“Peter said to Mary: ‘We know that the Teacher (Jesus) loved you differently from other women… Tell us the words he said to you which you remember and which we do not have awareness…’ ” Gospel of Mary
Who is Mary Magdalene for the Gnostics?
After the death of Christ on the Mount of Olives, the life of Mary Magdalene remains unknown in the Gospels. What becomes of her? Apocryphal stories, written between the 1st and 5th centuries, depict the image of a woman initiated into the secret science of Jesus. Greek and Latin sources from the Middle Ages contrast a Magdalene who died in Ephesus with a “blessed” Magdalene, evangelizer of Provence.
If the canonical Gospels constitute the primary source revealing the life of Mary Magdalene, we must also consider the apocryphal Gospels. The Church doesn’t recognize them. But they help to complete our knowledge of the person of Mary Magdalene in the first Christian centuries.
From the 1st to the beginning of the 5th century, gnosis was transmitted orally from masters to disciples within sects deemed heretical by the Church. It draws its primary source from the disciples of Christ.
The Gnostic sects experienced significant influence in the Roman Empire before splitting into different schools.
One of them advocates the secret teaching of Mary, Martha and Salomé from the 2nd.
Mariham, the initiate
We know her life thanks to several apocryphal stories constituting the Nag-Hammadi library. But also by the famous Coptic papyrus Berolinensis Gnosticus 8502 of the Berlin Museum since 1896.
In the Nag-Hammadi library, several stories evoke Mary Magdalene. Let us mainly cite the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Philip, all dated from the 4th century. Then, in the Coptic manuscript, the Pistis Sophia and the Gospel of Mary, from the 5th century.
(These apocryphal writings will be the subject of a new, more detailed article.)
The Magdalene, named Mariham, is also mentioned in two other manuscripts. They are the Wisdom of Jesus Christ and the Dialogue of the Savior. Moreover, in the work of Panarion of Epiphanes during Mary’s Questions, we find a rich dialogue on the divine revelations transmitted to her.
Mary Magdalene is therefore presented as the companion of Jesus, as the initiate or “the spirit holding the pneuma” before becoming the spokeswoman of Jesus who teaches the disciples. Revealing the particular place of women within the Gnostic sects, these apocrypha present the rarity of naming women anchored in a historical reality, conferring a very particular authority on Mary Magdalene
Join the Magdalene sacred journey 4 to 12 of April,2024
If, like me, you are passionate about the subject, I invite you to join me in my next retreat
“Magdalene sacred journey, in Provence and Cathar country”.
This will be an opportunity to discover the many faces of Mary Magdalene and to learn more about the Gnostic sources of the Cathar doctrine.