistis Sophia” (“The Wisdom of Faith”) was composed which also accords a primary leadership role to Mary Magdalen. Jesus announces to His disciples that Mary and St. John are to lead His Church: “But Mary Magdalene and John the Virgin will surpass all my disciples and all men who shall receive mysteries in the Ineffable, they will be on my right hand and on my left, and I am they and they are I.” (Schneemelcher, p. 366) As in the other texts, Peter expresses the resentment and frustration of the other apostles: “My Lord, we are not able to suffer this woman who takes the opportunity from us, and does not allow any one of us to speak, but she speaks many times.” (Brock, pp. 85-86) Mary notes Peter’s opposition to her role as she complains to Jesus: “My Lord, my mind is understanding at all times that I should come forward at any time and give the interpretation of the words which Pistis Sophia spoke, but I am afraid of Peter, for he threatens me and hates our kind.” (Brock , p. 86)
And yet, at the same time, other prominent gnostic writings like “The Gospel of Thomas,” written in the mid 2nd Century, present a somewhat less flattering picture of the role of Mary: “Simon Cephas said to them, ‘Mary should leave us. Females are not worthy of life.’ Jesus said, ‘Look, I shall guide her to make her male, so she too may become a living spirit resembling you males. For every female who makes herself male will enter the kingdom of heaven.’” (Barnstone, p. 69)
The gnostic writings which advocate a major apostolic role for Mary Magdalen were written in the late 2nd and early 3rd centuries when gnostic heretics were locked in bitter controversy with the defenders of orthodox Christianity. The twenty-seven books of the canonical New Testament had been well established by this time throughout the Church as the definitive source of Christian doctrine. This explains the gnostic attempt to attribute their writings to apostolic authors who had been dead for centuries. One of the major selling points of the gnostic heresy was the argument that gnosticism liberated women from the repressive constraints placed upon them by the Scriptures of Judaism and Christianity. Gnostic women were allowed and encouraged to do the very things which they could not do in Christian churches. The effectiveness of that strategy can be seen in the classic book “Against Heresies” written by Irenaeus, bishop of Lyon in the Roman province of Gaul at the end of the 2nd Century. Irenaeus lamented the susceptibility of Christian women to these clever falsehoods from a gnostic teacher in his region named Marcus. Marcus would entice the women to worship the goddess and join with him in consecrating the elements of her sacrament and prophesying in her name before the congregation of his followers.
“By there is another among these heretics, Marcus by name, who boasts himself as having improved upon his master. He is a perfect adept in magical impostures, and by this means drawing away a great number of men and not a few women, he has induced them to join themselves to him, as to one who is possessed of the greatest knowledge and perfection and who has received the highest power from the invisible and ineffable regions above...Handing mixed cups to the women, he bids them consecrate them in his presence...He devotes himself especially to women and to those such as are well-bred, and elegantly attired, and of great wealth, whom he frequently seeks to draw away as these by addressing them in such seductive words as these, ‘I am eager to make thee a partaker of my Grace...Behold Grace has descended upon thee, open thy mouth and prophesy.’...Some of his disciples too, addicting themselves to the same practices have deceived many silly women and defiled them.” (ANF,1, p. 334-335)
Mary Magdalen, as the most prominent female in the canonical gospels, became the convenient foil of these attacks upon historic Christianity. By presenting her as the beneficiary of unique spiritual insight, designated by Jesus as a preeminent leader of His Church, the gnostics sought to undermine and overcome the authority of the male leadership of orthodoxy and transform the Christian religion. Dan Brown’s uncritical embrace of these questionable and contradictory writings makes him the darling of feminists and neo-gnostics everywhere. That is evidently much more important to him than historical accuracy or credibility. The assertion of an apostolic role for Mary Magdalen is without support in Scripture or the traditions of historic Christianity. The sources upon which The Da Vinci Code selectively depends were written long after the completion of the Bible by false teachers far out of the fringes of the Christian faith.
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The Da Vinci Deception - (pp. 244,247)
“Teabing clarified, ‘The early Church needed to convince the world that the mortal prophet Jesus was a divine being. Therefore any gospels that described earthly aspects of Jesus’ life had to be omitted from the Bible’... ‘But how could Christ have had a bloodline, unless?... ‘She paused and looked at Langdon. Langdon smiled softly, ‘Unless they had a child.’ Sophie stood transfixed. ‘Behold,’ Teabing proclaimed, ‘The greatest cover-up in human history. Not only was Jesus Christ married, but He was a father. My dear, Mary Magdalene was the Holy Vessel. She was the chalice that bore the royal bloodline of Jesus Christ. She was the womb that bore the lineage from which the sacred fruit sprang forth.’”
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The assertion that Mary Magdalene was Jesus’ lover, His wife, and the mother of His children is the central component in The Da Vinci Code’s conspiracy theory. This, we are told again and again, is the great secret which Constantine suppressed, which institutional Christendom sought to eliminate through bloody persecution and witch-hunt for centuries, and which the Renaissance genius Leonardo da Vinci both concealed and conveyed in the masterpieces of his art.
This claim is not new to Dan Brown or his Da Vinci Code. It has been repeatedly advanced in recent years by New Age mystics and amateur conspiracy theorists. Dan Brown’s personal favorite appears to be a 1982 occult classic entitled “Holy Blood - Holy Grail” by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln. (The name of one of the novel’s central characters, “Sir Leigh Teabing” is an anagram based on the names of Baigent and Leigh.) This amazing book purports to reveal the secret history of Christ and the shocking legacy of the Holy Grail. The book asserts not only that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene and fathered children through her, but also that Christ did not die on the cross, and that secret documents concealed beneath the Temple Mount in Jerusalem revealed this secret to the Knights Templar who then dedicated themselves to the perpetuation of Christ’s royal descendants through the Merovingian line of French royalty. In the novel, Sir Leigh Teabing specifically cites this work as the “international bestseller” which “brought the idea of Christ’s bloodline into the mainstream.” (DVC, pp. 253-254) The other works mentioned as authorities in the field to prove that “the royal bloodline of Christ has been chronicled in detail by scores of historians” (DVC, p. 253) are The Templar Revelation by Lynn Pickett and Clive Prince, The Woman with the Alabaster Jar and The Goddess in the Gospels by Margaret Starbird. Richard Abanes offers this telling analysis of the authors cited as authoritative historians:
“None of these authors are, in fact, historians. Starbird holds an M.A. in Comparative Literature and German. Baigent has an undergraduate degree in psychology and has recently been pursuing an M.A. in Mysticism and Religious Experience. And Leigh is ‘ primarily a novelist and a writer of short stories.’ What about Lincoln? He is a BBC television personality and scriptwriter. And Picknett and Prince are actually conspiracy theorists with a penchant for occultism, the paranormal, and UFOs.” (Abanes, pp. 41-42)
Such are the “scores of historians” that document the remarkable theory upon which the entire plot of The Da Vinci Code is based. Lutheran historian Dr. Paul L. Maier argues that despite the zeal of these “sensationalizing authors” that there is not “one spark of evidence from antiquity”, “not a scintilla of evidence anywhere in the historical sources” to suggest that Jesus may have gotten married to Mary Magdalene. (Hanegraff, Maier, p. 18)
In the novel, Teabing pontificates that the marriage of Jesus to Mary Magdalene was “ a particularly troubling earthly theme which kept recurring in the gospels.” (DVC, p. 244) This is not true. There is of course, no reference whatsoever to any such marriage in the canonical gospels of the New Testament. That, Sir Leigh concludes, is the reason why they were included in the canon while other - more accurate documents - were not. Evidently the gospels of which the fictional historian speaks are the gnostic writings of the Fourth Century. But even here there are, in fact, no references to a marriage between Jesus and Mary. The most compelling evidence Brown can produce is a quotation from the gnostic “The Gospel of Phillip.” The passage cited says:
“And the companion of the Savior is Mary Magdalene. Christ loved her more than all the disciples and used to kiss her often on the mouth. The rest of the disciples were offended by it and expressed disapproval. They said to Him, ‘Why do you love her more than all of us?’” ( DVC, p. 246)
Sophie, the novel’s heroine, then makes the obvious observation that these words in no way constitute an affirmation of any marriage between Christ and Mary Magdalene. Professor Teabing goes on to clinch his argument with the assertion that “As any Aramaic scholar will tell you, the word companion in those days literally meant spouse.” (DVC, p. 246) This categorical assertion is false and misleading in every way. Actually, the oldest copy of the Gospel of Phillip extant today is written in Coptic, not Aramaic, and that copy is a translation of an original Greek text. Thus, what an Aramaic term may or may not have meant is hardly relevant. Even if, theoretically, one might argue that the Aramaic word could have been used in an earlier oral tradition - assuming the highly dubious authenticity of this document - the point remains invalid nonetheless. For as Craig Bloomberg of Denver Seminary (a real Aramaic scholar!) will tell you: “no Aramaic or Hebrew words for companion normally mean spouse.” (Abanes, p. 38)
What then does this passage mean when it says that “Christ loved her more than all the other disciples and used to kiss her often on the mouth.”? The answer to that question must be determined from the context of the passage itself and from the use of similar language in other contemporary documents. “The Gospel of Phillip” does not define the relationship between Jesus and Mary Magdalene in terms of physical intimacy or marriage as Dan Brown would have us believe. In fact, the same text goes on to commend Mary for her unique spiritual insight as one who sees the light while the other disciples remain in the darkness. In that regard, The Da Vinci Code’s translation of the text is misleading -“Christ loved her more than all the disciples and used to kiss her often on the mouth.” In the original text both parts of the phrase, not merely the first part as in this translation, are comparative. “The Gnostic Bible,” a standard scholarly translation of the passage, more accurately reads: “The companion is Mary of Magdala. Jesus loved her more than His students. He kissed her often on her face, more than all His students.” (Barnstone, Meyer, p. 273) There is no sexual connotation whatsoever in this language. “The Gospel of Phillip” later quotes Jesus defining the significance of His kiss as an act of spiritual nourishment that leads to spiritual enlightenment: “For it is by a kiss that the perfect conceive and give birth. For this reason we also kiss one another. We receive conception from the grace that is in one another.” (58:30-59:6) The “Apocalypse of James,” another gnostic writing of the same period, uses exactly the same language to describe Christ’s special revelation its author: “And He kissed my mouth. He took hold of me saying, ‘My beloved! Behold, I shall reveal to you those things which neither the heavens nor the archons have known.’” (Olson, Miesel, p. 95)
The Da Vinci Code also contends that Jesus must have been married because “the social decorum during that time virtually forbid a Jewish man to be unmarried.” (DVC, p. 245) Once again, the novel’s assertion directly contradicts the historical evidence. Archaeological exploration near the Dead Sea has indicated that the Jewish Essene community at Qumram included both married and single men and women. The two most prominent non-Christian Jewish writers of the period, Josephus and Philo, both refer to the practice of celibacy among the Jews. Our Lord Himself refers to celibacy when He describes those “who have renounced marriage for the kingdom of God.” (Matthew 19:12) It is also significant to note that in his defense of an apostle’s right to marry if he so chooses, St. Paul cites “the other apostles, the Lord’s brothers, and Cephas” as those who have taken wives. (1 Corinthians 9:5) Surely, if Jesus Himself had been married, Paul would not have failed to mention that fact to conclusively clinch his argument. Once again, The Da Vinci Code’s conclusion is untenable and the evidence cited to support it is inaccurate.
It is not theoretically impossible that Jesus could have chosen to marry. Had He been married there is no reason why He could not have carried on a normal sexual relationship with His wife within the context of that marriage. However, the reality of the personal union of the divine and the human natures in Christ would seem to rule out the possibility of the procreation of children. But the real question is not could Jesus have married - a question which must remain theoretical - but rather, did Jesus marry. As we have noted, there is no hint or suggestion anywhere in Scripture or in the traditions of the ancient church that Jesus was married. All of the modern speculation about a marriage between Jesus and Mary Magdalen is just that, idle speculation without any Biblical or historical basis. Erwin W. Lutzer is correct when he concludes: “The Da Vinci Code bases its conclusions on imaginary data, hoping that gullible readers will give them credence.” (Lutzer, p. 52)
Given our Lord’s single minded commitment to His mission and ministry this should not be surprising. Jesus did not come into this world for Himself. The God/man lived only to accomplish the plan of salvation and to offer His life as the innocent sacrifice for the sins of mankind. And yet, in the language and imagery of Scripture, Jesus is indeed a bridegroom. His perfect bride is not a particular individual, but the entire Church, all the people of God. Thus John the Baptist declared of the Christ : “I am not the Christ, but am sent ahead of Him. The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who awaits the bridegroom awaits and listens for Him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine.” (John 3:28-29) Jesus uses the same imagery of the bridegroom and the bride to describe His earthly ministry: “How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while He is with them? They cannot they have Him with them. But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast.” (Mark 2:19-20; cf. Matthew 22:1-14; 25:1-13) St. Paul used Jesus as the example of the perfect husband. He urged Christian husbands to demonstrate the same selfless love for their wives that Christ has showered upon His bride, the Church:
“Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself up for her, to make her holy cleansing her with the washing with water through the Word, and to present her to Himself as a radiant Church without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.” (Ephesians 5:25-27; cf. Also 2 Corinthians 11:2)
The great theme of the marriage of Christ and His bride, the Church recurs in the Bible’s triumphant conclusion:
“Hallelujah! For the Lord our God Almighty reigns! Let us rejoice and be glad and give Him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and His bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear. (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints.) Then the angel said to me, ‘Write: Blessed are those who are called to the marriage feast of the Lamb.’” (Revelation 19:6-9)
A few verses later, in the closing words of Scripture, the Church plead’s for the glorious return of her victorious Bridegroom in Revelation 22: “The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’” (Revelation 22:17)
For the feminist advocates of New Age religion there is much more at stake here than the status of Mary Magdalen. Mary is perceived to be the personification of all women and her proper recognition will signal the liberation of women from the curse of male domination within the Church. Susan Haskins , author of Mary Magdalen - Myth and Metaphor, writes: “In the radical revision of much of what until now had been accepted interpretations of the early Church and women’s participation in it, Mary Magdalen’s figure has emerged in bold relief, restored to her New Testament role as chief female disciple, apostle to the apostles and first witness of the resurrection. The significance of this re-evaluation has so far gone mostly unacknowledged by the Church or Rome, whilst it is only partially conceded by other churches, because of the residual patriarchalism of those institutions. If the ‘victimization’ of Mary Magdalen can stand as a metaphor for the historically subordinate position of women in Christianity, now that the woman, so long regarded as a penitent sinner has been shown in her true light, then it may be that Christianity’s view of woman in history itself requires some kind of radical revision...From the early centuries of the Christian era, Mary Magdalen has, like the women she represents, been the scapegoat of the ecclesiastical institution, manipulated, controlled, and, above all, misrepresented.” (Haskins, pp. 392-393)
For some in the feminist camp, the agenda is even more ambitious. Margaret Starbird sees in the rehabilitation of the Magdalen not only the liberation of women in the Church, but the restoration of the long suppressed feminine component of the deity and the belated recognition of the divine within every human being, male and female. “When I speak now of reclaiming the lost Bride, I am at once thinking of restoring the historical wife of Jesus to her rightful place at his side, and, at the same time, on a deeper plane, thinking of how this will help to restore the ‘partnership paradigm’ - the imaging of the Divine as both the Bride and Bridegroom - in the holy inner sanctum of our collective psyche...The celibate male image of God worshiped for nearly two thousand years of western civilization is a distorted image that desperately needs to be corrected...At some point in my journey I understood that my original goal had evolved into a much larger purpose. I now realize that I am charged not only with restoring the Bride to Christianity - the Goddess in the Gospels - but also with restoring the partnership paradigm that was the cornerstone of ancient civilizations....The doctrine of the sacred partnership of humanity and divinity in each human individual will be the fundamental tenet of a Church of the Holy Spirit.” (Starbird, pp. 151-153)
http://www.osl.cc/believe/daVinci/BREAKING%20DA%20VINCI%20CODE%204.htm
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