Originally posted by Jakub:
The Discovery Channel is airing this at 4:00PM EST and 7:00PM PST.
Heard it was a heretical view, but will see for myself.
james
I watched the show on the Discovery channel and wrote down some notes to help get the context of the hour-long documentary. Mary M. has been getting more attention lately since some in the biblical studies industry are trying to find a leading woman in the early church movement. The only thing surprising or shocking is how much attention Mary M. is getting these days even after these non-canonical texts have been around for some time, even in English. Yet the connection with the latest drive today to find a woman behind the Christian movement and to discredit all the male disciples as being fools and dupes is there. This has become more than a cottage industry in biblical studies.
Other 'shakers and movers' who weren't given their fair share of credit were John the Baptist and James the Brother of the Lord.
NOTES:
The documentary first starts off with an etymology of the term �Magdalen.� There is a town called �Magdala� in Galilee back then and still exists today. It can also be a compound word meaning �tower� and �salted fish,� therefore, a �tower of salted fish.� We know it was a town of ill-repute. In a book called, �Lamentations �(didn�t get the rest)� it ended as a town of fornication, probably where prostitution was predominant. Social pressures from severe Roman rule might have been too much too handle in day to day living.
Heavy taxes, slavery (especially child slavery), many creditors induced many women to choose prostitution to get by. �Magdalen� can also mean a married woman who is a widow. This would put the woman in social isolation.
But why the negative image?
In Luke�s Gospel, there is the story of the casting out of the seven demons. Possession was thought by the people to be brought on by the person possessed, therefore the woman was evil. Being bullied and abused, a woman had no other recourse out of her misery than to demonstrate possession.
Why was Mary M. drawn to Jesus?
Jesus� message was attractive, and a reason for Mary M. to leave home. It was a reasonable escape for women who were on the margins of society, an outcast.
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There are some controversial texts that were discovered after World War II (1945) in Nag Hammadi, Egypt. Ancient papyrus books documenting much Christian history(?) was contained in them. They were written in Coptic, the ancient Egyptian-Christian language of the time.
The three books were: (1) The Gospel of Thomas, (2) The Gospel of Philip, and (3) The Acts of Peter. They were considered �apocryphal� because of their secret hidden knowledge possibilities.
What interests biblical scholars is the potential of getting insight into the Jesus traditions. Mary M. appears frequently in the texts as a disciple and key figure. Unfortunately, several lacunas (holes in the manuscript � due to ants eating them) are found in some of the most critical passages about Mary M. and Jesus.
One most astounding passage is that �the Savior loved her � more than the other disciples.� She was often viewed as his favorite companion. Another lacuna seems to state that Jesus kissed her on her � Per careful studies by experts in Coptic, it seems that the second lacuna might have included the word �mouth.� But why?
Jesus loves Mary M. not in a sexual way (as some sensationalists would like to portray them) but kisses her to transmit intimate teachings. Didn�t Judas betray Jesus with a kiss?
Some question why such texts were considered apocryphal and hidden for so long.
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Evidence of intimacy in the canonical Gospels, those texts accepted later by the church also indicate that Mary Magd. was a close companion of Jesus. Mary M. was present at: (1) Jesus� crucifixion and (2) the Resurrection. These were the most critical turning points of Jesus� life.
At the burial Mary Magd. kept vigil at Jesus� tomb. She, along with other women, were to anoint his body in preparation for burial since it was a woman�s job to anoint dead bodies. But Jesus� body is no longer there when they arrive at the tomb. Mary Magd. runs to tell the other disciples about the news and she isn�t believed probably because testimony from a woman was never accepted.
Peter and others return to the tomb with Mary M. Peter gets angry, but the other un-named disciple understands what has happened. Peter and the second disciple leaves without saying a word to Mary M., who is left behind crying.
A voice speaks to Mary M. and she sees Jesus. Therefore, Jesus DID NOT DIE and the Jesus movement that Mary M. found a place in can continue.
The point being made in all this is that Mary M. has all the criteria for being an Apostle, but it is never given to her. Why?
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To answer the question why Mary M. didn�t earn the title Apostle, we have to turn to another apocryphal text: the Gospel of Mary Magdalen. This apocryphal Gospel was found in town called Ak-mien(sp?), an early Christian town that experienced severe persecution.
The Gospel of Mary Magdalen is a story of the Resurrection, about disciples being afraid to preach the Good News, and about Mary Magd. telling them all, Peter included, not to worry. She begins to convince them that it is OK to preach the news about Jesus.
The critical point in the Gospel account is her telling the disciples about the �hidden things� that Jesus told her, but not them. Andrew speaks up to challenge Mary Magd�s secret teachings and places doubt on her stories. Peter worries about private revelations too. But Matthew comes to Mary�s defense. Mary Magd. is the only one who really �gets it.� But what discounts her from being a full-fledged Apostle is her spiritual immaturity.
But the authenticity of the Gospel of Mary Magdalen is questioned. It is NEVER mentioned elsewhere. Yet, a Greek version of the Gospel is found which makes it easier to decipher, written sometime between the late 2nd century and the early 3rd century.
From the Greek version of the Gospel of Mary Magdalen, we see that a great tension rose between Peter and Mary M. over the issue of status. Mary M. comes off looking like THE disciple, but because of Peter female leadership in the Church is challenged.
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Image. Mary ends up becoming a leader figure in these apocryphal texts, but this has to be challenged, hence she is given the prostitute image to discredit her in later �accepted� traditions.
Some think that the Gospel was written by a woman from a Christian community where the role of women was disputed. It is thought that back then that there were two rival Christian communities, one that was male-led or dominated and the other that was female-led or dominated. Peter is always being portrayed as saying �NO!� to Mary M. Her role as leader was eventually undermined and women�s role in the early church is extinguished.
The Problem of Mary Magdalen (the argument from embarrassment):
Books about Mary M. disappeared, but her popularity was too great to totally snuff her out. Therefore, the invention of the Prostitute Mary Magdalen.
Yet there are many Marys in the Gospels. They are everywhere. One place in Luke 7 has a Mary anointing Jesus with ultra-expensive stuff. But Mary Magdalen is NEVER portrayed as a prostitute in the Gospels. Tradition would change her image from Mary M. the Prostitute to Mary M. the Penitent (Seven Sins to Seven Virtues).
In the end, Mary Magdalen becomes something of a patron saint of penitent sinners with a saint�s day and churches named after her. She isn�t given the �proper� credit for her supreme leadership role according to some scholars.
In 1969, the Catholic Church is reported to have un-wronged her by removing the image of �prostitute.� Too little, too late for someone who was one of the founders of the Christian faith?
END OF NOTES
The authorities on this topic interviewed throughtout the documentary are:
Karen King: Professor of New Testament Studies and the History of Ancient Christianity at Harvard University. Wrote books on Feminism and Gnosticism, Women and Goddess Traditions of Asia, and Commentary on Gospel of Mary.
Dr. James Strange: Biblical archaeologist at the University of South Florida and Baptist minister. He worked on at least a dozen digs in the Galilee area.
Dr. Richard Horsley: Professor of Religion, UMass/Boston
Ross Kraemer: Chair of Comparative Historical Perspectives, University Of Pennsylvania.
Stephen Emmel: Copticologist(sp?).
Here is a link to an article on Mary Magdalen studies from the New Oxford Review:
http://www.newoxfordreview.org/2002/nov02/annebarbeaugardiner.html It mentions Karen King:
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Karen King, also of Harvard Divinity School, spoke next on the Gospel of Mary, a text for which she feels much enthusiasm. She likes this Gospel, she said, because here bodily distinction is irrelevant to spiritual status and "you are not your body." A man in the audience asked her later whether the Gospel of Mary was not in fact anti-incarnational. She replied by praising its "platonizing tradition." (In reality, though, Plato would have despised Gnosticism for its reliance on magical knowledge.)
King called the Gospel of Mary a "radical" work that makes us see apostolic witness as an insufficient basis for church authority. She noted that in this text the Apostle Andrew objects to Mary Magdalen's teaching as new and "strange," but Peter goes further � he questions her truthfulness and denies that Jesus could have ever given a woman such a teaching "hidden" from the Twelve. In this controversy King saw traces of an early debate about female authority in "nascent Christianity," one that was suppressed by "patriarchal hierarchical authority." This earlier female authority was based, she repeated several times, on "spiritual maturity" and "visions."
But who is to be the judge of someone's spiritual maturity? Who is to test the truth of visions? One of the other speakers assured me later that, for Gnostics, the self is the judge. But this is one reason Gnosticism could not survive: It had no organization or central authority and consisted of a bunch of sects. When King showed the Apostles as dull-witted and immature as compared to Mary Magdalen, she failed to mention Pentecost and the Holy Spirit illuminating them as Church guides.
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The new Mary Magdalen has also inspired some action. Here is a clip from Mary of Magdala
Christian Goddess in the Bible website found here at:
http://northernway.org/mmag.html - - - - - - -
... women were ordained deaconesses. Then, there was a turnabout, excluding women from the sacred and from orders. Mary Magdalene had such a privileged role in the Gospels that it seems there was an attempt to put her in a bad light."
Which is exactly what Sister Christine Schenk says she is trying to reverse. Schenk is executive director of the Cleveland-based FutureChurch.
Two years ago, Schenk's group in conjunction with another Catholic group, Chicago-based Call to Action, launched the national observance of a July 22 feast of Mary Magdalene. It has grown from 28 prayer services last year to a reported 100 services this past July.
"The Mary Magdala project emerged," Schenk says, "because it makes contemporary biblical scholarship available, and it provides woman ministers to preside at a prayer service."
Schenk says her group is not calling for women's ordination but for "women's equal call to ministry in the Catholic Church."
Schenk said the Magdalene services include a "brief reflection on Mary of Magdala," and what she calls "the right of naming." That is, when Jesus calls Magdalene by her name in the Gospel passage John 20:17, "she recognized him" as the risen Christ, and she was called as a disciple.
Schenk thus sees Magdalene as representing a woman's call to discipleship. In the past, she says, women have internalized the idea that they weren't as holy or as good as men. The Magdalene services are "a real healing for many participants," she says.
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Comments?
Joe Thur
