As anyone who pokes around the site knows, I do love the Da Vinci Code as a fictional piece; excellent thriller. I had a hard time putting it down even though I did not agree with it on a religious level. And as a side tangent, I am REALLY looking forward to the prequel of Angels & Demons that is coming out May 19, 2009! Angels & Demons was a better book than the Da Vinci in Becky and my opinions. But that is not what we are here to talk about is it!
Becky was reading another book that really sounded like Da Vinci Code and involved a hidden society, the bloodline of Jesus, and Mary Magdalene, of course all based loosely on what we are told is the Gospels of Mary. So the question is: What exactly is the Gospel of Mary?
The Gospel of Mary was found in Akhmim Codex in Cairo, Egypt, in 1896. It was then descovered in 1945 in the Nag Hammadi Library. It is written in Coptic and Greek, the only known copy is missing the first 10 full pages; making it impossible to get a clear picture of the overall message.
Just to set the record straight, in reading the Gospel of Mary, it no where names Mary as the head of the church as appointed by Jesus, nor does it mention at all that Jesus and Mary Magdalene had a romantic relationship. The books and movies and using this little read Gospel to spin a great tale of mystery and intrigue; and it works really well for the stories. It simply does not hold water in real life.
Now, many people feel that, due to the Da Vinci Code and other novels like it, it is a gospel that Mary Magdalene wrote after her time with Jesus. This is nowhere near true for two reasons. First the Gospel of Mary never states which Mary wrote it. There were six women named Mary listed in the New Testament; of these six, only three had relevance to the actual life of Jesus: Mary, His mother, Mary of Bethany, and Mary Magdalene. So in theory it ‘could’ have been written by any of them…except for point number 2!
The clincher that this is a fake is that the Gnostic teachings have dated the Gospel to be written in the late 2nd century A.D. at the earliest. This puts it at least 100 to 150 years after the death of Jesus Christ. And due to the language used, it appears that it was written in between the 3rd century A.D. from the Greek to the 5th century A.D. from the Coptic text. The Gospel of Mary was mentioned by some of the early church leaders as early as 3rd century A.D. and appears to be added to over the years that followed.
With the missing pages, the questionable source, and the dating of both the language, papers themselves, and content, it nullifies the Gospels of Mary as a valid source of information about Jesus Christ and the early church.
