Christianity developed in the province of Judea out of Jewish tradition in the first century CE after Jesus’ resurrection. For the first three centuries it was more of an oral tradition, a sect of Judaism that followed the Law and believed in the teachings of Jesus Christ. It then developed further through the Roman Empire, and eventually became its official religion through the Constantine the Great, the Roman Emperor. It started first based on the teachings of Jesus, and later on the writings and missionary work of the Apostle Paul. After Jesus’s death, the Apostle Paul wrote many letters that are now part of the New Testament of the Christian Bible and on which Christianity is mainly based on. Paul was a Roman citizen and sent those letters to small communities of Christians living throughout the Roman Empire. The letters involved issues related to the exact relationship between Judaism and Christianity, relationship to the law and traditions. Although Christianity developed out of Jewish traditions, it had no such legal protections. Judaism received the status of a legal religion in the Roman Empire with formal protections, whereas Christians were occasionally persecuted and formally punished for their beliefs during the first two centuries. This has changed with the Roman Empire.
After accepting Christianity as their main religion, the Roman Empire started changing and transitioning religion into what we now know as Roman Catholicism. Historically, religion was always part of any political movement and often used as political weapon. The cooperation of church and state meant that religious systems were shaped based on the political and cultural needs, where church and state were working together and enforcing political and religious laws. Faith was not only your personal choice but part of your nationality and how culture was shaped in particular demographic. It turned into a religiosity – degree of religiousness that an individual or society exhibited, measured through a combination of factors like belief, practice, politics and belonging.
In another words, church had a huge power and they wanted to keep it that way. Religion wasn’t about the faith that comes out of your heart but more part of political movement and nationality. However, the church wanted to paint a particular narrative, that would bring people to church and to keep them attached to the church out of fear of loosing salvation. To make people dependent of the church, and that the church would be the only way to God and salvation. That fear kept people closely attached to the system. However, the church also manipulated some stories and painted different picture about the role of the disciples of Jesus and in particular, about Mary Magdalene.
If you ask any random person what they know about Mary Magdalene, they will say she was a prostitute. That’s it. That label attached to her has no basis in the Bible. In reality, the Bible never states that she was a prostitute, but a sinner committing adultery. Much speculations emerged over the centuries whether she was one or not. In my other post I explored the idea that prostitution was considered immoral, however not punishable by death penalty, but rather adultery was. In the Gospels we find out she was a sinner about to be prosecuted, however later the church attached the label of a prostitute to her. In the Gospel of John we learn that a woman was caught in adultery, which people automatically assumed must have been prostitution. This could have been an affair involving sexual act with a married men, which was considered as a crime and violation of a marriage covenant and punishable by death. However, prostitution was considered immoral but generally not a criminal offense. In the Gospel of John we know that the woman was facing prosecution by death and Jesus redeemed her. Therefore I exclude the fact that she was a prostitute, but possibly having an affair with a married man. However, the label stayed and the opinion about Mary Magdalene shaped the opinion for many people, that even any new information would not remove that stain.
The story of Mary is veiled with a lot of mystery and secrecy, as if the church wanted to paint her in the bad light and remove her from the group of disciples completely, however due to her presence in the most important events of Jesus, which was crucifixion and resurrection, the church couldn’t completely remove her, but gave her new identity. What we know is that Mary was possibly a sinner that made a mistake, which to be hones is the case for almost all of the people, and she was rescued by Jesus and decided to dedicate her life to follow Jesus and his movement. She was with Jesus and his disciples in most of their journeys, town visits, but most importantly, she was the only witness from Jesus disciples to see crucifixion and the first one who Jesus appeared to after resurrection.
This gives Mary a lot of credibility to rival the other disciples. She was also considered as an Apostle to the Apostles, the first one that spread the good news of the Gospel, however that title was quickly taken from her due to the past and the fact she was a woman. In other texts that did not make their way into the Canonical Bile, a discovery in Nag Hammadi texts, Mary appears as a prominent disciple of Jesus, not as a silent repentant woman pictured in Synoptic Gospel. In passages where Jesus is in discussion with his disciples, Mary Magdalene asks many informed questions, whereas the other disciples at times seem confused. She is the one who understands spiritual teachings more than male disciples. She is the woman with spiritual knowledge and understanding beyond the surface level. She is also depicted in other texts as female counterpart to Jesus, as mature soul that could teach other disciples. And that is why also Jesus appears to her first and wants her to carry on His message.
Unfortunately Mary lived in times where women’s roles were quite diminished, particularly when it comes to legal rights as a witness. In the first-century of Jewish and Roman societies, a woman’s testimony was generally not accepted as legally valid in court and seen as less credible due to cultural views on their “levity” or “boldness”. This context makes the Gospel accounts of women being witnesses to the crucifixion or resurrection very significant, because it was viewed as an “embarrassment” or unlikely choice for myth-makers, questioning their historical accuracy. This was due to cultural norms and any female claims would initially face disbelief.
According to the Jewish Law “women are not valid witnesses”, as it states in the Mishnah. These laws were practiced by the Jewish community, therefore it would be logical to say that women were excluded from any events where they could be treated as witnesses.
“The oath of testimony is conducted with men and not women.” Shevout 4:1
From the Josephus books, the historian stated: “From women let no evidence be accepted, because of the levity and temerity of their sex” (Antiquities 4.219)
Moreover, “writers would likely have used more credible male witnesses to persuade their audience, not women writers, whose words were already devalued”, say The Gospel Coalition. Early critics like Celsus mocked the idea, calling Mary Magdalene a “hysterical female,” which further underscored the unconventional nature of women as primary witnesses, according to The Gospel Coalition. We also see in the teachings of the Apostle Paul and Timothy that:
“Let a woman learn in silence with all submission. And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence.” 1 Timothy 2: 11-12
Therefore, according to the Jewish Law, Mary could not exercise the role of a reliable witness to the crucifixion or resurrection and the matter had to be examined by males. This is also why Peter joined Mary to examine the tomb, even though the first reaction from the disciples was disbelieve.
The role of Mary in early Christianity as a spiritual teacher and having spiritual knowledge was a challenge to the institution of the church. Her persona was a confirmation that women can in fact posses spiritual knowledge and do not need men or institutions for their soul development and salvation. That is why church decided to paint a new picture of Mary Magdalene, a reformed prostitute and submissive and uninformed woman unable to make the right decisions in life.
Mary was pushed aside, trampled by people’s opinions and her role was taken away from her. In reality, Christianity was hijacked by first their male disciples who wanted to go with their understanding that sounded safer, rather than to go with something that they still did not understand fully. However, this has also been hijacked from Peter, who was considered to be “the rock” upon which Jesus wanted to build the church. Paul took the message to even more different direction, mirroring his philosophical understanding of the resurrection that was coming from his Greek educational system. The result was that the gospel changed it’s meaning completely and Paul became it’s prominent founder. Christian doctrine and theology among the Gentiles was established through the letters to Romans, that were widely regarded as Paul’s most systematic and comprehensive presentation of the Christian gospel and its theological implications. It has been called the “cathedral of Christian doctrine” and the “Constitution of Christianity” due to its foundational role in shaping Christian thought. In reality, the doctrine of the Apostle Paul was much more beneficial to the churches. It wasn’t about the truth but about the power. Church was viewed as the only way to salvation, priests as the messengers of God that could only interpret the Bible and faith as part of political integration. Loosing belonging to the church meant loosing salvation. This fear of unknown kept people attached to institution that would shape their understanding about the faith, God and salvation. It felt almost impossible to leave the church and those who did were deemed and ostracized from the society.
However, the church didn’t share it’s all knowledge with the people. We know that Vatican is wrapped in a lot of secrecy and there are a lot of texts that were kept from going into the public or if they did, they were automatically labeled as non true, legends and heresy. That automatic label shaped people’s biases and unbaled some people to even explore those texts and shape their own opinions. That is why the story about Mary Magdalene being a prominent disciple and someone who had a lot of spiritual knowledge was a real problem to the church. She understood Jesus’ teachings on the nature of mater and spirit and the path to transcend the earthly desires. Her knowledge of inner ascent and freedom from earthly traps that keep people bound and in cycles was too liberating to the church who was looking to keep people bound to the institution and to tithe on a weekly basis. The church took a deliberate attempt to undermine her spiritual standing by branding her texts as heretical, mystical and forged texts that were not true. It revealed it’s patriarchal authority and power struggles. This emphasis of inner knowledge that was coming from Mary’s texts over external rituals and hierarchical systems, was a direct threat to the developing institutional church. It would remove the need for churches, priests, rituals and traditions that were so prominent in the church community. In other words, Mary’s texts would remove the need for any religious institutions, which of course churches didn’t want to happen.
The church tricked Mary, by changing her story and repainting her identity, giving her a small and insignificant role of the repentant prostitute. However, the lack of information about Mary kept the interest about her growing. After all, she was the witness to the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Gospel of Mary was in large way destroyed and therefore it wasn’t possible to include her texts into Canonical Bible, however, the church unknowingly included her text into the Canon. And this is how Mary tricked the church.
As I mentioned before, according to the Jewish Law “women were not valid witnesses”, as it states in the Mishnah. A woman’s testimony was generally not accepted as legally valid in court and seen as less credible due to cultural views on their sex. This was due to cultural norms and any female claims would initially face disbelief. Moreover, “writers would likely have used more credible male witnesses to persuade their audience, not women writers, whose words were already devalued”. Mary was of course aware of that, however, Mary was the only credible witness to Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection from Jesus’ disciples. When Jesus appeared to Mary, Peter was already gone and could not confirm that Jesus really resurrected. He only saw an empty tomb. Later we read that Jesus appeared to the other disciples and they could confirm the resurrection. However, the initial moment of resurrection and the event of crucifixion was very crucial to the Christian movement. Without the real knowledge of what actually happened, the movement would have no factual basis of really existing. Therefore it would have been helpful to have a witness testimony of what actually happened, and this is where Mary comes in.
The Gospel of John is the only Gospel with the real eyewitness testimony, however the author has been changed to appear as a male. This was deliberately done to make it more believable coming from a male witness. Otherwise it would have been destroyed straight away and not accepted into Canonical Bible. The question of who was the real author has been a mystery for nearly two thousand years and what we only knew was the fact it was written by the “beloved disciple”. In my other post I went through the analysis that this was in fact Mary Magdalene, making her the author of the Gospel of John. Moreover, we know about the author of the Gospel of John is that the author witnessed crucifixion and the chapter 19 of the Gospel of John is a testimony of an eyewitness who testified of the things he saw. How do we know the author was a witness to the crucifixion?
“And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you may believe.” John 19: 35
The author highlights that: “he who has seen” and “he testified” and finally “his testimony is true”. Therefore we have a strong statement here. This was an eyewitness, who testified and is telling the truth. We also know that all scriptural and historical evidence presents the fact that during crucifixion only women were present. All male disciples fled before crucifixion due to the various prosecutions that were happening. We read:
“Then everyone deserted him and fled.” Mark 14:50
“But this has all taken place that the writings of the prophets might be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples deserted him and fled.” Matthew 26:56
Therefore injecting any male into the witnesses during crucifixion has no scriptural basis, but these are just assumption. If we only go with the evidence, all four Gospels agree that it was witnessed by Mary Magdalene, therefore she was the only reliable name from Jesus’ disciples:
“Some women were watching from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joseph, and Salome. ” Mark 15:40
“Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.” John 19:25
“Many women were there, watching from a distance. They had followed Jesus from Galilee to care for his needs. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of Zebedee’s sons.” Matthew 27: 55
We also have another confirmation that the author was a witness, a disciple and the author of the Gospel, which we can treat as a testimony:
“This is the disciple who testifies of these things, and wrote these things; and we know that his testimony is true.” John 21: 24
The Gospel of John was written by not only an eyewitness of the crucifixion, but also Jesus’ disciple. Someone from the close circle of Jesus, who was present during many teachings, journeys and crucial events. And that person wrote those things, therefore the author is clamming that it was his work, not of a third party involved. I’ve heard one objection of the verse being written in the third party, therefore this couldn’t be have been written by Mary. However, this was done deliberately to confuse and not point directly to Mary, because as I mentioned, otherwise it would have been destroyed and not believed. Moreover, when you are a witness to a crime and you give your testimony that would most likely be written by police or detective, that would also be written in the third person as “he has seen” not “I have seen”. This does not take away the fact that this was a testimony of an eyewitness.
Therefore from this we see that Mary Magdalene could not write the Gospel of John openly as Mary. That Gospel would have been destroyed straight away because according to the Jewish Law, women had no say. I hope you can see why Mary changed her identity as an author, yet it was very important for her to write it regardless. Mary was the only one who understood deeper spiritual messages but also portrayed it in a very simple and easy to understand manner. It was very important that she hid her identity as an author because that Gospel would have been destroyed straight away. And only in the times we live now, we can entertain this idea and accept it as a fact that this was in fact Mary Magdalene, who was the author of the Gospel according to John.
In the Gospel of John we see that Jesus had emotions like weeping, love towards disciples, love towards a woman which gives us a better understanding that even though He was presented as a divine Son of God, He was also very human, having all those emotions and feeling pain during crucifixion. We don’t have this from the other Gospels, which makes the Gospel of John even more special and different. The other Synoptic Gospel is more factual, event orientated, presenting Jesus as a Teacher, however the Gospel of John is more emotional, presenting Jesus as divine being, the Son of God who was having a human experience. This Gospel was written from a woman’s perspective – Mary Magdalene perspective. And Mary was the only one who witnessed crucifixion and resurrection, therefore the Gospel of John is an actual witness testimony.
By Dagmara Z.