Sunday, February 10, 2013

Myths of Mary and the Married Jesus on Youtube

The Cadbury lecture I gave in Birmingham just over a week ago is now available on Youtube here:



Or watch it on Youtube here.  The lecture is 48 minutes long.  It features much of the powerpoint, but some slides have been omitted for copyright reasons. All of the Q&A is also features, though under the veil of darkness.

Update (12 February 2013): I have now made the audio available as an extended episode of the NT Pod.  This version has the advantage of enabling you to hear the talk without seeing the speaker constantly waving his arms around.

12 comments:

lightseeker said...

Mark, you make a very good point about the Mary to whom a gospel is attributed possibly referring to Mary of Bethany. I love your insight.

People often overlook this Mary and/or conflate her with the Magdalene. Mary of Bethany was the avid disciple, learning at Jesus' feet. She may well be the Mary who was a leader and teacher in the very early Jesus movement.

I don't recall you mentioned this conflation in your lecture, but in "The Last Temptation of Christ" that Mary Magdalene has a sister Martha (and in Jesus' fantasy/alternate reality, he takes Martha as a second wife, if I recall the film correctly).

I've come the realization that the Talpiot tomb is most likely not the family tomb of Jesus, but if the Mariamne ossuary does not say Mariamne Mara (Lordess Mary) and says instead "Mary and Martha" -- two sisters buried together -- well, that's an interesting coincidence, isn't it?

I also wonder why in all the Easter morning stories in the gospels Mary of Bethany is never mentioned as being present. After all, since their family was so close to Jesus, and he stayed with them that whole Passover week, one would expect most of all those sisters (or at least Mary) to participate in the burial rights of their beloved fiend and teacher. Perhaps this is also a case, even early on, where Mary Magdalene was mistakenly conflated with Mary of Bethany -- the woman who likely anointed Jesus at Messiah before his death. And if -- just an "if" here -- Jesus had been married at all, it was likely to Mary of Bethany.

lightseeker said...

Just another quick comment/question... I find it odd that there are references to the mother of Jesus -- Mary -- also having a sister named Mary. Is it that not odd? Was that common in antiquity? I think it would be very very rare in one family to name two siblings the by the same name. Could that be a referral to a sister-in-law or maybe a means of blurring over a real identity of the other "sister" Mary?

Mark Goodacre said...

Thanks for your comments. Yes, in Last Temptation Mary Magdalene dies and then the young girl encourages Jesus instead to go to live with Mary and Martha. This Mary is a different Mary in the film, and it is not clear whether Jesus marries her or somehow both of them!

Yes, great coincidence about Mary and Mar(th)a in the tomb. I sometimes think that if Simcha were not so fixated on Mary Magdalene in our post-Da Vinci Code culture, he might have tried harder to make the links work there. However, there is of course also no presumption that we would find Mary and Martha among Jesus' relatives in his tomb. That would also be historical fiction.

Yes, curious that Mary and Martha are absent after John 12.

Mark Goodacre said...

It's often suggested that Mary of Clopas is Mary's sister in law. That would help one to get around the difficulty of two sisters named Mary.

Brian LePort said...

I enjoyed this lecture! Thank you for it and for your even handed presentation on the material.

Mark Goodacre said...

Thanks for your kind words, Brian.

Patrick said...

I also enjoyed this lecture!

BTW, to lightseeker: I should just note that the passage in John 19:25 is ambiguous. One could read "Mary of Clopas" as being the name of "[Jesus'] mother's sister" mentioned immediately before that, or one could take them as two separate individuals. As far as I know, Tatian and the Syriac Peshitta understands them as being two separate figures by the addition of an 'and': "his mother's sister, and Mary of Clopas..."

I should add that in The Last Temptation (the book), when the 'angel' with green wings - who assumes the form of "a Negro boy" (Kazantzakis' words) unlike in the film - and Jesus go into Mary and Martha's place, Jesus declares his intention to take settle down and the place of their once-again dead brother, leading his appearance to transform into that of Lazarus. So there's that element of incest in there in the book.

In fact, the whole last temptation sequence in the book is a lot more 'bizarre' when compared to the film version: Mary Magdalene is here stoned to death by Saul/Paul and Caiaphas' lackeys, Jesus transforms into Lazarus, Pontius Pilate becomes mad, starts crowning himself with thorns and ultimately somehow gets himself crucified!

Anonymous said...

Oh yes, the waving arms made this unbearable.

Probably offering this on DVD to Sunday School class. Much better than some things they watch (cough endtimes tripe cough)

obrallaghan said...

I have a question about the Wikipedia entry on the Gospel of Jesus' Wife. It says there that Professor Camplani, the scholar who wrote the article in L'Osservatore Romano which called the fragment a forgery, has now changed his mind and considers it to be authentic. Yet the only citation provided is to an IMDB page on the Discovery Channel documentary that never aired. Can anyone verify if Mr. Camplani changed his mind about the authenticity of the fragment?

Here is a link to the entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gospel_of_Jesus'_Wife

Thanks!

Mark Goodacre said...

Thanks. That's curious. The same commenter (Dickie Birdie) has made references to this unaired documentary on several Wikipedia pages. Curious.

obrallaghan said...

Dickie Birdie does not appear to be a very credible source. For example, in an entry about Diocletian, he claims that, "The Roman Emperor Diocletian tried his best to eliminate Christianity and he failed hopelessly. Christianity will forever represent a disfunctional trait of human nature that is attracted to the bizarre and the illogical. It will persist to exist despite the ease with which it can be discredited."

More from Mr. Birdie: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Dickie_birdie

Mark Goodacre said...

Good point. If I had the patience, I would go through and correct his claims.