The Everything Mary Magdalene Book: The Life and Legacy of Jesus' Most Misunderstood Disciple by Meera Lester

Author:Meera Lester
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Adams Media
Published: 2011-06-24T00:00:00+00:00

The picture that emerges of the early Jesus movement is one in which the followers and apostles drew heavily on his oral teachings, memorizing the stories, extracting meaning, and weaving in relevant material from the Old Testament to expound doctrine. A forty-year period elapsed between Jesus' death and the completion of the first gospel. Jesus' followers, during that time, shared their oral stories, perhaps refined key points, smoothed out thorny theological questions, and framed their beliefs.

Just as oral tradition asserts that Mary, the mother of Jesus, bore him and had no other children, likewise, oral traditions of Mary Magdalene's role in the Easter story and her contributions to the foundation of Christianity must have been strong and widely known. Otherwise, she might not have been named in the four Gospel accounts or might have been eliminated altogether.

Today, early Christianity is being studied as never before. Many different academic disciplines (archaeology, textual analysis, biblical history, feminist theology) form a new lens to view, study, interpret, and reinterpret the beginnings of this worldwide religion that had its humble beginnings in ancient Palestine.

Was Mary Magdalene's Scriptural Presence Diminished?

The Gospel of Mary, considered a heretical text, reveals a Mary Magdalene highly esteemed by Jesus. The Gospel of Philip reveals that Jesus kissed her often and that the other male disciples found this distressing. These recently discovered texts, like many others excluded from the Bible, offer a widely differing view of Christianity than shown in the Gospels and letters of the New Testament.

Feminist theologians point to the old adage about history being written by the winners to explain why Gospel accounts elevating Mary Magdalene were suppressed and excluded from the canon. They also assert that Mary Magdalene's pre-eminent role in the Easter story was so important and widespread in the oral tradition that it could not be completely erased or denied in the written tradition. However, scholarly work to examine early Christian women's theology has resulted in some experts theorizing that Mary Magdalene's story was indeed diminished in the Gospel accounts, especially in the Gospel of Luke, where Peter's story and authority appears to be enhanced and elevated in importance. The more traditional Catholic view disagrees with that conjecture, asserting that Jesus nicknamed Peter “Cephas” or rock upon which Jesus would build his church, evidence that Peter was always the one chosen by Jesus to be successor and leader of the group. Apostolic tradition traces its lineage to Peter, the first pillar of the church.

fallacy

That Christianity harmoniously evolved from the teachings of Jesus is a fallacy. Biblical scholars say that the Nag Hammadi discoveries suggest Christianity was far more complicated and diverse than previously thought. Many sects and divergent theological ideas were involved in its evolution in the early centuries. Gnostic Christians, who rivaled orthodox Christianity, wrote many of the manuscripts found at Nag Hammadi.

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