Not only did Mary Magdalene meet these criteria, but she had the additional status of being the first witness to Jesus’ resurrection—even before Peter. The gospel of Luke explicitly rejects her status in this regard, characterizing the report of Mary and her entourage of women from Galilee and their claim to have “seen Jesus” as an “idle tale,” using language that in the culture of that time was particularly associated with the testimony of women. Mary Magdalene’s disqualification was based on her gender. Paul, for example, insists to his congregations:
The women should keep silence in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be subordinate, as even the law says. If there is anything they desire to know, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church. (1 Corinthians 14:34–35)
This silencing and subordination of women was carried into the next generation, long after Paul was dead. One of his successors paraphrased Paul’s position with even stronger language:
Let a woman learn in silence with all submissiveness. I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over men; she is to keep silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. (1 Timothy 2:11–13)12
The remedy for this Adamic curse upon women was that they “be saved through bearing children” (1 Timothy 2:15).
A WOMAN CALLED MAGDALENE
Mary Magdalene is referred to by name only twelve times in the New Testament gospels and never again in any of the other New Testament writings. As we have seen, she appears at the death scene of Jesus, his burial, and the empty tomb, and then disappears from the record. If the New Testament writings were all we had, we would be hard-pressed to say anything more about her. Before we move to an alternative world of early Christian texts outside the New Testament that present an entirely different picture of her status and relationship to Jesus and the twelve apostles, we want to briefly examine why she might be called Magdalene, distinguishing her from the other Marys in the gospel narratives—including Jesus’ mother and particularly, Mary of Bethany, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, with whom she has often been identified.
In the Greek texts of the gospels she is known by three slightly differing descriptions: Maria the Magdalene, Miriam the Magdalene, and Maria the one called Magdalene.13 The majority of scholars understand the designation “Magdalene” to refer to the city of Magdala (or Migdal in Hebrew) located on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee about seven miles north of Tiberius. The Greeks called the city Taricheia, referring to the pickling of salted fish from the Sea of Galilee, exported throughout the Roman Empire. According to Josephus, the 1st century Jewish historian, Migdal was walled on the west side and had a large aqueduct system, a theater, hippodrome, and a market. Josephus describes it in some detail.14
Josephus fortified the city as his headquarters when he became commander of the Jewish forces in Galilee in the 1st Jewish revolt against Rome (66–73 CE). It was culturally and commercially diverse, opulent, and fully exposed to Greco-Roman culture. Shortly after the first Jewish revolt against Rome broke out in 66 CE, the Roman military commander Vespasian, who was later to become emperor, surrounded the city with three Roman legions and laid siege. He stationed 2,000 archers on the mountain to the west overlooking the city. There was a great naval battle at its port and thousands of Jews, defenseless in small boats, were slaughtered. Josephus, an eyewitness, reports that the Sea of Galilee was red with blood, with stinking corpses filling its shoreline for days to follow. The city finally surrendered and opened its gates while thousands of inhabitants who had fled south toward Tiberius were slaughtered or exiled.15 1,200 older people were executed, 6,000 of the strongest sent as a gift to the emperor Nero, and 34,400 were sent off as slaves.
The city was apparently more Romanized than the nearby Jewish cities of Capernaum or Chorazin with a cosmopolitan Greek atmosphere.16 Ongoing excavations at Migdal, including the 2009 discovery of an ancient 1st century CE synagogue, will likely reveal much more as to what this important city was like.17 If Mary’s designation as “Magdalene” refers to her city of origin, placing her in that context gives us a glimpse into her possible background.
The Mariamene Mara ossuary in the Talpiot tomb, as well as that of Judah, the son of Jesus, are elaborately ornamented and the inscriptions are elegant and more formal in appearance than the graffiti-like name tags that many ossuaries exhibit. One is tempted to take Luke’s tradition at face value and imagine her as a cosmopolitan woman of independent means who was able, with her connections reaching even into Herod Antipas’s household, to head a sizable entourage of women who followed Jesus in Galilee and thus to wield considerable influence in the Jesus movement (Luke 8:1–3).
Even though the identification of Mary’s name with the city of Magdala seems to carry the most weight there are two alternative interpretations of “Magdalene.”
It is possible that “Magdalene” is a nickname, perhaps even given to Mary by Jesus. We know in the gospels that Jesus often gave his closest followers descriptive nicknames to characterize either their role in his movement or in some cases their personalities. For example, Simon son of Jonah, whom most people know as “Peter,” was given the nickname Cephas or Petros (Peter) in Aramaic and Greek respectively—“the Rock” or “Rocky” (Matthew 16:18). The two fisherman brothers James and John, sons of Zebedee, were nicknamed Boanerges, meaning “sons of Thunder,” apparently based on their aggressive personalities (Mark 3:17; 10:35–41; Luke 9:54). The apostle James was nicknamed “James the Less,” or “James the Younger,” either referring to his shortness of stature or his young age, and distinguishing him from the other James, son of Zebedee (Mark 15:40). Simon, another of the twelve apostles, was called “Simon the Zealot,” either referring to his militant bent or to his zeal for a cause (Luke 16:15). Since the name Magdalene comes from the Hebrew or Aramaic word migdal, meaning tower, perhaps she was given this name “Mary the Tower” as a description of her status or her strong personality.
Finally, there is a third option, less well known but interesting to consider in the light of the Talpiot tombs. It is found tucked away in the Talmud, the ancient written collection of rabbinic oral tradition that was put together between the 5th and 6th centuries CE. There is a strange story about two women named Miriam: one is a hairdresser, presumably referring to Jesus’ mother; the other is called Miriam the Megadla, meaning the “baby tender,” or the one who “grows” the child.18 We are convinced that these are cryptic references to Mary the mother of Jesus and Mary Magdalene.
One of the most fruitful new aspects of the study of the early development of Judaism and Christianity is the realization that Jews and Christians were living side by side both in the land of Israel and in the major urban centers of the Roman world between the 2nd century CE and the early Byzantine period (4th century CE). Both religions were thriving and both were seen by the dominant culture as strange and foreign due to their adherance to monotheism and their refusal to worship the emperor and participate in mainstream Greco-Roman religious and civic rites. Jews and Christians lived side by side and were in dialogue and debate with one another. For that reason there are many cryptic passages in the rabbinic literature of this period that refer to Jesus, his disputed paternity, his mother, his disciples, his teachings, and even his execution. These sharply polemical passages can seldom be taken as history per se, but they do reflect genuine debates and polemics between Jews and Christian in this time.19 This material has often been dismissed or ignored because of its complexity. It is also very difficult to date. But it should not be overlooked, because most of the other sources we have on Christianity come from its adherents, written for the purpose of promoting the Christian faith. For example, the late 2nd century philosopher Celsus, mentioned above, says that he based his primary knowledge of the Christians on listening to a Jew who knew the “inside” story that the Christians were trying to repress. What we can begin to construct fr
om the rabbinic materials is an alternative history by those who rubbed shoulders with Christians daily but strongly disputed their claims.
For this reason we believe that an interpretation of a more cryptic, coded meaning of Magdalene should be considered. Based on this tradition there were two Marys in Jesus’ life—his mother and the one who “grew” the baby. Since this appears to be what we might have in our 1st century Jewish tomb, it may be the best explanation for the name.
Finally, as with the possibility that the surname means “the Tower,” all three could be true. Nicknames often can have variant meanings and that is one reason they are so popular.
A MARRIED JESUS AND THE SILENCE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
Even though there is no explicit reference to Jesus being married in any of the four gospels or other New Testament writings, the silence might turn out to be less deafening than one would suppose. There are several factors one must consider in making the judgment that he lived a celibate single life.20
First, it is important to realize that we know very little about the historical Jesus. What historians are absolutely sure about could be written down on a single piece of paper. What we have in the gospels are not biographies of Jesus—far from it. They are theological presentations regarding his preaching, healing, and in particular the significance of his death and resurrection. They contain almost no personal information. The gospel of Mark, for example, never names or mentions Jesus’ father, while the gospel of John never names his mother. We have one childhood story, when he was twelve years old, and most scholars consider it a standard literary motif, not a historical account (Luke 2:41–52).21 We know nothing of his life beyond that point, including his teens and twenties, when most Jewish males were expected to marry.
Second, in regards to the twelve apostles, no wife is named for any of them. None of their children is mentioned or named—how many, what they did, or any personal details about them. Most of the twelve, with the exception of Peter, hardly speak at all in our gospel accounts—a few lines at most.
This silence hardly means that none of them was married. In fact, there is a reference to Peter’s mother-in-law, whom Jesus healed of a fever in Mark 1:30–31, but her name is never given. Paul refers to the wives of the other apostles and the brothers of Jesus, but again, no names are given (1 Corinthians 9:5). He even mentions that these women accompanied their husbands on their missionary travels. This is a culture in which countless women are largely forgotten and unknown, their voices muted by the dominant paternalism.22
Third, celibacy was not considered an ideal or valued lifestyle among Jews in the Greco-Roman period. Even though it is mistakenly believed that the Essenes, who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls, valued and practiced celibacy, this notion is likely an invention. The Essenes were one of the three major Jewish groups of this period, along with Pharisees and Sadducees. This misunderstanding stems from the reports of Josephus the Jewish historian (37–100 CE); Philo of Alexandria, a Jewish Hellenistic philosopher (20 BCE–50 CE); and Pliny the Elder, a Roman official (23–79 CE) about the Essenes. Each of these writers projected his own admiration of celibate idealism onto the Essenes, though each of them was married. Josephus, for example, makes the following observation about women and marriage: “They [the Essenes] do not absolutely deny the value of marriage, and the succession of the human race is thereby continued; but they guard against the lascivious behavior of women, and are persuaded that none of them preserve their fidelity to one man.”23
Such a negative attitude toward women by Josephus, who was married three times, has no basis in history. Philo writes: “[the Essenes] repudiate marriage; and at the same time they practice self-control to a remarkable degree; for no one of the Essenes ever marries a wife, because a wife is a selfish creature, addicted to jealousy and skilled at beguiling the morals of her husband and seducing him by her continued deceptions.”24 Pliny the Elder says that the Essenes “have no women and have renounced all sexual desire.”25 The Dead Sea Scrolls themselves tell a different story, and scholars give their testimony priority as primary sources.
The Dead Sea Scrolls, representing over six hundred texts of the period before and after the time of Jesus, were discovered hidden in caves along the northwest shore of the Dead Sea between 1947 and 1956. They never hint at celibacy; quite the opposite is true. Like other pious Jews of the time, they strictly adhered to the first commandment in the Torah: “Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the earth” (Genesis 1:28). The Scrolls are full of instructions about marriage, divorce, and avoiding fornication, or sex outside of marriage.26
Jesus and John the Baptizer have been rightly connected to the apocalyptic and messianic ideas in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Though neither was likely a formal member of the Dead Sea community, they shared these common ideas. Since the Dead Sea community is most often identified as Essenes, and it is mistakenly assumed that the Essenes practiced celibacy, the argument is often made that Jesus’ own celibacy arises out of this context.
It is the same with the rabbis that we know from this period. There are few explicit statements about rabbis being married in the rabbinic sources, but we can be sure that marriage was the norm and celibacy an anomaly. Entire tractates of Jewish law deal with marriage, divorce, and what is forbidden and allowed in terms of sexual behavior. We should assume that as a Jew of his time Jesus was married unless we have some evidence to the contrary.
Finally, the apostle Paul is the major Jewish figure of the time who does in fact commend, but not require, celibacy, based primarily on his notion that the end of the age has drawn very near (1 Corinthians 7:26, 29, 31). His was a “situational” celibacy, a practical choice one might make in view of the stressful times that he believed were imminent. Paul recommends celibacy for those who can handle a nonsexual life, but he knows most cannot and end up committing fornication (1 Corinthians 7:2).
It is entirely possible, even likely, that Paul had been married earlier in his life.27 He says that he “advanced in Judaism beyond many of his own age,” indicating that he had formal training as a Pharisee, presumably in Jerusalem (Galatians 1:14). Since for Paul the end of the age was at hand, he thought it inopportune to invest one’s life in a gendered humanity that was soon to be transformed into a state where there would be “neither male nor female.” Paul expected to live to see a cosmic transformation—a new creation in which birth and death, and mortal states of life in general would pass away.
One of the strongest indicators that Jesus was married comes from Paul directly. He quotes Jesus freely on the prohibition against divorce, but fails to use a celibate Jesus as his major model to support his position on celibacy (1 Corinthians 7:25). In fact he says quite the opposite, that when it comes to celibacy: “I have no command of the Lord, but I give my opinion as one who by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy” (1 Corinthians 7:25). Had Jesus been unmarried Paul would have undoubtedly said that all men should live like Jesus, following the celibate ideal espoused by the Lord, but he says nothing of the kind. In this case Paul’s silence strongly implies that he did not think Jesus was unmarried. Given these considerations one can conclude that there are reasons to believe that Jesus was married. And married people at that time usually had children, as the First Commandment required.
The reason it is so difficult for people today to think of Jesus as a normally married Jew of his time and culture has little to do with the fact that his wife and child are not mentioned in our meager sources. This belief is based instead on an ideal of Christian asceticism that began to develop among the church fathers and mothers early in the 2nd century CE. This asceticism was not based on any historical memory of an unmarried Jesus but rather upon Paul’s commendation of celibacy—now removed from its apocalyptic context. The celibacy these Christian leaders embraced was based on an aversion to the material world and the body, regarded as inferior to the unseen spiritual realities of the heavenly realms. Christians rejected the material world, even hated it with all its imperfections. They
turned their attention wholly toward the heavenly, nonmaterial world. This dualistic view of the cosmos owes little to the historical Jesus the Jew and everything to Hellenistic philosophy and its ascetic ideal.28 The negative view of women already so rife in the dominant cultural norms of the time was radically advanced by the Christian philosophers and theologians because women, and the sexual temptations they represented for men, were shunned as the ultimate obstacle to a higher spirituality. Tertullian, often called the “father of Latin Christianity,” best represents this radically misogynistic trend that remains deeply ingrained in Western Christian culture to this day. Although he believed that even women could be saved by God’s grace, he warned them that the whole responsibility for the human condition lay with Eve and her successors:
You are the gateway of the devil; you are the one who unseals the curse of that tree, and you are the first one to turn your back on the divine law; you are the one who persuaded him whom the devil was not capable of corrupting; you easily destroyed the image of God, Adam. Because of what you deserve, that is, death, even the Son of God had to die.29
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