The Historical Mary Madgalene

Well, in the Mesopotamian medicine every disease was thought of as resulting by the action of some deity or another - and there was a deity for every disease.  http://www.indiana.edu/~ancmed/meso.HTM   . The Hebrews were descendents of Mesopotamians, /as Hebrew as language separated from Akkadian in 4000 BC/, so it seems logical to me that they would carry some Mesopotamian ideas, in the same way they preserved the Noah and the Flood from the "Story of Gilgamesh". So, I see the disease interpretation is a possible one.

Also, there is a possibility that the 7 demons were allegorical. In the "Forbidden Faith - Gnostic Legacy From the Gospels to the Da Vinci Code" by Richard Smoley, /published2006, HarperCollins Publishers/, I found this interpretation:

"...The number 7 is the key here. Ancient cosmology saw the earth as surrounded by the spheres of the 7 planets then known: the moon, Mercury, Venus, the sun, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. The spiritual forces of there planets were portrayed by ancient esoteric traditions, including Gnosticism, as malign gatekeepers of the heavenly realms who sought to keep man bound to earth. They are in fact the "rulers of the darkness of this world' mentioned in Eph7:12, As we'll see in the next chapter, the liberation of the soul was seen as an ascent through the 7 spheres and an undoing of the bonds of these malign planetary powers. Thus one who is liberated from these powers could be described as having had "seven devils" cast out of her. in it's figurative language, the Gospel could be saying that the "second birth" of the spirit, symbolized by the Resurrection, is attained first and foremost by one who has transcended the influence of the planets, that is, by one out of whom "7 devils" have been cast.

If this is true, it would help explain the extremely high esteem for mary Magdalene in early Christianity of both the orthodox and heterodox strain. In all likelihood, she was neither a rehabilitated whore, nor the "woman with the alabaster jar' who anointed the feet of Christ. But the Gnostic texts may be hitting upon some truth when they imply that she, of all Christ students, best understood the deepest truths he was trying to impart. Perhaps this was why he was able to tell her "Thou art she whose heart is more directed to Kingdom of heaven that any thy brothers..." pgs. 28-29.

And it's possible the story about the demons to have been just a part of the deification of Jesus, a made-up story like others in the gospels, made to present him as a supernatural person. Of course, I'm just playing with possibilities here, it's anyone's guess what really happened.



Edited by Don Quixote - 14-Feb-2012 at 21:47

Mary Magdalene was potrayed for centuries by traditional Christianity as a prostitute who repented and became a follower of Jesus; after his death she spend the rest of her life in repentance. Her repentance was the part that drew artists to her, and she was portrayed with gusto by them as a beautiful woman who turned her back on her beauty and the earthly pleasures to seek forgiveness.
Here some of her images as created by different artists in different times:
Caravaggio:


Guido Reni


Jusepe de Ribera


El Greko


Again El Greko


Gheorghe Tattare


Dante Raphael Rosetti


She is one of those figures that became so heavily imbued in myth, that for all her popularity as an image we know very little about the real historical person she was. In this thread I would like to keep the religious interpretations of her back, and to talk about what could possibly she had been as a person. So far this is the secular info I scrapped about her:

1. She was born and lived in the small town on Magdala /hence her nick-name, Magdalene/, now Al-Majdal; the both names "Magdala" and "Al-Mjdal" mean "tower", and it's Aramaic name was Migdal Nunnaya or Nunayah, with meaning "Tower of Fish". In ancient times there was flowerimg fishing industry there, as it;s Greek name, "Magdala Taricheae" - Magdala of the Fish Salters - suggests. It is referred to  by it's Aramaic names in the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmud. It's likely that the name "Magadan" that Matthew 15:39 referrs was a corrupted form of "Magdala":

ΚΑΤΑ ΜΑΤΘΑΙΟΝ 15:39 Greek NT: Tischendorf 8th Ed. with Diacritics
"...καὶ ἀπολύσας τοὺς ὄχλους ἐνέβη εἰς τὸ πλοῖον, καὶ ἦλθεν εἰς τὰ ὅρια Μαγαδάν...."

Which is translated in New International Version (©1984)
"...After Jesus had sent the crowd away, he got into the boat and went to the vicinity of Magadan...."

And in many Bible editions follow the translation of the Cambridge edition on KJB:

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)

"...And he sent away the multitude, and took ship, and came into the coasts of Magdala...."

2. She was probably not married, because in that case she would have the name of her husband to bare, not the name of the town she lived in.
Most of what we know of Mary comes from the Synoptic Gospels in the New Testament, according to which she was:
- cleansed by Jesus from 7 demons, which in the line of secularizing I'm attempting here would be probably being cured by a disease of some kind, possibly having 7 symptoms; or cured from 7 diseases, which would seem less plausible, but possible; or being a symbolic imagery for something else.
- was a sister to Martha and Lazarus, the latter being raised form the dead.
- was the first the see the empty tomb on Jesus and the first he appeared to after his resurrection.

She is given more significant role in the Gnostic gospels, according to which:
- she was a apostle, Jesus told her to go and teach together with her brother Philip, but she wasn't suppose to reveal her female character
- she is given her own gospel, in which after the death of Jesus the apostles were all confused and she taught then something that only she knew, because Jesus told this only to her.

The next historical info we have about her is that in 1-2 century AD she was given the title "Apostola Apostolarum" by Hippolitus,  bishop in Rome:
"..."...2 Thimmes writes, "it is significant to note that Hippolytus, bishop of Rome (c. 170-235) [. . .] was the first to grant to Mary Magdalene the title 'Apostola Apostolorum' (apostle to the apostles). In his commentary on Canticle of Canticles he associates her with the bride and with the Bride of Christ, a symbol of the Church" (220-21). According to Lucy Winkett, "The ancient tradition of Mary of Magdala as apostola apostolorum ('apostle of the apostles') is used today by Pope John Paul II" (26. ..."
from "The Pity She is a Whore - The Revision of Mary Magdalene in Contemporary Fiction" by Kevin Brown - I cannot give a link to the article because it's from Questia, I'm subscribed to it but it would be against the rules to post an open link with Questia here.

Later, in 591 Pope Gregory the Great mixed her with the image of repentant prostitute in the NT, and had a homily against her and her sins. In 1969 the Vatican tacitly separated Mary of Magdala from Mary of Bethany /who was the repented prostitute/ via the Roman Missal/.
So now we know that Mary of Magdala wasn't a prostitute. But who was she really?




Edited by Don Quixote - 14-Feb-2012 at 02:23