Why do you think The Chosen depicted Mary as a prostitute? [176] Under the influence of stories about other female saints, such as Mary of Egypt and Pelagia,[176] painters in Italy during the ninth and tenth centuries gradually began to develop the image of Mary Magdalene living alone in the desert as a penitent ascetic. [227] Mary is likewise portrayed as a reformed prostitute in Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's 1971 rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar. 15131516). It is not clear, if the text refers to Jesus' or his mother's sister, or whether the intention is to say something else. [110] Ehrman explains that, in the context of the Gospel of Philip, the kiss of peace is used as a symbol for the passage of truth from one person to another[116] and that it is not in any way an act of "divine foreplay". Richard J. Hooper does not make the Jusino thesis his own, but says: "Perhaps we should not altogether reject the possibility that some Johannine Christians considered Mary Magdalene to be 'the disciple whom Jesus loved'. Mary Magdalene is first mentioned by name in Mark, the second Gospel. [285][286], There are many references to Mary Magdalene in the writings of the Bah Faith, where she enjoys an exalted status as a heroine of faith and the "archetypal woman of all cycles". [165] This composite depiction of Mary Magdalene was carried into the Mass texts for her feast day: in the Tridentine Mass, the collect explicitly identifies her as Mary of Bethany by describing Lazarus as her brother, and the Gospel is the story of the penitent woman anointing Jesus' feet. In all the four canonical gospels, Mary Magdalene was a witness to the crucifixion of Jesus and, in the Synoptic Gospels, she was also present at his burial. [82][152] The first clear identification of Mary Magdalene as a redeemed sinner comes from Ephrem the Syrian (c. 306 373). Such works often support sensationalist statements about Jesus and Mary Magdalene's relationship. The portrayal of Mary Magdalene as a prostitute began in 591, when Pope Gregory I conflated Mary Magdalene, who was introduced in Luke 8:2, with Mary of Bethany (Luke 10:39) and the unnamed "sinful woman" who anointed Jesus' feet in Luke 7:3650. Later Jewish tradition described a demonic figure known as Lilith in a variety of ways. [248] Apart from the Crucifixion, Mary was often shown in scenes of the Passion of Jesus, when mentioned in the Gospels, such as the Crucifixion, Christ Carrying the Cross and Noli me Tangere, but usually omitted in other scenes showing the Twelve Apostles, such as the Last Supper. She turned the mass of her crimes to virtues, in order to serve God entirely in penance. Her association with prostitution was a result of the proximity between the first mention of her in Luke (. Mary Magdalen , so called either from Magdala near Tiberias on the west shore of Galilee, or, possibly from a Talmudic expression MNRLA SY`RA NSYYA, i.e." curling women's hair", which the Talmud explains as of an adulteress. [179][239] Her story became conflated in the West with that of Mary of Egypt, a fourth-century prostitute turned hermit, whose clothes wore out and fell off in the desert. [75][81][83] She did not see anyone, but immediately ran to tell Peter and the "beloved disciple",[75][83] who came with her to the tomb and confirmed that it was empty,[75][82] but returned home without seeing the risen Jesus. [255] For centuries, it has been the custom of many Eastern Orthodox Christians to share dyed and painted eggs, particularly on Easter Sunday. [86] This "very forced" ending contradicts the last verse of the original gospel, stating that the women "told no one". [194], The thirteenth-century Cistercian monk and chronicler Peter of Vaux de Cernay said it was part of Catharist belief that the earthly Jesus Christ had a relationship with Mary Magdalene, described as his concubine: "Further, in their secret meetings they said that the Christ who was born in the earthly and visible Bethlehem and crucified at Jerusalem was "evil", and that Mary Magdalene was his concubine and that she was the woman taken in adultery who is referred to in the Scriptures. [211] A massive number of Baroque paintings and sculptures depict the penitent Magdalene,[211][214] often showing her naked or partially naked, with a strong emphasis on her erotic beauty. Come and See is a devotional journal designed specifically for studying Bible movies and shows like The Chosen. [318], Ehrman states that the historical sources reveal absolutely nothing about Jesus' sexuality[319] and that there is no evidence whatsoever to support the idea that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married or that they had any kind of sexual or romantic relationship. [185][187] Fourteen years after Jesus' crucifixion, some pagans throw Mary, Martha, Lazarus (who, in this account, is their brother due to a conflation with Mary of Bethany), and two other Christians named Maximin and Cedonius onto a rudderless boat in the Mediterranean Sea to die. Mary Magdalene was Jesus's wife. The Gospel of Luke chapter 8 lists Mary Magdalene as one of the women who traveled with Jesus and helped support his ministry "out of their resources", indicating that she was probably wealthy. [55][75] Nonetheless, the details of the accounts differ drastically. It is widely accepted among secular historians that, like Jesus, Mary Magdalene was a real historical figure. [106] The Gospel of Thomas consists entirely of 114 sayings attributed to Jesus. 1. "[200] A document, possibly written by Ermengaud of Bziers, undated and anonymous and attached to his Treatise against Heretics,[201] makes a similar statement:[202], Also they [the Cathars] teach in their secret meetings that Mary Magdalene was the wife of Christ. Two brothers struggle with a Jewish tax collector over their debts to Rome; a Pharisee confronts a demon-possessed woman in the "Red Quarter" of Capernaum. [203], In the middle of the fourteenth century, a Dominican friar wrote a biography of Mary Magdalene in which he described her brutally mutilating herself after giving up prostitution,[197] clawing at her legs until they bled, tearing out clumps of her hair, and beating her face with her fists and her breasts with stones. Why do you think The Chosen is trying to connect episode 1 to what will happen when Jesus is resurrected? [10] She was never mentioned in any of the Pauline epistles or in any of the general epistles. The unchallenged facts about her life establish that Jesus cleansed her of seven demons (Luke 8:2 and Mark 16:9), probably . Mary Magdalene was a prominent figure in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. [321] Since Jesus taught that people should live as though the kingdom had already arrived, this teaching implied a life of unmarried celibacy. [216] They were usually located away in wild areas away from the rest of the property[217] and their exteriors were designed to suggest vulnerability.[217]. [16] Although the Gospel of Mark, reputed by scholars to be the earliest surviving gospel, does not mention Mary Magdalene until Jesus' crucifixion,[22] the Gospel of Luke 8:23[23] provides a brief summary of her role during his ministry:[24]. Jusino based his argument largely on the Nag Hammadi Gnostic books, rejecting the view of Raymond E. Brown that these books were later developments, and maintaining instead that the extant Gospel of John is the result of modification of an earlier text that presented Mary Magdalene as the Beloved Disciple. [13][10][98] Sanders summarizes the scholarly consensus that: very, very little in the apocryphal gospels could conceivably go back to the time of Jesus. . Did anyone notice what it was that made her recognize him? [47] Ehrman, who previously accepted the story of Jesus' burial as historical, now rejects it as a later invention on the basis that Roman governors almost never allowed for executed criminals to be given any kind of burial[58] and Pontius Pilate in particular was not "the sort of ruler who would break with tradition and policy when kindly asked by a member of the Jewish council to provide a decent burial for a crucified victim. Making a Woman 5 [89] N. T. Wright states that "it is, frankly, impossible to imagine that [the women at the tomb] were inserted into the tradition after Paul's day. I also suggest setting expectations for the first episode. The Gospel of Philip uses cognates of koinnos and Coptic equivalents to refer to the literal pairing of men and women in marriage and sexual intercourse, but also metaphorically, referring to a spiritual partnership, and the reunification of the Gnostic Christian with the divine realm. [146][147] Origen merely dismisses this, remarking that Celsus "pours on us a heap of names". His sister,[e] his mother and his companion were each a Mary. [185][186] Miraculously, however, the boat washes ashore at Marseille in southern France. "Rethinking the Gnostic Mary: Mary of Nazareth and Mary of Magdala in Early Christian Tradition". "[113], For early Christians, kissing did not have a romantic connotation and it was common for Christians to kiss their fellow believers as a way of greeting. [171] Modestus, the Patriarch of Jerusalem from 630 until 634, describes a slightly different tradition that Mary Magdalene had come to Ephesus to live with the apostle John following the death of Mary the mother of Jesus. Mary answered and said, "What is hidden from you I will proclaim to you". The Chosen, a TV show on the Angel Studios' free streaming service, chronicles the life of Jesus and his many followers. Bible movies & shows like The Chosen provide us with fresh eyes to see the significance of the Bible and the beauty of the Gospel. The Gospel of Mary is a non-canonical text discovered in 1896 in a 5th-century papyrus codex written in Sahidic Coptic.This Berlin Codex was purchased in Cairo by German diplomat Carl Reinhardt.. [256], During the Counter-Reformation and Baroque periods (late 16th and 17th centuries), the description "penitent" was added to the indication of her name on her feast day, July 22. ", Evangelical Lutheran Worship, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, 2006, p. 57, Juliet Thompson, I, Mary Magdalene, Foreword, `Abdu'l-Bah, The Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 420, `Abdu'l-Bah, Bah' World Faith `Abdu'l-Bah Section, p. 385, `Abdu'l-Bah, Tablets of `Abdu'l-Bah Vol.2, p. 467, Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, "Koinonos Meaning in Bible - New Testament Greek Lexicon - King James Version", "Panarion of Epiphanius of Salamis, Book 1", "Picturing the Magdalene: How Artists Imagine the Apostle to the Apostles", "Lady Gaga says she 'always wanted to play' Mary Magdalene from the Bible", "FKA twigs' new fragrance fuses the virgin and the whore", "Deborah Rose, "So, Really Who was She? [47] John 19:25 lists Mary, mother of Jesus, her sister, Mary, wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene as witnesses to the crucifixion. [56], All four canonical gospels, as well as the apocryphal Gospel of Peter, agree that Jesus' body was taken down from the cross and buried by a man named Joseph of Arimathea. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023). Thank you! TV Shows. He attempts to heal her and exorcise the evil spirit in her, but he is unsuccessful and concludes that she is beyond hope. (Jesus), What about Jesus' identity does this hint at? How does that truth encourage you? [4][1] Elaborate medieval legends from Western Europe then emerged, which told exaggerated tales of Mary Magdalene's wealth and beauty, as well as of her alleged journey to southern Gaul (modern-day France). After Jesus heals her evil spirit, she resumes calling herself "Mary," her birth name, and refuses to answer to the name associated with her spiritual oppression. [183], The most famous account of Mary Magdalene's legendary life comes from The Golden Legend, a collection of medieval saints stories compiled in around the year 1260 by the Italian writer and Dominican friar Jacobus de Voragine (c. 1230 1298). Jesus is said to have cast seven evil spirits out of her (, As I noted above, in the Bible there is no indication that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute. Instead, she has traditionally been honored as a "Myrrhbearer" (; the equivalent of the western Three Marys)[255] and "Equal to the Apostles" (). [315][308], In 2012, scholar Karen L. King published the Gospel of Jesus' Wife, a purported Coptic papyrus fragment in which Jesus says: "My wife she will be able to be my disciple." If the savior made her worthy, who are you to reject her? [71][73][74] Despite this, all four canonical gospels, as well as the apocryphal Gospel of Peter, agreed that Mary Magdalene, either alone or as a member of a group, was the first person to discover that Jesus' tomb was empty. [257] The Gospel reading in the Tridentine Mass was Luke 7:3650[258] (the sinful woman anointing the feet of Jesus), while in the present version of the Roman Rite of Mass it is John 20:12, 1118[259] (meeting of Mary Magdalene with Jesus after his resurrection). [282] Presbyterians honor her as the "apostle to the apostles"[283] and, in the book Methodist Theology, Kenneth Wilson describes her as, "in effect", one of the "first missionaries". [33][27][28] Bruce Chilton, a scholar of early Christianity, states that the reference to the number of demons being "seven" may mean that Mary had to undergo seven exorcisms, probably over a long period of time, due to the first six being partially or wholly unsuccessful. I found that my youth struggled to sort out the different characters, so you might want to do a quick slide show of the key characters using the character images I've included throughout this post. [267] Because of Mary Magdalene's position as an apostle, though not one of those who became official witnesses to the resurrection, the Catholic Church honored her by reciting the Gloria on her feast day the only female saint so honored apart from Mary, the mother of Jesus. To clarify why the creators would want to add new characters and stories and leave some stories out, you could ask the following questions: What are some other popular adaptations of books into film or television? [10] The main surviving text comes from a Coptic translation preserved in a fifth-century manuscript (Berolinensis Gnosticus 8052,1) discovered in Cairo in 1896. At one point, Jesus says, "Mary, thou blessed one, whom I will perfect in all mysteries of those of the height, discourse in openness, thou, whose heart is raised to the kingdom of heaven more than all thy brethren". New Testament apocrypha writings mention Mary Magdalene. For more details, check out my post focused specifically on Lilith, Demons, and Evil Spirits. In subsequent religious legend, Mary's story became conflated with that of Mary of Egypt, a repentant prostitute who then lived as a hermit. It had not yet been added at the time of the Tridentine Calendar of 1569 and is no longer found in the present General Roman Calendar but, once added, it remained until the General Roman Calendar of 1960. I offer my work for free and rely on the generous support of readers like you. There were three who always walked with the Lord: Mary, his mother, and her sister, and Magdalene, who was called his companion. In the New Testament she is mentioned among the women who accompanied Christ and ministered to Him (Luke, viii, 2-3), where it is also said that seven devils had . There are a few Bible passages that I thought were helpful to discuss the first episode of The Chosen. During the Counter-Reformation, the Catholic Church emphasized Mary Magdalene as a symbol of penance. [226][227][228] She is portrayed as one in Nikos Kazantzakis's 1955 novel The Last Temptation of Christ and Martin Scorsese's 1988 film adaptation of it,[227] in which Jesus, as he is dying on the cross, has a vision from Satan of what it would be like if he married Mary Magdalene and raised a family with her instead of dying for humanity's sins. Meanwhile, in the youth ministry that I lead, I had the chance to view and discuss season one of The Chosen with several high schoolers and found it very fruitful. [263] She mentions in particular Hugh of Cluny (10241109), Peter Abelard (10791142), and Bernard of Clairvaux (10901153) among those who gave Mary Magdalene the title of apostolorum apostola (apostle of the apostles). [29], Bart D. Ehrman, a New Testament scholar and historian of early Christianity, contends that the number seven may be merely symbolic,[28] since, in Jewish tradition, seven was the number of completion,[28] so that Mary was possessed by seven demons may simply mean she was completely overwhelmed by their power. [47] Mark 15:40 lists the names of these women as Mary Magdalene; Mary, mother of James; and Salome. [197] This portrayal of her inspired the sculptor Donatello (c. 1386 1466) to portray her as a gaunt and beaten ascetic in his wooden sculpture Penitent Magdalene (c. 1454) for the Florence Baptistery. Can you think of moments when you may need to be reminded that God is with you? They are legendary and mythological. Mary Magdalene According to the Bible. In the Bible, there is no indication that Nicodemus met Mary Magdalene or that he tried to heal her or exorcise her evil spirits. [75][84] She at first mistook him for the gardener,[82][75] but, after she heard him say her name, she recognized him and cried out "Rabbouni!" "[302] Esther A. de Boer likewise presents the idea as "one possibility among others", not as a definitive solution to the problem of the identity of the anonymous disciple. [65] Sanders affirms Jesus' burial by Joseph of Arimathea in the presence of Mary Magdalene and the other female followers as completely historical. You can also purchase the DVDs of season 1 on Amazon if you're worried about trying to stream & do Zoom at the same time. [186] De Voragine gives the common account of the transfer of Mary Magdalene's relics from her sepulchre in the oratory of Saint Maximin at Aix-en-Provence to the newly founded Vzelay;[193] the transportation of the relics is entered as undertaken in 771 by the founder of the abbey, identified as Gerard, Duke of Burgundy. [245] Other isolated depictions occur, but, from the thirteenth century, additions to the Virgin Mary and John as the spectators at the Crucifixion become more common, with Mary Magdalene as the most frequently found, either kneeling at the foot of the cross clutching the shaft, sometimes kissing Christ's feet, or standing, usually at the left and behind Mary and John, with her arms stretched upwards towards Christ in a gesture of grief, as in a damaged painting by Cimabue in the upper church at Assisi of c. 1290.
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