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Was Mary Magdalene Mrs. Jesus?
 - Many women embraced Dan Brown's 2004 novel, The Da Vinci Code, for its thesis that women had a greater role in the Jesus movement but men later suppressed it (Ron Howard directed a movie version in 2006). Who could deny that women's roles in many Christian denominations have been suppressed? Of course, Brown went a little further, arguing on the basis of some gnostic texts that Jesus and Mary were married and had a child.
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- You'll have the chance to read Brown, the gnostic gospels he bases his claims on, and critics of his thesis. We'll also read feminist Mary Rose D'Angelo's study of how Mary Magdalene evolves in the gospel tradition. Then you'll form your own judgment: Is Brown reading the gnostic evidence well? Is his view of Mary’s role indeed more liberating than the picture of her in the canonical gospels? In other words, is Brown a feminist?
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- Assigned Readings
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- Primary:
- Secondary:
- Mary Rose D'Angelo, "Reconstructing 'Real' Women in Gospel Literature: The Case of Mary Magdalene," in Women and Christian Origins (ed. Ross Shepard Kraemer and Mary Rose D’Angelo; New York: Oxford University Press, 1999) 105-128 (Camino)
- Dan Brown, chapter 58 from The Da Vinci Code (New York: Doubleday 2003) 242-50, 255-9 (Camino)
- Darrell L. Bock, "Was Jesus Married," in Breaking The Da Vinci Code: Answers to the Questions Everyone’s Asking (Nashville: Nelson, 2004) 31-45 (Camino)
- online class prep
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- Seminar Leadership Summary and Questions
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- Slides for Lecture
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- Today's Authors
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Mary Rose D'Angelo is an Associate Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame and a Visiting Scholar at the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry. She has published women, gender, sexuality, feminist theology and ethical questions in Christian Origins, ancient Judaism and the early Roman empire, particularly on the Roman political context of "family values" in emerging Christianity and early Judaism. |
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Dan Brown is a popular author of several best-selling novels, including The Da Vinci Code. His website notes that he is the son of a mathematics teacher and a church organist, and that he was raised on a prep school campus where he developed a fascination with the paradoxical interplay between science and religion. These themes eventually formed the backdrop for his books. He is a graduate of Amherst College and Phillips Exeter Academy. |
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Darrell L. Bock is Senior Research Professor of New Testament Studies and Executive Director of of Cultural Engagement at Dallas Theological Seminary. He is the author of over 40 books, including studies of Luke–Acts and the historical Jesus. He was president of the Evangelical Theological Society (2000–2001), is a consulting editor for Christianity Today. |
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- Further Reading
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- Apostolos-Cappadona, Diane. "Images, Interpretations, and Traditions." In Interpreting Tradition: The Art of Theological Reflection (ed. Jane Kopas; Chico, California: Scholars Press, 1984) 109-121.
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- Beavis, Mary Ann and Ally Kateusz, eds. Rediscovering the Marys: Maria, Mariamne, Miriam, Library of New Testament Studies, Scriptural Traces. New York: T&T Clark, 2020.
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- Brock, Ann Graham. Mary Magdalene, The First Apostle: The Struggle for Authority, Harvard Theological Studies 51. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2003.
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- Ehrman, Bart D. Peter, Paul and Mary Magdalene: The Followers of Jesus in History and Legend. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.
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- --------. Truth and Fiction in The Da Vinci Code. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.
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- Haskins, Susan. Mary Magdalene: Myth and Metaphor. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1993.
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- Hearon, Holly E. The Mary Magdalene Tradition: Witness and Counter-Witness in Early Christian Communities. Collegeville, Minnesota: Liturgical Press, 2004.
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- King, Karen L. The Gospel of Mary of Magdala: Jesus and the First Woman Apostle. Sonoma, California: Polebridge, 2003.
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- 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).
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- Malvern, Marjore M. Venus in Sackcloth: The Magdalen's Origins and Metamorphoses. Carbondale,
Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press, 1975.
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- Marjanen, Antti. The Woman Jesus Loved: Mary Magdalene in the Nag Hammadi Library and Related Documents, Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies 40. New York: E. J. Brill, 1996.
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- Penn, Michael. "Performing Family: Ritual Kissing and the Construction of Early Christian Kinship." Journal of Early Christian Studies 10:2 (2002) 151-74.
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- Schaberg, Jane. The Resurrection of Mary Magdalene: Legends, Apocrypha and the Christian Testament. New York: Continuum, 2002.
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- Warner, Marina. "The Penitent Whore." In Alone of All Her Sex: The Myth and the Cult of the Virgin Mary (New York: Vintage, 1976) 224-35 .
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- Witherington, Ben, III. The Gospel Code: Novel Claims About Jesus, Mary Magdalene and Da Vinci. Downers
Grove , Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 2004.
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- Acknowledgements
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