Mary?!
"Who was Mary Magdalene?" reads a National Geographic headline tucked behind Apple News to entice me, continuing, "Historians are still trying to figure that out." Been years since I've had a subscription to National Geographic. Never a subscription to Apple News and not biting now, so I'll miss that article. Besides, you and I can speculate just as well as historians and scholars, not to mention theologians, eh?
She's named Mary Magdalene or Mary of Magdala to tell that she's from Magdala. Where is/was that? There are lots of maps, including (above) a NASA map of the Sea of Galilee, marked with towns to show maybe which town was meant.
Obviously, she was a Jew or she wouldn't have been hanging with Jesus in the first place. If Jesus and family had relocated from Nazareth to Capernaum by then, maybe Mary Magdalene was in the group of families with kids who joined up as they traveled to Jerusalem for festivals. Boys and girls did have crushes and fall in love in those days too: maybe she and Jesus were childhood crushes and high school sweethearts.
Traveling on business years ago, I used to ride a ferry from Connecticut across to Long Island on my way to an aerospace facility over on the northeast side, and driving up a steep hill into the first town I always passed a church marked Infant Jesus Catholic Church. It seemed almost exquisitely precious at the Time, but after all, why not? Indeed, why not Teenage Jesus Episcopal Church for that matter. There are apocryphal gospels that deal with Jesus as a boy, and there's only the most innocent of thoughts that Jesus wasn't a real boy with all that goes along with. So, maybe Mary Magdalene was indeed special to him. There are hints that she was his wife, and the musical "Jesus Christ, Superstar" plays well into the idea that they were at least Significant Others:
"I don't know how to love him,What to do, how to move him.I've been changed, yes, really changed.In these past few days when I've seen myselfI seem like someone else.
I don't know how to take thisI don't see why he moves me.He's a man, he's just a man.And I've had so many men beforeIn very many ways:He's just one more
Should I bring him down? Should I scream and shout?Should I speak of love - let my feelings out?I never thought I'd come to this - what's it all about?
Don't you think it's rather funnyI should be in this position?I'm the one who's always beenSo calm, so cool, no lover's foolRunning every showHe scares me so.
I never thought I'd come to this - what's it all about
Yet, if he said he loved meI'd be lost, I'd be frightened.I couldn't cope, just couldn't cope.I'd turn my head, I'd back away,I wouldn't want to know -He scares me so.I want him so.I love him so."
Otherwise, why was Mary alone weeping at the tomb on Easter morning? The tender exchange: "If you've taken him away, tell me," and "Mary?!" Writing two maybe three generations later, how does Gospel John know what was said in that intimate conversation? At least that part's easy: Gospel John is the storyteller, they said whatever he says they said.
There's also an apocryphal Gospel of Mary Magdalene, readily accessible online, with indications of their relationship. Who was Mary Magdalene? IDK for sure, and neither does anyone else, but speculation is always fun, and evidently the question still sells magazines.
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Supper last night and Wednesday night, matzo ball soup. Breakfast this morning, smoked leg of lamb sandwich: superior.
Life is Good and Every Day Is A Beautiful Day, and this morning for the first day in a long Time, I don't feel ninety + years old.
RSF&PTL
T88&c