The Gospel of Mary, Part 5
One of the reasons, I think, that the Gospel of Mary was excluded from the Biblical canon and deemed heretical is because of the prominent place it gives to women and the potential it (therefore) has to ...
Empower women.
Encourage them to use their voice.
And put women on a pedestal that is equal to that of men.
As I've said about 800 times over the last 4 posts in this Gospel of Mary series, I'm not a scholar or a historian ... and I don't have a PhD in this stuff. I'm not here to impress anyone or to pretend I know things I don't. I do, however, have a few friends who are studying this stuff (at a doctoral level) that I have on speed dial AND I have open in front of me (right now) 2 translations of the Gospel of Mary along with ...
One.
Two.
Four.
... Books about the Gospel. And so I guess you can say that the stuff I'm sharing with you is a lot of my own (non-scholarly) thoughts that are spring-boarding off of the (very scholarly) thoughts of others.
And so after a lot of reading and pondering, I think it's pretty safe to say that this book pissed off a lot of powerful men who wanted to downplay the role of women in the church and for that reason (even if it was a small reason or one of many other reasons), they deemed the book heretical and possibly even ordered it to be destroyed.
Shortly after the opening moments of Mary's Gospel we see Mary teaching the disciples. Yes, TEACHING them. She wasn't just giving them some helpful thoughts to chew on and she certainly wasn't cooking them a meal or picking up after them around the Upper Room Apartment.
No.
Instead, she was taking them to school.
The book opens with Jesus telling them some things and then departing, and after he departs the Gospel writer says that the disciples "were pained" and "wept greatly" because they were afraid that they would be crucified just like Jesus was crucified. It's at this moment, the writer says, that "Mary stood up" and spoke to them before Peter asked her to share with them the things Jesus told her that he hadn't told them because "the Savior loved her more than he loved the other women." Mary then delivers a message of hope and encouragement where she relates to them what Jesus taught her about the soul and how it can overcome various powers that try to hold it down and keep it from ascending and being fully united with God.
The teaching she related is mind-bending, but not important right now. Instead, what's important is that here we see Mary Magdalene ...
A woman.
Who Jesus loved more than any of the other women.
... And she's relating things to the disciples that he had told HER, but hadn't told THEM - she's teaching them, she's leading them, she's comforting them, she's encouraging them ... just as Jesus had done. One could argue that in many ways this Gospel writer is painting a picture of Mary not only stepping into the role of an Apostle (one who has been sent to teach and preach), but (dare I say) into the role of Christ, himself - the one who taught, led, comforted, and encouraged them for the previous 3+ years.
Mary became an embodiment of Jesus Christ to the other disciples ...
A teacher.
A preacher.
An apostle.
A Christ.
... And for that reason (I think) this book was deemed incredibly dangerous ... not because it taught some sort of Satanic sorcery, but dangerous because it threatened the sexist norms that were cemented into place within the hierarchy of the church.
1 and 2 Timothy and Titus, for example, were written over 50 years AFTER Paul died even though they are traditionally attributed to Paul. In other words, chances are pretty good that considering Paul was dead for at least 50 years before they were written ... he didn't write them; instead, they were written in his name so as to give their contents some sort of authoritative voice. The fact that Paul likely didn't write these letters is super important because they say things like, "a women must learn, listening in silence. I do not consent to them becoming teachers or exercising authority over men; they ought not speak" ... and it's important to know that Paul DIDN'T say that, but that someone else said it in his name.
Why?
Why would someone do that?
Because in one of the letters that scholars agree Paul DID write ( to the Galatians) he said that "there is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female, for in Christ you are ALL ONE."
Do you see what's happening here?
In the book of Galatians Paul painted a picture of radical inclusion where there was NO DIFFERENCE between men and women, but then in 1 Timothy (written 50 or so years later by someone who was writing in Paul's name) it says that women should be silent because there's a WORLD OF DIFFERENCE between men and women ... AND THEN the Gospel of Mary was written (somewhere around the time that 1 Timothy was written?) and shows Mary Magdalene doing the VERY THING that 1 Timothy says she's forbidden to do AND she's taking it up a few more notches and actually stepping into the shoes of Jesus, becoming Christ to the disciples.
Friends.
Do you see how radical this is? Do you see why this book pissed off so many people? Do you see why these early church fathers couldn't allow it to see the light of day much less make it into the collection of "approved books" they were putting into the Bible?
For many reasons this book was "dangerous" (we'll talk about another reason next time), but this was one of the biggest reasons - it's a Gospel that is meant to give power to women who have been stripped of their power, courage to women who have been made to feel less than, and a voice to the women who have had theirs squashed by the boot of patriarchy.
Every night when Jordan goes to bed I tell her the story of Jesus and include a part where I say that when Jesus rose from the dead, the very first person he appeared to was his best friend Mary Magdalene who then ran to the rest of the disciples to tell them the very Good News that he was alive and well and living inside of them and all around them, helping them and reminding them of who they are and who they were created to be.
... this truly is Good News.
Much love my friends,
Glenn || PATREON / BUY ME A COFFEE