NEWSWEEK COVER: The Mystery of Mary Magdalene Beyond 'The Da Vinci Code'

NEWSWEEK COVER: The Mystery of Mary Magdalene Beyond 'The Da Vinci Code'

Controversial 'Da Vinci Code' Depiction of Mary Magdalene Still Old-Fashioned, Focusing on Her Sexuality Rather Than Her Intellect

Gnostic Gospels Offer Further Clues to Magdalene's Life and Relationship to Jesus, Other Apostles

NEW YORK, May 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Despite its revolutionary central claim- that Mary Magdalene was the wife of Jesus and bore his child-best-selling novel "The Da Vinci Code" and its film adaptation are remarkably old- fashioned, making Magdalene important for her body more than her mind, writes General Editor Jonathan Darman in the May 29 Newsweek cover story "The Mystery of Mary Magdalene" (on newsstands Monday, May 22). "The Da Vinci Code" seems to think that the secret tradition of Mary Magdalene speaks to the carnal. In reality, it speaks to something far more subversive: the intellectual equality of the sexes. The current Magdalene cult focuses on her sexuality even though no early Christian writings speak of her sexuality at all. "Why do we feel the need to re-sexualize Mary?" wonders Karen King, author of "The Gospel of Mary Magdala." "We've gotten rid of the myth of the prostitute. Now there's this move to see her as wife and mother. Why isn't it adequate to see her as disciple and perhaps apostle?"

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20060514/NYSU005 )

From age to age, Mary Magdalene's changing image in the minds of believers and historians and artists has reflected the temper of the times -- so much so that it is difficult to recover the historical Mary Magdalene from centuries of myth. Yet her history sheds light on essential questions, from the role of women in first century Judaism to the nature of Jesus' ministry to the formation of early Christianity. The gospel authors mention her only 13 times in the New Testament and offer few details of her life. This was perhaps no accident: women were considered untrustworthy in the Roman world and the Gospels, eager to make new converts, probably did not wish to highlight the fact that a woman was a key witness to their story of the Resurrection-a story that was already difficult enough to explain. The New Testament Gospels "tell us a woman called Mary Magdalene was a follower of Jesus and played a role around the time of his betrayal and resurrection," says Elaine Pagels, a professor of early Christian history at Princeton. "But beyond that they tell us very little about what her role really was."

Yet from the earliest hours of Christianity, there were other voices, too, those determined to present a fuller picture of the Magdalene. In several Gnostic Gospels, texts whose dissemination in the past 50 years has turned the study of Christian origins on its head, she is not the wallflower of the New

Testament but rather a favored, perhaps favorite follower of Christ. In the gospel of Thomas, she and another woman, Salome, are one of six (not 12) true disciples of Jesus. In the Gnostic Dialogue of the Savior, she is referred to "as the woman who understood all things." Most compelling is the Gospel of Mary, not just for its portrait of the Magdalene as a strong willful woman, but also for its radical ideas about gender. While Mary is called the disciple "the Savior loved ... more than all other women," she and Jesus see gender as irrelevant, something that will disappear in the path to the next life. "The text is arguing that the distinction between male and female is one of the body, which will dissolve," says Harvard historian Karen King. "The basis for leadership lies in spiritual development."

Why, then, did this woman, whom the New Testament tells us was Jesus's constant companion and whom the Gnostics claim was privileged above all others, disappear after the Resurrection? The non-canonical gospels provide a troubling answer. In Gnostic texts, Mary is under constant attack, most often from Peter. "Tell Mary to leave us," he implores Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas, "for women are not worthy of life." Mary understands his threat. "I am afraid of Peter," she tells Jesus in the Gnostic dialogue Pistis Sophia, "he threatens me and hates our race." In her frightened voice, we can hear the beginnings of a rift that would determine Mary's future in the church. "You have one tradition where Peter plays a role of tremendous significance and Mary is on the margins," says Pagels, "while in another tradition Mary is the significant figure and Peter is suspect." And Peter's version is the one that comes down to us, which means it was his story, not hers, that carried the day.

(Read cover package at www.Newsweek.com. Click "Pressroom" for news releases.)

Mary Magdalene: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12893635/site/newsweek/ Movie Review: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12892029/site/newsweek/

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