Was Mary Magdalene Jesus' wife



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Was Mary Magdalene Jesus' wife?

It’s not impossible. But there’s no evidence to indicate that she was. If he had been married, it’s not clear how this would have affected what his followers came to believe about him. Despite what Dan Brown writes, there were in fact many Jewish men in Jesus’ time who did not marry, often for religious reasons.

Dan Brown’s quote from the Gospel of Philip (a 3rd Century text) is inaccurate and misleading.

Here’s the only text we have: “And the companion of the … Mary Magdalene … her more than … the disciples … kiss her … on her … The rest of … They said to him, ‘Why do you love her more than all of us?’”

Now look at Dan Brown’s version (the parts he fills in are in square brackets): “And the companion of the [Savior is] Mary Magdalene. [Christ] loved her more than [all] the disciples and used to kiss her [often] on her [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?’”

“Companion” here is not Aramaic for “Spouse.” The text is Coptic, not Aramaic, and the word (koinonos) means “friend” or “companion,” but definitely not spouse.

Did a Roman Emperor make Jesus divine?

By the time Constantine called the Council of Nicea (325), everybody involved in the debate believed Jesus was divine in some way. They all accepted John 1:1—“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” They all believed Jesus existed as “the Word” before the rest of the world existed. Some of them thought he wasn’t as divine as his “Father,” but they still thought he was divine in some way. The only people who cared about this debate were Christians. “Pagans” didn’t care how the debate got settled.

What about all those other gospels?

There are other gospels that did not make it into the New Testament. We’re not sure how many, but the number isn’t that large (definitely not 80!). Most were written long after the official four (maybe not the Gospel of Thomas). None of these other gospels make Jesus look more human than he looks in the New Testament. Some deny that he was human at all. Others make him a more fantastic wonder-worker than any stories we have from the New Testament.

What do the Dead Sea Scrolls tell us about Jesus?

Nothing. There are no “gospels” in the Dead Sea Scrolls, and no mention of Jesus.

Who decided what books to put in the New Testament?

Nobody. To be more accurate, there was no one central governing body that made the decision. Constantine had nothing to do with it. It was pretty much a popularity contest, though some popular Bishops got more of a voice than others. Two of the New Testament Gospels were later attributed to Jesus’ disciples (perhaps mistakenly), but it’s not clear that their authorship accounted for their popularity. The first list of all the books in today’s New Testament appeared in a letter written in 367. But no central authority in that period ever made a pronouncement about which books to include or exclude. That’s why Martin Luther later considered tossing out the book of James.

What do we know about Mary Magdalene?

Very little. The most interesting stories about her were written long after the New Testament Gospels. The New Testament says that Jesus cast out seven demons from her (!), that she and other women accompanied Jesus in his travels, that they provided funds for him, came with him to Jerusalem, saw him crucified and buried, discovered his tomb to be empty, and (most importantly) saw the risen Jesus first and told the disciples. The last bit is why she was later called Apostle to the Apostles. The New Testament does not say that she was a prostitute or that she anointed Jesus. It’s not certain that she is the same person as Mary of Bethany, sister of Martha in the Gospel of John. One of the foremost scholars on Mary Magdalene is Holly Hearon who teaches at Indianapolis’s own Christian Theological Seminary. Hearon sees the stories about Mary Magdalene as an indication that women’s voices were too prominent to ignore in the early Christian movement, though men’s voices later got the upper hand.

The Gnostic Gospel of Mary (probably late 2nd Century) recounts a vision granted to Mary Magdalene by a disembodied, nonhuman Jesus who appeared after the crucifixion. Some of the Gnostic gospels celebrate Mary Magdalene for her superior understanding of Jesus’ teachings (after his death). None of them show any interest in whether she had any offspring. Gnostics wouldn’t have cared.

Who's that feminine figure next to Jesus in Da Vinci's Last Supper?

The disciple whom Jesus loved, later identified as John. To modern viewers, John may look like a woman, but this was how young, attractive men were portrayed in countless Renaissance paintings.

What is the Priory of Sion?

A hoax. It was founded in 1956 by Pierre Plantard, a pro-Nazi French citizen convicted several times of forgery and embezzlement. After publishing a book full of forged ancient parchments with two other authors, Plantard got in an argument with his contributors over dividing the royalties. He then publicly admitted that the documents were all forgeries. The artist who created them later admitted the same thing. One of the forged documents lists Leonardo Da Vinci and Isaac Newton, but the document was created in the 1960s.

Did the Church suppress women?

Duh! So did every influential culture, with very few exceptions, until quite recently.

Did Biblical writers ever imagine God, or Jesus, as female?

Yes. Isaiah 66:12-13, 2 Esdras 1:28-30, Wisdom of Solomon 7:22-27, Proverbs 8:1-31, 1 Corinthians 1:24, Matthew 23:37.

Did women exercise leadership in the early Church?

Yes. Some were even Apostles. See Romans 16:1-7.

For further reading:

Stay away from reactionary books that won’t admit the human flaws in the New Testament writers or the early Church. Two books I’ve found especially helpful are: Bart D. Ehrman, Truth and Fiction in the Da Vinci Code (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004); Greg J. Jones, Beyond Da Vinci (New York: Seabury Books, 2004). Also see Holly E. Hearon, The Mary Magdalene Tradition: Witness and Counter-Witness in Early Christian Communities (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 2004).

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