Was Mary Magdalene a Prostitute?

[Proud_Democratt]

Some say she was an apostle and wealthy.
http://www.lisashea.com/hobbies/art/marymagdalene.html
http://www.marypages.com/MaryMagdalene.htm

[stellanoir]

1. Heck no

She was merely discredited and made to look so by the patriarchal order.

Wouldn't have wanted to be her. Yikes

[liberalnurse]

2. No, I think this is a nasty rumor

started by arrogant men.

[BrklynLiberal]

3. There are some that say she was turned into a prostitute around 400-500AD

when the church wanted to diminish the role of women within the church.
She has a very important role in the Gnostic Christian Scriptures.

The Gospel of Mary Magdalene
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gospel_of_Mary_Magdalene

[TallahasseeGrannie]

13. Damn!

She must have been some kind of woman, to be a 500 year old prostitute!

Okay, I'm kind of punchy.

[Inland]

23. *snort* nt

[Peace Patriot]

18. You got it, BrklynLiberal! They had to downgrade her role in the

so-called "synoptic" gospels (the ones we generally know as the "New Testament"), in order to counter the gospels that they were burning, some of them of much earlier (closer to Jesus in time) vintage, in which Mary Magdalene was the acknowledged leader of the apostles and the one who was known to have best understood Jesus' teachings. Jesus was simply NOT one to impose doctrines on people, and to create a hierarchical, monolithic, property-acquiring institution, allied with the state, such as the church became in the 5th Century under the rule of people like the murderous bishop Cyril of Alexandria. That much is clear even in the cleansed, edited "synoptic" gospels. "Love thy neighbor..." is what comes through--a simple message that was essentially denied to most people for the next thousand years or so, because of the church's monopoly of books, language and reading. And Jesus never said, "Love they neighbor with the exception of Gnostic Christians, Pelagians, heretics, Pagans, Jews, philosophers, and other 'different' people," all of whom Cyril & Gang began to persecute, kill, force baptism upon, burn at the stake, purge, anathematize and completely oppress, from the 5th century until about the 15th, when their horrible satanic spell over this religion began to be broken. Love they neighbor, period. No property. No power games. No oppression of others. No pogroms. No witchburnings. No exclusions. No "crusades." No wars. No projection of your own crimes onto others. No state-enforced doctrines. No baptisms "by the sword." No inquisitions. No hatred of women or of anyone else. No fear. Love thy neighbor. Pure and simple.

The more balanced Gnostic view of God the Mother and God the Father was anathematized and violently purged--along with the story of Mary Magdalene as the first Gnostic--or "knowing"--Christian.

She may possibly have been a priestess of the Goddess religion which considered sex to be a sacred act, which was conducted in a temple for the purposes of spiritual healing. But since these power-mongering "fathers" of the church hated the Goddess religion most of all--it would have been in their interest to degrade a priestess of the Goddess with derogatory terms. Why should a priestess of the Goddess, or even a common prostitute--one who trades money for sexual favors--be considered a lesser human being than someone else? WHY is it a derogatory term, is the question that should be asked--not whether she was or not?

And THAT is a long story--of the history of religion (and everything else) going back more than 10,000 years.

[BrklynLiberal]

22. Excellent synopsis.

There was something about this on TV a while back.It was about the Gnostic Christians. I cannot remember which channel. Obviously not one of the MSM.

Thanks Peace Patriot. :hi: :applause:

[Burning Water]

4. There is no

Biblical evidence that she was.

[Proud_Democratt]

16. Thank you!

[Patchuli]

5. No, she was demon-possessed

with 7 distinct demons until Jesus cast them out. Then she was one of his finest disciples and the first on the scene at the tomb to discover Jesus was risen...! She was a holy woman.

[Proud_Democratt]

7. That's from Mark 16:9

[Proud_Democratt]

6. In the KJV Bible...there no reference in the New Testament

using the word, "prostitute".

[okasha]

8. The KJV would use "harlot"

but there's no reference to MM by any such term, either. The first reference to her as a prostitute comes several hundred years after the gospels were written.

[Proud_Democratt]

9. Point taken

[flordehinojos]

10. yes. i have always heard say that she was (a prostitute)

today during EASTER MASS the priest spoke about her and her "history of infidelities" ... until she met Christ and became a FAITHFUL follower of his...to the point that, he said, "she could have been one of the twelve but unfortunately", he said, "she was a woman"...he points out, however, that it was SHE, not John, not Peter, not Phillip, not any of the twelve apostles, but SHE, the one who was chosen to ANNOUNCE THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST, and, he said, it was SHE, not Peter, not Paul, Not John, not Phillip, not any of the twelve apostles, the one who was not afraid to want to go and annoint the body of the Christ--even when in the Jewish tradition, touching the body of a dead person she would have been declared "UNCLEAN"...AND IT WAS SHE the one when, having reached the sepulchre of Christ, and not finding him there, HAD THE TEMERITY to ask a man who was not far away from the SEPULCHRE, "Sir where have they taken the Christ. Do you know where I can find him so I can bring him back?" and not until HE spoke her name did she recognize the CHRIST and then her blinders fell and she saw him again and on His instructions went out to tell the good news to PETER, PAUL, JOHN, PHILLIP AND ALL THE REST who were hiding, because they were afraid that they were going to be killed the same as the Christ had been killed.

[saltpoint]

11. Might have been, might not have been.

[BootinUp]

12. Here's an interesting article on that question.

http://www.danbrown.com/media/morenews/time.html

[Proud_Democratt]

15. I almost posted that article in the opening post

[xchrom]

14. she was a well off business woman.

and she was was one of the chief apostles in christ's lifetime and in the time after his ascension.

she is sometimes referred to as the apostle to the apostle.

[WoodrowFan]

17. not necessarily

that's the tradition, but that may be the result of combining several different women into one. While Mary Magdalene existed, the prostitute may have been another woman entirely...

[okasha]

19. The idea that MM was a prostitute

appears in the fifth century, just at the time that the Papacy was making an effort to discredit and prohibit women clergy. The other factor is a conflation between MM and the "sinner" who anoints Jesus feet.

[hedgehog]

21. I wonder about that.

Was it Pope Gregory the Great that conflated all the women in the New Testament? I'm wondering how well he could read the scriptures. I'm not saying he was stupid, it's just that in that time and place he may not have been as familiar with the Scriptures as we are simply because books were so expensive. It's not as if he could carry a Bible around with him.

[AnnieBW]

20. She Bankrolled Jesus' Ministry

From what I understand, she was a rich woman in her own right, and basically bankrolled Jesus' ministry.

Ironically, my very mundane parents are visiting from Pittsburgh this weekend. Both of them and my aunt, my Mom's younger sister, have all read "The DaVinci Code". We were at dinner on Good Friday discussing Mary Magdalene and her role. I started telling them stuff I've read in "Holy Blood Holy Grail" and other books, and my parents were impressed. I told them I'd read it before it was cool. Talk about bizarro world!

[Proud_Democratt]

24. The early Roman Catholic Church did this...