Rating: 
Summary: Wishful Thinking Meets Bad Scholarship
Review:
The actual gospel text contained in this book is rather interesting, if abstruse. But this gospel was probably not written by Mary Magdalene herself or even narrated by her, but only attributed to her -- an issue which the editors pass over entirely, taking the text at face value as a book that contains "authentic" teachings from the actual Mary Magdalene, who received them from the actual Christ upon his resurrection.
As for the editor's interpretation of this gospel, they have simply projected their fantasies onto the text. For example, from a very, very minimal text, the editors have concluded that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married to each other, or if they were not married, they at least had sex with one another. They conclude that Jesus passed his "secret" teachings to Mary Magdalene when he met her outside his tomb upon his resurrection (never having, I guess, gotten around during his lifetime to telling them to his other disciples, including Peter, upon whom Jesus expressly founded his church).
Piling assumption upon assumption, the editors conclude that Christ's "real" church is really to be found in Mary Magdalene's gospel, and not in all those "other" and "later" gospels (like Mark, Luke, etc.)
If I had been a Church Father, I would have burned this book and its authors -- not for heresy, but for bad scholarship and wishful thinking.
Rating: 
Summary: One of the Nag Hammadi discoveries
Review:
This is one of the scrolls found in the Nag Hammadi desert, in Egypt, in 1945, and is of more importance, from a religious standpoint, than the so-called Dead Sea Scrolls, which dealt more with legal and more mundane affairs and gave an insight into living conditions in the early centuries before the present era.
There is much information about the Nag Hammadi find in Professor Elaine Pagel's book, The Gnostic Gospels. I met her briefly several years ago, in New York. Only fragments of The Gospel of Mary Magdalene were found, of the total 19 pages. Pages 1-6 are missing, as are 11-14. However, the pages that were found and translated from the coptic are of great interest since they primarily purport to be quotations of Yeshua (better known by his Greek name, Jesus) and conversations between his disciples. A tension between Mary Magdalene, who is described as being closer to Yeshua than the others, and Peter, is evident: "How is it possible that the Teacher talked in this manner with a woman about secrets with which we ourselves are ignorant? Must we change our customs and listen to this woman? Did he really choose her, and prefer her to us?" Then Mary wept and answered him: "My brother Peter, what can you be thinking? Do you believe that this is just my own imagination, that I invented this vision? Or do you believe that I would lie about our Teacher?" Is his reaction only male chauvinism, or pure jealousy? The scrolls found in the Nag Hammadi are important because the Gnostics were opposed by the dominant Constantinians, who tried to stamp them and their writings out, and refused to allow them into the canon of the New Testament. I once heard that Constantine's scholars went into a room, and when they came out, said that the books included in the canon were chosen because they "jumped up on the table" of their own accord, and the ones that did not were not included. I can't verify the statement's truth, but it is no more far-fetched than some others. The antiquity of the Nag Hammadi books alone, as well as the subject matter, should make them as valuable as any of the other gospels. Joseph (Joe) Pierre
author of The Road to Damascus: Our Journey Through Eternity
and other books
Rating: 
Summary: Sorry "scholar mystics" she belongs to us all
Review: I give this work two stars for existing at all - I had not seen this early pre-gnostic treasure and am pleased indeed to read it.
The cover indicates the ideals of the commentator - in what appears to be a medieval shampoo ad featuring an anorexic waif with improbable hair for one so undernourished. One would imagine that if Our Lord wished to sanctify the flesh he'd chose a mate with rather more of it. A similar over-intellectual diagram-rich and flesh-fearing commentary is attatched - with very little power to illumune us on the probable real Magdalena figure - just more fans for Ally McBeal in a wig.
It seems to be a good idea to revisit her most famous scene - it pops in and out of the canon and two different gospels but reads like an eye-witness account - here let me translate it for you and add a few questions.
Magdalena
And all went to their homes,
Jesus to the Olive Mount,
At dawn to be seen once more in the Temple,
The people all around Him,
He seated and teaching them,
She dragged in
By the writers and nit-pickers.
Rabbi - we took her red-handed,
By Moses Law she must be stoned!
What say you to that? Teacher?
Jesus bent to the earth and with his finger Wrote
She before him.
They hard hassling for his answer.
That man among you who has no error:
He will now be first to stone her?
He again to the ground inscribing dirt.
First the eldest - shamed - went
Then the rest of them.
Only Jesus remained
The woman standing.
He then with straight back, softly:
Where are they? Is there no soul left to Damn you?
Not one sir?
Nor I woman. Go now be free of fault.
_______________________________
What sign, phrase or Signature of All Things did He write?
Who was she? Some whore, a girl as you or me, Pallas Athene?
Later, did she softly touch him, promise to be there for him:
At the eventual opening of Death?s Oven?
In that garden.
Was she very beautiful indeed?
Download the web version and skip the Gnostic spin.
Rating:
Summary: Sorry "scholar mystics" she belongs to us
Review: I give this work two stars for existing at all - I had not seen this early pre-gnostic treasure and am pleased indeed to read it.
It seems to be a good idea to revisit her most famous scene - it pops in and out of the canon and two different gospels but reads like an eye-witness account - here let me translate it for you and add a few questions. Magdalena And all went to their homes,
Jesus to the Olive Mount,
At dawn to be seen once more in the Temple,
The people all around Him,
He seated and teaching them, She dragged in
By the writers and nit-pickers.
'Rabbi - we took her red-handed,
By Moses' Law she must be stoned!
What say you to that? Teacher.'
Jesus bent to the earth and with his fingerWrote
She before him. They hard hassling for his answer.
'That man among you who has no error:
He will now be first to stone her' He again to the ground inscribing dirt.
First the eldest - shamed - went
Then the rest of them.
Only Jesus remained
The woman standing. He then with straight back, softly:
'Where are they? Is there no soul left to Damn you?'
'Not one sir' 'Nor I woman.Go nowbe free of fault.' _______________________________
What sign, phrase or Signature of All Things did He write?
Who was she? Some whore, a girl as you or me, Pallas Athene?
Later, did she softly touch him, promise to be there for him:
At the eventual opening of Death's Oven?
In that garden.
Was she very beautiful indeed?
Where where the essenes, gnostics and other anorexic flesh-despising scholar mystics (diagrams in pocket)? That's right - concealing their hardness in their robes "exeunt omnes". "Sawnterelles" all. Download the web version like the man says
Rating:
Summary: A Insightful Translation
Review: I was transfixed by the Gospel of Mary Magdalene. Jean Yves-Leloup has provided the reader with a beautiful esoteric interpetation of the words of Mary Magdalene. In the remaining pages left from this gospel, she reveals to the apostles' the words of Jesus and their deeper meaning. The fact that his words are delivered by a female, causes Peter some misgivings, but is eventually accepted as truth by the apostles' as the words resonate with power. Jean Yves-Leloup has given a line by line commentary that enlightens as it describes and is wise in it's explanations. Apart from the recent hoopla from popular books such as the DaVinci Code, this is a refreshing look at an important aspect of Chrisianity, the feminine divine, that has been overlooked and misplaced for centuries. Being a Roman Catholic, I truley believe that this and other gospels not in the bible do not take away from what we have always believed, but deepen and enrich our faith enormously.
Rating: 
Summary: Buddhist influence upon Jesus?
Review: If genuine, this fragment may show evidence of Buddhist influence upon Jesus & upon the Essenes, as it mentions SEVEN (7) levels of consciousness.
One must assume that Mary of Magdala & Jesus were possibly the only 2 apostles who could read & write fluently.
Rating:
Summary: Gnostic Gospels -- the very opposite of "feminist"!
Review: It's bizarre that so many people claim the Gnostic texts are "feminist" when they say such awful things about women.
The Gospel of Mary (5:1-7 = 9:5-20) and the Gospel of Thomas (114) both say that women must "become male" to be truly alive.
Redegg, in a review below, claims this is a mistranslation of the Greek word "anthropos." But the Greek versions of Gospel of Mary are very fragmentary; the only complete copy is in Coptic. Same with the Gospel of Thomas. And the the Coptic versions of _both_ these documents use a word which means "male", not "human". If this saying just means that Mary has to become "fully human", then why are the male disciples in Gnostic texts never required to become "fully human"? When Leloup translates this as "human" I think it's his biases creeping in -- he wants to believe this is a feminist text.
Sophia of Jesus Christ (118:3-15) says that women must become part of "the masculine multitude."
Dialogue of the Savior (37-39 = 144:11-146:7) has Jesus tell his disciples to "pray in the place where there is no woman" and to destroy the works of womanhood.
The canonical Gospels record that Jesus reached out to women even when it was countercultural. But humans are sinners, so many Christians since then have treated women badly. Just think how much worse it would have been if the Christian canon had included these Gnostic Gospels, and misogynists were given "proof" that Jesus was on their side!
Rating:
Summary: A clear look at a sometimes confusing text
Review: Jean-Yves Leloup has written a stunning commentary on the ancient Gnostic text, The Gospel of Mary. Discovered in the late 1800's and published with the more recently discovered Nag Hammadi Library, The Gospel of Mary has puzzled many readers because of its missing pages and esoteric language. This book will take much of the mystery out of this text for general readers and scholars alike. Most notable, I think, is the translation of "anthropos" as "human" rather than "man." This was a problem with the Gospel of Thomas as well; Jesus and the disciples make comments about women turning into men before they can find the Kingdom of God. At best, these comments were mystifying, and more than a few women found them to be shocking. With this translation, however, Leloup encourages us to think of the comments as meaning that women (and men) must become more spiritually aware before understanding the mysteries of Jesus' teachings. There is a little bit for everyone in this book, ranging from the original Coptic with facing English translation to an in-depth line by line commentary. It's more than enough to stimulate debate about Christianity's early developments, particularly relating to the authority of women.
Rating: 
Summary: Literary Armageddon
Review: Nearly all knowledgeable Biblical scholars realize there have been a wide range of writings attributed to Jesus and his Apostles..... and that some of these were selected for compilation into the book that became known as the Bible.....and that some books have been removed from some versions of the Bible and others have been re-discovered in modern times.
The attention focused on Gnosticism by Dan Brown's DaVinci Code may be debatable, but the fact is that increased attention on academics tends to be predominately positive, so I welcome those with first-time or renewed interest. At least first-timers to Gnosticism are not pursuing the oh-so-popular legends of the Holy Grail, Bloodline of Christ, and Mary Magdalene.
This is great......I seldom quote other reviewers, but there is one reviewer of Pagels' books who confided that he had been a Jesuit candidate and had been required to study a wide range of texts but was never was told about the Nag Hamadi texts. He said:
"Now I know why. The Gospel of Thomas lays waste to the notion that Jesus was `the only begotten Son of God' and obviates the need for a formalized church when he says, `When your leaders tell you that God is in heaven, say rather, God is within you, and without you.' No wonder they suporessed this stuff! The Roman Catholic Church hasn't maintained itself as the oldest institution in the world by allowing individuals to have a clear channel to see the divinity within all of us: they need to put God in a bottle, label the bottle, put that bottle on an altar, build a church around that altar, put a sign over the door, and create rubricks and rituals to keep out the dis-believing riff-raff. Real `Us' versus `them' stuff, the polar opposite from `God is within You.' `My God is bigger than your God' the church(s)seem to say. And you can only get there through "my" door/denomination. But Jesus according to Thomas had it right: just keep it simple, and discover the indwelling Divinity `within you and without you.'"
Here are quickie reviews of what is being bought these days on the Gnostic Gospels and the lost books of the Bible in general:
The Lost Books of the Bible (0517277956) includes 26 apocryphal books from the first 400 years that were not included in the New Testament.
Marvin Meyers' The Secret Teachings of Jesus : Four Gnostic Gospels (0394744330 ) is a new translation without commentary of The Secret Book of James, The Gospel of Thomas, The Book of Thomas, and The Secret Book of John.
James M. Robinson's The Nag Hammadi Library in English : Revised Edition (0060669357) has been around 25 years now and is in 2nd edition. It has introductions to each of the 13 Nag Hammadi Codices and the Papyrus Berioinensis 8502.
The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English (0140278079) by Geza Vermes has selected works....a complete work is more difficult to achieve than the publisher's marketing concept indicates. His commentary generates strong reactions.
Elaine Pagels has 2 books (The Gnostic Gospels 0679724532 and Beyond Belief : The Secret Gospel of Thomas 0375501568) that have received considerable attention lately. For many, her work is controversial in that it is written for popular consumption and there is a strong modern interpretation. She does attempt to reinterpret ancient gender relationships in the light of modern feminist thinking. While this is a useful (and entertaining) aspect of college women's studies programs, it is not as unethical as some critics claim. As hard as they may try, all historians interpret the past in the context of the present. Obviously there is value in our attempts to re-interpret the past in the light of our own time.
If you want the full scholarly work it is W. Schneemelcher's 2 volume New Testament Apocrypha.
Rating:
Summary: Comprehensive and thoughtful, at times inspiring
Review: The existence of the Gospel of Mary was brought to light in Cairo in 1896. Some fifty years later, what are now known as the Gnostic gospels were discovered in Nag Hammadi, Egypt. Jean-Yves Leloup provides here a fascinating interpretation and commentary of the Gospel of Mary, with a few rewarding diversions into other texts, including some surprising revelations, and his alternate translation of excerpts from other gospels. At the heart of this work is what amounts to a map of human spiritual potential, the essence of Jesus' goal as found in the Gospel of Mary, presented as a way of guiding those who would follow to become fully human.
The material is presented in two parts. Part One is the Coptic text and translation, presented in a simple layout of each page of Coptic text on the left, with the English translation (from French by Joseph Rowe, with some comparison to other translations) on the facing right-hand page. The original pagination is retained and line numbers are added, which correspond roughly, though not exactly, to the original. The text is brief, and there are several missing pages. Of the 19 original pages of script only 9 remain intact. I count 1,145 translated words in all. Though brief and fragmented, this is powerful reading. This gospel presents Mary as closer to her Teacher than is usually evident in the New Testament. It also suggests that her vision of the resurrected Jesus, who's often referred to in this gospel as the Teacher, was of a more spiritual than physical nature.
Part Two is the text with Leloup's commentary, which covers not only his interpretive theories regarding the text of the gospel, but much more. In explaining his reasons for his translation of certain passages and specific words, he also goes into his opinion on the translation of bits of the canonical gospels, retranslating the Beatitudes into a more empowering form by replacing "Blessed are" to create an inspiring and motivating challenge to action in this world, rather than awaiting rewards in the afterlife.
I'm personally intrigued by his translation of portions of the Gospel of Thomas, an added bonus in this comprehensive work. I won't go into all the points of interest I came across in this thoughtful translation and commentary. Let me simply conclude that I recommend it to anyone concerned with learning more about the non-canonical gospels, Christian or Gnostic history, Mary Magdalene and Jesus, the divine feminine, or nuances in translation of the gospels.
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