Mary Magdalen

Last night I went with some friends to see a lecture by Margaret Starbird the author of “The Woman with the Alabaster Jar (Mary Magdalen and the Holy Grail)” as featured in The Da Vinci Code.
She talked about how her Catholic beliefs were shaken after reading Holy Blood, Holy Grail, a book that dared to suggest that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalen. She set out to refute this idea, but instead, using her masters degree in comparative literature, found compelling evidence in literature and art for the existence of the bride/lover of Jesus.
My questions after this (well, before this, too):
    1. Does it matter? One of my Christian friends says it does because it makes Jesus human. I think it makes Jesus a real (every Jewish man of his day was married by his late teens or early twenties - it was the father’s duty to make sure he was).
    2. If it is true, what difference does it/will it/ can it make for today? Yes, we live in a patriarchal society, yes, if MM had not been ‘hidden” from us we might have had a more balanced masculine/feminine world. But what can we do about it now? Rewrite the New Testament?
    3. She brought up the point of all of the ancient cultures having the myth of a “god” coming to earth, marrying a princess bride, and then him getting killed and rising after three days. My question: Why then does society try to make us believe that our myth is “real”, that our myth is the “true one”, that we are different from the rest of the world?

Those are the three things that stood out for me.

I enjoyed hearing her story of the pursuit for the truth. Even though mine took me on a different path, it was similar. We were both Catholics and part of the early to mid-seventies Catholic Charismatic movement. Then I moved on to “regular” born-again christianity.

After many years she found a book (Holy Blood, Holy Grail) that made her stop and think and dig for the truth, to disprove the questionable.

In much the same way I set out to disprove there was any way but the born again Christian way. But the more I read, the more my mind was opened. And in the end, I left “the truth” and came to believe in a bigger, less defined, truth; one that resonates within me.

To me it doesn’t matter one way or another if Jesus (if there was a real man named Jesus) was married or not. But I hope this whole Da Divinci Code, etc. opens some eyes and causes people to search a little deeper, question their long-held beliefs, and makes them think a little more on their own.

P.S. The church didn’t fall down when I entered, nor was I struck by lightning. You never know…

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3 Responses to “Mary Magdalen”

  1. Mary Says:
    May 23rd, 2006 at 5:26 pm

    I wouldn’t venture to the East side of the state,we have been having thunder and lightening for a week now :) I read the Da Vinci code, great read. It really kept you glued to the action, but then I love a good conspirancy theory. The history channel had a night of “conspiracy” and they did a real interesting study on it. I would write more but a black helicopter just landed on the front lawn ;) Just kidding, I think it is a big to do about nothing. It is a great read, not history, the author never meant it to be in the first place. Lots of hysteria about it. Jesus could have had 12 wives and 3 heads if He chose, He is God after all.

  2. lil angel Says:
    May 30th, 2006 at 1:01 pm

    Funny the Apostle Paul wasn’t married and no one thinks that is strange. He also encouraged other to stay single so they could focus on spreading the Gospel. Very strange recommendation if Jesus was in fact married!

  3. Theresa Says:
    May 30th, 2006 at 3:43 pm

    Paul was strange. What do we know about Paul? He never married and he seemed incapable of relating to women at all except to denegrate them. He had an anti-Semitic attitude. He believed that the authority vested in the state was instituded by God and was therfore not to be challenged by Christians. He believed that all women ought to be veiled and that homosexuality was evil and God’s punishment to the unfaithful.

    I think Paul’s position on many things were not god-inspired but ill-informed, culturally based biases.

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