Week IV - The Gospel of Mary (Magdalene)

Last week we discussed the Gospel of Mary (Magdalene). The text is available at: http://www.gnosis.org/library/marygosp.htm. This Gospel was likely written in the early 2nd century, in Greek. Scholars think that it was relatively well read and circulated as it was also translated into Coptic. It is generally thought to be a gnostic text. Gnosticism was a branch (or set of branches) of the early Christian community that saw knowledge as the currency for salvation. The landscape of the gnostic worldview is therefore predicated on a world divided between the good and the sinful (grounded in material illusion rather than divine knowledge) realms. This text is both a very different perspective of early Christian thinking, and among our best witnesses to the leadership and strength of women in the early Christian communities.

1. What part of this Gospel is also reflected in the canonical accounts?

Some of the language is very similar to the canonical Gospels: let he who has ears to hear; the Son of Man is with you; peace be with you...

The cast is familiar: the Savior, Mary, Peter, Andrew and Levi. Peter and Andrew were fisherman brothers, and Levi ( also called Matthew) was a tax collector. The three were among the twelve disciples.

Although Jesus' message is a bit different from the canonical Gospels, his instruction is familiar: go and preach the gospel of the kingdom. And his assurance that the Son of Man will be with them, is very familiar.

2. What parts are new to our understanding of who Jesus is?

The gist of the Gospel is that the one follower with whom Jesus trusted his message, and who got it, was Mary. Peter and Andrew are troubled by the possibility that Jesus may have loved/trusted someone more than he loved/trusted them, and that that someone was a woman. And so Jesus' instruction to go forth and teach is met first with fear and trembling by the male disciples who wrap at the thought of facing Jesus' painful end as a consequence, and then summarily attack Mary, causing her to weep, with a litany of seemingly petty insecurities about her relationship to Jesus, visa vie their own.

An d so what we get is a good view of a human community who is charged with a divine mission, and the complexity and chaos that likely defined much of the early Christian world, struggling for signs and affirmations of their meaning and belonging and disciples of Christ. Which is to say, it is unclear what new information we know about Jesus, but we surely do know a bit more about the early Christian communities.

3. In this narrative, who is Jesus?

If this is a gnostic text, then knowledge is the brass ring, and Jesus is the revealer.

You are encouraged to read this short Gospel (link above) and offer your own comments below. 

Next week we will tackle the Gospel of Judas.
Get the text at: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/lostgospel/_pdf/GospelofJudas.pdf