The Gospel of Mary Magdalene
by Jean-Yves Leloup
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Book Reviews of The Gospel of Mary Magdalene
Book Review: The Gospel Of Mary Magdalene Words To Live By:
Summary: 4 Stars
It's disheartening that the first 6 pages and pages 11--14 of Mary Magdalene's gospel are missing. It would've been a gemütlich experience to read those missing passages considering the inquiries that were raised.
On page seven of the gospel the inquiries asked were "What is matter? Will it last forever?" It seems that Jesus (in the tradition of Aristotle) and his apostles were engaging in a dialogue about physics. Could Jesus have been an academic in philosophy? It seems to delineate in that direction and Jean-Yves Le Loup's interpretation of the gospel may indeed hold the argument apposite.
It isn't at all surprising to note that the Catholic Church won't endear this document since it (along with the Gospel of Philip) shows unequivocally that Jesus wasn't a virgin, that he had passion for a woman (Mary Magdalene) who also had intimacies toward him. (How salacious of being cynical so don't be offended.}
Furthermore, most religious individuals who are indoctrinated by the lies of the Church still believe that Mary was a prostitute even though the Bible doesn't indicate this. "Mary's identity as a prostitute stems from Homily 33 of Pope Gregory I, delivered in the year 591[AD], in which he declared that she and the unnamed woman [prostitute] in Luke 7 are, in fact, one and the same, and that the faithful should hold Mary as the penitent whore." Pope Gregory's comments were and still are abhorrent, but what is even more despicable is the fact that it wasn't until 1969 that "the Catholic Church officially repeal[ed] Gregory's labeling of Mary as a whore, thereby admitting their error--though the image of Mary Magdalene as the penitent whore has remained in the public teachings of all Christian denominations. Like a small erratum buried in the back page of a newspaper, the Church's correction goes unnoticed, while the initial and incorrect article continues to influence readers [believers,]" said Le Loup.
Anyway, what ever happened to love, respect and forgiveness? Isn't that what Jesus was being pedagogical about?
Religion has never been about love because religion is really a euphemism for government, and governments since the beginning of time have always been malevolent!
And this gospel, plus many others (such as the Gospel of Thomas) demonstrate that fact. If religion were really about love then why would the Church be so adamant about hiding the fact that Jesus had a companion? It's something you should really think long and hard about especially after reading this book.
Ponder on this thought; in chapter seven Peter asked Jesus: "Since you have become the interpreter of the elements and the events of the world, tell us; what is the sin of the world?" Jesus then answered by stating, "There is no sin."
Now, just think about that for a moment "There is no sin." This quote from Jesus is what the Religious institutions don't want you to read because then you'll begin to ascertain what the meaning of life really is.
Jesus then went on to say; "It is you who make sin exist, when you act according to the habits of your corrupted nature," as religious leaders and governments do all the time. They are corrupt and give into their proclivities for empire, which is something we should never ascribe to. Jesus also said; "This is why you become sick, and why you die, it is the result of your actions; what you do takes you further away. Those who have ears let them hear!"
The arguments that Jesus and Mary Magdalene raise are simplistic, yet uncanny. What is even more amazing is the leadership role that Mary takes after Jesus' death. She becomes the teacher and leads the Apostles on their godly mission.
Insofar as Le Loup's commentary, it is very intricate yet deep. Le Loup searches for a deeper meaning by using philosophical arguments to make his case. He meticulously uses the gospels in the Bible and makes comparisons to Mary Magdalene's gospel in hopes of showing a correlation between them; that there isn't any contradiction.
In my opinion, Le Loup successfully validates the authenticity of the Gospel Of Mary Magdalene, and that we should all take a profound glimpse into our Four Dimensions of Humanity, which he thoroughly explains in his commentaries.
In some aspects Le Loup's commentary reads like a new-age self help book, which makes it an A+ dissertation because personal spirituality is always healthy, whether you are an atheists, or a religious person it doesn't matter just getting in-touch with your positive self for the good of all mankind is worthwhile. Le Loup effectively demonstrates that this is what Jesus was ascribing to achieve.
Book Review: Literary Armageddon
Summary: 4 Stars
Nearly all knowledgeable Biblical scholars realize there have been a wide range of writings attributed to Jesus and his Apostles..... and that some of these were selected for compilation into the book that became known as the Bible.....and that some books have been removed from some versions of the Bible and others have been re-discovered in modern times.
The attention focused on Gnosticism by Dan Brown's DaVinci Code may be debatable, but the fact is that increased attention on academics tends to be predominately positive, so I welcome those with first-time or renewed interest. At least first-timers to Gnosticism are not pursuing the oh-so-popular legends of the Holy Grail, Bloodline of Christ, and Mary Magdalene.
This is great......I seldom quote other reviewers, but there is one reviewer of Pagels' books who confided that he had been a Jesuit candidate and had been required to study a wide range of texts but was never was told about the Nag Hamadi texts. He said:
"Now I know why. The Gospel of Thomas lays waste to the notion that Jesus was `the only begotten Son of God' and obviates the need for a formalized church when he says, `When your leaders tell you that God is in heaven, say rather, God is within you, and without you.' No wonder they suporessed this stuff! The Roman Catholic Church hasn't maintained itself as the oldest institution in the world by allowing individuals to have a clear channel to see the divinity within all of us: they need to put God in a bottle, label the bottle, put that bottle on an altar, build a church around that altar, put a sign over the door, and create rubricks and rituals to keep out the dis-believing riff-raff. Real `Us' versus `them' stuff, the polar opposite from `God is within You.' `My God is bigger than your God' the church(s)seem to say. And you can only get there through "my" door/denomination. But Jesus according to Thomas had it right: just keep it simple, and discover the indwelling Divinity `within you and without you.'"
Here are quickie reviews of what is being bought these days on the Gnostic Gospels and the lost books of the Bible in general:
The Lost Books of the Bible (0517277956) includes 26 apocryphal books from the first 400 years that were not included in the New Testament.
Marvin Meyers' The Secret Teachings of Jesus : Four Gnostic Gospels (0394744330 ) is a new translation without commentary of The Secret Book of James, The Gospel of Thomas, The Book of Thomas, and The Secret Book of John.
James M. Robinson's The Nag Hammadi Library in English : Revised Edition (0060669357) has been around 25 years now and is in 2nd edition. It has introductions to each of the 13 Nag Hammadi Codices and the Papyrus Berioinensis 8502.
The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English (0140278079) by Geza Vermes has selected works....a complete work is more difficult to achieve than the publisher's marketing concept indicates. His commentary generates strong reactions.
Elaine Pagels has 2 books (The Gnostic Gospels 0679724532 and Beyond Belief : The Secret Gospel of Thomas 0375501568) that have received considerable attention lately. For many, her work is controversial in that it is written for popular consumption and there is a strong modern interpretation. She does attempt to reinterpret ancient gender relationships in the light of modern feminist thinking. While this is a useful (and entertaining) aspect of college women's studies programs, it is not as unethical as some critics claim. As hard as they may try, all historians interpret the past in the context of the present. Obviously there is value in our attempts to re-interpret the past in the light of our own time.
If you want the full scholarly work it is W. Schneemelcher's 2 volume New Testament Apocrypha.
Book Review: An interesting work for a variety of reasons.
Summary: 4 Stars
I developed an interest in the Gnostic gospels after reading the DiVinci code and seeing the movie. There seemed so much more going on at the time, and as an historian I found the thought intriguing.
As a thinker, the fact that so much of what we believed to be the "reality" of a time period--or even of our own time--can be shaped by the suppression of some facts and the enhancement of others to such an amazing degree is, well, amazing to me! I've always know that "history is written by the victors" as one person has said--I forget now whom--and as Napoleon is reputed to have said, "lies agreed upon," but the shaping of religious doctrine to the extent implied by this author is truly incredible. I can see why conservative religious individuals today might be intimidated by these documents. I also understand better why the Islamic world feels that Christians and Jews have "rewritten" the bible to suit themselves. (Not that the Koran was not, but let's not go there.)
The book The Gospel of Mary Magdalene is part history, part philology, part, philosophy, and part religious exegesis of a primary text. The author reports the extent of our knowledge--or lack thereof--about the person of Mary Magdalene. Essentially almost nothing other than the fragments of text in the New Testament provide our base for her life and mission. The author offers some suggestions as to why this lack of information might exist, but it mostly boils down to "we don't really know." That and "chance."
After his discussion of the historic individual, the author presents the text that remains of the gospel ascribed to Mary Magdalene, and follows each segment with a philosophical and religious interpretation of what is meant. For the most part, he uses what is known of the time period and of other gospels for his interpretation but much is his own thought on the topic. It's a very thorough discussion of the text.
The book would make a good starting point for someone interested in the historic character of Mary Magdalene as well as in the lives and philosophies of the Gnostics. For those interested in shoring up their orthodox religious background, this will not help much. For those interested in philosophy, particularly the philosophy of the time period, it offers a good insight into the religious and philosophical thinking of the Roman Empire period, particularly that played by female thinkers. It's suppression certainly says something about the attitude toward women during and after this period. For those looking at how chance loss and chance finds effect our concepts of the world, this is superb.
An interesting work for a variety of reasons.
Book Review: Those who have ears, let them hear
Summary: 3 Stars
Mary Magdalene's Gospel is interesting for two aspects of the Roman Church doctrine: sexuality and the place of women.
For M. Tardieu (quoted in this book), 'Mary Magdalene is the confidante of Jezus, because she is his sexual partner.'
Also, in two other non-canonic gospels 'The Question of Mary' and 'The Gospel of Philip', Mary Magdalene's sexual role seems evident. In the latter, 'The Lord often uses to kiss her on the mouth.'
For the commentator Jean-Yves Leloup, the Roman Catholic point of view 'that sexuality is essentially a bad thing', makes him truly ill. 'The Gospel of Mary Magdalene reminds us that Yeshua was capable of intimacy with a woman.'
Concerning the place of women in the Church, Miriam of Magdala was the first person to see Yeshua after the Resurrection and to hear his message. But the discussions among the apostles give a sad forecast of the exclusion of the feminine in the Church.
'How is it possible that the Teacher talked in this manner with a woman about secrets of which we ourselves are ignorant?'
'Peter ... now we see you repudiating a woman ... Yet the Teacher held her worthy, who are you to reject her?'
As a true censor, the Church declared only those texts holy which supported her point of view. Her sexual vision was imposed by the Church Fathers who in general were second sons and desherited. If the first son had no heir, they had a chance to take his place. They tried to prevent people from siring legitimate heirs (Matt Ridley: The Red Queen).
Moreover, Paul of Tarsus had the holy illness and was totally uncomfortable with his 'body'.
Jean-Yves Leloup's comments are unfortunately totally unscientific, although he uses modern science as an argument. Hereafter a few examples.
'The human being is a composite of body, soul, mind and spirit'.
There is no 'mind stuff', only matter.
'To be and not to be - that is the question. This restores us to harmony both with ancient esoteric teaching and the implications of quantum physics.'
'There is no room for hatred of the world, for it has been clearly stated that there is no sin, no evil. Evil and sin arise from ourselves.'
This is a contradictio in terminis: we are part of the world.
'The dramatic sin of the contemporary world is the relativizing of the absolute, and its absolutizing of the relative.'
There is no absolute, for essentialism doesn't exist.
'Certain writers were justified inferring to Chernobyl as the wrath of God.' (?)
The Gospel of Mary Magdalene is more or less an important text. The comments are rather ecclesiastic.
Book Review: The Apostles Apostle.
Summary: 5 Stars
The Gospel according to Mary is a most welcome addition to the many once suppressed scriptures of early Christianity, discarded by Constantine and his councilman at Nicaea in the third century CE. The reasons for the exclusion of some texts over others would be an in-depth study of its own. In any event, the Naga Hammmadi texts, including the now famous Gospel of Thomas and Phillip, has not only shed new light on the history of Christianity, but has deepened our understanding of Christ's teachings, informing our faith and belief. Although the Gospel of Mary Magdalene has come to us in fragments, (parts of the text are missing) Leloup has proved himself an informed and intuitive exegete, giving us access to the meaning within the scripture. As Jacob Needleman expresses in his well written Forward: "One of the most remarkable aspects of `The Gospel of Mary Magdalene' is that the more it shows us about the meaning of Christianity, the more the mystery deepens." This, to my mind, is the all-important aspect of spirituality, and that is our search is an on-going journey, in which the more the hidden is revealed, the greater the mystery becomes. The figure of Mary Magdalene appears not only in the New Testament but also in the so-called Gnostic Gospels. She is referred to as the `apostles apostle' because she was a witness to Christ's death and the first He appeared to upon his resurrection. The figure of the Magdalene has appeared throughout the world in the form of myth, history and legend over the last two thousand years. The suppression of her importance within the church is a mystery, and the fact that this gospel was discovered a century ago in Egypt, its existence excluded to a small circle of scholars, and only now has come into the mainstream, is also a mystery. After reading this text, it became apparent that The Gospel according to Mary is that important feminine perspective of Christianity that has been missing for the last twenty centuries. It is that missing piece of doctrine that now gives us a fuller picture of Christ's ministry and his teachings.
As Leloup writes at the end of the text, The Gospel of Mary need not be "set up in opposition to other gospels or sacred scriptures, or against recent anthropological or scientific research." This gospel, in other terms, does not contradict orthodox, but compliments Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, including Thomas and Phillip, in such a way that enhances our understanding, belief and relationship with the Divine.
This wonderful text is very accessible and can be read in one sitting. However its contents demand more focused reading and engagement in order to gain greater understanding of its many levels.