Mary Who Searching For The Historical Mary Magdalene

Her name wasn't Mary Magdalene, she wasn't born in Magdala, and she wasn't a prostitute. She's been mistaken for a sinner, an adulteress, and the woman at the well. Yet she was none of these. Apart from Jesus, she is the most famous person in the New Testament, yet her name appears a mere 13 times, and she speaks only twice. Who was she? Dr. James Gardner provides a detailed and comprehensive look at Mary called Magdalene, addressing such issues as her birth place, her marital status, her role in the early church, and her life after the crucifixion.

Mary Magdalene is a larger figure than any text, larger than the Bible or the Church; she has taken on a life of her own. She has been portrayed as a penitent whore, a wealthy woman, Christ's wife, an adulteress, a symbol of the frailty of women and an object of veneration. And, to this day, she remains a potent and mysterious figure. In the manner of a quest, this book follows Mary Magdalene through the centuries, explores how she has been reinterpreted for every age, and examines what she herself reveals about woman and man and the divine. It seeks the real Mary Magdalene in the New Testament and in the Gnostic gospels where she is extolled as the chief disciple of Christ. It investigates how and why the Church recast her as a fallen woman, it traces her story through the Renaissance when she became a goddess of beauty and love, and it looks at Mary Magdalene as the feminist icon she has become today.

The denigration of Mary Magdalene's character and the omission of her as being an important disciple of Jesus' early ministry are still much in question today. This work explores recent modern biblical scholarship research that has been significant in redefining the importance of Mary Magdalene in the early Christian Church. It culminates with personal experiences that enhanced my personal quest for knowledge about Mary Magdalene.

Mary Magdalene is one of the most influential symbols in the history of Christianity—yet, if you look in the Bible, you’ll find only a handful of verses that speak of her. How did she become such a compelling saint in the face of such paltry evidence? In her effort to answer that question, Cynthia Bourgeault examines the Bible, church tradition, art, legend, and newly discovered texts to see what’s there. She then applies her own reasoning and intuition, informed by the wisdom of the ages-old Christian contemplative tradition. What emerges is a radical view of Mary Magdalene as Jesus’s most important disciple, the one he considered to understand his teaching best. That teaching was characterized by a nondualistic approach to the world and by a deep understanding of the value of the feminine. Cynthia shows how an understanding of Mary Magdalene can revitalize contemporary Christianity, how Christians and others can, through her, find their way to Jesus’s original teachings and apply them to their modern lives.

There are many theories and legends revolving around Mary Magdalene, the friend and companion of Jesus of Nazareth during first century Roman Empire. Some say she was a vile sinner; others, a saint. Some have said she was a prostitute; others, a chaste Jewish woman. Many lands around the Great Sea still tell tales of Mary Magdalenes travels and accomplishments in their part and plot of history. Although few legends are considered to be of a factual nature, neither should they be thought of strictly as fairytales. Many legends have their basis in true stories which have been passed down through a hundred or more generations and sometimes the information has evolved into much more than what it started as and has come to even enhance the meaning and spirit of the original events. While there is not enough documented history to write a non-fictional biography of Mary herself, there is much information about first century Judea in the Roman Empire, the time and place into which Mary was born. Much is also known about some of the people who were most likely to have been her companions, particularly those written about in the Christian Bible, like Saint Peter, Saint John, Martha, Jesus, his mother, Saul of Tarsus and others. In writing this narrative of Mary Magdalene, my intent was to include as much legendary material as possible, being careful not to contradict any historical facts about Mary herself or any other historical figure appearing in the book. I spent much time accessing and studying information from a wide variety of sources. My research led to me draw some conclusions about what must have been known back then, but was not considered important enough to have been written down, such as who was related to whom, who went where and when and the chronology of certain events. Let this story answer questions for you that might have been lingering in your mind for a long time now, such as: What did happen to Mary called the Magdalene before she met Jesus of Nazareth? What was her background? Did she have other family? Did Jesus? Why did Jesus have to cast demons out of her? What was the Essene Community? Was Jesus a member? Was Mary? What happened to her after Jesus died? Can regretful decisions ever be turned around for the good? Mary Magdalene; My Story will take you through the world of a young Jewish girl with all of the hopes, dreams and expectations that any young girl would naturally have. You will learn how tragedies in her life nearly killed her, but how she was saved by the love of a man, and kept by the love of those who realized that second chances were God-given and to be respected. You will see how she in turn offered forgiveness to those who had hurt her so deeply and how good things came as a result of that. Mary had friends who loved and understood her and were important people to her throughout her life. As a reader, we get to meet them all and come to love them ourselves. Learn more about Joana and Cuza, Mary mother of Jesus, Agabus, Antipus, and Lydia, the woman who sold purple things. This story will weave all of the different characters and events and places of the time into a heartwarming tale you are not soon to forget. With such a variety of characters mostly likely every reader will find someone in the story to whom they will relate in a personal way. Let Mary take you, in her own voice, through the early days of Christianity, through the turbulent times of the Roman Emperor Nero and the Jewish wars. Let her share with you the sorrow of losing some of her best friends and the joys of developing new ones. She will tell you of the trade that carried her through many years of her life and was the reason she was able to go on a great adventure around the Empire. At times the reader will be moved to tears, at times will laugh out loud as she tells you about the wonder of raising children and finding true love against all odds. This book will

Examines the multiple personae of Mary Magdalene illustrated throughout the canon of Western art.

*Includes pictures *Includes Gospel passages and apocryphal passages *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading "After that, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another. The Twelve were with him, and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Mary Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out-and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means." - Luke 8:1-3 Mary Magdalene is one of the most talked about figures in modern Christianity, a woman who mainstream media and modern sensibilities can hold with more conviction. The media, press, movie industry, and airport literature have been obsessed with this redhead for more than 100 years, a fascination that reached its climax in the first decade of this century, and does not seem likely to end any time soon. Mary Magdalene is frequently depicted as young and attractive, liberated and intelligent, a symbol of a freer spirituality, and not controlled by a male-dominated church. In the minds of many, she embodies opposition to a system dominated by old men in white cassocks, the "sacred feminine." As if that is not enough, she has the best bachelor in the world: Jesus Christ himself. The French-made, fair-haired Mary Magdalene who appears in innumerable works of medieval and modern art with a red robe, a symbol of rebellion and freedom (although in the Middle Ages the intention was to show her as a loose woman), is a creation of the Western Church and, more recently, the media. It is a depiction laden with centuries of intertextual struggles, patronizing homilies, medieval legends, novels looking for bestseller status, and documentaries for cable television. But there was a historical Mary Magdalene, a woman named Miriam (Hebrew for Mary) born in Galilee in the time of King Herod, and she died, most likely in present-day Turkey, when Christianity was only a variant of Judaism. Mary Magdalene would not recognize herself in modern portraits or the perception the average Christian of the last 1500 years has of her. If there has been a search for the historical Jesus since the 18th century, the real man who walked in the hills of Galilee and died on a cross in Jerusalem, a similar quest is necessary for the historical Mary Magdalene, but not out of mere curiosity, because she is important in the narrative of Jesus's life. If the early sources are accurate, Mary of Magdala was the first Christian in history, and the first to announce the fundamental kerygma of early Christianity: Jesus is risen! Despite the shortage of information, there are a few certain facts historians know about Mary Magdalene. For example, she was a respected and well-remembered follower of Jesus, one of the female disciples who supported the movement of the Galilean preacher. Some scholars studying the gospels believe that Mary Magdalene was an elderly woman and probably well-to-do, if not wealthy. "For all we know," opines E.P. Sanders in The Historical Figure of Jesus, "she was eighty-six, childless, and keen to mother unkempt young men." She not only remained by Jesus side in his darkest hour, the crucifixion, she also had a strange experience at Jesuss tomb on Easter morning. The gospels disagree on the details, but not in the fact that it happened to her. Mary Magdalene: The Life and Legacy of the Woman Who Witnessed the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus examines what is known and unknown about one of the Bible's most famous figures. Along with pictures depicting important people, places, and events, you will learn about Mary Magdalene like never before.

The #1 New York Times bestselling author addresses the controversial questions about the life of Jesus Christ and the women in his life. An extraordinary message from ?possibly the most famous psychic in the world,?(Mystic Living Today)Sylvia Browne: ?In writing this book, I was amazed to find out that I actually had visions of what was happening...a manifestation of the infusion that I was getting from God. God does work in mysterious ways.? Many controversies have gone unanswered in Christianity for centuries. Now, told from the unique perspective only Sylvia Browne could bring, The Two Marys focuses on the greatest of those extraordinary unknowns: the two most important women in Jesus?s life?his mother and his wife?whose profound influence on him has been marginalized by Christian churches and reinvented out of contradictions, misrepresentations, and fabrications. Finally, Sylvia Browne uncovers the hidden history of these two remarkable women in a story that will challenge the very basis of traditional Christian faith.