Friday, July 22, 2022

Who was Mary Magdalene really?

FEAST DAY: Creating the Myth of Mary Magdalene (Philip Jenkins, The Anxious Bench).
Tomorrow, July 22 [N.b., that is today! - JRD], celebrates St. Mary Magdalene, a figure who in modern times has become the center of a powerful myth about Christian origins. If that standard mythology can be dismantled pretty easily (which it can), finding the truth is a much tougher project. Mary’s story contains some real mysteries that we are a long way from solving. And no, I’m not referring to the world of Dan Brown.

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A thoughtful discussion of the evidence and its implications.

For a recent review of Taylor and Bond, Women Remembered, see here.

For many PaleoJudaica post on Mary Magdalene, who she may have been historically, and her place in Christian tradition, start here and here and keep following the links.

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