MARY MAGDALENE: WIFE AND MOTHER OR FOLLOWER OF CHRIST?
By:
Moses Flores
The core of The Da Vinci Code focuses on Mary Magdalene and her relationship to Jesus Christ. So powerful was this relationship, that Leigh Teabing says that Leonardo’s painting of the Last Supper reveals Mary Magdalene, not the apostle John, at the right hand of Jesus. Listen to some of Teabing’s claims:
“…[in regards to Mary’s prostitution] Magdalene was no such thing. That unfortunate misconception is the legacy of a smear campaign launched by the early Church. The Church needed to defame Mary Magdalene in order to cover up her dangerous secret – her role as the Holy Grail.[1]”
“…the early Church needed to convince the world that the mortal prophet Jesus was a divine being. Therefore, any gospels that described earthly aspects of Jesus’ life had to be omitted from the Bible. Unfortunately for the early editors, one particularly troubling earthly theme kept recurring in the gospels. Mary Magdalene….more specifically, her marriage to Jesus Christ.[2]”
“Because Jesus was a Jew,…and the social decorum during that time virtually forbid a Jewish man to be unmarried. According to the Jewish custom, celibacy was condemned, and the obligation for a Jewish father was to find a suitable wife for his son. If Jesus were not married, at least one of the Bible’s gospels would have mentioned it and offered some explanation for His unnatural state of bachelorhood.[3]”
At
this point, Teabing begins to appeal to extra-Biblical works known as The Gospel of Phillip and the Gospel of Mary in order to prove that
women were suppressed by the male leadership of the Church. Thus, “the greatest cover up in human
history” is that Jesus Christ was really married and had a daughter by Mary
Magdalene, named Sarah, who eventually went on to spawn the Merovingian
bloodline in
Did Jesus really have a marital relationship with Mary Magdalene? What of these other “gospels”? Is what they say valid? What do the earliest Christian records say about her? Dan Brown’s assertions need to be rebutted and refuted, and as we shall see, deserve to be so. First, was ask, who was Mary Magdalene? What was her role in the life and ministry of Jesus? For this we turn to the truest early Christian records, the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John[4].
The Earliest records
The earliest Christian record, the New Testament Gospels, have little to say about Mary Magdalene. The earliest place that she is introduced in the life of Jesus is in Luke 8:1-3. Here we read,
“Now it came to
pass, afterward, that He went through every city and village, preaching and
bringing the glad tidings of the
We notice that in the ministry of Jesus there were several women who freely followed Christ from town to town who also financially supported the ministry of Jesus. Among them included Mary Magdalene who was released from seven demons. This is the first mention of Mary Magdalene in the Bible, and the last time that we hear of her until the crucifixion and the resurrection.
Some interpreters of Scripture, however, have assumed from the account of the sinful woman who anointed Jesus’ feet (Luke 7:37-50), that this woman was a prostitute and even Mary Magdalene since her name also follows in Luke 8:1-2. One of the first Christian leaders to assert that Mary was a prostitute was Pope Gregory I[5]. It is freely admitted that this conclusion about either character is not necessarily so. For one, why are not any of the other women mentioned in Luke 8:3 also counted as prostitutes since they were also cured from demons and infirmities[6]? Logically, speaking that is, there is no connection that necessarily, or even implicitly, leads us to believe Mary is the prostitute mentioned in Luke 7:37-50. Mary’s introduction in Luke 8:1-2 is just that, her introduction, and a clarification of a previous character. With no link existing between the end of Luke 7 and the beginning of Luke 8, it must be admitted that the conclusion that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute is fallacious. Some have even said that the woman who was caught in adultery and set to be stoned in John 8:1-11 is Mary Magdalene. Again, this connection is also fallacious.
The next place we see Mary Magdalene appearing is at the crucifixion of Jesus (Matt. 27:55-56; cf. Mark 15:40; John 19:25). She and other women are witnessing the crucifixion of their Lord from a distance. Surprisingly, the earliest mention of Mary Magdalene comes from Luke, but it is also his last mention of her in this same Gospel. The other Gospels don’t even mention her, until the crucifixion. The final mentions of Mary Magdalene include her presence at the burial of Jesus (Matt. 27:61; cf. Mark 15:47) and, finally, her eyewitness of the resurrection of Jesus Christ (John 20:1, 11-18; cf. Matt. 28:1-8; Mark 16:1-11, Luke 24:8-11).
In summation, this is what we learn of Mary Magdalene from the Bible:
1) That Jesus had cast seven demons out of her
2) That she, along with other women traveled with Jesus
3) That she, along with other women, financially supported Jesus
4) That she was present at the crucifixion
5) That she was present at the burial of Jesus
6) That she was the first to whom Christ appeared after his resurrection
These are the facts about Mary Magdalene from the earliest Christian records. There is no evidence in there at all, that Mary was married to Jesus, or even that Jesus was married to anybody and had a child.
The Gnostic version of Mary
Dan Brown’s assertion that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene comes from a literary work produced by a sect known the Gnostist, which is called The Gospel of Phillip. Sophie Neveu reads a passage from the Gospel of Phillip which says,
“And the companion of the Saviour is Mary Magdalene. Christ loved her more than all the disciples and used to kiss her often on her mouth. The rest of the disciples were offended by it and expressed disapproval. They said to him, ‘Why do you love her more than all of us?’”[7]
Sophie respond to Teabing by saying that there is nothing in this passage that suggest marriage. Teabing replies, “Au contraire…as any Aramaic scholar will tell you, the word ‘companion’ in those days, literally meant spouse.[8]” Teabing goes on to explain that the Aramaic word for “companion” literally meant “spouse” in those days, thus leading to the conclusions that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene according to this text. Several things need to be said about this work to refute the assertion of Dan Brown through Leigh Teabing.
First, we should note that the date of the work is roughly placed within the third century[9], thus placing it far out of the historical scope of when Mary Magdalene and Jesus lived. This work, therefore, cannot be credited as an eyewitness account[10]. Secondly, the author of this work is not the apostle Phillip, but an impostor posing with the name of an apostle in order to attempt to give authority to his work. This Gospel, and others which bear names of the apostles, are part of what is called the “pseudopigraphia” (literally, “written under a false name”). Likewise, the Gospel of Mary belongs to this category of writings, and dates to about the late second century, which is about 150 years after the death of Christ, as well as some time after the death of Mary Magdalene. Thirdly, Teabing points out that “Aramaic” scholars have shown that the meaning of the word “companion” is “wife”. However, the truth is that most of the Gnostic literature, including the Gospel of Phillip was written in the Coptic language, which is a Greek form of Egytian[11]. It should also be pointed out that the word translated as “companion” here in either language apparently has been used to mean friendship, thus, not necessarily meaning “marriage” in all its usages[12].
The point, in fact, is this: That there exists no credible historical data which would lead anybody to believe that Jesus was married, much less, married to Mary Magdalene. Mary was a follower, supporter and believer in Jesus Christ as the long awaited Messiah.
The
Bible does speak of Jesus having a “bride”.
But this bride is not a single person in history but, rather, the entire
These are the facts that refute the fiction in The Da Vinci Code. No credible historical evidence exists that proves that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene or that they had any children. Interestingly enough, Brown’s hidden intentions in saying that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene are to portray Jesus as a Feminist. The funny thing is that the Gnostic works that Brown appeals to often demean women. For instance, in The Gospel of Thomas we read such statements as these:
“Simon Peter said them, ‘Let Mary leave us for women are not worthy of life.’”
Jesus said, “I
myself shall lead her in order to make her male, so that she too may become a
living spirit to resemble you males. For
every women who will make herself male will enter the
These statements from the Gnostic movement are far from “liberating” women to be more feminine.
Jesus was no Feminist, but that does not mean that he did not respect women. If the early Church wanted to hide Jesus as a feminist then they would have left out such records as Mary being the first to whom Jesus appeared to after His resurrection. It would have left out records of Jesus talking to the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4). It would have left out the records of women who followed and supported Jesus of their own financial resources. But these are not left out. Rather, the earliest records portray Jesus as He was in truth: the one who created both male and female in the image of God.
As a side note,
it should be well noted that the Roman Catholic Church, far from demeaning
women, has actually chosen a woman as its most visible representative in the
person of Mary, the Mother of Jesus. How
Dan Brown can serious argue that the