The Gospel According to Mary Magdalene..Gnostic Scriptures and Fragments.

[Occult Forum Archive]

Original post: Paulo

Hello everyone,
I just wanna share something about fascination of Mary Magdala.
Here is a nice link

THE GNOSTIC SOCIETY LIBRARY
Gnostic Scriptures and Fragments
The Gospel According to Mary Magdalene
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An excellent new print edition of the Gospel of Mary of Magdala. This is the best authorative edition available, and includes a superb commentary by Karen King. Available in the Bookstore.
Buy the Book
Archive Notes:
Papyrus Berolinensis 8502 was acquired by a German scholar, Dr. Carl Reinhardt, in Cairo in 1896 (the codex is variably referenced in scholarly writings as the "Berlin Gnostic Codex", the "Akhmim Codex", PB 8502, and BG 8502). It contains Coptic editions of three very important Gnostic texts: the Apocryphon of John, the Sophia of Jesus Christ, and the Gospel of Mary. Despite the importance of the find, several misfortunes (including two world wars) delayed its publication until 1955. By then the Nag Hammadi collection had also been recovered, and two of the texts in the PB 8502 codex -- the Apocryphon of John, and the Sophia of Jesus Christ -- were also found included there. The PB 8502 versions of these two texts were used to augment translations of the Apocryphon of John and the Sophia of Jesus Christ as they now appear in the Nag Hammadi Library.
Importantly, the codex preserves the most complete surviving copy of the Gospel of Mary (as the text is named in the manuscript, though it is clear this named Mary is the person we call Mary of Magdala). Two other small fragments of the Gospel of Mary from separate Greek editions were later also unearthed in archaelogical excavations at Oxyrhynchus in Northern Egypt. (Fragments of the Gospel of Thomas were also found at this ancient library site, see the Gospel of Thomas page for more information about Oxyrhyncus.) Unfortunately, the extant manuscript of the Gospel of Mary is missing pages 1 to 6 and pages 11 to 14 -- pages that included sections of the text up to chapter 4, and portions of chapter 5 to 8.
The complete extant text of the Gospel of Mary is presented below. For those interested in a print edition of the text, we highly recommend Karen King's new translation and commentary (listed to the side). An introductory lecture on the The Gospel of Mary Magdalen is also available in our The Gnosis Archive Web Lectures collection.
The Gospel According to Mary Magdalene
Chapter 4
(Pages 1 to 6 of the manuscript, containing chapters 1 - 3, are lost. The extant text starts on page 7...)
. . . Will matter then be destroyed or not?
22) The Savior said, All nature, all formations, all creatures exist in and with one another, and they will be resolved again into their own roots.
23) For the nature of matter is resolved into the roots of its own nature alone.
24) He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
25) Peter said to him, Since you have explained everything to us, tell us this also: What is the sin of the world?
26) The Savior said There is no sin, but it is you who make sin when you do the things that are like the nature of adultery, which is called sin.
27) That is why the Good came into your midst, to the essence of every nature in order to restore it to its root.
28) Then He continued and said, That is why you become sick and die, for you are deprived of the one who can heal you.
29) He who has a mind to understand, let him understand.
30) Matter gave birth to a passion that has no equal, which proceeded from something contrary to nature. Then there arises a disturbance in its whole body.
31) That is why I said to you, Be of good courage, and if you are discouraged be encouraged in the presence of the different forms of nature.
32) He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
33) When the Blessed One had said this, He greeted them all,saying, Peace be with you. Receive my peace unto yourselves.
34) Beware that no one lead you astray saying Lo here or lo there! For the Son of Man is within you.
35) Follow after Him!
36) Those who seek Him will find Him.
37) Go then and preach the gospel of the Kingdom.
38) Do not lay down any rules beyond what I appointed you, and do not give a law like the lawgiver lest you be constrained by it.
39) When He said this He departed.
Chapter 5
1) But they were grieved. They wept greatly, saying, How shall we go to the Gentiles and preach the gospel of the Kingdom of the Son of Man? If they did not spare Him, how will they spare us?
2) Then Mary stood up, greeted them all, and said to her brethren, Do not weep and do not grieve nor be irresolute, for His grace will be entirely with you and will protect you.
3) But rather, let us praise His greatness, for He has prepared us and made us into Men.
4) When Mary said this, she turned their hearts to the Good, and they began to discuss the words of the Savior.
5) Peter said to Mary, Sister we know that the Savior loved you more than the rest of woman.
6) Tell us the words of the Savior which you remember which you know, but we do not, nor have we heard them.
7) Mary answered and said, What is hidden from you I will proclaim to you.
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. He answered and said to me,
9) Blessed are you that you did not waver at the sight of Me. For where the mind is there is the treasure.
10) I said to Him, Lord, how does he who sees the vision see it, through the soul or through the spirit?
11) The Savior answered and said, He does not see through the soul nor through the spirit, but the mind that is between the two that is what sees the vision and it is [...]
(pages 11 - 14 are missing from the manuscript)
Chapter 8:
. . . it.
10) And desire said, I did not see you descending, but now I see you ascending. Why do you lie since you belong to me?
11) The soul answered and said, I saw you. You did not see me nor recognize me. I served you as a garment and you did not know me.
12) When it said this, it (the soul) went away rejoicing greatly.
13) Again it came to the third power, which is called ignorance.
14) The power questioned the soul, saying, Where are you going? In wickedness are you bound. But you are bound; do not judge!
15) And the soul said, Why do you judge me, although I have not judged?
16) I was bound, though I have not bound.
17) I was not recognized. But I have recognized that the All is being dissolved, both the earthly things and the heavenly.
18) When the soul had overcome the third power, it went upwards and saw the fourth power, which took seven forms.
19) The first form is darkness, the second desire, the third ignorance, the fourth is the excitement of death, the fifth is the kingdom of the flesh, the sixth is the foolish wisdom of flesh, the seventh is the wrathful wisdom. These are the seven powers of wrath.
20) They asked the soul, Whence do you come slayer of men, or where are you going, conqueror of space?
21) The soul answered and said, What binds me has been slain, and what turns me about has been overcome,
22) and my desire has been ended, and ignorance has died.
23) In a aeon I was released from a world, and in a Type from a type, and from the fetter of oblivion which is transient.
24) From this time on will I attain to the rest of the time, of the season, of the aeon, in silence.
Chapter 9
1) When Mary had said this, she fell silent, since it was to this point that the Savior had spoken with her.
2) But Andrew answered and said to the brethren, Say what you wish to say about what she has said. I at least do not believe that the Savior said this. For certainly these teachings are strange ideas.
3) Peter answered and spoke concerning these same things.
4) He questioned them about the Savior: Did He really speak privately with a woman and not openly to us? Are we to turn about and all listen to her? Did He prefer her to us?
5) Then Mary wept and said to Peter, My brother Peter, what do you think? Do you think that I have thought this up myself in my heart, or that I am lying about the Savior?
6) Levi answered and said to Peter, Peter you have always been hot tempered.
7) Now I see you contending against the woman like the adversaries.
But if the Savior made her worthy, who are you indeed to reject her? Surely the Savior knows her very well.
9) That is why He loved her more than us. Rather let us be ashamed and put on the perfect Man, and separate as He commanded us and preach the gospel, not laying down any other rule or other law beyond what the Savior said.
10) And when they heard this they began to go forth to proclaim and to preach.

The Gospel According to Mary

[Occult Forum Archive]

Original post: Paulo

The Gnostic Church of St. Mary Magdalene is a place we approach with reverence, a place that has called our attention and made itself apparent between the lines of our common Christian tradition. In this place we seek contact with and Gnosis of the Beloved Apostle, nurturer of and companion to our Master Jesus.

Our Name: We evoke the Gnosis in honor of each soul present in our boundless Creation, and in honor of the uniqueness which Creator beqeaths to every life as it is lived.

We exist as a Church to refresh the ideal of one-world spiritual community, across all boundaries implied or imposed by the limited cultures of time and space. We give ourselves to our role model and Patroness Mary Magdalen. She is our Saint and Mother, both in her person and in her service as Apostle of Apostles. Her life holds for us a link to the eternal Wisdom of Genesis, manifested on Earth to support our Master, in flesh as in spirit. We understand the Sacred Marrage by witnessing her relationship with Master Jesus, and because of this we elevate her as the Holy Mother of our Church.

Our Mission: The Gnostic Church of St. Mary Magdalen exists for people of every background and faith whose soul longings are directed towards finding a balance between the Divine Feminine and Masculine in Christianity.

As Gnostics, we are sensitive about the negative consequence which can follow from enforcing a limiting creed or dogma upon what is the arguably the most intimate and impactful relationship in a soul's development, that of the individual with the Divine Beloved.

Therefore we trust those souls who find resonance here to bring their most unitive vision, their willing surrender, and their compassionate hearts to Her directly, in the inner sanctum of their own prayers.

If we can be of service in that process, then we are fulfilled.

http://magdalene.wise1.com/church.html

[Occult Forum Archive]

Original post: Paulo

Mary Magdalene, which probably means "Mary of Magdala," a town on the western shore of the Lake of Tiberias, is described in the New Testament as a follower of Jesus. Nothing is known about her outside of Scripture, both in the canon and in the apocrypha. Her feast day is July 22.

Mary Magdalene in the canon
For part of her story, Catholics and Protestants agree: She is mentioned in Luke 8:3 as one of the women who "ministered to Christ of their substance." Their motive was that of gratitude for deliverances he had wrought for them: Luke tells that out of Mary were cast seven demons, an exorcism. Gratitude to her great Deliverer prompted her to become his follower. These women accompanied him also on his last journey to Jerusalem ( Matt. 27:55; Mark 15:41; Luke 23:55). They stood near the cross. There Mary remained until all was over, and the body was taken down and laid in a tomb prepared for Joseph of Arimathea. Again, in the earliest dawn of the first day of the week she, with Salome and Mary the mother of James, ( Matt. 28:1; Mark 16:2), came to the sepulchre, bringing with them sweet spices, that they might anoint the body of Jesus. They found the sepulchre empty but saw the "vision of angels" ( Matt. 28:5). Mary Magdalene hastened to tell Peter and John, ( John 20:1, 2), and again immediately returned to the sepulchre. There she lingered thoughtfully, weeping at the door of the tomb. The risen Lord appeared to her, but at first she knew him not. His utterance of her name "Mary" recalled her to consciousness, and she uttered the joyful, reverent cry, "Rabboni." She would fain have clung to him, but he forbad her, saying, "Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father."
This is the last entry in the canonic New Testament regarding Mary of Magdala, who now returned to Jerusalem.
[edit]
The Gospel of Mary
The fragmentary Gospel of Mary Magdalene survives in two 3rd century Greek fragments and a longer 5th century translation into Coptic, in which the testimony of a woman first needed to be defended. All of these manuscripts were first discovered and published between 1938 and 1983, but there are Patristic references to the (despised and dismissed) Gospel of Mary as early as the 3rd century. In the fragmentary text, the disciples ask questions of the risen Savior (a designation that dates the original no earlier than the 2nd century) and are answered.
Then they grieve, saying, "How shall we go to the Gentiles and preach the Gospel of the Kingdom of the Son of Man? If even he was not spared, how shall we be spared?" And Mary Magdalene bids them take heart: " Let us rather praise his greatness, for he prepared us and made us into men." She then delivers a vision of the Savior she has had, and reports her discourse with him, which shows Gnostic influences.
Her vision does not meet with universal approval:
"But Andrew answered and said to the brethren, 'Say what you think concerning what she said. For I do not believe that the Savior said this. For certainly these teachings are of other ideas."
"Peter also opposed her in regard to these matters and asked them about the Savior. "Did he then speak secretly with a woman, in preference to us, and not openly? Are we to turn back and all listen to her? Did he prefer her to us?"
Karen King has observed, "The confrontation of Mary with Peter, a scenario also found in The Gospel of Thomas, Pistis Sophia, and The Gospel of the Egyptians, reflects some of the tensions in second-century Christianity. Peter and Andrew represent orthodox positions that deny the validity of esoteric revelation and reject the authority of women to teach." (introduction, The Nag Hammadi Library)
Early Christian Writings: Gospel of Mary
Gospel of Mary : (English), syncretic text, incorporating Coptic and earlier Greek versions; further web links

Expansion of the Mary Magdalene tradition
Early tradition identified as Mary Magdalene the unidentified woman who was a sinner in Luke 7:36-50:
" 37 And, behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster box of ointment,
38 And stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment."
The idea that Mary was "the woman who was a sinner," or that she was unchaste, is rejected by most Protestants. Catholics, on the other hand, consider this one person to be the sinner of Luke 7:36-50 and also Mary of Bethany, the sister of Martha and the resurrected Lazarus (Luke 10:38-42 and John 110).
For some Christians, Mary was believed to have been the same woman that Jesus had rescued from being stoned to death. However most modern scholars believe that the prostitute Jesus rescued and Mary were two separate persons. However the Mel Gibson movie The Passion of the Christ portrayed the prostitute and Mary as the same person.
Mary Magdalene as a Roman Catholic saint whose relics were to be venerated at Saint Maximin la Sainte Baume, Provence became the occasion for such throngs of pilgrims that the great Basilica was erected from the mid 13th century, one of the finest Gothic (see illustration) churches in the south of France. Though her bones were scattered at the French Revolution, her head remains in her shrine in a cave at La Sainte-Baume near Marseille, France, although another medieval tradition holds that she died in Ephesus and was buried in Constantinople.
The Magdalene became a symbol of repentance for the vanities of the world, and Mary Magdalene was the patron of Magdalene College, Cambridge (pronounced "maudlin," as in weepy penitents). Unfortunately her name was also used for the infamous Magdalen Asylums in Ireland where supposedly fallen women were treated as slaves.

Easter Egg tradition
One fairly modern, quite extra-biblical tradition concerning Mary Magdalene says that she was a woman of some wealth and social status. Following Jesus Christ's death and resurrection, she used her position to gain an invitation to a banquet given by Emperor Tiberius Caesar. When she met him, she held a plain egg in her hand and exclaimed "Christ is risen!" Caesar laughed, and said that Christ rising from the dead was as likely as the egg in her hand turning red while she held it. Before he finished speaking, the egg in her hand turned a bright red, and she continued proclaiming the Gospel to the entire imperial house.
Today, many Eastern Orthodox Christians end the Easter service by sharing bright red eggs and proclaiming to each other, "Christ is risen!" The eggs represent new life, and Christ bursting forth from the tomb. This began one tradition of coloring Easter eggs.

Wife of Jesus?
Some modern writers, notably the authors of the 1982 Holy Blood, Holy Grail hold that Mary Magdalene was in fact the wife of Jesus, a fact which was omitted by Pauline Christian revisionists and editors of the Gospels. These writers cite extra-biblical and Gnostic writings to support their argument. While sources like the Gospel of Philip depict Mary Magadlene as being closer to Jesus than any other disciple, there is no ancient document which claims she was his wife.
There is an argument for support of this speculation. Bachelorhood was very rare for Jewish males of Jesus's time, being generally regarded as a transgression of the first mitzvah (divine commandment): "Be fruitful and multiply". It would have been unthinkable for an adult but unmarried Jew to travel about teaching as a rabbi, as Jesus certainly did.
A counter-argument to this is that the Judaism of Jesus time was very diverse and the role of the rabbi was not yet well defined. Celibate teachers were well known in the communities of the Essenes and Paul of Tarsus was an example of an unmarried itinerant teacher among the Christians, at a time when most Christians were still practicing Jews. It was really not until after the Roman destruction of the Second Temple in 70 A.D. that Rabbinic Judaism became dominant and the role of the rabbi made uniform in Jewish communities.
Mary Magdalene appears with more frequency than other women in the Gospels and is shown as being a close follower of Jesus. In the scene of the wedding at Cana, the names of the nuptial couple are not mentioned, but Jesus acts as a groom at such a wedding would be expected to act, for example by giving instructions to the servants (in fact, those servants had to be told by Mary his mother to obey his instructions). Finally, Mary's presence at the Crucifixion and Jesus's tomb, while hardly conclusive, is at least consonant with a role as grieving wife and widow, although if that were the case Jesus might have been expected to make provision for her care as well as for his mother Mary. Given the lack of contemporary documentation, this scenario cannot be proven, and although some consider the idea desirable to believe, most scholars do not take it seriously.
Other Christians traditionally believe that Jesus is the second Adam, and like the first, his bride was taken from his side when he had fallen asleep (died on the cross). The blood and water which came from his side when he was pierced, according to the gospels, represents in traditional Christian teaching the bringing forth of the Church symbolized in the water of baptism and the wine of the new covenant in his blood. In other words, Jesus has a wife which is one body with him, only in the Church; and it is not considered possible or tolerable to believe that he was otherwise married.
The Urantia Book maintains that Jesus was not married to Mary or any other woman. According to its account, he refused an offer of marriage at age eighteen because he was dedicated to his "Father's business" ("If I am a son of destiny, I must not assume obligations of lifelong duration until such a time as my destiny shall be made manifest"), but gained parental experience by becoming the sole supporter and father-figure to his siblings after Joseph died.

Author of the Fourth Gospel, the Gospel of John?
Some scholars have suggested that Mary Magdalene was a leader of the early Church and maybe even the unidentified "Beloved Disciple" who was the author of the Gospel of John. Ramon K. Jusino offers a logically presented explanation of this highly unorthodox view, based on the textual researches of Raymond E. Brown, a mainstream Catholic biblical scholar, in "Mary Magdalene, author of the Fourth Gospel?' , 1998, available on-line.

External links
Magdalene.org
Church of Mary Madgalene in Jerusalem, on Mount of Olives

[Occult Forum Archive]

Original post: pmcv

Hey Paulo

You bring up some very interesting topics for conversation here. There are some points concerning Biblical history in your third post that I would love to have talked about, but of course this is not a biblical history forum so I will leave it with great reluctance.

One thing I DO think is very important though is to deal with your second post in this series. In keeping with the trend of this forum, we do have to ask for a comparative outline to help determine whether this "Gnostic Church of Mary M." technically fits the category of "Traditional Gnosticism".

Could be a helpful topic since we could help to outline exactly what "Traditional Gnostics" actually believed... eh?

PMCV