{"id":616,"date":"2015-04-22T12:48:23","date_gmt":"2015-04-22T12:48:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.risen.org.uk\/?p=616"},"modified":"2015-04-23T11:53:06","modified_gmt":"2015-04-23T11:53:06","slug":"blog-april-23rd-mary-magdalene-not-a-prostitute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/?p=616","title":{"rendered":"Blog April 23rd – \u201cMary Magdalene – Not a prostitute!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"2008-mary-magdalene-cave\"<\/p>\n

In the last two blogs I looked at how certain characters in Risen!- The Musical<\/em> have been portrayed- on April 9th<\/sup> it was Thomas and on April 16th<\/sup> Judas. Today is the turn of Mary Magdalene.<\/p>\n

Throughout Risen!- The Musical<\/em> I have kept to Biblical accounts and have not gone down the road of conjecture or fiction.\u00a0 I am aware that Mary Magdalene has previously been portrayed as a prostitute, for example in \u00a0the \u00a0\u00a0musicals \u201cJesus Christ Superstar\u201d and the recent excellent \u201cLove Beyond\u201d (see blog October 9th<\/sup> 2014)) \u00a0This, I believe has partly come from wrongly associating Mary Magdalene \u00a0with the woman accused of adultery and about to be stoned. \u00a0(John 8: 1-11) \u00a0Jesus telling those about to stone her \u201cIf anyone is without sin let him cast the first stone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Furthermore this false impression of Mary Magdalene having loose morals has come from her being incorrectly regarded as the \u201csinful woman\u201d, who in Luke 7:36-50, anoints Jesus with expensive perfume and wipes His feet with her tears.\u00a0 This \u201csinful woman\u201d is also sometimes wrongly associated with another woman who anoints Jesus; Mary sister of Martha and Lazarus (John 12: 1-8)- the focus of the second scene of \u00a0Risen!- The Musical<\/em>.<\/p>\n

At least the above stories have come from Biblical accounts, albeit in my view misguided; however there is no Biblical basis whatsoever for suggestions that Mary Magdalene and Jesus were married. This is pure fiction concocted to sell books such as the \u201cThe Da Vinci Code\u201d<\/p>\n

That Mary Magdalene had real issues prior to meeting Jesus is, however clear. \u00a0Luke tells us in chapter 8 that Jesus cast out from her seven demons.\u00a0 Luke also makes clear that she, together with many other women, helped support Jesus out of their own means i.e.\u00a0 Mary Magdalene was a loyal follower of Jesus; something I trust Risen!- The Musical<\/em> makes\u00a0 clear.<\/p>\n

Mary Magdalene is the only person mentioned in all four Gospels to have been present at the cross when Jesus was crucified and in John\u2019s Gospel we are told that she was the first person to see Jesus after He was resurrected. (John 20: 1-18.) \u00a0Risen!- The Musical<\/em> focuses heavily on John\u2019s account of that first Easter morning.<\/p>\n

Risen!- The Musical<\/em> also uses \u00a0a piece of recitative from John to highlight the significance of Jesus first appearing to a woman; for women\u00a0 in Jesus\u2019 day had\u00a0 no social standing. If Jesus or His disciples had felt proof was needed to show that He was alive He would surely have first appeared to a man, not a woman.\u00a0 So appearing to Mary Magdalene would only make sense if that is indeed what happened.<\/p>\n

So it\u2019s Mary<\/strong> who Jesus first would see<\/strong>, but a woman why would He<\/strong> not first appear to a man? Jesus treated women with respect and dignity<\/strong>, taught they had equality<\/strong> in the sight of God. But in law their testimony would count for nothing<\/strong> if the authorities tried to deny He had risen<\/strong>.\u00a0 No, there\u2019s only one reason why first appearing to a woman would make any\u00a0 sense<\/strong> and that is if it were true and it is- I can assure you there is no\u00a0 pretence<\/strong>. But of course Jesus also appeared risen-\u00a0 alive to\u00a0 men<\/strong> \u2013\u00a0 and here are two on the Emmaus road\u00a0 it\u2019s Cleopas and his friend <\/strong>\u2026.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

This week the featured song is again a cover version from the Mustard Seed Soul Band\u00a0 – the classic \u201cI\u2019m A Believer\u201d \u00a0written by the legendary Neil Diamond and made famous by the 60\u2019s band\u00a0 \u201cThe Monkees\u201d and\u00a0 also the film \u201cShriek.<\/p>\n

Next blog I will look at how Risen!- The Musical<\/em> portrays the disciple John.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“I’m A Believer” (Diamond) featuring the Mustard Seed Soul Band from album “Heart and Soul” recorded and produced by Ross Gill In the last two blogs I looked at how certain characters in Risen!- The Musical have been portrayed- on April 9th it was Thomas and on April 16th Judas. Today is the turn of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ken-shearsmiths-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=616"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":622,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616\/revisions\/622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}