this is stuff you like and for my second
patreon requested episode we're going to
be talking about Jesus Christ Superstar
yay(!) but this episode I'd like to talk
about Mary Magdalene because really
Andrew Lloyd Webber even the Catholic
Church had got around to correcting
their mistake by the time you made this
musical and yet you still got it wrong.
Mary Magdalene: almost certainly not a
prostitute. This is of course assuming
that she and Jesus existed and suchlike
but if you take that as read on the
balance of evidence it's just not likely.
Mary Magdalene is mentioned about a
dozen times from the Gospels which is
more than any other woman who wasn't
Jesus actual mother, who was also a Mary.
And I'm going to be saying Mary and Mary
Magdalene because that is the
character's name and that is the
anglicized version of the name but
really I mean Miriam. Miriam basically
being the first century Judean version
of Chris. Look she's not that Chris. See
in the book of Exodus Miriam is a sister
of Moses and Aaron and she's a prophet
and she's the leader of the Hebrew women
and if you're thinking to yourself wow I
bet in first century Judea that was a
really popular name for girls you would
be correct! Others include Mary the
mother of Jesus, Mary the sister of
Martha, Mary the mother of James and
Joseph, and Mary the mother of Clopas.
yeah I know imagine trying to keep
your Marys straight it would have been
a nightmare. But we're talking Mary
Magdalene which is to say Mary of
Magdala because it's not so much her
name as her place of origin here are the
things that we learned about Mary in the
Gospels: one she is a woman from whom
Jesus cast seven demons; two she's one of
the women who support Jesus financially;
and three she's one of the first
witnesses to the resurrection. So where
did this idea of Mary as prostitute come
from? A sermon by Pope Gregory in the
sixth century he got his Marys crossed,
and it took the Catholic Church until
1969 to go whoops our bad maybe that
wasn't the same person. There is an awful
lot of rot talked about Mary Magdalene
like I once saw an article which claimed
that she got associated with
prostitution in the great church history
game of telephone no no it was Pope
Gregory in a sermon in the 6th century
we know exactly when it happened
there is no prior record of her being
referred to as a prostitute none. I saw
another one that came out around the
time of The Da Vinci Code which while
correctly claiming that Mary Magdalene
was probably not married to Jesus also
made the extraordinary claim that she
was
serving dinner at the Last Supper. You
know look if you're going to claim to be
canonical at least be canonical that
said the article was correct that there
isn't any evidence that she was married
to Jesus either I mean come on if your
husband had just died and then came back
to life and you saw him standing in
front of you with the first thing you
yelled be teacher I mean it wouldn't be
the first thing I would say. But here's
the thing that is canonical: Mary
Magdalene it was one of the women who
were financial benefactors of Jesus and
you've really hammered this point home I
don't know a ton about prostitution in
the first century Roman Empire but I'm
gonna guess that it wasn't terribly
lucrative for the women involved (just a
hunch)
plus if people got their knickers in a
knot about all the time Jesus spent
hanging around undesirable people like
tax collectors you'd think that someone
would mention them carping about Mary
Magdalene right but nope. benefactor of
Jesus witness to the resurrection one of
the women who traveled with him and nary
a word about her background other than
from Magdala. Was she important to the
Jesus Movement? Heck yes. you can tell a
lot about how significant someone is
based on where they come in a list of
names in the list of women who went to
anoint Jesus body she comes third after
Jesus mother and Jesus aunt. In every
other list she's mentioned in she comes
first but as to this version nah I'm not
buying it, and that incidentally goes
double for some kind of Da Vinci Code-esque
conspiracy about her being the mother of
Jesus children too. Kay? Kay. Well next
time we are diving into the meat of
Jesus Christ Superstar hooray(!) so I will
see you then
if you'd like to support the show and
make me review terrible things you
monsters you can exercise your
preferences on patreon otherwise I will
see you next time!
