Mary Magdalene is one of my biblical heroes. She’s the subject of my seminary entrance paper and (along with the Virgin Mary) thesis. I’ve read too many papers and books on Magdalene to count, many of which shed more heat than light on our knowledge of this early disciple.
Too many books about Mary purport to reveal Da Vinci Code-level secrets and controversies, which may help sell books but leaves the reader with something between a bitter taste in the mouth and the feeling you get after eating cotton candy on an empty stomach – it was irresistible for awhile, but now you’re still hungry. We get Mary the lover of Jesus, Mary the reformed prostitute, Mary the dispenser of Gnostic revelation, Mary the Greek-styled philosopher, and other outlandish characterizations that do not have a basis in scripture or even reliable tradition.
Into this mixed world of scholarship and hucksterism steps Wheaton Professor Jennifer Powell McNutt with her new book, The Mary We Forgot. McNutt centers the texts of the Gospels but explores the various traditions and early, extra-biblical works like The Gospel of Mary, too. This helps us rediscover this Jewish female apprentice of Christ who became the first person to see, converse with, and preach the risen Lord on that first Easter morning.
McNutt begins by advocating for a hermeneutic of surprise as to the hermeneutic of suspicion that dominates a lot of academia. She writes, “Scripture, in fact, can point us to God’s truth and goodness through unexpected avenues that lean contrary to first-century polite society and authorial self-interest. The dissonance between the text and its context can clue us in to the greater purpose of the work.” This “thread of surprise” that runs through the entire Bible is similar to what many scholars call the “theme of reversal” in the Gospels (especially Luke). We make sense of the role Mary plays in the Gospels when we discern the surprising aspects of the text, such as the revelation in Luke 8:1-3 that Mary and “many other women” financially provided for Jesus and the twelve, or that Jesus chose to appear to Mary first and put her on mission, when he could have easily appeared first to Peter and the beloved disciple.
The Mary We Forgot takes us from Palestine to France (and many other points along the way), tracing the legends and weighing evidence to see where Mary went after the Jerusalem church scattered. McNutt never devolves into unfounded speculation or deviates from her goal of helping us see Mary, the real Mary, more clearly. By helping us locate Mary’s place in the story of Jesus, she helps us see her place in the church today. What can the church learn from Mary? What can individual Christ-followers learn from Mary? Perhaps more than you think.
The Mary we forgot is the one we should remember. Read all about her, here.