Opinions on Mary Magdalin?

Question

Have any of you done any further research than just reading "The Davinci Code"? I am curious as to if anyone has read "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" by Michael Baigent or "The Alabaster Jar" by an author whose name I cannot recall.

Answer 1

I have read the Davinci Code
which did lead me to further research , mostly online
but have found many other sources suggesting the relationship with Jesus and Mary ... even if it is on a friendship level
it seems she was more relevant than we have been led to believe in regards to her relationship with Jesus and with the teachings that were to be passed on
nowhere in the bible does it say that she was the prostitute mentioned... so if the church want us to believe she was ... what else do they want us to believe ?

Answer 2

Having read the DaVinci Code, and Holy Blood, Holy Grail, I would say that without a doubt Mary Magdalin was a very important and influential person to Jesus. I would also feel comfortable saying that she most definitely wasn't a prostitute (that label was attached to her by the Catholic Church in order to discredit any female influence and thus sustain the power of the men involved). As to whether Jesus and Mary Magdalin were married? I think it was entirely possible and would not have been out of realm of the times.

Answer 3

First you spelled her name wrong. Second yes I have researched. The whole theories surrounding Mary Magdalene in the Da Vinici Code and Holy Blood Holy Grail have no historical basis from any known evidence. The whole idea first came about in Holy Blood Holy Grail in 1982, even the people named in that book were shocked and declared it false, including those that would be heir to Jesus.

The gnostic gospels dispite what the books say give us no more insight to Mary having a raltionship of sexual nature or that she was suppose to be the heir to the leadership of Christianity. People need to actually read them themselves instead of what others write about them, including the Gospel of Mary.

Mary Magdalene has not really been demonized by the Catholic Church (Gregory excepted) she is a Saint within the Church and is considered by them the epitome of divine forgiveness, the epitome of faith in action, the Apostle to the Apostles for being the first Jesus appeared to and carrying the message of the resurrection.

I have never read the The Woman with the Alabaster Jar by Starbrid which was written by a women with actual academic and research credentials from the Univ of Maryland, Albrechts University in Germany and Vanderbilt Divinity School to debunk the ridiculous history and thesises of Holy Blood Holy Grail.

Answer 4

I read Holy Blood, Holy Grail years ago. I recommend it, although it is VERY dry. It seems that the DaVinci Code was lifted right out of those theories. It's a good book...but the theories are on par with "In Search of Ancient Aliens". It's one of those books where only the supporting evidence to the author's theories are used and the facts are stretched a bit.

On Mary Magdalen--she may or may not have been the wife of Jesus, but I don't think there has been and is a secret cult protecting the bloodline. Awfully far fetched.

Answer 5

First, it is important to note that The DaVinci Code is a work of fiction...as such, it is a very interesting book. However, there is absolutelyl no reason to imagine that it portrays facts, any more than Bram Stoker's 'Dracula' ought to lead you to put strings of garlic around your windows.
From everything I have read, Mary Magdalene was an incredibly intelligent and loving lady, and it is little wonder that she would be a close friend and disciple of Jesus. There could well have been a very special friendship between them, as there was between John and Jesus. However, there is no reason to think they might have been married, any more than there is any reason to suppose that Jesus and John were "lovers"....
In my research, I have come across the notion that the men of the early church did not like the idea that a "mere woman" might have been as important to Jesus as they were, and that there was some rather serious contention between some of them over this issue...as we have seen, this "battle of the sexes" goes on in the church to this very day (and it is STILL just as stupid.)

Answer 6

My opinion is that "The Davinci Code" is a non-fiction novel that uses information from "Holy Blood, Holy Grail".

I personally believe that Mary Magdalin was not a whore. I think she was used to give an identity to other women in the Bible whom Jesus gave forgivness.

Answer 7

It is very possible that there was a "sangreal" legend. But its purpose was at odds with Christianity. "Sang real" was a way to legitimize the rule of the Merovingian kings (Pepin, Charlemaigne, etc.) by claiming blood descent from Jesus Christ. But in the gospels Jesus clearly proclaimed the irrelevance of blood kinship. ("Who is my mother and brother? The one who does my Father's will.")

In "The DaVinci Code", this "bloodline" is continued to the present day, but to what end? Would the "descendants" of Jesus have special powers or wisdom? Are we supposed to worship or venerate them? It's a meaningless conceit that adds nothing to the gospel message.

Margaret Starbird's "Woman with the Alabaster Jar" concentrates more on the prominent role of women in the first two centuries of the Church and the campaign to erase that history, including the conflation of Mary Magdalen with the adultress in John 8 and the woman who anointed Jesus.

"The Gospel of Mary" has been characterized as a feminist response to the canonical gospels but it is actually a Gnostic text. Mary, as odd-disciple out, is shown to be the "true" disciple with the "true" revelation the other apostles missed. It is a red herring in the quest to determine what women lost in the 4th Century reorganization of the church.

Currently Mary Magdalen, as little as we actually know about her, serves as a model for women who feel dismissed and maligned by the male hierarchy of the church. Her documented faithfulness to Jesus and proclamation of his resurrection are considered proof of this lost part of the Christian story.

Answer 8

Having read the DaVinci Code, and having studied Christianity, back to the earliest days thereof... I'm of the opinion that Mary Magdalene was likely an "apostle" of Jesus Christ, close to him maybe even a relationship... there's no proof of it... and she was likely pretty darn intuitive in understanding his teachings. She's certainly NOT what the Catholic Church has made her out to be, and remember the DaVinci Code, per the author's claim himself, is fiction minced in with "facts". So you have to read with a grain of salt. Preferably a large grain and Himalayan salt is nice...

Answer 9

I read several works prior to 1980. My thoughts are according to hebrew customs that the wedding at Cana was when Jesus got married but my view is that it makes no differance as to what I believe or what I am to do to be obedient, or even with regards to what I am not to do so why waste my time until I have completed the tasks assigned think I will stay away from the religious water cooler.

Answer 10

I haven't read those, but I did read the DaVinci Code and so did my very skeptical boyfriend, and we talk about it all the time. There is also a Gosepl of Mary but I bought it and haven't read it yet (it's on the list). My thought is that, although it would seem odd to me for Jesus to have had a wife (because Jesus is biblically a man who could know everything about her, all her faults and sins, and whose character would have him love everybody, it would seem odd that of all the people in the world he could find someone he would deem worthy to be his one and only seems odd) I don't think it would change the message of the Bible and what Jesus did for us.