How Early Church Leaders Downplayed Mary Magdalene's Influence by Calling Her a Whore
Other early documents portray her as Jesus's companion—and even mention kissing. What's really known about the Bible's most mysterious woman?
Sarah Pruitt
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Mary Magdalene as Jesus's wife
While some early Christians sought to downplay Mary’s influence, others sought to accentuate it. The Gospel of Mary, a text dating from the second century A.D. that surfaced in Egypt in 1896, placed Mary Magdalene above Jesus’s male disciples in knowledge and influence. She also featured prominently in the so-called Gnostic Gospels, a group of texts believed to have been written by early Christians as far back as the second century A.D., but not discovered until 1945, near the Egyptian town of Nag Hammadi.
One of these texts, known as the Gospel of Philip, referred to Mary Magdalene as Jesus’s companion and claimed that Jesus loved her more than the other disciples. Most controversially, the text stated that Jesus used to kiss Mary “often on her ____.” Damage to the text left the last word unreadable, though some scholars have filled in the missing word as “mouth.”
The point being, if you feel led, research for your own satisfaction as God leads you. Remember, Judaism and Christianity are grounded in a Patriarchy. That has everything to do with everything about the formation of the canon and the "orthodoxy". It is why we're led to believe women are less than, when we're not at all.
God empowers. Man devours.
Trust God. He'll show you the way if you feel encouraged to seek beyond what is
approved.
Some opponents of Mary Magdalene may insist the text referred to is 2nd century and therefore able to be dismissed as non-Canonical and uninspired.
We have to remember, the oldest text used in our New Testament today was :
The earliest extant fragment of the New Testament is the Rylands Library Papyrus P52, a piece of the Gospel of John dated to the first half of the 2nd century.