Magdala | Parte i. La antigua ciudad de Magdala
Since this time, many exegets and artists followed the lead. Just as the 12th century Abbot Hugh of Semur (died 1109), Peter Abelard (died 1142), and Geoffrey of Vendome (died 1132) who all referred to Mary Magdalene as “the sinner who merited the title apostolarum apostola”, which became commonplace during the 12th and 13th centuries. 91 The repentant prostitute became the dominant persona in St. Mary Magdalene’s reputation, a popular motive, commonly and frequently depicted in Western art and religious literature. In art, she is often seminaked, or an isolated hermit repenting for her sins in the wilderness - an outcast. Even her alleged relics were labeled with the unique title “penitent”. Only in 1969, rather silently, Pope Paul vi rehabilitated Mary Magdalene. In the new “Missale Romanum”, her identification with the “woman with the alabastron” was abandoned; for the first time, Mary Magdalene and Mary of Bethany were commemorated seperately. The limited information on Mary Magdalene from the gospels caused early sectarian groups to “fill the gaps” with ficticious information, when they claimed to know “the true story”. The importance of her role and testimony seemed in contrast to the little we know about her and left an open void for creative writers. In the syncretistic movement, generally knows as “Gnostic Christianity”, which arose in parts of Syria and Egypt during the 2nd Century and produced several dozens of forged, “noncanonical” “gospels”, Mary Magdalene became one of the main protagonists of their heterodox interpretation of the Christian faith. In the “Gospel of Mary”, of which only three fragments survived in Egypt, ranging from the 3rd to the 5th century92, Mary Magdalene is exalted even over the male disciples of Jesus. At some point after the resurrection, St. Peter addressed her with the words:
“Sister, we know that the Savior loved you more than the rest of woman. Tell us the words of the Savior which you remember which you know, but we do not, nor have we heard them. 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.” 93 Unfortunately nearly all of her vision is lost. Only at the end, a conflict with the “hottempered” Peter is mentioned, when Levi defends Mary Magdalene with the words: “But if the Savior made her worthy, who are you indeed to reject her? Surely the Savior knows her very well.“ 94 The “Gospel of Philip”, dating from the 2nd or 3rd century, survived as one of the manuscripts found in Nag Hammadi/Egypt in 1945. It names Mary Magdalene as the Lord’s “koinonos” (companion). In a rather heavily damaged sequence, it states: “As for the Wisdom who is called ‘the barren’, she is the mother [of the] angels. And the companion of the [...Mary Magdalene. [... loved] her more than [all] the disciples [and used to] kiss her [often] on her… The rest of [the disciples...]. They said to him, ‘Why do you love her more than all of us?’ The savior answered and said to them, ‘Why do not love you like her? When a blind man and one who sees are both together in darkness, they are no different from one another. When the light comes, then he who sees will see the light, and he who is blind will remain in darkness.’” 95 This quote became famous by being misused as “evidence” for the absurd idea of a marriage between Jesus and Mary Magdalene, as promoted by unscrupulous fiction writers like the notorious Dan Brown. But if
we read it in its context, it is far away from such a notion. The Jesus of the “Gospel of Philip” is not of ordinary flesh and blood at all. He is a manifested divine principle: “Jesus took them all by stealth, for he did not appear as he was, but in the manner in which [they would] be able to see him. He appeared to them all. He appeared to the great as great. He [appeared] to the small as small. He [appeared to the] angels as an angel, and to men as a man. Because of this his word hid itself from everyone. Some indeed saw him, thinking that they were seeing themselves, but when he appeared to his disciples in glory on the mount he was not small. He became great, but he made the disciples great, that they might be able to see him in his greatness.” 96 In the Gnostic context of this text, his kiss is in no way the kiss of a loving partner. Instead it is an initiation, “a nourishment with divine wisdom”, as “Philip” explains: “It is from being promised to the heavenly place that man [receives] nourishment. [... him from the mouth. [And had] the word gone out from that place it would be nourished from the mouth and it would become perfect. For it is by a kiss that the perfect conceive and give birth. For this reason we also kiss one another. We receive conception from the grace which is in one another.” 97 Jesus and Maria Magdalene, in this text, became representatives of the divine principles of “Logos” and “Sophia”, “Word” and “Wisdom” (or “Spirit”). According to the Gnostic belief, Sophia was the companion of the Logos – they had to unite, not in a physical, but in a spiritual way. Sexuality, called “marriage of defilement“ by the
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Schaberg, Jane: The Resurrection of Mary Magdalene: Legends, Apocrypha and The Christian Testament, New York 2002, p. 88 Codices P. Rylands 463 and P. Oxyrhynchus 3525 (both 3rd century) and Berolinensis Gnosticus 8052,1 (5th century) http://gnosis.org/library/marygosp.htm Ibid. http://www.theologywebsite.com/etext/naghammadi/philip.shtml Ibid. Ibid.
28 | el pensador JUL-SEP 2013