The Demoniac: Mary Magdalene

I'm studying about the exorcism that Jesus Christ delivered.

He ministered to Mary Magdalene, these are some reblogged entries from another blog.

Magdalene was a Christian leader, not a repentant prostitute

By Victor Greto, for The Gazette

Who is Mary Magdalene? A prostitute and sinner who repented after Jesus saved her from being stoned by a mob -- the same Mary who then saw the risen Christ first?

According to some Christians and scholars, it's time to rethink the prostitute and stoning stuff.

Mary Magdalene is becoming a role model for women who expect more important roles for themselves in their respective churches. And scholars use Mary Magdalene as a symbol of the important role of women in early Christianity, as they work out the implications of recently discovered ancient literature.

The current reform of Mary Magdalene has centuries of church and art tradition to overcome. The non-biblical image of Magdalene as a repentant prostitute is an image that had been officially sanctioned by the Roman Catholic Church in the sixth century. And it's that image that has been perpetuated by dozens of Christian paintings and movies ever since.

The misreading of Mary Magdalene, critics say, is almost as ancient as the Gospels of the New Testament themselves, if only because there are up to five different Marys in the Gospels and seven in the New Testament as a whole.

The greatest damage done to Magdalene's reputation, however, is only partly the confusion of these Marys, says Sister Evelina Belfiore, director of Catholic education for the Colorado Springs, Colo., diocese. The main problem is the way some decided to identify an unnamed woman with Magdalene in the Gospel of Luke.

In 7:37-38, Luke tells the tale of a woman, "a sinner" who goes into a dinner party and anoints Jesus' feet. The following chapter immediately introduces "Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out. . . ."

"In the early church," Belfiore says, "as people have placed her in art and legend and misinterpretation, they linked her with the sinner from the chapter before."

Take Martin Scorsese's `Last Temptation of Christ' as one of the more recent examples. In the film, based on the Nikos Kazantzakis novel, Magdalene is portrayed as a prostitute and is identified with another episode often included in the Gospel of John 8:3-11, in which Jesus stops a crowd from stoning a woman for prostitution. There is no indication in the text that either unnamed woman is Magdalene, but tradition has linked her with Magdalene.

Why?

That link, Belfiore says, came about in the early church of later centuries "and may have been associated with the oppression of women. Before that, women were ordained deaconesses. Then, there was a turnabout, excluding women from the sacred and from orders. Mary Magdalene had such a privileged role in the Gospels that it seems there was an attempt to put her in a bad light."

Which is exactly what Sister Christine Schenk says she is trying to reverse. Schenk is executive director of the Cleveland-based FutureChurch.

Two years ago, Schenk's group in conjunction with another Catholic group, Chicago-based Call to Action, launched the national observance of a July 22 feast of Mary Magdalene. It has grown from 28 prayer services last year to a reported 100 services this past July.

"The Mary Magdala project emerged," Schenk says, "because it makes contemporary biblical scholarship available, and it provides woman ministers to preside at a prayer service."

Schenk says her group is not calling for women's ordination but for "women's equal call to ministry in the Catholic Church."

Schenk said the Magdalene services include a "brief reflection on Mary of Magdala," and what she calls "the right of naming." That is, when Jesus calls Magdalene by her name in the Gospel passage John 20:17, "she recognized him" as the risen Christ, and she was called as a disciple.

Schenk thus sees Magdalene as representing a woman's call to discipleship. In the past, she says, women have internalized the idea that they weren't as holy or as good as men. The Magdalene services are "a real healing for many participants," she says.

The emergence of women in organized religion is not only a Catholic issue.The Rev. Patricia Westlake of Trinity United Methodist Church in Colorado Springs, Colo., says she believes Magdalene was present at the Last Supper.

And she believes other female disciples were on a par with the more famous 12 male apostles. In two of his letters, St. Paul also mentions important women of the early church. "For me, the Scriptures give [women] a prominent role," Westlake says. "Jesus gave them a prominent role. It's our culture that doesn't give them a prominent role."

Feminist scholars of early Christianity see Mary Magdalene as indicative of what happened to women in general in the early church. "In the last twenty years, the history of women in ancient Christianity has been almost completely revised," writes Karen King in a recent essay about women in early Christianity. King is a professor of New Testament Studies and the History of Ancient Christianity at Harvard University's Divinity School.

King writes that the early Christian women we thought we knew have almost nothing to do with the revised portrait that scholars are just beginning to unveil. "Chief among these is Mary Magdalene," she says. "Discoveries of new texts . . . have now proven that [her reputation as a repentant prostitute] is entirely inaccurate. She was indeed an influential figure, but as a prominent disciple and leader of one wing of the early Christian movement that promoted women's leadership."

Among the newly discovered texts King is referring to is `The Gospel of Mary,' discovered at Nag Hammadi in Egypt more than a half-century ago. In that Gospel, Mary receives secret revelations from Jesus -- much to the chagrin of Peter.`The Gospel of Philip,' also discovered at Nag Hammadi, shows yet another understanding of Mary's relationship with Jesus.

"But Christ loved her more than all the disciples and used to kiss her often on the mouth," that Gospel reads. "The rest of the disciples were offended by it and expressed disapproval. They said to him, `Why do you love her more than all of us?' The savior answered and said to them, `Why do I not love you like (I love) her?' "

Scholars say they are not arguing that these are historically truer portraits than those of the New Testament Gospels. But they argue that these Gospels show there were early Christian communities that traced their beliefs back to a figure known as Mary Magdalene -- which had nothing to do with the traditional figure of a repentant prostitute.

Even those women in established religions who do not accept the non-canonical Gospels as legitimate sources see hope for women in a closer reading of the four Gospels of the New Testament. "I think she's a model for women today," Belfiore says of Magdalene. "That when Jesus spoke to Mary to go tell the other disciples he was risen, it shows that woman has a complementary role in the mission and that we need one another. It's not a man's church or a woman's church, but a church. Women have a specific dimension of the mission." 

Mary Magdalene meets Tiberius          Top

A "legend" taught by the Eastern Orthodox Church for over 1500 years

According to the ancient tradition of the East, Mary Magdalene was a wealthy woman from whom Christ expelled seven "demons." During the three years of Jesus' ministry she helped support him and his other disciples with her money. When almost everyone else fled, she stayed with him at the cross. On Easter morning she was the first to bear witness to his resurrection. She is called "Equal to the Apostles." The Eastern tradition tells us that after the Ascension she journeyed to Rome where she was admitted to the court of Tiberius Caesar because of her high social standing. After describing how poorly Pilate had administered justice at Jesus' trial, she told Caesar that Jesus had risen from the dead. To help explain his resurrection she picked up an egg from the dinner table. Caesar responded that a human being could no more rise from the dead than the egg in her hand turn red. The egg turned red immediately, which is why red eggs have been exchanged at Easter for centuries in the Byzantine East.

Mary traveled the Mediterranean preaching the resurrection. Like Peter and Paul, she died a martyr and she bears witness to the important role women once held in the Church.

This icon (on the front of the card) was commissioned for Grace Cathedral in San Francisco to commemorate the election of Barbara Harris, the first woman bishop in the Anglican communion. As women reclaim their ancient rights in the church, Mary Magdalene challenges all Christians to re-examine their cultural prejudices about gender and leadership.  -- From the back of my Society of Mary Magdalene membership welcome card

The Eastern Orthodox Church, which includes the Russians, is indeed fond of blood red eggs at Easter.  Gold letters are painted onto the red eggs.  They make red eggs every year, no pastels.  You have to start with a brown egg in order to get the rich dark red color.

[In the Tiberius red egg legend, no mention is made of Mary Magdalene's marriage to Yeshua/Jesus. That part of the story has been suppressed, but kept alive by gnostics and heretics becoming one of the secrets of Esoteric Christianity.

However, it is of this curator's blog that Jesus had a different intention and that was to be a husband for his Church, the body of Christ, the Bride of Christ. His divine purpose was not to be married in an earthly way, however, it does not make it sin if he had married Mary and she had children; after all as a man he had to be tempted in all things, and a married life with children does tax ones nerves much more.

More on demon possession go here.

Basically supernatural recognizes that a person is self torn between transcendent forces that fight for its possession. The devil and his minions, the demons, engaged in a struggle for the soul while the angels and guardian spirits contend because of the prayers of the righteous ones who will oust satan's reign along with Christ in the end times. When the religious supernatural expresses the search for salvation in terms of conflict and terror it anticipates the universe of Fantastic anxiety.

Also a blog from a Lutheran perspective. Small extract:

Luke 11:14-28

And He was casting out a demon–mute. And it happened, the demon having come out, the mute man spoke & the crowds marveled. But some of them said, "By the lord of the flies, the ruler of demons He casts out demons. And others were testing, a sign out of heaven they were demanding from Him. But He knew their thought; He said to them, "Every kingdom, against itself divided is devastated, and a house against a house falls. And if also Satan against himself is divided, how will his kingdom stand? For you say by the lord of the flies I cast out demons. And if I Myself, by the lord of the dung heap cast out demons, your sons, by whom do they cast them out? Through this, they will be your judges. And if, by the finger of God, I cast out demons, therefore the kingdom of God has come before you. When the armed, strong man guards his dwelling, in peace are his belongings. And whenever a stronger man than he, attacking, overpowers him, his armor he takes away upon which he relied, and his plunder he gives away. The one not being with me is against me, and the one not gathering with me, scatters. Whenever the unclean spirit goes out from the man, it goes through waterless places seeking rest; and not finding, it says, "I will return into my house from where I came out." And having come, it finds it swept clean and orderly. Then it comes and takes along 7 other spirits, more evil than itself, and entering, they dwell there, and the end of that man becomes worse than at first.


Most people don't believe in ghosts. Even Caspar the friendly ghost is a fiction. But spirits do exist. The Holy Ghost Himself is evidence of this. When we count angels, fallen angels who have now become demons, there are a many spirits, both good and evil, whether we believe it or not. But what would you say if you heard that your pastor was casting out demons? "Get your head examined!"


Believe it or not some Christians have the power today to cast out demons. How? Through the name and the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.