115 MARY FROM MAGDALA 115
This Mary is known from the common Gospels as one of those women who
provided for Jesus and the apostles out of their means. She was
perhaps a women who was healed by Jesus. She went with Jesus on the last journey to Jerusalem, witnessed the Crucifixion, followed to the burial and returned to
prepare spices. She did
find the tomb empty and had an interview with the risen Jesus. She has been confused with an
unnamed fallen women who
anointed Christ's feet The word
Magdala has
after that been misunderstood. She is not the sister of Lazarus and Martha.
The
Gnostic Christians did hide such
Gospels as "Gospel of
Mary" from the persecution of the anti-Gnostic majority.
Part was found 1896 in "The Akhim Codex"
and published by G R S Mead in his book "Fragments of a faith
forgotten"1900-1906. We read that Peter requests Mary to proclaim
what the Lord had revealed to her,
thus acknowledging the great
distinction which the Lord
had always permitted her above
all women. She tells them
what the Lord had appeared in a dream
.
Andrew and Peter
rejects her testimony. But pages are missing. The Nag Hammadi Library was
found 1945 and published 19978 with many Gnostic fragments as The Gospel of
Mary where the Lord speaks a Gnosis about nature and sin and sickness and death. Jesus says "the Son of Man
is within you. Follow after him. Do not lay down any rules beyond what I
appointed for you and do not give a
law like the lawgiver lest you be constrained
by it. Mary is the Saviour's beloved possessed of knowledge and reaching
superior to that of the public
apostolic tradition. Her superiority
is based on vision and private relation and is demonstrated in her capacity to
strengthen the wavering disciples and
turn them toward the Good. The Gospel of Mary was originally written in Greek
some time in the second century. Now do
we have fragments of
Coptic copies. The
confrontation of Mary with Peter is also found in the Gospel of
Thomas and in the Pistis Sophia
and the Gospel of the Egyptians.
Mary says once that the Lord has " prepared us and made us into
men" In the Gospel
of Thomas (114) do we find the same expression as
when the Lord says about Mary
" I will make a
man of her so that she is a
living spirit like a real man. Jesus says: each women who makes her self into a man shall enter heaven. This is a Gnostic expression or parable: each common soul is named a women but the
enlightened spiritual soul is
named a real man. These
types of parables may not be liked and not
understood by majorities of
people. But in old religious
parables is our higher nature often named divine man or son and the lower more human nature is equalled
to a women. That does not hinder Gnostics to write
about the highest
God as divine Mother.
It is one of the difficult problems that human words are not fitted to express
divine realities
In
the Gospel of Mary we may read that Peter says to Mary: "Sister, we know that the Saviour
loved you more than the rest of women.
Tell us the words of the Saviour you remember" Mary answered and said
What is hidden to you I will
proclaim to you. And
she began to speak to them these
words
She said
"I saw the Lord in a vision
and I said to him
Lord I saw you to day in a
vision.
He answered and said to me Blessed are you that you did not
waver at the
sight of me
For where the mind is there is the treasure
I said to him: Lord,
now does he who sees the vision
see it (through ) the soul
(or) through "the spirit" The Saviour answered and said He does not see through the soul
, not through the spirit, but the mind which (is) between the
two - that is (what) sees the vision and it is ( Here is
still missing pages) When Mary had said this she
fell silent since it was to this point that the Saviour had spoken with her. Andrew answered and said to the brethren: Say what you wish to say about
what she has said. I at least do
not believe that the Saviour said this
for certainly these teaching are strange ideas. Peter answered and spoke
concerning these same things. He questioned them about the Saviour: Did He really speak
with a women without our
knowledge (and) not
openly? Are we to "turn
about and all listen to her- Did
He prefer her
?
Then
Mary wept and said to Peter My brother Peter what do you think Do you think that I thought this up
myself in my heart or that I am lying
about the Saviour. Levi
answered and said
to Peter ....
you have always been
hot-tempered Now I see
you contended against
the woman like
the adversaries. But if the
Saviour made her worthy why are you indebted to reject her.
Surely the Saviour knows
her very well That is why he loved
her more than us. Rather let us be ashamed and
put on the perfect man…… ( We find here again the
expression "the
perfect" man)
and acquire him for ourselves as he "commanded us and preach the Gospel
not laying down any other rule or other
law beyond what the Saviour
said
GOSPELS from women with gnosis
are not many today but as said above we do find more and more fragments.
The Gnostic original Christians
did as Jesus speak about the Holy Ghost as divine Mother, of Christ,
of Gods and of all. In the Free Catholic Church and its
services is the Holy Ghost named
in the original Gnostic way as "the divine Mother, Theotokos in Greek, that is the Mother of God. In
the very old Egyptian, Jewish and
Indian religions we do find the same idea about the divine Mother. Messias was the "son of the
Queen" who in the Jewish rite was representing the motherhood of
God. Later on in
history we have
seen how God has
among exoteric common
Jews- Christians been
understood as only male. That
mistake has had bad result. But when now the
Gnostic fragments are coming back and
permitted we may believe that a more enlightened time comes The Lady Mary is for many Orthodox and Catholic branches a representative or even incarnation of the Universal Mother, Holy Ghost. Wisdom = Prajna Paramita of Buddhists, Isis
in ancient Egyptian Mysteries
and with other names in
gnosis of Indians
and in Jewish Kabala. Chinese Dragons
and words of Mohammed are remains of the same hidden Wisdom. The Free Catholic Church
does not abolish the Father-Mother-prophets of religions - only
restoring and pointing to the
non-manifested Pleroma