The Gospel of Mary Magdalene

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Summary: bloody mary
Review: I hate to say it but i havent read this book but, most stories of "bloody mary" are refrenced to her. If u dont know the idea is that u stand in front of a mirrior and say bloody mary 3 times and she will come kill your or some things like that well, anyone who is interstead in bloody mary sorry but she isnt real, well i didnt work for me anyway. it just scared me for a while...

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Summary: IT's Time to Go Deeper into Our Spirituality
Review: I have a difficult time with this book - I don't think Mary was married to Jesus, but I do think she was an apostle, and later scorned by the later male Christians because she was a woman. I see us as living now in a time of new thought - computers and Bible Code, newly found ancient manuscripts,as in the Dead Sea scrolls, the Thomas Gospel, and such books that teach people to use prayer and holy spirit for helping the FBI, finding missing children, etc as in Tiffany Snow's book Psychic Gifts in the Christian Life. Religion may have a bad name in many ways, but going deeper can put it all together, and strengthen spiritual values again. Its time to go deeper, but weigh it all out as you go, carefully.

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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.

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Summary: A Different Gospel Is Not the Gospel
Review: If these weren't spiritual matters it would blow me away that the authors of these Mary Magdalene books can so easily create doctrines and write off the Gospel of the New Testament based on obscure and questionable documents that only recently "surfaced." While writing off the faith of the historical and majority of Christiandom which is based on the Bible, they set forth a gospel of their own, decrying Biblical Christianity as ignorance while projecting their own views as "educated" and "scholarly". Their Gospel is definately different than that declared by Jesus, Paul, Peter, James, and other in the New Testament. The Gospel of the New Testament has the power to save. Jesus came to earth to die in the place sinful humanity so that whoever would put his only hope of being made right before God (justification) can have eternal life through Christ taking our punishment on himself. Paul has something to say about this sort of thing in his letter to the Galatians: "I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel-not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed (Galatians 1:6-9)"

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Summary: Terrific Book
Review: If you want a good book to read this pick this one up, you won't be dissapointed.

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Summary: make the semantic switch
Review: in a sense, magdalene was the first "christian"...

but now that mission [started by the misleading Petra Vati Canine(!)and "paul/saul"...AND carried to an extreme by the extremist doctrine and bigotry of Fundamentalism} has FAILED.

in that light, isn't it time we reclaim the hour, the era?

make the semantic switch:

yeshua was a "magdelinian"...

so....

hail set and the bloodline of sarah! the goddess returns to reset the ba'alance! hail

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Summary: "For it is within you"
Review: It is always interesting to look at the scriptures which were rejected by the early church leaders. In this instance it seems that two of the more threatening elements are probably the special emphasis placed on the Presence to be discovered and allowed to grow within us as well as the central position accorded to Mary Magdalene.

The format of the text is done in a highly readable style. You don't have to be an academic to understand it. The commentary is particulary good. The author highlights both the unique aspects of this gospel and also its similarities to the four canonical Gospels. Anyone interested in learning more about Mary Magdalene and the development of early Christianity will enjoy reading THE GOSPEL OF MARY MAGDALENE.

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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!

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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.

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Summary: Blatant B.S.
Review: Just another blatant attempt to corrupt the sacred scriptures. Elitest gnostic prattle that gives hope to those who would rewrite the Bible in order to create God in man's image instead of the reverse.