Miriam of Magdala and the concept of misogyny
April 11th, 2023
This is an amazingly beautiful book — not only in the whole, with wonderful expose and explanation of the writing from almost 2000 years ago as understood by modern scholarship and theology and personal spirituality of the writer — but the actual gospel as presented from the original manuscript. And it was a revelation for me, how since the beginning of Christianity, the church has engaged in total misogyny and marginalization of women in its flock. Of course, that in itself is not really breaking news — but in regard to a very important figure as Miriam of Magdala (or as she is better known — Mary Magdalen) is still quite shocking. Mary Magdalen still has a significant position in theology and in minds of worshipers and especially in religious art, but that is not even close to her significance.
She, most likely along with John the Evangelist, was the closest and trusted follower of Jesus — maybe even more than that as there are numerous implied descriptions of her as his wife, partner, or companion. Her role as a member of the apostolic movement was on par with Saint Peter as shown in source texts of alternative Gospels which were disregarded or outright banned by the Early Church. Her role was diminished for no other reason than the fact that she was a woman and even the apostles were aghast at her role as a confidant and teacher who was held equal to or maybe even higher than the 12 apostles we know of. But here is even more –
The moniker Christ/Christos means anointed.
Who was doing the anointment according to the New Testament? — that would be Mary Magdalene when she went to Jesus’s grave on the third day to anoint his body and was worried about who will open that grave for her. She was then the first one to see resurrected Jesus there.
Was it in the Jewish custom of that time to anoint dead bodies already buried? — no, there is no mention of such practices.
Was it a custom in some other religion of the time? — yes, in Egyptian worship of Isis.
Was Miriam of Magdala possibly a priestess of Isis? — it seems very likely to me. Of course, how a priestess of an Egyptian cult ended up in a small village in Galilee might be an interesting story but seeing the movements — religious or human — it is not really strange.
That could be the main reason for the Church to diminish her role in the Christian religion, but her standing was so well cemented already then that she was not forgotten as so many others figures from the times of the Early Church. Still, it is not so surprising that the Church Fathers and generations of Vatican bureaucracy would try to do whatever they could not to have her in her righteous place in the pantheon of saints.
