On the Apocrypha---The Gospel of Mary

Q: What is your evaluation of this book? Is it a book to die for? Does it seem to you useful and/or interesting? Or is it a book you wouldn't mind seeing burned by government officials? Why?

http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/apocrypha.html


BG: RETRIEVED FROM http://www.gnosis.org/library/GMary-King-Intro.html

From the Introduction to:

The Gospel of Mary of Magdala:
Jesus and the First Woman Apostle

by Karen L. Kin

 Yet these scant pages provide an intriguing glimpse into a kind of Christianity lost for almost fifteen hundred years. This astonishingly brief narrative presents a radical interpretation of Jesus' teachings as a path to inner spiritual knowledge; it rejects his suffering and death as the path to eternal life; it exposes the erroneous view that Mary of Magdala was a prostitute for what it is-a piece of theological fiction; it presents the most straightforward and convincing argument in any early Christian writing for the legitimacy of women's leadership; it offers a sharp critique of illegitimate power and a utopian vision of spiritual perfection; it challenges our rather romantic views about the harmony and unanimity of the first Christians; and it asks us to rethink the basis for church authority. All written in the name of a woman.

The Gospel of Mary was written when Christianity, still in its nascent stages, was made up of communities widely dispersed around the Eastern Mediterranean, communities which were often relatively iso­lated from one other and probably each small enough to meet in someone's home without attracting too much notice.

Comment:

The first several chapters---the words the Savior said---sound to me like a collection from the other gospels. Several examples of comparison with other gospels as listed.
1)Mary4:29 He who has a mind to understand, let him understand.32,he who has ears to hear, let him hear
Matthew 11:15 He who has ears, let him hear.
Mark4:9 Then Jesus said, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."
2)Mary 5:9 Blessed are you that you did not waver at the sight of Me. For where the mind is there is the treasure.
Matthew6:21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Luke12:34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
3) Mary 4:34 Beware that no one lead you astray saying Lo here or lo there! For the Son of Man is within you.
Luke 17:21 Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.(KJV)
4)Mary 4: 36 Those who seek Him will find Him.
Matthew 7:7 Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.
Luke 11:9 So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.

Those listed above can all be found in the canons which is part of Jesus' teaching of different times. Thus it just feels so strange that at the end of the chapter 4, it writes "When He said this He departed." It seems it all came from preaching at one time.

Second, chapter 8 is the most interesting of all, the dialogue among desires, soul and ignorance, and the visions of the different powers of wrath like the seven sins. This is really beyond my poor understanding. Especially what the soul said in Mary 8:21: "What binds me has been slain, and what turns me about has been overcome," Does it mean the struggle of soul to get rid of the bind of body and be submissive to the spirit? Anyway, it's a little bit theatrical.

Third, the last argument in chapter9. It is not in accordance with that age, like an intentional writing arguing for women's rights, the modern verion story based on the ancient teaching.

I don't think this book worth one's life to protect it, at least we've the four gospels there.