"If Jesus chose a woman to be a leader and a teacher, that would change everything. It would make Christianity more believable."
I laughed out loud at that—in a good way. The wisdom of children.
The Gnostic gospels, like the canonical gospels, were directed at different audiences, different faith communities. Christianity was not a monolith in the first century.
For the record, none of the gospels say, specifically, that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute. That came from the male hierarchy later on. So there's that, too.
Kids see it so much clearer sometimes. And you’re right, MMs alleged status as a reformed prostitute was not a biblical claim, but a papal interpretation by Pope Gregory that stuck for over a thousand years, shaping how the Church and culture viewed MM. I think the Catholic Church corrected it in the 60s, but the damage had already been done.
I believe your intense searching, exploring and reading is admirable. I am sure one day it will ultimately lend the fruit you are seeking if you continue on your path. If I may, and if you do not mind I would like to address a few of your points however for your own further examination and research.
Tragically it is often sold the Orthodox Church “buried” the gnostic gospels. Which is to say, ultimately as it seems you’re suggesting, the Orthodox Church rejected the very truth they claimed to uphold and buried the actual truth they were seeking. In 1 Timothy 3:15, Paul stated clearly, “the Church is the pillar and ground of the truth.” This was already believed by 40-50 AD, because Jesus made it clear just a few decades earlier that he would “Build His Church.”
Please understand that the New Testament we have today was not fully codified until around 367 AD, i.e. the Church had to make a decision about the letters that were circulating and some of the claims being made. The books that found their way into the New Testament canon had either their origin in one of Christ’s apostles, or one who either saw Christ (i.e. Paul) or had their origin in a work along side one of the apostles such as the physician Luke (Gospel of Luke, book of Acts.)
Many of the gnostic writings were determined to be well after the apostolic age, made some fanciful claim about Christ. Ultimately, one can find very rich and deep historical documentation of the debates between church bishops and theologians with gnostic writers. This is to say they were not buried. Their works were read, they were discussed, and even some of their ideas found debates and discussions in Church wide ecumenical councils. You can find in many places in the New Testament where Paul was already saying he was giving what was handed on to him (Corinthians for example.) The Orthodox Church has always gone with what was handed on. They will never shy away from debating and discussing that which is questionable, but ultimately again as Paul said in Thessalonians “hold to the traditions.” The Orthodox Church does not hold to late traditions, made up ones or those held to for power’s sake, but traditions that reflect what was given at Pentecost and by Christ’s apostles.
Along with the theological debate, please also consider the Christian persecution that happened in the first centuries of the Church. These Christians chose persecution rather than deny what they were handed on. One can study persecution up through the Bolshevik revolution to even our day to find a common thread in orthodox martyrdom by holding to what was always handed on.
Your article takes a bold step. I encourage you not to give up your pursuit but also not to ignore the rich theological history within Orthodoxy that debated these very issues.
Your comment is so well received! Thank you for all this information. I will definitely keep searching and looking to understand the early church and some of the decisions that were made. I will be looking into the debates, so thank you for telling me there is documentation. That’s very intriguing to me. Things are rarely black and white. I suspect some of the Gnostic writings were rightly kept out, but I haven’t found a good reason for why Mary’s was kept out. Thank you for providing me all this information and for your encouragement. Sounds like you have a lot of knowledge on the issue.
I love getting to know your son while having a peek at what you are reading. The world will be well served by adult men like him and I look forward to exploring Elaine Pagel's work. If we want to restore the divine feminine to its rightful place, we need to uncover history and retell the story. Thanks for the inspirational post.
the changing of the names in Papyrus 66 (The word ‘Maria,’ (or Mary) had been altered, with the Greek iota symbol – the ‘i’ –scratched out and replaced with a ‘th’ that changed the name to ‘Martha.’ And in a later verse, a woman’s name was replaced with ‘the sisters.’) … these are the things that let me know there’s much that was buried, burned, altered and left out.
This also leads me to believe as perhaps you are Priscilla, that the Feminine Spirit, the Sacred Divine Feminine Presence is calling us all to see that if we limit our experiences to 66 books, that we are truly missing the greater part of the “Great Exchange” between Jesus and Mary Magdalene…
I can use my holy imagination for what’s missing, for what’s been left out, for what’s been buried or mistranslated and see clearly what Jesus wanted us to see… to know… and to believe…
Keep pressing in and pressing through and give your son another vote… divine knowing is within.
Thank the Lord, my mother woke me up in the late 80's. She was considered a witch because in the deep south, they could not hear anything else from what they believed. I believe the Bible says, there are many paths to me. HMM. My mother taught me the gnostic beliefs and I continue to believe them. Thanks Priscilla for bringing this back once again. I hope people listen now.
You and your son keep up the good work!! He will always remember it.
It needs to be shouted from the roof tops!! Good trouble!!
What an interesting and thought-provoking idea. It definitely makes me want to learn more. Patriarchal Christianity has never set well with me, and it would make sense that men in power, such as in the Catholic church, would want to suppress the idea of a woman holding a strong position next to Jesus. We see this repeated in so many ways, in various contexts.
Priscilla, I am so happy to find you. Wow you have it all right here. You are words are soothing balm and bomb to patriarchal ideals.
Your son is so intuitive.
Where woman aren’t after thought. Mary was the 1st disciple when we read carefully. Early church erasure! No holy mother. Ooops that’s a brutal mistake. Eve the revealer - yes.
Sin isn’t our essence.
Great essay what if we reframe the entire story.
The invitation to look inward and find our sovereignty.
I love this, all of it. We are whole already.
Thank you. I look forward to reading more.
Well done.
Your light shine so bright for this entire essay. I was theology student many years ago. I studied the nósticos texts and had a massive transformation about myself as a woman born into Catholicism. I was part of the women’s ordination conference to ordain women.
Thank you, Lauren. There is so much to discover and think about. I’m excited to read more, share what I learn, and just step back and feel how each piece of information sits in my soul.
It really does. Of course Jesus, the teacher of radical love, would see beyond gender and include women and see them as worthy disciples and teachers. The fact that I didn’t question all this sooner saddens me. I just accepted that he was bound by the time he lived in, even though he was radical in every other way and not bound by customs. This demonstrates to me how much patriarchy seeps into my own way of thinking. 🧐
Beautifully said. The tragedy is not that these teachings were lost—only that so many still prefer them buried. A Jesus who entrusts Mary with the transmission, a Divine that dances in both feminine and masculine, a Gospel that begins not with shame but with awakening—this is not a threat to the faith, it’s the faith finally exhaling.
As for your son: wise beyond his years. May he grow up to see that the true heresy was never in Mary’s words, but in the silencing of them.
Read on. The buried Light is always worth digging up.
Your son is a wise old soul. Thank for your sharing your's and his story.
I have long believed Mary Magdalene was one of the disciples. Long before I knew about the Gnostic texts. But by the early 80s I had heard about and read Mary's Gospel and it all made so much more sense to me.
It never made sense to me that Jesus wouldn’t include women in his circle. He always talked about love and inclusion and bringing everyone together. Learning about Mary and how close they were just makes sense in light of his teachings.
"This isn’t theological trivia. These stories shape how we ... raise our children, and imagine our worth. They shape us in ways we don’t even understand whether we believe them or not."
Indeed this is NOT trivial. Thank you for writing it out. I appreciate your son's voice and understanding here, too.
I have long understood that our definition of and relationship with God necessarily defines how we parent. And our parents, as our first "gods", necessarily colors our view of God. If God is an angry, punishing parent to you, then you will parent like that because you think it is good and right. How MANY generations have been parented in that way?! How deep in our very DNA and collective consciousness?!! It took concerted effort to parent differently from how I was raised, and I know now that the change works have been easier if my definition and understanding of God had been changed first.
Believing in a loving God that carries both male and female characteristics and energy that sees us as innately good and worthy, that can’t help but change how you parent not only your own children but your own inner child. What we are taught about our worth and fundamental goodness matters so much. ❤️
Exactly. Both. My children are now parenting children, and I am thankful to see them parenting even more differently than I. Better and better.
I was correcting a granddaughter once, a couple of years ago, and my daughter said, "Mom! You don't have to scowl when you are correcting." Oh! Right!!!! Duh! 🤦♀️
Talk about enacting "Sinners in the hands of an angry god"! 😬 I didn't believe anymore that children are innately sinful or that God is an angry, vengeful corrector, but behavior patterns ingrained from childhood are habitual, default programming. Thankfully, it can be easily changed when it's brought to awareness!!
"If Jesus chose a woman to be a leader and a teacher, that would change everything. It would make Christianity more believable."
I laughed out loud at that—in a good way. The wisdom of children.
The Gnostic gospels, like the canonical gospels, were directed at different audiences, different faith communities. Christianity was not a monolith in the first century.
For the record, none of the gospels say, specifically, that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute. That came from the male hierarchy later on. So there's that, too.
Kids see it so much clearer sometimes. And you’re right, MMs alleged status as a reformed prostitute was not a biblical claim, but a papal interpretation by Pope Gregory that stuck for over a thousand years, shaping how the Church and culture viewed MM. I think the Catholic Church corrected it in the 60s, but the damage had already been done.
Yes! Elaine Pagels helped me see how much more diverse (and feminine) the early church was. Thanks for sharing this m
Elaine Pagels is amazing. She’s so knowledgeable, and I can’t get enough of reading her work.
I believe your intense searching, exploring and reading is admirable. I am sure one day it will ultimately lend the fruit you are seeking if you continue on your path. If I may, and if you do not mind I would like to address a few of your points however for your own further examination and research.
Tragically it is often sold the Orthodox Church “buried” the gnostic gospels. Which is to say, ultimately as it seems you’re suggesting, the Orthodox Church rejected the very truth they claimed to uphold and buried the actual truth they were seeking. In 1 Timothy 3:15, Paul stated clearly, “the Church is the pillar and ground of the truth.” This was already believed by 40-50 AD, because Jesus made it clear just a few decades earlier that he would “Build His Church.”
Please understand that the New Testament we have today was not fully codified until around 367 AD, i.e. the Church had to make a decision about the letters that were circulating and some of the claims being made. The books that found their way into the New Testament canon had either their origin in one of Christ’s apostles, or one who either saw Christ (i.e. Paul) or had their origin in a work along side one of the apostles such as the physician Luke (Gospel of Luke, book of Acts.)
Many of the gnostic writings were determined to be well after the apostolic age, made some fanciful claim about Christ. Ultimately, one can find very rich and deep historical documentation of the debates between church bishops and theologians with gnostic writers. This is to say they were not buried. Their works were read, they were discussed, and even some of their ideas found debates and discussions in Church wide ecumenical councils. You can find in many places in the New Testament where Paul was already saying he was giving what was handed on to him (Corinthians for example.) The Orthodox Church has always gone with what was handed on. They will never shy away from debating and discussing that which is questionable, but ultimately again as Paul said in Thessalonians “hold to the traditions.” The Orthodox Church does not hold to late traditions, made up ones or those held to for power’s sake, but traditions that reflect what was given at Pentecost and by Christ’s apostles.
Along with the theological debate, please also consider the Christian persecution that happened in the first centuries of the Church. These Christians chose persecution rather than deny what they were handed on. One can study persecution up through the Bolshevik revolution to even our day to find a common thread in orthodox martyrdom by holding to what was always handed on.
Your article takes a bold step. I encourage you not to give up your pursuit but also not to ignore the rich theological history within Orthodoxy that debated these very issues.
Your comment is so well received! Thank you for all this information. I will definitely keep searching and looking to understand the early church and some of the decisions that were made. I will be looking into the debates, so thank you for telling me there is documentation. That’s very intriguing to me. Things are rarely black and white. I suspect some of the Gnostic writings were rightly kept out, but I haven’t found a good reason for why Mary’s was kept out. Thank you for providing me all this information and for your encouragement. Sounds like you have a lot of knowledge on the issue.
I love getting to know your son while having a peek at what you are reading. The world will be well served by adult men like him and I look forward to exploring Elaine Pagel's work. If we want to restore the divine feminine to its rightful place, we need to uncover history and retell the story. Thanks for the inspirational post.
Thank you, Judith! And I’ve not forgotten I owe you a piece of writing. I’m sorry I dropped the ball, but I will get one to you.
Mary Magdalene,
the 1946 mistranslation,
the changing of the names in Papyrus 66 (The word ‘Maria,’ (or Mary) had been altered, with the Greek iota symbol – the ‘i’ –scratched out and replaced with a ‘th’ that changed the name to ‘Martha.’ And in a later verse, a woman’s name was replaced with ‘the sisters.’) … these are the things that let me know there’s much that was buried, burned, altered and left out.
This also leads me to believe as perhaps you are Priscilla, that the Feminine Spirit, the Sacred Divine Feminine Presence is calling us all to see that if we limit our experiences to 66 books, that we are truly missing the greater part of the “Great Exchange” between Jesus and Mary Magdalene…
I can use my holy imagination for what’s missing, for what’s been left out, for what’s been buried or mistranslated and see clearly what Jesus wanted us to see… to know… and to believe…
Keep pressing in and pressing through and give your son another vote… divine knowing is within.
Shelly, I love this comment so much. Yes to all of this!
Absolutely Priscilla.. we are all rising…
As a child, a friend showed me
A picture of Jesus.
I thought she looked very kindly
With her long golden locks
And her white ankle length dress
Then I looked closer.
And noticed
She had a beard
I've been confused
Ever since
Thank the Lord, my mother woke me up in the late 80's. She was considered a witch because in the deep south, they could not hear anything else from what they believed. I believe the Bible says, there are many paths to me. HMM. My mother taught me the gnostic beliefs and I continue to believe them. Thanks Priscilla for bringing this back once again. I hope people listen now.
You and your son keep up the good work!! He will always remember it.
It needs to be shouted from the roof tops!! Good trouble!!
I love this comment, Scooter. Thank you so much for sharing this. Sounds like your mother was my kind of lady, making good trouble. ❤️
Keep writing!!
Thank you! ❤️
Makes way more sense. My grandson is very wise.
What an interesting and thought-provoking idea. It definitely makes me want to learn more. Patriarchal Christianity has never set well with me, and it would make sense that men in power, such as in the Catholic church, would want to suppress the idea of a woman holding a strong position next to Jesus. We see this repeated in so many ways, in various contexts.
History—always repeating itself until we acknowledge it and decide to change it.
Priscilla, I am so happy to find you. Wow you have it all right here. You are words are soothing balm and bomb to patriarchal ideals.
Your son is so intuitive.
Where woman aren’t after thought. Mary was the 1st disciple when we read carefully. Early church erasure! No holy mother. Ooops that’s a brutal mistake. Eve the revealer - yes.
Sin isn’t our essence.
Great essay what if we reframe the entire story.
The invitation to look inward and find our sovereignty.
I love this, all of it. We are whole already.
Thank you. I look forward to reading more.
Well done.
Your light shine so bright for this entire essay. I was theology student many years ago. I studied the nósticos texts and had a massive transformation about myself as a woman born into Catholicism. I was part of the women’s ordination conference to ordain women.
Prajna! Wow, it sounds like I could learn a lot from you. I’m so glad we’ve found each other. ❤️
Love this. Here for it. Excited for more.
Thank you, Lauren. There is so much to discover and think about. I’m excited to read more, share what I learn, and just step back and feel how each piece of information sits in my soul.
You're so generous to include us in that process 🥰
This is an amazing piece, thank you.
I love your child's response. It does make Christianity more credible.
It really does. Of course Jesus, the teacher of radical love, would see beyond gender and include women and see them as worthy disciples and teachers. The fact that I didn’t question all this sooner saddens me. I just accepted that he was bound by the time he lived in, even though he was radical in every other way and not bound by customs. This demonstrates to me how much patriarchy seeps into my own way of thinking. 🧐
So true
Beautifully said. The tragedy is not that these teachings were lost—only that so many still prefer them buried. A Jesus who entrusts Mary with the transmission, a Divine that dances in both feminine and masculine, a Gospel that begins not with shame but with awakening—this is not a threat to the faith, it’s the faith finally exhaling.
As for your son: wise beyond his years. May he grow up to see that the true heresy was never in Mary’s words, but in the silencing of them.
Read on. The buried Light is always worth digging up.
— Virgin Monk Boy
A “faith finally exhaling”-yes! I love that, and I love your Substack. ❤️
Your son is a wise old soul. Thank for your sharing your's and his story.
I have long believed Mary Magdalene was one of the disciples. Long before I knew about the Gnostic texts. But by the early 80s I had heard about and read Mary's Gospel and it all made so much more sense to me.
It never made sense to me that Jesus wouldn’t include women in his circle. He always talked about love and inclusion and bringing everyone together. Learning about Mary and how close they were just makes sense in light of his teachings.
When something feels right, it just feels so settled like an ah-ha moment.
My dad was raised Quaker, and he taught us to question everything in the Bible. When I told him I believed MM was a disciple he supported that belief.
Sounds like your dad was a wise man. ❤️
"This isn’t theological trivia. These stories shape how we ... raise our children, and imagine our worth. They shape us in ways we don’t even understand whether we believe them or not."
Indeed this is NOT trivial. Thank you for writing it out. I appreciate your son's voice and understanding here, too.
I have long understood that our definition of and relationship with God necessarily defines how we parent. And our parents, as our first "gods", necessarily colors our view of God. If God is an angry, punishing parent to you, then you will parent like that because you think it is good and right. How MANY generations have been parented in that way?! How deep in our very DNA and collective consciousness?!! It took concerted effort to parent differently from how I was raised, and I know now that the change works have been easier if my definition and understanding of God had been changed first.
Change the beliefs and the actions will follow.
Believing in a loving God that carries both male and female characteristics and energy that sees us as innately good and worthy, that can’t help but change how you parent not only your own children but your own inner child. What we are taught about our worth and fundamental goodness matters so much. ❤️
Exactly. Both. My children are now parenting children, and I am thankful to see them parenting even more differently than I. Better and better.
I was correcting a granddaughter once, a couple of years ago, and my daughter said, "Mom! You don't have to scowl when you are correcting." Oh! Right!!!! Duh! 🤦♀️
Talk about enacting "Sinners in the hands of an angry god"! 😬 I didn't believe anymore that children are innately sinful or that God is an angry, vengeful corrector, but behavior patterns ingrained from childhood are habitual, default programming. Thankfully, it can be easily changed when it's brought to awareness!!