- Hardcover: 122 pages
- Publisher: HarperOne (April 2004)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0060727918
- ISBN-13: 978-0060727918
- Product Dimensions: 21.6 x 14.8 x 1.7 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,344,398 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The Gospels of Mary
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
More About the Author
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
First Sentence
THE GOSPELS OF MARK, Matthew, Luke, and John are the four New Testament Gospels, and the Gospel of Peter is a related fragmentary Gospel. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
THE GOSPELS OF MARK, Matthew, Luke, and John are the four New Testament Gospels, and the Gospel of Peter is a related fragmentary Gospel. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organise and find favourite items. |
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
24 of 25 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Anyone who has heard of the Da Vinci Code (which is, by now, much of the world) will likely also know that the central idea is that Mary Magdalene was a rather different person in actual life than the person portrayed in church tradition and the gospel extrapolations.
Indeed, as has become better known in the past generation, there were many more gospels floating around the early Christian world than the canonical four (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John), most of which were lost to the world through various processes. Among the stronger early traditions that later got branded as heretical was the Gnostic tradition, and in this community, Mary Magdalene had a place of honour.
Drawing from the four canonical gospels, as well as writings such as the Gospel of Peter (in fragmentary form), the Gospel of Thomas (a collection of sayings), the Gospel of Philip, the Pistis Sophia and other texts including the Gospel of Mary, Marvin Meyer presents a new look at the importance of Mary Magdalene as being one of the most important figures in early Christianity. The Eastern church has preserved her memory of prominence, often referring to her as the Apostle to the Apostles, the first to announce the resurrection and the first to witness the risen Christ. These recollections are preserved in the canonical witness.
The Gospel of Mary exists in a fragmentary form among the Nag Hammadi documents, discovered in 1947. Many pages are missing, including the beginning, middle and ending. However, the character of Mary is highlighted in many gospels; Meyer selects texts throughout the various gospels to show an extensive interaction between Jesus and Mary, the other disciples and Mary, and Mary's own prominence as a witness to the outside world.
This text presents a more realistic way of viewing the character of Mary Magdalene than sources such as Da Vinci Code/Holy Blood, Holy Grail/Woman with the Alabaster Jar present. According to Meyer, 'the sources about Mary Magdalene published here may not be as flamboyant as some of these later legends, but they are more trustworthy as witnesses to the figure of Mary and literary traditions about Mary.' Indeed, Meyer speculates that Mary might not have been only 'a' beloved disciple, but perhaps 'the' beloved disciple referred to not by name but by relationship in the canonical gospels.
This is a short text, consisting mostly of Meyer's own translations of the primary documents; Meyer's commentary is kept to a minimum, useful in its way, but he permits the texts to speak for themselves. He gives a useful index and helpful scholarly notes.
This book will be of special interest for those who want to dig deeper into the realities underpinning modern novels and explorations about the subject, and of general interest to those who want to see the diversity in Christian belief, practice and writing in the earlies centuries.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
This relatively brief work presents translations of parts of biblical, apocryphal and gnostic works which refer to "Mary", usually understood as all referring to Mary Magdalene. These works are:
1. The four canonical gospels plus the apocryphal Gospel of Peter
2. The Gospel of Mary from the Berlin Codex
3. The Gospel of Thomas (from the Nag Hammadi Codices)
4. The Gospel of Philip (NHC)
5. The Dialogue of the Saviour (NHC)
6. Pistis Sophia
7. The Manichaean Psalms of Heracleides
Meyer unfortunately has chosen to bring into the introductory discussion all the Da Vinci Code nonsense and similar absurd ideas such as The Holy Blood And The Holy Grail. A scholar like Meyer should really know better than this. I suppose it shifts copies though to be pandering to all these conspiracy theorists.
Whilst ostensibly each work is excerpted to give only the references to Mary, the translations of the Gospels of Thomas and Philip present much more material, padding it out somewhat. Each translation has a brief introduction, but the accompanying explanations are in the form of end notes, which in the Kindle edition have not been converted into hyperlinks. This renders the Kindle edition of relatively little value, certainly of no more value when compared to works with no explanatory notes such as the Robinson Nag Hammadi Library.
This book is rescued from being a total waste by the presence of a short but interesting essay by Esther A. De Boer tacked onto the end. De Boer notes that the canonical gospels often give a positive portrayal of Mary Magdalene, and conversely the gnostic works, while regarding Mary as a follower of Jesus of some importance, are still fundamentally misogynistic in their language and outlook. "It is far too simple," she says, "to conclude that orthodox Christianity would have given Mary Magdalene little credit while gnostic Christianity would have had high esteem for her."
Leaving this current rather superficial and mostly unsatisfying book behind, as a result of her essay I shall be moving on to De Boer's The Gospel of Mary: Listening to the Beloved Disciple: Beyond a Gnostic and a Biblical Mary Magdalene; also having read a couple of other excellent works by her, I shall also move onto Karen L. King's The Gospel of Mary of Magdala.
1. The four canonical gospels plus the apocryphal Gospel of Peter
2. The Gospel of Mary from the Berlin Codex
3. The Gospel of Thomas (from the Nag Hammadi Codices)
4. The Gospel of Philip (NHC)
5. The Dialogue of the Saviour (NHC)
6. Pistis Sophia
7. The Manichaean Psalms of Heracleides
Meyer unfortunately has chosen to bring into the introductory discussion all the Da Vinci Code nonsense and similar absurd ideas such as The Holy Blood And The Holy Grail. A scholar like Meyer should really know better than this. I suppose it shifts copies though to be pandering to all these conspiracy theorists.
Whilst ostensibly each work is excerpted to give only the references to Mary, the translations of the Gospels of Thomas and Philip present much more material, padding it out somewhat. Each translation has a brief introduction, but the accompanying explanations are in the form of end notes, which in the Kindle edition have not been converted into hyperlinks. This renders the Kindle edition of relatively little value, certainly of no more value when compared to works with no explanatory notes such as the Robinson Nag Hammadi Library.
This book is rescued from being a total waste by the presence of a short but interesting essay by Esther A. De Boer tacked onto the end. De Boer notes that the canonical gospels often give a positive portrayal of Mary Magdalene, and conversely the gnostic works, while regarding Mary as a follower of Jesus of some importance, are still fundamentally misogynistic in their language and outlook. "It is far too simple," she says, "to conclude that orthodox Christianity would have given Mary Magdalene little credit while gnostic Christianity would have had high esteem for her."
Leaving this current rather superficial and mostly unsatisfying book behind, as a result of her essay I shall be moving on to De Boer's The Gospel of Mary: Listening to the Beloved Disciple: Beyond a Gnostic and a Biblical Mary Magdalene; also having read a couple of other excellent works by her, I shall also move onto Karen L. King's The Gospel of Mary of Magdala.
Format:Hardcover
Book a little disjointed. Contains a lot more than title suggests but didn't learn a lot more than I already knew. Still, good value for money
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
