Mary Magdalene Introduction:
Introduction:
Most of the written texts, and thereby the diverse viewpoints, of early Christianity were hidden and suppressed from the resurrection to the meeting in 325 AD known as the Council of Nicea. It was here and then that the Christian creed and canonical gospels were definitively chosen and assembled. One set of these hidden texts was discovered in the year 1945 by some Egyptian farmers looking for soil amendments along the Nile River near the village of Nag Hamadi. The codices were sealed in a large clay jar. In time they found their way through antique dealers to translators and conservationists in the West. They are now known as the Nag Hamadi scriptures.
Subsequent studies and scholars now believe that these texts were placed into the jar around the year 350 AD, not long after the meeting in Nicea. The originals were originally written in Coptic, and then translated into Greek.
The Gospel of Mary was found in the area of Akhmin, Egypt. This occurred in 1896. It was part of a larger find called the Berlin Papyrus. It later found itself in the care of the National Museum of Berlin. This gospel of Miriam of Magdala (Mary Magdalene) is now estimated to have been written around 150 AD. What is left of the transcript are pages 7-10, each having 21 to 23 lines per page, with each line having 22-23 letters per line. Several pages are missing: pages 1-6 and 11-14.
From this gospel we learn not only more about Jesus and his teachings, but also about the early pre-Christian (Jesus) movement and its diverse communities.
Although we know about Mary from passages in the canonical gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John), this discovery sheds not only more information, but also some conflicting viewpoints, as expressed by it’s unknown author. The story that Mary was a prostitute cannot be found in the scriptures, but rather began in the year 591 AD by Pope Gregory.
Mary is a very important figure in the early years of Christianity. She was one of only three people inside the inner circle of Jesus’ followers who were immediately present and visible at the crucifixion (John:19:25) . The others were Mother Mary and John the Apostle. According to the book of John, Mary was the first person to encounter the resurrected Jesus. Each of the four canonical gospels tell a similar, but they have differences in some of the details: (Mark 16:9; John 20:1-18; Matthew 28:1-10; Luke 24:1-12).
When the Sabbath had passed, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices and went to the tomb. They arrived at daybreak, and noticed that the stone in front of the tomb entrance had been rolled away, for it was very large. Upon entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side dressed in a white robe, and they were amazed. He said to them, “Do not be amazed; you seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen, he is not here, see the place where they laid him. Footnote k of the Revised Standard Version adds: ..he first appeared to Mary Magdalene…and when they (the disciples) heard that he was alive, and had been seen by her, they would not believe it.
(Mark 16:1-6)
Mary went to the tomb early (pre-dawn) on the first day of the week. She noticed that the entrance to the tomb had been opened, and that Jesus was gone. She ran to Simon Peter and one other disciple with the news. These two disciples ran to the tomb to confirm Mary’s story. All they saw were some of the clothes left behind by Jesus. At this time the two were not familiar with the scripture saying he must arise from the dead, so they went back to their homes.
Then with Mary crying, she looked again into the tomb. She saw two angels in white sitting where Jesus had lain. Answering the angels question as to why she was weeping, she wanted to know where someone had taken the body. Mary then turned around and saw what appeared to her as the gardener standing. It was not the gardener. Again she asked where had someone taken the body. (John 20:1-2)
Jesus said to her, “Mary”. She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabboni” (Teacher). Jesus cautioned Mary to not cling to him, as he had yet to ascend to the Father. Mary then went to the disciples and told them that she had seen the Lord, and what he had said to her. (John 20: 16-18)
In the days after the resurrection, both Mary Magdalene and the eleven disciples (minus Judas Iscariot) had conversations about what Jesus had told Mary outside their presence. This is essentially what the author of “The Gospel of Mary Magdalene” wrote about.
The Gospel of Mary Magdalene: Translation from the Coptic and Commentary by Jean-Yves Leloup; English Translation and Notes by Joseph Rowe. Inner Traditions, Rochester, Vermont: 1997, 2002.