[97] These texts were written long after the death of the historical Mary Magdalene. Mary Magdalene was the first eyewitness of the Risen Christ, and for this reason she was also the first to bear witness to him before the Apostles. "[156] Ambrose (c. 340 397), by contrast, not only rejected the conflation of Mary Magdalene, Mary of Bethany, and the anointing sinner,[157] but even proposed that the authentic Mary Magdalene herself was, in fact, two separate people:[157][158] one woman named Mary Magdalene who discovered the empty tomb and a different Mary Magdalene who saw the risen Christ. Jesus said: Behold, I shall lead her, that I may make her male, in order that she also may become a living spirit like you males. [103] The document takes the form of a long dialogue in which Jesus answers his followers' questions. [176] Under the influence of stories about other female saints, such as Mary of Egypt and Pelagia,[176] painters in Italy during the ninth and tenth centuries gradually began to develop the image of Mary Magdalene living alone in the desert as a penitent ascetic. [55] Maurice Casey concurs that the presence of Mary Magdalene and the other women at the crucifixion of Jesus may be recorded as an historical fact. "[221][222] Elsewhere it said of the Roman liturgy of July 22 that "it will make mention neither of Mary of Bethany nor of the sinful woman of Luke 7:3650, but only of Mary Magdalene, the first person to whom Christ appeared after his resurrection". [195] They were sometimes thought to be the couple at the Wedding at Cana, though the Gospel accounts say nothing of the ceremony being abandoned. In the TV series Once Upon a Time, Lilith is the daughter of Maleficent. The Bible includes Mary Magdalene in a list of women who had evil spirits healed by Jesus. [249], Noli me tangere (c. 1440-1442), fresco by Fra Angelico, Mary Magdalene Reading (c. 15001510) by Piero di Cosimo, Mary Magdalene (early 1500s) by Ambrosius Benson, Magdalena Penitente (early 1500s) by Giampietrino, Mary Magdalene (1615) by Juan Bautista Mano, Penitent Magdalene (c. 15761578) by El Greco, Mary Magdalene (16151616 or 16201625) by Artemisia Gentileschi, St Mary Magdalene in Ecstasy (c. 16191620) by Peter Paul Rubens, Magdalene with the Smoking Flame (c. 1640) by Georges de La Tour, Christ Appearing to Mary Magdalene (between 1640 and 1650) by Pietro da Cortona, The Magdalene (before 1792) by George Romney, Mary Magdalene (18581860) by Frederick Sandys, Sarah Bernhardt as Maria Magdalena (1887) by Alfred Stevens, Christ and Mary Magdalene (1890) by Albert Edelfelt in a Finnish locale, The Eastern Orthodox Church has never identified Mary Magdalene with Mary of Bethany or the "sinful woman" who anoints Jesus in Luke 7:3650[254] and has always taught that Mary was a virtuous woman her entire life, even before her conversion. Movies. [322] Ehrman says that, if Jesus had been married to Mary Magdalene, the authors of the gospels would definitely have mentioned it, since they mention all his other family members, including his mother Mary, his father Joseph, his four brothers, and his at least two sisters. [197] In 1449, King Ren d'Anjou gave to Angers Cathedral the amphora from Cana in which Jesus changed water to wine, acquiring it from the nuns of Marseilles, who told him that Mary Magdalene had brought it with her from Judea, relating to the legend where she was the jilted bride at the wedding after which John the Evangelist received his calling from Jesus. [207] Luther, whose views on sexuality were much more liberal than those of his fellow reformers,[208] reportedly once joked to a group of friends that "even pious Christ himself" had committed adultery three times: once with Mary Magdalene, once with the Samaritan woman at the well, and once with the adulteress he had let off so easily. The Bible never suggests Mary Magdalene was a. Workers deserve their food. [112] The Gospel of Philip also contains another passage relating to Jesus' relationship with Mary Magdalene. "[125] Unlike in the Gospel of Thomas, where women can only be saved by becoming men, in the Gospel of Mary, they can be saved just as they are. These teachings are strange ideas. [82][75] According to John 20:1118, Mary, now alone in the garden outside the tomb, saw two angels sitting where Jesus' body had been. [176] Honorius mentions that, out of love for Jesus, Mary repented and withdrew into a life of quiet isolation. It's certainly not The Exorcist, but demonic stuff can really freak some people out. [28] In either case, Mary must have suffered from severe emotional or psychological trauma for an exorcism of this kind to have been perceived as necessary. [179] Starting in around 1050, the monks of the Abbey of la Madaleine, Vzelay in Burgundy said they discovered Mary Magdalene's actual skeleton. She turned the mass of her crimes to virtues, in order to serve God entirely in penance. [203], In the middle of the fourteenth century, a Dominican friar wrote a biography of Mary Magdalene in which he described her brutally mutilating herself after giving up prostitution,[197] clawing at her legs until they bled, tearing out clumps of her hair, and beating her face with her fists and her breasts with stones. "[136][134][137] This story was supposedly the basis for the Borborite Eucharist ritual in which they allegedly engaged in orgies and drank semen and menstrual blood as the "body and blood of Christ" respectively. Episode 8 Guide: The Woman at the Well, Eden, & Zohara, Christmas with The Chosen: The Messengers, The Chosen Season 2 Controversy (Jesus, the Bible, & the Process of Inspiration), Should Nicodemus Kneel? Should we all listen to her? "Mary appears to have been a disciple . [236], The early notion of Mary Magdalene as a sinner and adulteress was reflected in Western medieval Christian art, where she was the most commonly depicted female figure after the Virgin Mary. The trauma of her rape is hinted at again in Season 2, Episode 5, and is the trigger that causes Mary to backslide. [180][181] At first, the existence of the skeleton was merely asserted,[181] but, in 1265, the monks made a spectacular, public show of "discovering" it[181] and, in 1267, the bones were brought before the king of France himself, who venerated them. [11] The whole family returns to Marseille, where they meet Mary again in person. [294], Many of the alleged relics of the saint are held in Catholic churches in France, especially at Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume, where her skull (see above) and the noli me tangere are on display; the latter being a piece of forehead flesh and skin said to be from the spot touched by Jesus at the post-resurrection encounter in the garden. His sister,[e] his mother and his companion were each a Mary. [16] Although the Gospel of Mark, reputed by scholars to be the earliest surviving gospel, does not mention Mary Magdalene until Jesus' crucifixion,[22] the Gospel of Luke 8:23[23] provides a brief summary of her role during his ministry:[24]. As the swooning Virgin Mary became more common, generally occupying the attention of John, the unrestrained gestures of Magdalene increasingly represented the main display of the grief of the spectators. She is also believed to have been the first witness to the resurrection of Jesus. Tell us the words of the Savior which you remember which you know, but we do not, nor have we heard them". Richard J. Hooper does not make the Jusino thesis his own, but says: "Perhaps we should not altogether reject the possibility that some Johannine Christians considered Mary Magdalene to be 'the disciple whom Jesus loved'. [186][189][190][191][192] At every canonical hour, the angels come and lift her up to hear their songs in Heaven. [62] Casey argues that Jesus was given a proper burial by Joseph of Arimathea,[63] noting that, on some very rare occasions, Roman governors did release the bodies of executed prisoners for burial. [68][69][78] In Luke's account, Jesus never appears to the women,[68][69][79] but instead makes his first appearance to Cleopas and an unnamed "disciple" on the road to Emmaus. Mary Magdalene, Lilith, & the Redeemer (Exploring The Chosen with Youth), Elizabeth Tabish as Lilith/Mary Magdalene in The Chosen, Over the past year, we've been exploring how The Chosen adapts biblical characters like, You may want to warn students beforehand that this episode contains some demonic activity. [67][68][69] According to Luke 24:112 a group of unnamed women went to the tomb and found the stone already rolled away, as in Mark. Of all the apocryphal material, only some of the sayings in the Gospel of Thomas are worth consideration. "Mary Magdalene Saint or Sinner? In the Gnostic texts, or Gnostic gospels, Mary's closeness to Jesus results in tension with another disciple, Peter, due to her sex and Peter's envy of the special teachings given to her. For other uses, see, The Old and New Testament and Gnostic contexts and the text are discussed by. One folk tradition concerning Mary Magdalene says that following the death and resurrection of Jesus, she used her position to gain an invitation to a banquet given by the Roman emperor Tiberius in Rome. LOTR, Harry Potter), In [adaptation], can you think of some characters or stories that were added by the film? In the modern vernacular, a "red light district" is a term that refers to an area of the city known for prostitution, strip clubs, and other immoral establishments. We turned it into a bit of a game, where one of my youth would constantly ask "Is that Jesus?" [48][49][50][51] James Dunn states of baptism and crucifixion that these "two facts in the life of Jesus command almost universal assent". "The Saintly Sinner: The Two-Thousand-Year Obsession with Mary Magdalene". The Gospel of Thomas, usually dated to the late first or early second century, was among the ancient texts discovered in the Nag Hammadi library in 1945. In The Chosen, when we first meet Mary Magdalene, most of the characters refer to her as Lili. These texts portray her as an apostle, as Jesus' closest and most beloved disciple and the only one who truly understood his teachings. Her association with prostitution was a result of the proximity between the first mention of her in Luke (. Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Protestant churches generally do not view these writings as part of the Bible. In 2016, Pope Francis raised the level of liturgical memory on July 22 from memorial to feast, and for her to be referred to as the "Apostle of the apostles". They were fully engaged by the show on the level of entertainment but also seemed solidify their understanding of important gospel events and figures, as well as the cultural context. With Shahar Isaac, Jonathan Roumie, Elizabeth Tabish, Paras Patel. There are a few Bible passages that I thought were helpful to discuss the first episode of The Chosen. [211] A massive number of Baroque paintings and sculptures depict the penitent Magdalene,[211][214] often showing her naked or partially naked, with a strong emphasis on her erotic beauty. [g], In 1517, on the brink of the Protestant Reformation, the leading French Renaissance humanist Jacques Lefvre d'taples published his book De Maria Magdalena et triduo Christi disceptatio (Disputation on Mary Magdalene and the Three Days of Christ), in which he argued against the conflation of Mary Magdalene, Mary of Bethany, and the unnamed sinner in Luke. [170][171] Gregory states that Mary Magdalene was buried in the city of Ephesus. [153][154] Part of the reason for the identification of Mary Magdalene as a sinner may derive from the reputation of her birthplace, Magdala,[155] which, by the late first century, was infamous for its inhabitants' alleged vice and licentiousness. [247], According to Robert Kiely, "No figure in the Christian Pantheon except Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and John the Baptist has inspired, provoked, or confounded the imagination of painters more than the Magdalene". [27][28][29] That seven demons had possessed Mary is repeated in Mark 16:9,[30][31] part of the "longer ending" of that gospel this is not found in the earliest manuscripts and is actually a second-century addition to the original text, possibly based on the Gospel of Luke. [185][186] The governor and his wife sail for Rome to meet the apostle Peter in person,[185] but their ship is struck by a storm, which causes the wife to go into labor. [183], The most famous account of Mary Magdalene's legendary life comes from The Golden Legend, a collection of medieval saints stories compiled in around the year 1260 by the Italian writer and Dominican friar Jacobus de Voragine (c. 1230 1298). (which is Aramaic for "teacher"). [248] Apart from the Crucifixion, Mary was often shown in scenes of the Passion of Jesus, when mentioned in the Gospels, such as the Crucifixion, Christ Carrying the Cross and Noli me Tangere, but usually omitted in other scenes showing the Twelve Apostles, such as the Last Supper. This article is about the biblical figure. And she began to speak to them these words: "I", she said, "I saw the Lord in a vision and I said to Him, Lord I saw you today in a vision". Thank you! [209] Because the cult of Mary Magdalene was inextricably associated with the Catholic teaching of the intercession of saints,[210] it came under particularly harsh criticism by Protestant leaders. [255] For centuries, it has been the custom of many Eastern Orthodox Christians to share dyed and painted eggs, particularly on Easter Sunday. When he encounters her again in Season 1 Episode 2, he is surprised to discover that she has been completely healed and is free of the evil spirits. Initially Mary doesn't recognize Jesus. [75] Then the risen Jesus approached her. [311] There would have even been precedent for it, since the earlier Italian Renaissance painter Fra Angelico had included her in his painting of the Last Supper. Mary Magdalen , so called either from Magdala near Tiberias on the west shore of Galilee, or, possibly from a Talmudic expression MNRLA SY`RA NSYYA, i.e." curling women's hair", which the Talmud explains as of an adulteress. [102] At another point, he tells her, "Well done, Mary. The rest of the disciples [were offended by it and expressed disapproval]. The last passage is an optional bonus for youth that like digging deeper. Following this, Jesus continues his explanation with a parable about the owner of a house and a thief, ending with the common rhetoric, "Whoever has ears to hear let him hear". She may be shown either as very extravagantly and fashionably dressed, unlike other female figures wearing contemporary styles of clothes, or alternatively as completely naked but covered by very long blonde or reddish-blonde hair. Why was Mary Magdalene called Lilith in The Chosen? 15131516). For more details, check out my post focused specifically on Lilith, Demons, and Evil Spirits. She is demon possessed and it is implied that she has adopted the name of the demon that possesses her. The overwhelming consensus of scholars is that the fragment is a modern forgery,[316][317][318] and in 2016, King herself said that the alleged Gospel was a forgery. [110] Ehrman explains that, in the context of the Gospel of Philip, the kiss of peace is used as a symbol for the passage of truth from one person to another[116] and that it is not in any way an act of "divine foreplay". Mary Magdalene was Jesus's wife. One of Jesus' most celebrated disciples, most of what is known about Mary Magdalene comes primarily from the New Testament Gospels. It is widely accepted among secular historians that, like Jesus, Mary Magdalene was a real historical figure. Making it the largest crowd-funded media venture in entertainment history. Shoemaker, Stephen J. The Gospel of Luke chapter 8 lists Mary Magdalene as one of the women who traveled with Jesus and helped support his ministry "out of their resources", indicating that she was probably wealthy. In The Chosen, Nicodemus meets Mary Magdalene in Season 1, Episode 1. First Bible mention. [31] The dialogue consists of a conversation between Jesus, Mary and two apostles - Thomas the Apostle and Matthew the Apostle. Did anyone notice what it was that made her recognize him? [215] Estates of nobles and royalty in southern Germany were equipped with so-called "Magdalene cells", small, modest hermitages that functioned as both chapels and dwellings, where the nobility could retreat to find religious solace. Lilith's creation is recounted in The Tales of Ben Sira, an apocryphal work from the tenth century C.E. "[136][134][137] Upon hearing this, Mary instantly fainted, to which Jesus responded by helping her up and telling her, "O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? Simon Peter said to them: Let Mary go forth from among us, for women are not worthy of the life. She displayed her hair to set off her face, but now her hair dries her tears. It had not yet been added at the time of the Tridentine Calendar of 1569 and is no longer found in the present General Roman Calendar but, once added, it remained until the General Roman Calendar of 1960. Jesus then sent her to tell the other apostles the good news of his resurrection. [d] In a manner very similar to John 19:2526, the Gospel of Philip presents Mary Magdalene among Jesus' female entourage, adding that she was his koinnos,[110] a Greek word variously translated in contemporary versions as partner, associate, comrade, companion:[111][110]. [6] He contends that the story of the empty tomb was invented by either the author of the Gospel of Mark or by one of his sources, based on the historically genuine fact that the women really had been present at Jesus' crucifixion and burial. [47] Mark 15:40 lists the names of these women as Mary Magdalene; Mary, mother of James; and Salome. (he is God). One is inaccurately . Mary answered and said, "What is hidden from you I will proclaim to you". [300] The gospel, at least in its current form, clearly and consistently identifies the disciple as having masculine gender, only ever referring to him using words inflected in the masculine. Jane Schaberg adds Geoffrey of Vendme (c. In the Bible, there is no indication that Nicodemus met Mary Magdalene or that he tried to heal her or exorcise her evil spirits. [275], The 1549 Book of Common Prayer had on July 22 a feast of Saint Mary Magdalene, with the same Scripture readings as in the Tridentine Mass and with a newly composed collect: "Merciful father geue us grace, that we neuer presume to synne through the example of anye creature, but if it shall chaunce vs at any tyme to offende thy dyuine maiestie: that then we maye truly repent, and lament the same, after the example of Mary Magdalene, and by lyuelye faythe obtayne remission of all oure sinnes: throughe the onely merites of thy sonne oure sauiour Christ." The latter depictions represent the Penitent Magdalene, according to the medieval legend that she had spent a period of repentance as a desert hermit after leaving her life as a follower of Jesus. "Rethinking the Gnostic Mary: Mary of Nazareth and Mary of Magdala in Early Christian Tradition". She whom Luke calls the sinful woman, whom John calls Mary, we believe to be the Mary from whom seven devils were ejected according to Mark. She is mentioned by name twelve times in the canonical gospels, more than most of the apostles and more than any other woman in the gospels, other . [266] However the work is actually no earlier than the 12th century. During the Counter-Reformation, the Catholic Church emphasized Mary Magdalene as a symbol of penance. [260][261][262], According to Darrell Bock, the title of apostola apostolorum first appears in the 10th century,[152] but Katherine Ludwig Jansen says she found no reference to it earlier than the 12th, by which time it was already commonplace. [86] The "longer ending", which is found in most surviving manuscripts, is an "amalgam of traditions" containing episodes derived from the other gospels. [110] The text is badly fragmented, and speculated but unreliable additions are shown in brackets: And the companion of the [saviour was] Mary Magdalene. [47] John 19:25 lists Mary, mother of Jesus, her sister, Mary, wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene as witnesses to the crucifixion. Acocella, Joan. Pope Gregory's Easter sermon resulted in a widespread belief that Mary Magdalene was a repentant prostitute or promiscuous woman. In the Bible, there is no indication that Mary Magdalene was raped. [179][239] Her story became conflated in the West with that of Mary of Egypt, a fourth-century prostitute turned hermit, whose clothes wore out and fell off in the desert. It is not about the sister of Saint Martha, nor about the sinful woman whose sins the Lord forgave. Over time, the Western artistic tradition repeatedly depicted Mary as a prostitute and the mistaken association got stuck in the cultural consciousness. Even if covered, she often wears only a drape pulled around her, or an undergarment. As COVID drags on and winter sets in, if you're looking for a good activity to do online with your youth group, you might want to consider doing a series of The Chosen Viewing Parties like this. [226][227][228] She is portrayed as one in Nikos Kazantzakis's 1955 novel The Last Temptation of Christ and Martin Scorsese's 1988 film adaptation of it,[227] in which Jesus, as he is dying on the cross, has a vision from Satan of what it would be like if he married Mary Magdalene and raised a family with her instead of dying for humanity's sins. He attempts to heal her and exorcise the evil spirit in her, but he is unsuccessful and concludes that she is beyond hope. When she met him, she held a plain egg in her hand and exclaimed, "Christ is risen!" [75][81][83] She did not see anyone, but immediately ran to tell Peter and the "beloved disciple",[75][83] who came with her to the tomb and confirmed that it was empty,[75][82] but returned home without seeing the risen Jesus. Did he prefer her to us? When the owners of the field come, they will say, 'Let us have back our field.' "John Rivera, "Restoring Mary Magdalene" in "Worldwide Religious News", "Pseudo-Rabanus Maurus' Life of Mary Magdalene and her sister Martha Magdalen College Oxford", "Mulieris Dignitatem, John Paul II, 15 August 1988 Apostolic Letter", "St. Mary Magdalene, Disciple of the Lord - Information on the Saint of the Day", "The liturgical memory of Mary Magdalene becomes a feast, like that of the other apostles, 10.06.2016", "J. Frank Henderson, "The Disappearance of the Feast of Mary Magdalene from the Anglican Liturgy" (2004), pp. [75][82] His next words may be translated as "Don't touch me, for I have not yet ascended to my Father" or "Stop clinging to me, [etc.]" The same passage also states that seven demons had been driven out of her, a statement which is repeated in Mark 16. [288] `Abdu'l-Bah also wrote that "her reality is ever shining from the horizon of Christ", "her face is shining and beaming forth on the horizon of the universe forevermore" and that "her candle is, in the assemblage of the world, lighted till eternity". "[150] The aspect of the repentant sinner became almost equally significant as the disciple in her persona as depicted in Western art and religious literature, fitting well with the great importance of penitence in medieval theology. [276], Modern Protestants honor her as a disciple and friend of Jesus. [107] In saying 21, Mary herself asks Jesus the perfectly innocuous question, "Whom are your disciples like? 1065/701132).[178]. Episode 1 depicts how she got these demons cast out of her by Jesus. (Jesus), What about Jesus' identity does this hint at? Has my content helped you learn more about the Bible and explore it with your ministry or family? [233], The 2018 film Mary Magdalene, starring Rooney Mara as the eponymous character, sought to reverse the centuries-old portrayal of Mary Magdalene as a repentant prostitute, while also combating the conspiracy statements of her being Jesus' wife or sexual partner. [268] In his apostolic letter Mulieris Dignitatem ("On the dignity and vocation of women", parts 6769) dated August 15, 1988, Pope John Paul II dealt with the Easter events in relation to the women being present at the tomb after the Resurrection, in a section entitled 'First Witnesses of the Resurrection': The women are the first at the tomb.