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Gospel of Mary Magdalene - the truth versus the official religion
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Français : Basilique-cathédrale Notre-Dame de l'Annonciation de Moulins; vitrail de Sainte Marie-Madeleine, 16ème siècle. Détail: Extase de Marie-Madeleine. Source - Wiki Commons
This is the final article in a series of articles about Saint Mary Magdalene. In an earlier article I made the point that Mary Magdalene was not a prostitute. You can see that article here:
Was-Mary-Magdalene-ever-a-prostitute
And, I wrote about Mary Magdalene's true place in Christianity as an apostle of Jesus Christ here:
Religion-101--who-was-Mary-Magdalene
Today's article is about the Gospel of Mary Magdalene. In The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown has one of his characters, Sir Leigh Teabing, describe how St. Peter was jealous of the place that Mary Magdalene occupied as the chief apostle of Christ and the one to whom Christ entrusted the leadership of his church after his death.
Despite some of the more outlandish scenarios described in The Da Vinci Code, this one is very likely true. Many biblical scholars have examined the writings of the early church, including such early Christian works as the Gospel of Philip, the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Mary Magdalene, and come to the exact same conclusion. That's right,
Mary Magdalene had her own gospel.
In the Gospel of Mary and the Gospel of Philip, Peter is portrayed as being jealous of Mary Magdalene's close relationship with Jesus. In the Gospel of Mary 16-20, Peter complains,
Did he really speak with a woman without our knowledge not openly? Are we to turn about and all listen to her?
This is not an isolated incident, but a well documented pattern of Peter complaining about Mary Magdalene and asking Christ to make her leave or be silent while the male apostles talk. None of the early Christian writings which feature this power struggle between Peter and Mary Magdalene were chosen to be part of the canonical New Testament.
In, Secrets of Mary Magdalene - Who Was Mary Magdalene, James Carroll, a biblical scholar and former priest writes,
It was not until the fourth century that the list of canonized books we now know as the New Testament was established. This amounted to a milestone on the road toward the church's definition of itself precisely in opposition to Judaism. At the same time, and more subtly, the church was on the way toward understanding itself in opposition to women...
One of the most important Christian texts to be found outside the New Testament canon is the so-called Gospel of Mary, a telling of the Jesus-movement story that features Mary Magdalene as one of its most powerful leaders.
One of the big things that happened in that 4th Century to which Mr. Carroll refers, is that The Roman Emperor, Constantine, converted to Christianity. Christianity became the official religion of Rome. The same people who persecuted the early Christians and supposedly crucified Christ, now decided how the Christian religion should be shaped and packaged for future generations.
Ex seminarian and eminent biblical scholar Bart. D. Ehrman writes in Secrets of Mary Magdalene - The Battle for Scripture and the Faiths We Didn't Get to Know,
Christianity started out giving a high role and authority to women, who were eventually oppressed and silenced. It started out as an other-worldly religion, and it became a religion that embraced the values and norms of the world. It started out in opposition to the state and all it stood for, and it came both to embrace and to be embraced by the state. Christianity at the end of the fourth century would have been virtually unrecognizable to Christians at the beginning of the first.
Here is a very interesting Video about Mary Magdalene and it even shows the catacombs below St. Peter's Basilica in Rome where ancient Christian paintings showing women celebrating the Eucharist with men are preserved:
You can find out more of the truth about Mary Magdalene from the following links,
Website - Order of Mary the Magdalene
For more about the Gospel of Philip, go here:
www.gnosis.org/naghamm/gop.html
For a good explanation of how the New Testament books were chosen and developed into the canonical books, go here:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Development_of_the_New_Testament_canon
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