Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code has attracted a lot of attention this past decade. People are fascinated by the notion that Da Vinci preserved a
true tradition that the official Church squelched—namely that Jesus and Mary
Magdalene were married, and that a secret order that included Da Vinci preserved
the true record over the centuries. The novel is a wonderful blend of fact, fiction,
and conspiracy theory woven into a kind of adventure in detective work. But it
is in the end a novel rather than an historical reconstruction like what we are
trying to do in class.
In class today, we will attempt to reconstruct the historical Mary Magdalene.
Start by reading the Gospel synopses that mention her, available online (see below).
You printed these two pages out earlier in the quarter; please bring them to class
today. Note again what is common and what differs. Then read the D'Angelo essay
in WCO (105-128) about the early development of the Magdalene tradition.
Next, read the excerpt from Dan Brown's book, The Da Vinci Code, and then
Bock's analysis of it (both articles on Camino). Determine the chief lines of Brown's
argument, and then list all the reasons you can, from your own reading of the
gospels, D'Angelo, and Bock, as to what is likely and not likely about Brown's
thesis.
The student excavator presenting today (if we have one) will focus on Nag Hammadi, the village in Egypt where the gnostic codices were discovered in 1945. Gnosticism flourished in Egypt, and today's group will introduce us not only to Nag Hammadi, but to the larger context of gnosticism in Egypt, for which little archaeological evidence has survived. The recently published Gospel of Jesus' Wife, pictured above (and see links/videos at the bottom of this page), probably belongs to this same gnostic context.
Assigned Readings
Primary: Gospel of Thomas Logion 114, Gospel of Mary 10 (CG); Gospel
synopses (ministry, death, burial and empty tomb), Luke 6:12-16 + 7:36-50
+ 8:1-3; Luke 10:38-42 + John 11:1-12:8 (CG)
Secondary:
Brown, excerpt from The Da Vinci Code, and Bock, "Was Jesus Married," pp. 31-45 in Breaking The Da Vinci Code (both on Camino); WCO 105-128 (Mary Magdalene), 273-82 (gnosticism); online class
prep
Koyzis, Nancy Calvert. "Re-sexualizing the Magdalene: Dan Brown's Misuse of Early Christian Documents in The Da Vinci Code." Journal of Religion and Popular Culture 12 (2006).
Olson, Carl E. and Sandra Miesel. The Da Vinci Hoax: Exposing the Errors in The Da Vinci Code. Fort Collins, Colorado: Ignatius Press, 2004.
Thompson, Mary R. Mary of Magdala: What The Da Vinci Code Misses, rev. ed. Mahwah, New Jersey:
Paulist, 2005.
Witherington, Ben, III. The Gospel Code: Novel Claims About Jesus, Mary Magdalene and Da Vinci. Downers
Grove , Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 2004.
On Mary Magdalene
Apostolos-Cappadona, Diane. "Images, Interpretations, and Traditions." In Interpreting Tradition: The Art of Theological Reflection (ed. J. Kopas; Chico, California: Scholars Press, 1984) 109-121.
Brock, Ann Graham. Mary Magdalene, The First Apostle: The Struggle for Authority. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
Dillenberger, Jane. "The Magdalene." In Women, Religion, and Social Change (ed. Y. Y. Haddad and E. B. Findley; Albany, New York: SUNY Press, 1985) 115-45.
Haskins, Susan. Mary Magdalene: Myth and Metaphor. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1993.
Malvern, Marjore M. Venus in Sackcloth: The Magdalen's Origins and Metamorphoses. Carbondale,
Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press, 1975.
Saxer, Victor. "Les saintes Marie-Madaleine et Marie de Bethanie dans la tradition liturgique et homiletique
orientale." Revue des Sciences Religieuses 32 (1958) 1-37.
Schaberg, Jane. The Resurrection of Mary Magdalene: Legends, Apocrypha and the Christian Testament. New York: Continuum, 2002.
Shoemaker, Stephen J. "Rethinking the 'Gnostic Mary': Mary of Nazareth and Mary of Magdala in Early Christian Tradition." Journal of Early Christian Studies 9 (2001) 555-95.
The Gospel of Jesus' Wife - In September 2012, Harvard Divinity School professor Karen L. King published a fourth-century Coptic papyrus fragment in which Jesus refers to someone (probably Mary Magdalene) as "My wife" and mentions that "she will be able to be my disciple." The document was later revealed to be a forgery, which was a bit of an embarrassment for both Dr. King and Harvard Divinity School. The link above takes you to a page with links to images, a transcription and translation of the papyrus, and scientific reports explaining the nature of the document (and the forgery).
In this video from the Harvard Divinity School, Dr. King introduces the manuscript.
Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code has attracted a lot of attention this past decade. People are fascinated by the notion that Da Vinci preserved a
true tradition that the official Church squelched—namely that Jesus and Mary
Magdalene were married, and that a secret order that included Da Vinci preserved
the true record over the centuries. The novel is a wonderful blend of fact, fiction,
and conspiracy theory woven into a kind of adventure in detective work. But it
is in the end a novel rather than an historical reconstruction like what we are
trying to do in class. 
In class today, we will attempt to reconstruct the historical Mary Magdalene.
Start by reading the Gospel synopses that mention her, available online (see below).
You printed these two pages out earlier in the quarter; please bring them to class
today. Note again what is common and what differs. Then read the D'Angelo essay
in WCO (105-128) about the early development of the Magdalene tradition.
Next, read the excerpt from Dan Brown's book, The Da Vinci Code, and then
Bock's analysis of it (both articles on Camino). Determine the chief lines of Brown's
argument, and then list all the reasons you can, from your own reading of the
gospels, D'Angelo, and Bock, as to what is likely and not likely about Brown's
thesis. 
