The Depiction of Mary Magdalene in the New Testament - Essay Example

MARY MAGDALENE: Not Necessarily who She is Portrayed to Be Due INTRODUCTION There is no greater biblical figure that sparks more debate, with the exception of Jesus himself, than that of Mary Magdalene. As children we are taught that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute who repented and was saved by Jesus. However, modern cultures have posed theories that question that believed tale. Mary Magdalene, according to any modern scholars has been done a terrible disservice and marring of her character that she may not deserve at all. The Mary described does not necessarily match the Mary being represented in the Gospels of the Bible (Beavis 23). How could that happen? Well that is not as difficult as it sounds; 3,000 years have passed since the events took place, the negative stereotype of women in the post-Jesus era of Christianity, and the commonality of the name Mary all contributed to creating this inaccurate image of Mary Magdalene. Her presence by name in the Gospels, however few, identify her as someone important, often present in the company of Jesus’ mother, “The Virgin Mary,” it seems likely that she was a very different women from the one we were taught about. HISTORY The Bible is an ancient manuscript. It has been translated, retranslated, printed and reprinted many times. This can lead to discrepancies in the text that could give misleading messages. Mary Magdalene by name only appears in a few passages, however, in each of those passages her name was given first, which traditionally denotes importance, yet as the centuries moved along her reputation, importance, and contributions slowly but surely was diminished. One particular passage references her and explains her origins in Jesus’’ company; “Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out…” (Luke 8:1-3 BeliefNet). Now taken literally it may infer that Mary was a woman tormented by demons who required an actual exorcism or a metaphorical statement referencing that she had had some serious illness that Jesus was able to cure her of. In return her and other “elite” women are being described as benefactors of Jesus’ travels; they essentially may have been financing the group’s movements. This is incredibly different from her associations with the repentant prostitute that Jesus saved from being stoned and with another who washed his feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. Somehow all of the different women have been amalgamated throughout history. DISCUSSION There are three specific reasons that could have contributed to the character assassination done to Mary Magdalene over the last few millennia. The first, involves, again, the number of translations and reprinting plays a role in this issue. There was a time when the Christians all over the land all had Bibles that were not identical; some contained different versions of popular stories and some had books and scriptures that have never been heard of before. It became necessary to compile a single Bible that all Christians could then worship. It would ultimately be decided that because Jesus was the center of the New Testament, therefore it should focus on his life. Ultimately, this would mean the elimination of a number of Biblical scriptures arbitrarily eliminated, not due to lack validity but because it did not focus specifically upon the life and times of Jesus. That said, everyone who was not Jesus were minimized and subdued in favor of focusing solely on the Messiah and his works. This amount of time, differing contexts, and retranslations could lead to a number of issues of accuracy; we can never know if what we are reading was, in fact, the true ideas that were originally shared. This seems to be a large part of what happened to the reputation of Mary Magdalene. The next major contributing factor to the story we know and the woman actually being describe diverge so much involves the sexism rampant throughout Christianity. Mary Magdalene, again, when she appears she is represented as someone special, someone favored by Jesus, and more present in the foundation of the new religion than we are generally taught. As unfortunate as it is, there are some innate sexism present in the core of the religion beginning in the Garden of Eden with the secondary making of Eve and inferior position she was given in the scripture. That mentality has benefitted a patriarchal control factor for generations and generations. However, if we see where Mary, and her importance, relevance, and endorsements by Jesus himself would threaten the male dominant cultures that relied on their religion to support their position within society. At the crucifixion Mary is present to witness Jesus’ end and was the first to discover his body missing and spoke to him after his rising (Miller 47).It seems strange that that much faith and importance would be bestowed upon just “any women,” when there were male apostles to choose form. The third and final reasoning that Mary Magdalene may have had her reputation damaged throughout the course of history is the commonality of the name Mary in that era. Literally every family had a mother named Mary, a daughter, or a sister. There are a number that were mentioned throughout the Bible, including “there is Mary of Bethany, sister of Martha and Lazarus. There is Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and Mary the wife of Clopas” (Carroll 1). It was so common that it is likely Biblical authors simply assigned the name Mary to anyone whose name is not known or is not necessarily relevant; not unlike the way the name Jane Doe and John Doe is assigned to unidentified women and men. However, again, there is no identification that the specific prostitute women were Mary Magdalene; in each of her appearances she was named so why would she be named sometimes but not at others? Most scholars agree that she would not. Many say that her name itself speaks volumes to her importance in Jesus plans and teachings. She most likely hailed from Magdala, a small village on the Sea of Galilee (Carroll 1). However, Jesus was known to grant new names to his closest disciples. He gave Peter the name Peter, his real name was Simon; he is often referred to as Simon Peter, which translates into Simon the Rock. Mary Magdalene means “Mary the Tower,” why would he treat her as equal to his disciples unless her present was more valuable that simply a loyal follower. The scriptures presenting of her cannot hide that she was much more than a repentant prostitute. In recent years modern culture gained newfound interest in the life and times of the real Mary Magdalene. The popular novel and film, “The Da Vinci Code,” by Dan Brown, raised questions like whether or not Mary may have been a true disciple, but more importantly, that she may have been the wife of Jesus and the mother of his offspring. This controversial theory has been criticized as belittling the divine and otherworldly nature of a “pure” and “virtuous” Messiah who should not be represented as a common married man and father. Granted as tantalizing and intriguing as the theories around this concept are there is no proof of any such relationship only speculation. We will never be able to prove one way or the other based on the available scriptures or otherwise that would indicate they were, in fact, married. But, the attention brought by the fiction novel did draw greater attention to the reputation and image that people have of Mary Magdalene and, most importantly, her position in the formation of the Christian religion. The scriptures describe a Mary Magdalene who was close to Jesus himself and his mother, one who may have held a higher position in the future of the religion Jesus was building, and one who was a benefactor and financial supporter of Jesus’ works. This seems quite different from the unnamed and renamed “Marys” that have been associated with Mary Magdalene has a repentant prostitute. All the same as the years have rolled by it becomes more and more obvious that the diminishing and besmirching of Mary Magdalene’s identity and role in the biblical story as a whole is wrong and a cumulative result of long years of biblical retranslation and interpretations, the patriarchal society that men benefitted from a religion with limited female empowerment, and finally, the commonality of the name Mary in the era of the bible. CONCLUSION In this modern age we seek scientific absolutes, however, when it comes to history, more so biblical history, getting absolute, definitive answer is never going to be simple and very likely impossible. We may never know all of the history that has occurred in the past. We, often, in the human experience, walk a fine line between the reality of history and the surrealism of myths and legends that are as true to us as history. Many Christians do not ever question the content of the Bible at all, and those that do find that there are parts of the biblical story that may be a bit misinterpreted will never shake their faith in the core ideology behind it. at least, as they see it. Mary Magdalene played a part in the life of Jesus and his teachings and we may never know how much or in what way, but the scriptures would indicate that her presence was more relevant that other women who were never named at all. That said, while the scriptures remains cryptic in content in regards to Mary Magdalene, they also do not guarantee or infer her as a prostitute. WORK CITED Beavis, Mary Ann. "Who is Mary Magdalene?." Women in the Bible. (2013): 23-29. Print. Carroll, James. "Who Was Mary Magdalene?." Smithsonian Magazine. Jun 2006: 1. Web. 21 Apr. 2014. . Miller,William S. "Subordinate Woman or Favored Leade r: Portrayal s of Mary Magdalene in Christian Canonical & Non-Canonical Gospels." Constructing the Past. 10.1 (2009): n. page. Web. 20 Apr. 2014. Read More