Maria was the first witness – VG

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Since then he has become a mythical figure. Maria Magdalena has been portrayed as a former prostitute. Others have suggested that he came from a wealthy family. Some wonder if she was the bride of Jesus. She has been described as a seeker of knowledge and one of the followers who best understood Jesus.

But nobody knows. The fact that Mary Magdalene throughout the centuries has been perceived in a very different way is strongly influenced by who tells the story. In a patriarchal society, it was appropriate to portray her as a fallen woman. Today, she can be portrayed as strong and independent.

But reading the sources, the first writings on the life of Jesus, it becomes clear that Mary Magdalene violates the conventions in a society where women had few rights and were subordinate to men in everything. As a single woman, she breaks up with her family, leaves her home, and lives a wandering life.

Mary Magdalene follows Jesus on his path as a preacher and healer. The road leads to Jerusalem. There she witnesses his death. The most important thing happens two days later, at dawn, when Mary Magdalene goes to the tomb of Jesus and sees that it is empty.

According to the Gospel of John, he hears a voice, which he thinks is that of the gardener, who asks him why he is crying and who he is looking for. You want to know where the dead were transferred:

«Mary, in Jesus. Then he turned and said in Hebrew: Rabbuni, it means teacher.

Jesus says to him: – Do not touch me.

But he speaks to him and asks him to tell the disciples everything. He turns to the disciples and says: – I have seen the Lord.

This is the central line of Mary Magdalene in the Passover drama.

She is the first to see, believe and convey the message. This is how what will become a world religion begins. What was a small herd in Jerusalem has grown to 2.2 billion followers worldwide.

The disciples don’t believe him. Not until they experience the same thing later. As Alf Kjetil Walgermo points out in his book “Women of the Bible”, women at that time had no legal status as witnesses:

– In various denominations around the world, women are still subordinate to men in theological doctrinal matters. But the most important Christian teaching of all, that Jesus rose from the dead, was first preached by a woman to a man.

Mary came from Magdala on the western shore of the Sea of ​​Galilee. The evangelist Luke writes that she was one of the women who followed and served Jesus in Galilee. Luke writes that Jesus healed her from “seven evil spirits.”

Mary Magdalene was apparently highly regarded in Christian congregations. According to Greek tradition, he accompanied Mary, the mother of Jesus, and John to Ephesus, where he later died and was buried.

But in 591, Pope Gregory the Great declared that Mary Magdalene is identical to the unnamed woman in the Gospel of Luke called the sinner. Luke writes that the woman, who lived a sinful life, came to a place that Jesus was visiting with an alabaster jar of fine ointment. She cried, lubricated her feet and dried them with her long hair. Jesus said that his many sins are forgiven him: – That is why he has shown great love.

Thus arose the idea that Mary Magdalene was a former prostitute and a repentant sinner. In the visual arts of the Middle Ages, she was often depicted with a jar and long hair.

In Western church tradition, Mary of Bethany, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, Mary Magdalene, and the nameless sinful woman were believed to be the same person from the time of Gregory the Great until 1969. Now the Roman Catholic Church considers these three different women, as the Eastern Church has always done.

Maria Magdalena has finally been rehabilitated. At the request of Pope Francis, his commemorative day on the Catholic calendar has been elevated to party rank. In the Catholic Church, Saint Mary Magdalene is, among other things, the patron saint of women.

In the western tradition, the relics of Mary Magdalene were transferred to the south of France in the 11th century. They are now in the magnificent 12th-century Sainte-Madeleine Church in Vézelay, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

A thousand years ago a legend arose, which according to the biographies of the saints on the katolsk website is not without historical basis, that Mary Magdalene, Lazarus and Martha arrived as the first Christian missionaries to the south of France. Here it is said that Mary lived as a hermit in a cave near Aix-en-Provence.

Many other legends about Mary Magdalene were told in the Middle Ages. Then it became part of folklore. In our time, its history is presented in other shades of popular culture.

One example is Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s musical Jesus Christ Superstar, which was made into a movie in 1973. Here, Mary Magdalene plays a central role with a complicated relationship with Jesus. She sings: -I don’t know how to love him.

Dan Brown’s hit novel The Da Vinci Code (2003) was later made into a movie starring Tom Hanks. The story is based on a myth that Jesus and Mary Magdalene had a son who was born in France and became the origin of a royal family.

In the 2018 feature film Maria Magdalena, with Rooney Mara in the title role and Joaquin Phoenix as Jesus, she appears as a strong woman in a central role among the disciples. Here it is the family that will drive the evil spirits out of it, because it has put the family to shame with its independence and willpower. Jesus says it’s okay.

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The image of a human being who lived 2000 years ago is formed in an interaction of our attitudes, in our time. This is how the story becomes alive and relevant. Not surprisingly, powerful men in the church previously reduced her to a sinful woman. But in the original biblical texts, which these days are read in all the churches of the world, she is important. As one of the closest relatives of Jesus. And as a first witness.