Why are so many women named "Mary" in the Gospels? The Aramaic name Maryam (Miriam in Hebrew) was popular among Jews in Palestine during the first century; being named after Moses' sister was auspicious. Maryam in Aramaic became Maria in the Greek Gospels, a short step to Mary in English.
To distinguish one person with a common name from another, place names could be used. That is why Jesus (from the Aramaic equivalent of Joshua) was called "of Nazareth." So we have, in addition to Mary the mother of Jesus, Mary of Bethany and Mary of Magdala -- or Mary Magdalene.
Unattached to husband, father or brother, the Magdalene stood out within Jesus' fellowship in a culture where women were expected to live under male protection. When Jesus said that prostitutes had a better chance of entering God's Kingdom than his opponents did (Matthew 21:31), some people came to the conclusion that Mary Magdalene fit the category.
Medieval imagination took that possibility and exploited it. Mary Magdalene was conflated with a much later Mary (Mary of Egypt), and given an itinerary that took her to Jerusalem, through conversion, and then on a trip on a rudderless ship guided by an angel to the south of France. There, it was said, after winning souls to Christ and destroying idols, Mary Magdalene retreated to a mountain cave, where she levitated when she said her prayers, and ultimately died on July 22, her feast day.
Another legend has it that, unattached as she was, Mary became Jesus' concubine. That was a claim asserted by the Cathars, Christians who became the objects of an internal Crusade declared by Pope Innocent III. His zealous executioners destroyed the entire city of Beziers for the insult to Mary Magdalene, carrying out the genocide on her feast day in 1209. Yet the idea lost none of its appeal; later Martin Luther embraced the Cathar view of Jesus' liaison with Mary Magdalene.
Imagination did not end with the Middle Ages. Pierre Plantard, a right-wing and anti-Semitic pretender to power in France after the Second World War, tried to provide evidence - in the form of faked parchments he deposited in the Bibliothèque Nationale - that Jesus and Mary Magdalene had born a child. Plantard's claims ultimate gave us the appealing fiction of The Da Vinci Code.
History is also a form of imagination; its power lies in its insistence on evaluating evidence and its refusal to bend to a preconceived program of what the findings should be. History reveals a stronger Mary Magdalene than the predominantly male projections that have reigned from the time of Jesus' critics to her sexualized portraits in New Age fantasies.
Mary Magdalene is the only person in the Gospels named as being exorcized by Jesus, freed of seven demons (Luke 8:2). During this prolonged cure, Jesus initiated Mary into his particular understanding of exorcism. For Jesus, people taken on their own were as clean as God had made Adam and Eve. If a person became unclean or impure, that was not because of contact with exterior objects. To his mind, impurity was a disturbance in that person's own spirit that made them want to be impure, a disturbed desire to pollute and harm themselves.
Uncleanness had to be dealt with in the inward, spiritual personality of those afflicted. Mary Magdalene had reason to understand these principles better than most people, and it is not coincidence that the most detailed stories of exorcism in the Gospels come from places near Magdala, where she was active as a teacher both before and after Jesus' death.
Anointing, in addition to exorcism, was a signature ritual of Jesus. Mark's Gospel (6:13) reports that, when his disciples went out to offer Jesus' healing therapy in his name, "they threw out many demons and anointed with oil many who were ill, and healed them." Anointing conveyed Spirit to Jesus' mind, and he wanted his followers to anoint people.
When Mary anointed Jesus near the end of his life the other disciples were angry with her (Mark 14:4-5). But Jesus explained the significance of what Mary Magdalene had done. Anointing the dead was a traditional part of Judaism, and he saw that Mary - by anointing him - connected the spiritual healing of his days in Galilee with the possibility of his execution in Jerusalem. Just as human life could be transformed by the inflowing of Spirit, so death itself could become the vehicle of God's presence. Jesus insisted, "Wherever the gospel is preached in the whole world, what she has will be spoken of in memory of her" (Mark 14:9). The full insight that suffering can become a medium of divine presence came to Jesus through Mary's anointing, and he ordered it as part of his message.
Mary's dedication to the ritual of anointing extended beyond Jesus' death. To complete the dutiful care of their dead rabbi, Mary and other women made their way to the tomb. Perfumed oil for rubbing on the dead was scented with the resin of myrrh and the leaves of aloe (John 19:38-39). Mary's vision at the tomb of Jesus marks his separation from his flesh and his entry into a resurrected existence. "He is raised, he is not here," an angel says (Mark 16:6). Jesus himself described those raised from the dead as "like angels" (Mark 12:18-27; Matthew 22:23-33; Luke 20:27-38). Mary Magdalene's vision, precisely because it was a vision in the earliest account (Mark 16) and not the inspection of an empty tomb, placed Jesus in the realm of heaven.
Beneath the complicated legends of medieval hagiographers and the conspiracy theories of their modern revisionist counterparts, Mary Magdalene's signature sacraments of exorcism, anointing, and vision persist. Her three gifts of Spirit are her inheritance: dissolving what is impure or evil, offering ointment for sickness and discernment, and vision to perceive the spiritual truth of resurrection.
Whether Jesus and Mary, two unattached people, ever entered into a sexual relationship is not a historically answerable question. But their intimate connection in the world of ritual is as plain as the continuing power of the practices they pioneered.
Bruce Chilton is the Bernard Iddings Bell Professor of Religion at Bard College and author of Mary Magdalene. A biography (Doubleday).
Mary Magdalene - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Gospel According to Mary Magdalene
St. Mary Magdelene"The Penitent" - Saints & Angels - Catholic Online
Lourdes is one of her Holy places...
Like phosphorescent heart-worms ?
"Mary Magdalene is the only person in the Gospels named as being exorcized by Jesus, freed of seven demons (Luke 8:2). During this prolonged cure, Jesus initiated Mary into his particular understanding of exorcism." Again, no Scriptural support for this conclusion, i.e., that "Jesus initiated Mary..."
But this notion was edited by the Roman and Byzantine misogynists like Saul/Paul.
"Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God."
I realize christians see this as a metaphor for the church and christ in union at his death but I find that hard to swallow. Placing nuptials as a metaphor for death.
This might be interesting to you;
http://www.llewellyn.com/journal/article/659
http://www.watchmanbiblestudy.com/biblestudies/definitions/Def_BrideofChrist.htm
http://bible.cc/revelation/19-7.htm
But the Bible, and other rejected religious texts, the only records of her existence, do not give a clear identity to her, so that there is much disagreement on whether she is this Mary ? and/or also that Mary ? identified in the scriptures. And don't forget that many Christians believe her to have been a reformed harlot based on a medieval Pope's sermon.
The Bible hasn't proven itself to be a very coherent record on her existence.
Even the contradictory parts ? Interesting. How do you manage that ? It brings to mind one of the interactions between Alice and the Queen in "Through The Looking Glass" by Lewis Carroll
" I can't believe that!" said Alice.
"Can't you?" the Queen said in a pitying voice. "Try again: draw a long breath, and shut your eyes."
Alice laughed. " There's no use trying," she said: " one can't believe impossible things."
"I daresay you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."
When Mary Magdalene landed in France in the medieval 'religious tourism' version of the story, she was one of three Marys on the boat. Three of course figuring much in New Testament numerology.
To the earliest Chrisitians, Mary Magdalene represented the fallen spirit returning to its higher state. To the later Roman Christians, who were unaware of the esoteric meaning, she became a person in Jesus' life.
The true basis of the Mary stories is revealed again at the time of the French Revolution when Mary's name was ditched and Isis was reinstated as part of the representation of the one creator God.
How about her mirror in earlier mythologies?
"Whether Jesus and Mary, two unattached people, ever entered into a sexual relationship is not a historically answerable question. "
Other than the physical location of Judea &tc as the set for this entire myth, exactly which parts of any of it are historically answerable?
Attempts have been made to rewrite histor (Josephus 'mysterious'addition' 'discovered' in the 4th century by Bishop Eusebius is the most obvious one).
The only person connected to Christianity that had any chance of existing was Paul. He was also heavily edited and had whole volumes written in his name 100s of years later.
Part of the problem with many religious scholars and experts is that, no matter how in-depth they reach into their subject, they start off with the premise that these stories reflect real people and circumstances.
Once you start to see the stunning historical parallels that Judaism, Chritianity and Islam claim as their own, some going as far back to ancient Egypt and Sumeria, it's a Brave New World.
I doubt that Ms. winehouse would have given me an ear. She was a rebellious soul that was going to do what she wanted to do. If she would have given me a few minutes, she would have been bored because she had heard it all before. Her attitude was like that of that video she did called "Rehab". She was prideful and arrogant and already was mocking people who cared so much for her. I also thik the talented Ms. winehouse saw herself as an unattractive female so she got into her self destructive mode. Yes, I do come across as perhaps too hard on some topics. I really do love people but my tolerance for nonsense has vanished as I've grown older. Ms. winehouse might not have liked me or might even have run from me, but I would hve nver introduced her to drugs, alcohol and that detructive lifestyle. Its too bad that she didn't get to know me- she probably would still be alive, looking like a normal full figuree diva and would have been taking her place as one of the greatest singers of all time. But she prefered "fiends" to a freind in Jesus. Peace to you and God bless.
besides tearing down, how about building others up