User talk:Sploinge

Mary Magdalene: A Battered Woman? Sploinge (talk) 19:51, 29 November 2012 (UTC) The Rev. Peter D. Snow

Mary Magdalene was a battered woman. Though it cannot be proven to the satisfaction of modern day standards of certainty, there is good reason to consider the possibility. A summary of the references to her found in the canonical gospels follows.

Mary Magdalene is mentioned fourteen times in the gospels, but only in three accounts do we have any information about her. In Luke 8:3 and Mark 16:9 we read that “Jesus cast out seven demons from her.” Of the list of women attending Jesus, (Luke 8:3 and Mark 16:1) she is mentioned first and is described as being one of those who had accompanied Jesus from Galilee. John gives the fullest reference to her as she stands with Mary, the mother of Jesus, before the cross, reports the empty tomb to Jesus’ disciples and then meets Jesus face to face. There is no textual reason why we should doubt these references. In John’s gospel Mary is at the tomb before first light.(John 20:1) “Why was she there before dawn?” In John’s gospel Jesus was laid in a new tomb,(John 19:41) and it is implied the owner is unknown. With the Sabbath approaching, the disciples had to leave the body in that tomb temporarily with rudimentary preparations. Why was Mary there before first light? Her early presence suggests she had been anxious about leaving Jesus' body there ever since Friday evening. She was there before anyone else could happen on the body. Twice Mary refers to her greatest fear. Her first response to the empty tomb is to cry out to the disciples, “They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don’t know where they’ve laid him.”(John 20:2) Her first question to Jesus whom she mistakes as the gardener is, “Sir, If you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” (John 20:15)  I think her fear all weekend was that the owner would hear of or happen upon the body in his tomb and order it thrown out. The empty tomb was her worst nightmare.

When she meets Jesus she does not recognize him but sees the person she most wants to see, namely someone who can tell her where Jesus’ body is. Mary is desperate and in despair. The anxiety that drove her to be there before anyone could discover the body, her worst fear proved right, the deep despair and the tunnel vision of her own expectation all describe someone who is no stranger to arbitrary incursions of evil in their life. These are the natural responses of a person who has experienced long term abuse.

The battered woman knows it is only a matter of time before ‘it’ will happen again, her pessimism dictates the worst will happen, and evil awaits its chance to strike again at any window of vulnerability. Leaving Jesus’ body alone in the cave would have been such an opportunity. Worst of all is the despair that the abused can’t win, even when they have finally made it to a safe place, their hope is fragile, and they know the demonic forces of the abuser can and will most likely appear when least expected and blow away everything they’ve built. This creates a state of hyper-vigilance and the assumption that your worst fears will be realized. Blame, guilt, self-reproach, hyper-vigilance and feeling responsible for everything is a part of the abused woman’s make-up. Trying to be quiet, not being noticed, making sure everything is to the abuser’s liking is followed by personal recrimination when there is a violent eruption. In John’s gospel Mary is acting out her need to be responsible. She is at the tomb before dawn to look after the body before anyone can find it. When Mary asks for the body she says ‘I will take it away’. She has appointed herself as guardian.

Luke’s reference to Jesus casting out seven demons from her is interesting confirmation of what we see in John. A victim of long term psychological, sexual and physical abuse develops various survival strategies. Denial, guilt, depression, post traumatic stress and even multiple personality disorders can overlap in a bewildering presentation of symptoms. Describing Jesus as healing her by evicting seven demons is descriptive of the process necessary to return her to a stable state. The next issue that confronts anyone who involves themselves with helping women suffering abuse is what to do with the person when she has regained some degree of mental stability. Invariably the abuser will turn up and take her back. Society 2,000 years ago would have blamed her for the problem, and allowed her no way of escape. What was Jesus to do once she was stable? One possible answer is that he sent her to Nazareth to be cared for and protected by his mother. How else could Jesus protect her after healing her and returning her to wholeness. This solution also provides the basis for the relationship between the two women and explains why they both finished up together at the foot of the cross. This interpretation is plausible, and it does not do violence to the text. The whole idea gives cohesion to Mary’s story, though such explanations may only be held lightly.

There are two objections to recent suggestions Mary Magdalene was married to Jesus. There is no evidence from any early sources especially of the first century to support any such idea. The second objection is if Jesus had healed Mary Magdalene as Luke and Mark describe, then their relationship, if personally intimate, would have been of a very unequal nature. For Jesus to take advantage of the situation and allow himself to become emotionally involved would have been potentially destructive for Mary if she were recovering from any disturbed state. When a personal, intimate relationship develops between patient and therapist, it is universally recognize as inappropriate. The above interpretation attributes to Mary Magdalene reason for a strongly motivated relationship with Jesus and supports her continued importance to the early church community thereafter. She was the first Apostle. See “Jesus: Man Not Myth”, page 244-247 and pages 395-402 Jesus: Man Not Myth. ISBN 1-935359-49-5 Author: Peter D. Snow