Almond, Philip C., 'Mary Magdalene: A Cultural History.' The Bible never suggests Mary . Mary Magdalene (sometimes called Mary of Magdala, or simply the Magdalene or the Madeleine) was a woman who, according to the four canonical gospels, traveled with Jesus as one of his followers and was a witness to his crucifixion and resurrection. There were three who always walked with the Lord: Mary, his mother, and her sister, and Magdalene, who was called his companion. [47] John 19:25 lists Mary, mother of Jesus, her sister, Mary, wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene as witnesses to the crucifixion. TV Shows. The Eastern Orthodox churches also commemorate her on the Sunday of the Myrrhbearers, the Orthodox equivalent of one of the Western Three Marys traditions. [68][69][76] They went inside and saw a young man dressed in white, who told them that Jesus had risen from the dead and instructed them to tell the male disciples that he would meet them in Galilee. [1][148][150] As early as the third century, the Church Father Tertullian (c. 160 225) references the touch of "the woman which was a sinner" in effort to prove that Jesus "was not a phantom, but really a solid body. Mary Magdalene[a] (sometimes called Mary of Magdala, or simply the Magdalene or the Madeleine) was a woman who, according to the four canonical gospels, traveled with Jesus as one of his followers and was a witness to his crucifixion and . Hopefully these questions will prove helpful as you watch episode 1 of The Chosen with your youth group. You can also purchase the DVDs of season 1 on Amazon if you're worried about trying to stream & do Zoom at the same time. Jesus heals her evil spirit(s) at the end of Episode 1. According to Gospel of Luke,[26] Jesus exorcised "seven demons" from Mary Magdalene. [47] Mark 15:40 lists the names of these women as Mary Magdalene; Mary, mother of James; and Salome. [169], In an eastern tradition supported by the western bishop and historian Gregory of Tours (c. 538 594), Mary Magdalene is said to have retired to Ephesus in Asia Minor with Mary the mother of Jesus, where they both lived out the rests of their lives. [254] They have never celebrated her as a penitent. The Chosen, a TV show on the Angel Studios' free streaming service, chronicles the life of Jesus and his many followers. She is mentioned several times in the Gospels as a devoted follower of Jesus who was present at his crucifixion and burial. [307] There is no historical evidence (from the canonical or apocryphal gospels, other early Christian writings, or any other ancient sources) to support these statements. I am glad and blythe that St Jerome should say so". [117] It contains information about the role of women in the early church. [67][68][69] According to Luke 24:112 a group of unnamed women went to the tomb and found the stone already rolled away, as in Mark. [293] Bahs have noted parallels between Mary Magdalene and the Bab heroine-poet Thirih. It hints at where the show is going: This passage takes place after Jesus' death and resurrection at the end of the Gospels. Let's look deeper into theses false stereotypes. Some fiction portrays her as the wife of Jesus. [185][187] Fourteen years after Jesus' crucifixion, some pagans throw Mary, Martha, Lazarus (who, in this account, is their brother due to a conflation with Mary of Bethany), and two other Christians named Maximin and Cedonius onto a rudderless boat in the Mediterranean Sea to die. The emperor laughed, and said that Christ rising from the dead was as likely as the egg in her hand turning red while she held it. [180][181] At first, the existence of the skeleton was merely asserted,[181] but, in 1265, the monks made a spectacular, public show of "discovering" it[181] and, in 1267, the bones were brought before the king of France himself, who venerated them. [36] By contrast, that Mary's exorcism receives little attention may indicate that either Jesus performed it privately or that the recorders did not perceive it as particularly dramatic. Menu. I have Bible studies/discussion guides for each episode of The Chosen Seasons 1-3, blogs exploring how The Chosen adapts key biblical figures, and articles exploring the controversial nature of adaptation. [145] A sermon attributed to Hippolytus of Rome (c. 170 235) refers to Mary of Bethany and her sister Martha seeking Jesus in the garden like Mary Magdalene in John 20, indicating a conflation between Mary of Bethany and Mary Magdalene. Season 2 Reflection P1: What is The Chosen Season 2 about? Deathcore band Chelsea Grin released a song called "Lilith" on their 2012 EP, Evolve. [160] Instead, Augustine praised Mary Magdalene as "unquestionably surpassingly more ardent in her love than these other women who had administered to the Lord". [97] These texts were written long after the death of the historical Mary Magdalene. Come and See is a devotional journal designed specifically for studying Bible movies and shows like The Chosen. The Chosen introduces a lot of characters and expects us to just keep up. [102] At another point, he tells her, "Well done, Mary. That is why he loved her more than us. Explain: The Chosen is a multi-season streaming series that's adapting the four Gospels. "[59], Post-modernist John Dominic Crossan has argued that Jesus' body was probably eaten by wild dogs. They are the first to find it empty. [88] He also says that the story of Mary Magdalene discovering the empty tomb is independently attested in the Synoptics, the Gospel of John, and in the Gospel of Peter. It is not about the sister of Saint Martha, nor about the sinful woman whose sins the Lord forgave. Jane Schaberg adds Geoffrey of Vendme (c. The story of . [300] The gospel, at least in its current form, clearly and consistently identifies the disciple as having masculine gender, only ever referring to him using words inflected in the masculine. woman was called Lilith. [70] This passage made no mention of Mary Magdalene, the other women, or the story of the empty tomb at all,[71][72] but rather credits Simon Peter with having been the first to see the risen Jesus. And others took it a step further, that Jesus and Mary Magdalene got married and had a child, which morphed into the earth-shattering secret at the heart of "The Da Vinci Code." She had coveted with earthly eyes, but now through penitence these are consumed with tears. [277] Anglican Christians refer to her as a saint and may follow her example of repentance;[278][279] While some interpret the Thirty-Nine Articles as forbidding them to call upon her for intercession,[280] other Anglicans, citing the Episcopal burial service, say they can ask the saint to pray for them. [170][171] Gregory states that Mary Magdalene was buried in the city of Ephesus. When Nicodemus encounters her, we discover that the evil spirit that is possessing her is named Lilith. Release Calendar Top 250 Movies Most Popular Movies Browse Movies by Genre Top Box Office Showtimes & Tickets Movie News India Movie Spotlight. Over time, the Western artistic tradition repeatedly depicted Mary as a prostitute and the mistaken association got stuck in the cultural consciousness. [320] The extremely late Greater Questions of Mary, which has not survived, allegedly portrayed Mary not as Jesus' wife or partner, but rather as an unwilling voyeur. [184] Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume gradually displaced Vzelay in popularity and acceptance. Mary Magdalene is never called Lili or Lilith in the Bible. "[101] The narrator commends Mary stating "she spoke this utterance as a woman who understood everything. Jusino based his argument largely on the Nag Hammadi Gnostic books, rejecting the view of Raymond E. Brown that these books were later developments, and maintaining instead that the extant Gospel of John is the result of modification of an earlier text that presented Mary Magdalene as the Beloved Disciple. In particular, Mary is often shown naked in the legendary scene of her "Elevation", where she is sustained in the desert by angels who raise her up and feed her heavenly manna, as recounted in the Golden Legend. [210] John Calvin (1509 1564) not only rejected the composite Magdalene,[210][207] but criticized Catholics as ignorant for having ever believed in it. They are legendary and mythological. A kneeling Magdalene by Giotto in the Scrovegni Chapel (c. 1305) was especially influential. "[90][6], Casey challenges this argument, contending that the women at the tomb are not legal witnesses, but rather heroines in line with a long Jewish tradition. [243], Mary Magdalene at the foot of the cross during the Crucifixion appears in an eleventh-century English manuscript "as an expressional device rather than a historical motif", intended as "the expression of an emotional assimilation of the event, that leads the spectator to identify himself with the mourners". Later Jewish tradition described a demonic figure known as Lilith in a variety of ways. The entire series, especially Episode 1, heavily features a character named Mary Magdalene. Can you think of moments when you may need to be reminded that God is with you? [165] This composite depiction of Mary Magdalene was carried into the Mass texts for her feast day: in the Tridentine Mass, the collect explicitly identifies her as Mary of Bethany by describing Lazarus as her brother, and the Gospel is the story of the penitent woman anointing Jesus' feet. [210], During the Counter-Reformation, Roman Catholicism began to strongly emphasize Mary Magdalene's role as a penitent sinner. [276], Modern Protestants honor her as a disciple and friend of Jesus. [185] The wife dies in childbirth and the governor leaves her on an island with the still-living infant at her breast. [281] The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America honors Mary Magdalene on July 22 as an Apostle, albeit as a Lesser Festival. In the modern vernacular, a "red light district" is a term that refers to an area of the city known for prostitution, strip clubs, and other immoral establishments. While watching the show, I made occasional comments through the chat but I tried to not do too much teaching - I wanted the youth to enjoy The Chosen and not just see it as an elaborate preaching illustration. In the Bible, Mary Magdelene is a follower of Christ. [161] The notion of Mary Magdalene specifically being a former prostitute or loose woman dates to a narrative in an influential homily by Pope Gregory I ("Gregory the Great") in around 591,[153][162][149] in which he not only identifies Magdalene with the anonymous sinner with the perfume in Luke's gospel and with Mary of Bethany, the sister of Martha and Lazarus,[149] but also, for the first time, explicitly identifies her sins as ones of a sexual nature:[149]. [234][237] It was also criticized by many Christians, who were offended by the film's use of extracanonical source material. [176] Under the influence of stories about other female saints, such as Mary of Egypt and Pelagia,[176] painters in Italy during the ninth and tenth centuries gradually began to develop the image of Mary Magdalene living alone in the desert as a penitent ascetic. [311] There would have even been precedent for it, since the earlier Italian Renaissance painter Fra Angelico had included her in his painting of the Last Supper. Mary Magdalene was the first eyewitness of the Risen Christ, and for this reason she was also the first to bear witness to him before the Apostles. In the Bible, there is no indication that Nicodemus met Mary Magdalene or that he tried to heal her or exorcise her evil spirits. [218] Edgar Saltus's historical fiction novel Mary Magdalene: A Chronicle (1891) depicts her as a heroine living in a castle at Magdala, who moves to Rome becoming the "toast of the tetrarchy", telling John the Baptist she will "drink pearls sup on peacock's tongues". [1][148][149] The misconception likely arose due to a conflation between Mary Magdalene, Mary of Bethany (who anoints Jesus' feet in John 11:112), and the unnamed "sinful woman" who anoints Jesus' feet in Luke 7:3650. Do you believe Jesus knows you by name? By noting how Mary is in the "Red Quarter", The Chosen is implying that she is a prostitute. "Mary Magdalene Saint or Sinner? [71][73][74] Despite this, all four canonical gospels, as well as the apocryphal Gospel of Peter, agreed that Mary Magdalene, either alone or as a member of a group, was the first person to discover that Jesus' tomb was empty. [47] Ehrman, who previously accepted the story of Jesus' burial as historical, now rejects it as a later invention on the basis that Roman governors almost never allowed for executed criminals to be given any kind of burial[58] and Pontius Pilate in particular was not "the sort of ruler who would break with tradition and policy when kindly asked by a member of the Jewish council to provide a decent burial for a crucified victim. [181] On December 9, 1279, an excavation ordered by Charles II, King of Naples at Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume, Provence, led to the discovery of another purported burial of Mary Magdalene. [6] According to E. P. Sanders, the reason why the women watched the crucifixion even after the male disciples had fled may have been because they were less likely to be arrested, they were braver than the men, or some combination thereof. [304], Dan Brown's 2003 bestselling mystery thriller novel The Da Vinci Code popularized a number of erroneous ideas about Mary Magdalene,[305][306] including that she was a member of the tribe of Benjamin, that she was Jesus' wife, that she was pregnant at the crucifixion, and that she gave birth to Jesus' child, who became the founder of a bloodline which survives to this very day. In the Golden Legend, De Voragine dismisses talk of John and Mary being betrothed and John leaving his bride at the altar to follow Jesus as nonsense. Shoemaker, Stephen J. The latter depictions represent the Penitent Magdalene, according to the medieval legend that she had spent a period of repentance as a desert hermit after leaving her life as a follower of Jesus. [16][34][35] The Gospels writers normally relish giving dramatic descriptions of Jesus' public exorcisms, with the possessed person wailing, thrashing, and tearing his or her clothes in front of a crowd. Mary then proceeds to describe the Gnostic cosmology in depth, revealing that she is the only one who has understood Jesus' true teachings. [267] Because of Mary Magdalene's position as an apostle, though not one of those who became official witnesses to the resurrection, the Catholic Church honored her by reciting the Gloria on her feast day the only female saint so honored apart from Mary, the mother of Jesus. Just long enough to make this point: Adaptations often add, change, and leave out details, because what works in a book isn't always the same as what works in television or film. There are no textual variants in extant New Testament manuscripts to contradict this,[301] and thus no physical evidence of this hypothetical earlier document. The creators of The Chosen probably chose this name because it is associated with demons in Jewish traditions. (Jesus), What about Jesus' identity does this hint at? [142][143] The sermon also explicitly identifies Mary Magdalene and the other women as "apostles". [115], The Gospel of Mary is the only surviving apocryphal text named after a woman. [107] In saying 21, Mary herself asks Jesus the perfectly innocuous question, "Whom are your disciples like? [107] Some scholars believe that at least a few of these sayings may authentically be traced back to the historical Jesus. The rest of the disciples [were offended by it and expressed disapproval]. [94] He does conclude later, however, that Mary Magdalene must have been one of the people who had an experience in which she thought she saw the risen Jesus,[95] citing her prominence in the gospel resurrection narratives and her absence everywhere else in the gospels as evidence.[95]. In the TV series Once Upon a Time, Lilith is the daughter of Maleficent. In all the four canonical gospels, Mary Magdalene was a witness to the crucifixion of Jesus and, in the Synoptic Gospels, she was also present at his burial. [168] Starting in around the eighth century, Christian sources record mention of a church in Magdala purported to have been built on the site of Mary Magdalene's house, where Jesus exorcized her of the seven demons. [260][261][262], According to Darrell Bock, the title of apostola apostolorum first appears in the 10th century,[152] but Katherine Ludwig Jansen says she found no reference to it earlier than the 12th, by which time it was already commonplace. Narrative Ambiguity & Charitable Reading, The Chosen: 6 Good Friday & Easter Episodes, The Rings of Power, LOTR, and Bible Adaptation, Amazon Prime's The Rings of Power & The Challenges of Biblical Adaptation, In Defense of The Chosen and Other Christian Movies, Books, & Media (Part 1), In Defense of The Chosen and Other Christian Movies, Books, & Media (Part 2), Imagining Mary Magdalene (5 More Bible Adaptations While You Wait for The Chosen Season 2), Yussif, Jairus, & Shmuel in The Chosen (Adapting Biblical Characters), Reflecting on The Chosen Season 3 & Anticipating Season 4: What Worked & What to Fix, Ears to Hear (Exploring The Chosen Season 3 Episode 7 with Youth or Small Group), The Chosen Season 3 Episode 7 & Episode 8: Recap, Review, & Analysis, The Feeding of the 5,000 (Exploring The Chosen Season 3 Episode 8 with Youth or Small Group), Pontius Pilate & His Wife in The Chosen (Adapting Biblical Characters), Intensity in Tent City (Exploring The Chosen Season 3 Episode 6 with Youth or Small Group), Clean Part 2 (Exploring The Chosen Season 3 Episode 5 with Youth or Small Group), Clean Part 1 (Exploring The Chosen Season 3 Episode 4 with Youth or Small Group), Physician, Heal Thyself (Exploring The Chosen Season 3 Episode 3 with Youth or Small Group), Two by Two (Exploring The Chosen Season 3 Episode 2 with Youth or Small Group), Little James in The Chosen & Scripture (Adapting Biblical Characters), Homecoming (Exploring The Chosen Season 3 Episode 1 with Youth or Small Group), 2022 BY THE BIBLE ARTIST. Bible movies & shows like The Chosen provide us with fresh eyes to see the significance of the Bible and the beauty of the Gospel. [151] The sermon describes the conflated woman as a "second Eve" who compensates for the disobedience of the first Eve through her obedience. [11] The whole family returns to Marseille, where they meet Mary again in person. The first part of the gospel deals with Jesus' parting words to his followers after a post-resurrection appearance. See a Roman centurion fill Lilith/Mary s sight, a suggestion that the woman have. She is also believed to have been the first witness to the resurrection of Jesus. `Abdu'l-Bah said that Mary traveled to Rome and spoke before the emperor Tiberius, which is presumably why Pilate was later recalled to Rome for his cruel treatment of the Jews (a tradition also attested to in the Eastern Orthodox Church). In The Chosen, Nicodemus meets Mary Magdalene in Season 1, Episode 1. [] Hence she came to be called "the apostle of the Apostles". [118][119] The text was probably written over a century after the historical Mary Magdalene's death. [167] Not only John Chrysostom in the East (Matthew, Homily 88), but also Ambrose (De virginitate 3,14; 4,15) in the West, when speaking of Mary Magdalene after the resurrection of Jesus Christ, far from calling her a harlot, suggest she was a virgin. [209] Because the cult of Mary Magdalene was inextricably associated with the Catholic teaching of the intercession of saints,[210] it came under particularly harsh criticism by Protestant leaders. "John Rivera, "Restoring Mary Magdalene" in "Worldwide Religious News", "Pseudo-Rabanus Maurus' Life of Mary Magdalene and her sister Martha Magdalen College Oxford", "Mulieris Dignitatem, John Paul II, 15 August 1988 Apostolic Letter", "St. Mary Magdalene, Disciple of the Lord - Information on the Saint of the Day", "The liturgical memory of Mary Magdalene becomes a feast, like that of the other apostles, 10.06.2016", "J. Frank Henderson, "The Disappearance of the Feast of Mary Magdalene from the Anglican Liturgy" (2004), pp. [55] Maurice Casey concurs that the presence of Mary Magdalene and the other women at the crucifixion of Jesus may be recorded as an historical fact. once. Not she with trait'rous kiss her Saviour stung,Not she denied Him with unholy tongue;She, while apostles shrank, could danger brave,Last at His cross, and earliest at His grave. [207] Luther, whose views on sexuality were much more liberal than those of his fellow reformers,[208] reportedly once joked to a group of friends that "even pious Christ himself" had committed adultery three times: once with Mary Magdalene, once with the Samaritan woman at the well, and once with the adulteress he had let off so easily. For every woman who makes herself male shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. [16][19][20] Mary was, by far, the most common Jewish given name for girls and women during the first century,[16][c][21] so it was necessary for the authors of the gospels to call her Magdalene in order to distinguish her from the other women named Mary who followed Jesus. [171], Starting in early High Middle Ages, writers in western Europe began developing elaborate fictional biographies of Mary Magdalene's life, in which they heavily embellished upon the vague details given in the gospels. [101] In saying 53, the Dialogue attributes to Mary three aphorisms that are attributed to Jesus in the New Testament: "The wickedness of each day [is sufficient]. [10] She was never mentioned in any of the Pauline epistles or in any of the general epistles. Mary Magdalen , so called either from Magdala near Tiberias on the west shore of Galilee, or, possibly from a Talmudic expression MNRLA SY`RA NSYYA, i.e." curling women's hair", which the Talmud explains as of an adulteress. There are a few Bible passages that I thought were helpful to discuss the first episode of The Chosen. Initially Mary doesn't recognize Jesus. [42][43][44] Carla Ricci notes that, in lists of the disciples, Mary Magdalene occupies a similar position among Jesus' female followers as Simon Peter does among the male apostles. Many characters and stories are based on events in the Gospels, but there are also characters and events that the creators made up to tie things together. [10] Instead, it received its title because it is about her. [6] In his book published in 2014, Ehrman rejects his own previous argument,[91] stating that the story of the empty tomb can only be a later invention because there is virtually no possibility that Jesus' body could have been placed in any kind of tomb[91] and, if Jesus was never buried, then no one alive at the time could have said that his non-existent tomb had been found empty. Mary Magdalene According to the Bible. Thayer and Smith. "The Saintly Sinner: The Two-Thousand-Year Obsession with Mary Magdalene". [319] None of the canonical gospels imply such a thing[320] and, even in the late Gnostic gospels, where Mary is shown as Jesus' closest disciple,[320] the relationship between them is not sexual. They (will) undress in their presence in order to let them have back their field and to give it back to them". [268] In his apostolic letter Mulieris Dignitatem ("On the dignity and vocation of women", parts 6769) dated August 15, 1988, Pope John Paul II dealt with the Easter events in relation to the women being present at the tomb after the Resurrection, in a section entitled 'First Witnesses of the Resurrection': The women are the first at the tomb.