Among Jesus Christ's followers, "ministering unto him,"
were "certain women" who "had been healed of evil spirits and
infirmities" (Matt. 27:55; Luke 8:2). One of these women was
"Mary called Magdalene" (that is, Mary of Magdala, a town in
Galilee), out of whom Jesus "had cast seven devils" (Mark 16:9;
Luke 8:2). Mary and "many other women" looked on from afar when
Jesus was crucified (Matt . 27:55; Mark 15:40), she and "Mary the
mother of James and Joses" sat by the sepulcher in which Jesus was
entombed (Matt. 27:61), and the two Marys later brought spices to
the sepulcher with the intention of anointing the body. It was to
Mary Magdalene that Christ first appeared following his
resurrection (Mark 16:9; John 20:1-18). Exclaiming "Rabboni!"
("Teacher!"), Mary embraced him, or tried to, prompting the risen
Lord to tell her (in the original Greek of John's gospel), "me mou
uptou" ("Do not cling to me" or "Do not hold on to me"), translated in Latin as "Noli me tangere" ("Do not touch me") (John 20:17).
There is virtually nothing in the Bible to suggest that Mary Magdalene was Jesus' lover or wife (trying to embrace her "Teacher" hardly counts). But the concept of something special between them is found not just in fringe works such as Holy Blood, Holy Grail (summarized in Haskins), Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code, and James Cameron's 2007 TV production "The Lost Tomb of Jesus" (arguing that the Talpiyot tomb unearthed in 1980 contained the bones of Jesus, Mary, and a son). The Jesus Seminar, an international group of biblical scholars formed in 1985, has expressed the view that Jesus and the Magdalene probably had "a special relationship" (see Funk et al). Such a relationship is reflected in two extrabiblical Gnostic works. According to the third-century Gospel of Philip, Jesus loved "his companion" Mary more than all the other disciples, and often kissed her on the mouth, to the annoyance of the other disciples. And in the second-century Gospel of Mary, the disciple Levi defends Mary against Peter (who asks, "Did [the Savior] really speak with a woman without our knowledge [and] not openly? Are we to turn about and all listen to her? Did He prefer her to us?") by saying, "But if the Savior made her worthy, who are you indeed to reject her? Surely the Savior knows her very well. That is why He loved her more than us."
Ecker, Ronald L. "Mary, Called Magdalene" in And Adam Knew Eve: A Dictionary of Sex in the Bible. Palatka, FL: Hodge & Braddock, 1995, pp. 115-116.
Funk, Robert W., et al. The Five Gospels: The Search for the Authentic Words of Jesus. New York: Macmillan, 1993.
Haskins, Susan. Mary Magdalen: Myth and Metaphor. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1993.
Isenberg, Wesley W., tr. "The Gospel of Philip" in The Nag Hammadi Library in English, ed. James M. Robinson. New York: Harper and Row, 1977, pp. 131-151.
MacRae, George W., and Wilson, R.Mcl., tr. "The Gospel of Mary" in The Nag Hammadi Library in English, ed. James M. Robinson. New York: Harper and Row, 1977, pp. 471-474.
Copyright 2007 by Ronald L. Ecker
Contact:
postmaster at ronaldecker dot com
Top of Page | The Ron Ecker Home Page