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More modernly it is accepted that Mary’s identity as a “prostitute” was a contorted lie in order to hurt her reputation (Smithsonian). “In conflicts that defined the Christian Church-over attitudes toward the material world, focused on sexuality the authority of an all-male clergy the coming of celibacy the branding of theological diversity as heresy the sublimations of courtly love the unleashing of “chivalrous” violence the marketing of sainthood, whether in the time of Constantine, the Counter-Reformation, the Romantic era, or the Industrial Age-through all of these, reinventions of Mary Magdalene played their role. įrom a more historic standpoint, Mary Magdalene was Mary from Magdala, a small town on the Sea of Galilee. When he rose, she and another Mary went and told the Apostles of his Holy Resurrection (Bible). During the crucifixion, burial and resurrection detailed in Matthew 27 & 28, Mary Magdalene was present and stood watch over the body and tomb of Christ. In the Gospel of Luke it I said that Mary was a woman who followed Jesus after having 7 demons cast out of her. It focuses on her involvement in Jesus’ ministry, her presence at the crucifixion and burial, and most importantly her witnessing the resurrection of Christ. The biblical story of Mary Magdalene is rather straightforward. Gnostics are devoted to the idea of “Secret Knowledge” and therefore they choose to believe in non-canon Christian texts such as the Gospel of Mary. This belief system differs from Christianity on their ideals of humanity, good and evil, as well as divinity.
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The Gnosticism that respects and validates the Gospel of Mary is Christian Gnosticism. Gnosticism is a general term for a wide range of beliefs and views, much in the same way that Hinduism is a catch all term.
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But this new revelation of an entire text, called the Nag Hammadi Library, set into motion a new devotion of gnostics (Pagels). A few decades earlier in the late 1890’s, pieces of the Gospel of Thomas, Judas, and Phillip had been found. Over time the scrolls and texts found there way into the hands of academics that decoded the first line “"These are the secret words which the living Jesus spoke, and which the twin, Judas Thomas, wrote down”, and they knew they had struck gold. The beginning of the modern controversy surrounding Mary Magdalene began in 1945 when old Greek scrolls were found in a desert cave in Nag Hammadi, Egypt.