The Real Mary Magdalene

This is a National Geographic program.

The program notes that, according to the Bible, Mary was the first person to see the risen Jesus. She told the Apostles what had happened.

Instead of being the companion of Jesus and a person who is known as the Apostle to the Apostles Mary was presented for many, many years as being a prostitute, a sinner who was healed by Jesus. The program talks about the woman with the alabaster jar and how this relates to Mary Magdalene's perceived reputation.

It adds that early Church fathers connected the prostitute that washed the feet of Jesus with Mary Magdalene and the whole 'Mary was a prostitute, a sinner' legend grew from that. (A couple of things I'll point out here. There is no where in the Bible that specifically says Mary Magdalene was a prostitute. Another thing to consider is that everything in the Bible was written by men. Men who had a very patriarchal view towards women. Men who didn't want a really strong woman in any major role and one way to make sure that didn't happen was to sully the reputation of any such woman. In the Gospel of Mary, which is an apocryphal text) Peter gets really nasty with Mary when she dared talk to them about things Jesus had told her but not them.

To tear down Mary's reputation even more they said that Mary's 'seven demons' were actually the seven deadly sins, which would really be a major put-down. (One thing to note is that, at that time, science as we know it did not exist, including medical and psychological knowledge. It's much more probable that Mary, if she had any 'demons' actually suffered from epilepsy and/or some form of mental illness.)

The program points out that there are many women named Mary in the Bible. (It actually was a very common name at the time for women.)

The program then talks about a text found in 1896, bought from a book, etc. dealer. The text is called the Gospel of Mary. A fair part of it is missing but what is there presents Mary in a totally different view that the 'official' Bible. In that book Mary is a major follower of Jesus, a person that it seems Jesus taught things that he hadn't yet even taught the Apostles.

In Luke we learn that Mary and other women provide for Jesus and the disciples out of their own substance which means very likely that they financed the movement. Another speaker says that some people thought her name meant she was a hairdresser.

Then it talks about her name. Mary Magdalene most probably means Mary from Magdala just as Jesus of Nazareth describes where he came from. Women were known at the time by the name of the man she was attached to (much as in today's world women often take the last name of the man they marry as their own name.)

Then it says that Jewish society of the time forced a 'sharp division' between men and women.

This would mean that these women, and perhaps others, were doing something that Jewish society would have severely frowned on. The idea was women's place was in the home and men's place was everything else and never the twain should meet.

This could also mean that Mary was a widow and that she had inherited some wealth from her husband

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This speaker talks about what I mentioned earlier, how little they knew about actual disease and how it could be referred to as being caused by demons (and/ or sin.)

Then it talks about the Nag Hammadi findings. It also talks about how the Christian 'fathers' decided that any written material that didn't agree with their view of things had to be destroyed. (Just like Hitler had his book-burnings.) The books were gnostic writings which emphasized knowledge. The Gospel of Thomas is one of those found. Some of its wording can be found in the Bible. This gospel also noted that Jesus had interactions with women (teacher-student type) that were not at all normal for the time.

The film also points out that Jesus traveling with an unmarried woman would have been a scandal for the times.

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Then there's this statement from one of the gnostic texts. The problem is what kind of love specifically is being talked about? This could be agape love (a universal love for strangers, nature and/or God.) or it could be romantic love. There's no way to tell from the sentence which kind is being referred to. Then there's a part that says that Jesus used to kiss Mary Magdalene often on her something or other. The actual word is missing. The program says the probable word is mouth which then would imply a romantic relationship.

One man says that for a man of that time to kiss an unmarried woman on the mouth was forbidden in Judaism. On the other hand it could have meant kissing on the cheek which was a form of friendship.

Then it talks about the Gospel of Mary which showed her as a leader of Christianity at the time and that she was given special teachings by Jesus that were not offered to the apostles first. (Peter got particularly angry with her according to that text.

Then it talks about Jesus and the others going to Jerusalem, his doing things like upsetting the money changes and the reaction of the power elite by having him arrested. One of the speakers says he thinks the Romans assumed that Jesus wanted to start a physical revolution so they decided to get rid of him.

Even though the male disciples fled, Mary Magdalene stayed with Jesus right to the end. Then it talks about how all four 'official' gospels tell the same story of Mary and other women going to where the body of Jesus had been put. None of the male disciples was there.

(One possibility is the way women were thought of at the time as not being as smart as men and not really being worth worrying about so Mary and the others could do things that the male disciples would be arrested for if seen.)

Another speaker points out that in the official bible in any list of women disciples Mary Magdalene is always listed first. Mary was also the first person to see the risen Christ.

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Here Mary is being told to go to the apostles and tell them what is going on. (That could support the idea of Mary being so important but, on the other hand, no one else was there and she would have been the only person available to spread the news.) Needless to say the men did not believe her at first. (She was just a woman in their thinking.)

From that point on, though, Mary Magdalene is left out of the New Testament totally. (This is odd when you think about it. She was the leader of the women, she supported Jesus, she was the first to see him risen and yet she wasn't important enough to say anything more about?)

Then it talks more about the Gospel of Mary.

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Then it talks about the letters of Paul and how he noted women as being leaders of some of the churches of the time. Then it covers how women eventually lost their importance in the early Christian movement so that only men would be in charge.

One speaker says one reason Gnosticism was considered a heresy was that its approach gave too much power to the individual. (In other words, you didn't need a complete group of men at different levels making up all the rules. You didn't need all these people between the individual person and God.)

Christianity went more for control than enlightenment, control of the masses. The Church turned Mary Magdalene from a teacher into a prostitute to discredit her.