09 — Historical and Modern Questions
The apocryphal and modern claims that have gathered around Mary Magdalene, addressed on historical grounds: the second-century gnostic Gospel of Mary, what it is and is not; the modern “wife of Jesus” myth popularized by The Da Vinci Code and the “bloodline” literature behind it, refuted by the silence of every early source; and a closing survey of her reception and legacy across East and West.
Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (Equal-to-the-Apostles, Myrrh-bearer)
No saint has been more freely reinvented in the modern imagination than Mary Magdalene — as gnostic heroine, as suppressed apostle, as secret wife. This section meets those claims directly and historically. It describes the Gospel of Mary accurately as a fragmentary gnostic text of the second century, neither a suppressed Gospel nor evidence of a married Magdalene; it traces the modern “bloodline” myth from its pseudo-historical sources to its bestselling fictional form and shows why the historical record refutes it; and it closes with the reception of the saint, where the Eastern Equal-to-the-Apostles and the Western penitent finally meet.
Files in This Section
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| The Gospel of Mary and Modern Myths | The Gospel of Mary (P. Oxy. 3525; P. Rylands 463; the Berlin Codex), its date, contents, and gnostic character; the “companion” passage of the Gospel of Philip; the modern “married to Jesus” claim of Holy Blood, Holy Grail and The Da Vinci Code; the refutation from the silence of all first- and second-century sources. |
| Reception and Legacy | The long afterlife: the Eastern Equal-to-the-Apostles and the Western penitent; the place of Mary Magdalene in art, hymnody, and popular devotion; the modern scholarly recovery of the un-conflated Magdalene; the standing of the saint in Orthodox veneration today. |
See Also
- The Three Marys — the conflation that the modern myths exploit
- The First Witness — the Gospel datum the myths displace
- The Provençal Legend — a medieval legend distinguished from a modern myth
- Holy Scripture — canon and apocrypha
References
- The Gospel of Mary of Magdala. Ed. and trans. Karen L. King, The Gospel of Mary of Magdala: Jesus and the First Woman Apostle. Santa Rosa: Polebridge Press, 2003.
- Ehrman, Bart D. Truth and Fiction in The Da Vinci Code. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.
- Bock, Darrell L. Breaking the Da Vinci Code. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2004.