Remembering Mary Magdalene Rightly Matters: A guest post from Jennifer Powell McNutt
The Gospel of Mary is touted as the lost, “Feminist Gospel.” Why the Canonical Gospels offer us more.
Fellow Pilgrims,
I’m so pleased to share this piece by my friend and colleague Jennifer Powell McNutt , whose book The Mary We Forgot: What the Apostle to the Apostles Teaches the Church Today is about to be released.
by
Franklin S. Dyrness Professor of Biblical and Theological Studies, Wheaton College
Dear Gentle Readers of Church Blogmatics,
Allow me to introduce myself. I came to faith in the evangelical parts of the mainline church in the 1980s and ‘90s. My parents met in seminary and co-pastored together during my formative years. It’s not your typical story, I know. The first time that I went to seminary was in the womb!
I share that background to highlight the fact that in my household and church, the women of the Bible were largely not hidden or lost to me. Recognizing their presence and contributions was part of the ABCs of the salvation story in our home rather than something that I discovered later in life.
The names of Lydia, Priscilla, and Phoebe paved the way toward a vision of collaborative ministry between men and women that my parents were also seeking to live out together in the church.
But Mary Magdalene, well, she seemed to take things in another direction.
Playing Taboo with Mary Magdalene
Even in my segment of the church, Mary Magdalene’s reputation was ambiguous and confusing. It was as though the church was playing a game of Taboo on women in the Bible, but you couldn’t say Mary Magdalene’s name.
After all, with all the Marys in the Bible, which one was she? Was she a prostitute? Was she the one who anointed Jesus? The fuzziness is real. The complexity surrounding her remembrance makes it difficult to know what is being communicated when she is referenced at all.
How have we gotten to this point?
As one might expect, the matter is far from simple. One piece of the puzzle that has contributed to modern confusion over Mary Magdalene stems from the discovery of a 5th century Coptic text long buried and then unknown until the mid-twentieth century.
Codex Conspiracies at Museum Island
It was our last full day in Berlin, Germany. Our family had already visited the requisite tourist sites from the checkpoint to the wall to the gate, and there was just one final thing that we were hoping to see in person before flying home the next day.
In the city of Berlin, there are five world-famous museums grouped together on what is described as “Museum Island.” We headed to the Neues Museum to see the Berlin Codex. The codex was discovered in Egypt in 1896 and includes four texts in one binding. One of the texts contained there is popularly known as “The Gospel of Mary Magdalene” (though technically it does not mention the moniker “Magdalene” at all).
Picture taken by Jennifer Powell McNutt, August 2024, Neues Museum in Berlin, Germany
A good deal of our modern confusion surrounding Mary Magdalene is connected to this fragmentary text, which garnered global interest and speculation after being propelled into the limelight in the wake of the discovery of the Nag Hammadi Gnostic scrolls in 1945. The codex was translated in 1955 and began to draw scholarly and popular attention from the 1970s on.
You have most likely heard something of this through the rumblings and aftershocks of The Da Vinci Code books and the movies starring Tom Hanks, which were also inspired by the international bestseller, The Holy Blood and Holy Grail (1982). Not long after, a papyrus scrap known as “The Gospel of Jesus’ Wife” propelled scholarship at the highest academic levels into a tizzy, until the scrap was proven to be a forgery in 2016.
Conspiracy theories have sprung up about these sources claiming that a bloodline exists between Jesus and Mary Magdalene. Social media groups, with members numbering in the thousands upon thousands (friends, this is real), share suspicions and wild revelations regarding the hidden mysteries of Mary Magdalene’s connection to Jesus.
In these digital spaces, retreat pilgrimages are regularly advertised enticing participants with promises of tapping into sacred goddess power. Posts recount a divine feminine presence in the places where Mary Magdalene (may have) walked. Both promises and perspective breech the bounds of the Christian faith.
Weighing conspiracy over canon, the fact that Mary Magdalene walked in the places where Jesus walked is sidelined. Ironically, what we can definitively say she did is often forgotten by the very groups that tout her name. It’s a reminder to the church that when we do not claim our own, others may claim it for us.
Within such circles, the Gospel of Mary is favored scripture. Prevailing minds regard it as a hidden, true text that finally gives women their due. Bestselling books describe it as the “Feminist Gospel” of Mary Magdalene. The genre is overrun with a new wave of syncretistic spirituality.
To be sure, there is value in knowing, reading, and reflecting on the Gospel of Mary. We gain insight into early Christian context as well as early theological tensions during a period with limited sources. Comparative work between this rare, ancient account and what the church has passed down to us as faithful Scripture is beneficial. In fact, the Gospel of Mary confirms some notable touchpoints within the canonical witness.
But where the Gospel of Mary clashes with the Bible, it falls devastatingly short of what the canonical Gospels proclaim as good news for those who follow Christ, including women. As it turns out, tinkering with Mary Magdalene’s canonical story also tinkers with basic Christian affirmations about Jesus and salvation.1
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The Gospel of Mary as Good News?
An important touch point that the Gospel of Mary recognizes is that, yes, special conversation and interaction between Jesus and Mary Magdalene took place. Jesus shows favor toward Mary Magdalene by revealing truths to her that she then passes along to the disciples. This resonates with some of what the Christian canon records.
In John chapter 20, a special encounter does occur between Jesus and Mary Magdalene at the empty tomb. She is the first person to interact with the resurrected Christ and therefore becomes the first witness, before Jesus reveals himself to his other followers.
However, in the Gospel of Mary, Mary Magdalene’s secret knowledge must be pleaded out of her by the disciples (secret knowledge being a regular feature of gnostic texts). In contrast, the Gospel of John records Jesus directly calling, commissioning, and sending Mary to be his witness. When she is sent, she runs to share! Though it is regularly supposed to establish Mary Magdalene’s apostolicity, by removing her sending, the Gospel of Mary removes her apostolicity (one who is sent).
The Gospel of Mary also claims that the interaction between her and Jesus happened in a vision, and this is no mere change of scenery. By removing their interaction from the context of the garden, the Gospel of Mary removes Mary Magdalene from the embodied presence of the resurrected Christ altogether (another very gnostic thing to do!). To be sure, God can and does speak through visions and dreams. But the Christian canon directs us to pay attention to this bodily meeting in time, place, and space in the garden. The Gospels that the church has passed down to us in the Bible teach that they really spoke to one another and touched one another. The message of good news is not something that Mary Magdalene discovered within herself, but something that was happening outside of her, according to God’s will, action, power, and presence.
Just as Jesus’ mother Mary attests to our understanding that Jesus Christ entered time and space in a bodily way by birth, so too Jesus’ disciple Mary Magdalene attests that his resurrection took place in time and space in a bodily way. When we reduce this encounter to a vision alone, the loss for the followers of Christ is catastrophic. As Paul reminds us, the claim of Christ’s bodily resurrection is of first importance to the faith (1 Cor. 15). And so, the Gospel of Mary dramatically diminishes the role that Mary Magdalene plays in the salvation story. She is stripped of her apostolicity by the very text that is touted for establishing it.
The Problem with Forgetting Mary Magdalene
There are many other touch points and differences to consider that arise out of this fruitful comparison. Though the text is fragmented, at the end of the day, the Gospel of Mary seems to lose the narrative of Mary Magdalene’s importance when it fails to show her pointing to Jesus as Lord and Savior, risen from the dead.
At the outset of the Gospel of Mary, there is an exchange between Peter and “the Teacher” where questions about sin lead to the teaching that, in fact, there is “no sin” (7:15). This is a twisted “good news” that has no doubt contributed to the appeal of the text.
The implications are disastrous. Without sin, there is no need for redemption. And if there is no need for redemption, then there is no need for Jesus Christ. And with this teaching, the Gospel of Mary does more than just disregard Mary Magdalene and her apostolicity. It disregards the one to whom she points. In the end, there is no good news here for any, including women, where redemption is given apart from the necessity of Jesus Christ.
Remembering Mary Magdalene Rightly Matters
The “Gospel” of Mary may be touted as the first or lost “Feminist Gospel,” but the canonical Gospels offer us so much more.
On this very blog, a wise theologian recently wrote, “Christian faith is not abolitionist and feminist because it has decided to set aside the biblical text. Christian faith is abolitionist and feminist because it has followed…the biblical text”.
We can stop playing Taboo with Mary Magdalene’s name in our churches. She belongs there because her witness is tied to the central claims of the Christian faith, namely that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who was once dead on the cross, is now alive. This is good news for all.
And who better to proclaim that Jesus conquered death for us and that God’s kingdom has arrived and is coming than the one who was once possessed by seven demons?
But for more on that, you’ll have to read the book!
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I’m so excited about Jenny’s new book, and I’m glad I could share her work with you today.
Grace & peace,
BFJ
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A fuller engagement with the text is provided in my forthcoming book, The Mary We Forgot: What the Apostle to the Apostle Teaches the Church Today, which is releasing with Brazos Press on October 15.
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