Scribes tried to blot her out. Now a scholar is trying to recover the real Mary Magdalene.

[guillaumeb]

From the article:

On Monday (July 22), the feast day of Mary Magdalene, Elizabeth Schrader will hike up a mountain in the south of France to the cave where, legend has it, the saint lived out her remaining days after the crucifixion of Jesus....

Schrader, a doctoral student at Duke University, has her own way of honoring the woman who witnessed Jesus’ death and resurrection. Schrader’s academic work, like that of others, attempts to liberate Magdalene from the patriarchal overlays of ancient Christian scribes who recorded the New Testament’s four Gospels.

To read more:

https://religionnews.com/2019/07/19/scribes-tried-to-blot-her-out-now-a-scholar-is-trying-to-recover-the-real-mary-magdalene/

There is much more, but the point Ms. Schrader makes is that patriarchy seems to have motivated the actions of early Church leaders and scribes as they eliminated the significance of Mary Magdalene to the work of Jesus.

[trotsky]

1. Correction to your headline: CHRISTIAN scribes.

The Abrahmic religions and patriarchy have been inexorably intertwined since they arose. You are completely unjustified in saying some wholly separate "patriarchy" motivated the actions of those Christian men. It was as much part of the religion as communion.

The bigger question for you to answer is why didn't their sincere Christian beliefs overrule that, and leave her in?

[Act_of_Reparation]

2. "Fake Christians"?

Seems to be the go-to explanation for every lousy thing clergy does these days.

[guillaumeb]

3. Obviously you read the article.

So you correctly noted that indeed, the Scribes in question were Christian Scribes.

And I agree with the author that patriarchy is at the root of this rewriting.

[trotsky]

8. You are free to have your opinion.

No matter how misguided it might be.

[hunter]

4. The fun thing about religions is you can always roll your own.

And even established religions have the ability to evolve.

Elizabeth Schrader's work is evidence of this evolution.

I was fortunate to grow up in a matriarchal family.

What's left of any men who tried to assert their "God-given" patriarchal authority over their wives and daughters is probably buried somewhere out in the back forty.

My last immigrant ancestor was a mail order bride to Salt Lake city. That's how she escaped Europe to America.

She didn't much like sharing a husband here so she captured a monogamous man who was passing through town and established a homestead elsewhere, probably taking advantage of federal policies to delegitimize the Mormon church. That's how she escaped Salt Lake City.

[Act_of_Reparation]

6. Starting your own religion is rarely a fun affair.

[guillaumeb]

7. It is good to see people recognizing the obvious patriarchal thinking

that dominated the dialogue for 2000 years.

[trotsky]

9. To believe that your religion is pure and good and only corrupted by the "outside" influence...

of patriarchy, is to be shockingly ignorant of its history.

[guillaumeb]

10. Patriarchy is not an "outside" influence,

as you mischaracterize it. Patriarchy is a part of most societies.

[trotsky]

14. Good, I am glad you recognize that patriarchy has always been an integral part of your religion. n/t

[guillaumeb]

15. Did you misread "most societies" as "your religion"? eom

[trotsky]

16. Nope! n/t

[Voltaire2]

5. She was pregnant with Jesus's kid and fled to France after the execution.

Their descendants live on to this day.

[NeoGreen]

18. In Scotland! Because. if it ain't Scottish....

...it's crap.

[AtheistCrusader]

11. (cough) assuming she existed at all (cough)

[guillaumeb]

12. Among Christians, that is taken as a given.

But the larger point is about the obvious patriarchal thinking that allowed these leaders and scribes to rewrite much of her story out of history.

[AtheistCrusader]

13. If she never actually existed, if the biblical character of Mary never existed...

how can she be 'written out'?

[trev]

17. This is hardly a new revelation.

Just off the top of my head, I can offer the book Holy Blood, Holy Grail (originally published in 1982, and part of the inspiration for Dan Brown's book The DaVinci Code) as just one attempt to tweak out Mary Magdalene's true role from the one she plays in the gospels.

The Cathars of the Middle Ages (the victims of the Albigensian Crusade) also honored her as playing a much more significant role. That's one of the reasons the Church wiped them out....

I could cite many other examples.

[guillaumeb]

20. Very true.

Patriarchy needs to suppress the voices and roles of women.

[trev]

23. I find it interesting

that such a patriarchal religion came out of a matriarchal one.

[guillaumeb]

24. Patriarchs might call it natural evolution.

But it did serve to suppress and control women.

[edhopper]

19. So for 2000 years

the Christian Church has rewritten history to fit their narrative about Magdalene.
But we are to accept that this same Church has kept the history of the man Yeshua accurate for the same period.
Is there something wrong with this picture?

[guillaumeb]

21. Yes, as you hint, there is something wrong.

It is the effects of patriarchy.

[edhopper]

22. You seemed

to have missed my point completely