The Gospel of Mary

The Gospel of Mary

Three copies of the Gospel of Mary have been recovered - two in Greek and one in Coptic. The earliest evidence of the lost gospel of Mary Magdalene was discovered in 1896 and is called the Berlin Codex25. All three versions of her gospel are missing a few parts. However, her work contains some amazing information.

Mary asks Christ: “So now, Lord, does a person who sees a vision see it with the soul or with the spirit?”

The Savior answered: “A person does not see with the soul or spirit. Rather the mind, which exists between the two, sees the vision, and that is what…”

The translation of mind from Greek to English isn’t what we think of when we hear the word mind. The word in greek is Nous. Yes, the same Nous the Greeks used to describe the perception or vision of one’s soul. Perception is reality; that's what it is called PR. Perhaps Mary, the foremost disciple of Christ, had her gospel removed because it would reveal how we perceive the divine directly from without our souls26.

Mary’s teachings threaten the “spiritual authority” of the institution of the Church. If how we truly see is not with eyesight but our gut, intuition, and vision, a form of spiritual perception that allows us to know what is real, true, and everlasting, and it comes from within us, then no one has power over us.

Mary taught we are souls. She taught that sexuality, sex, and gender ascribed to the body are ultimately illusory. These differences belong to the world of flesh, not to the world of spirit. We are all souls that our physical form cannot define. Spiritual authority can’t be determined by sex, gender, or sexuality but rather by the depth of one’s spiritual transformation and subsequent wholeness. One can only claim spiritual authority based solely on the spiritual homework they have done to unite the ego with the soul.

That’s revolutionary. That’s beautiful. And that’s precisely why it was removed.

Union. Unity. These were the original teachings of Jesus and Mary. We must integrate the yin and the yang. The light and the dark. The ego and the soul. The divine masculine and the divine feminine. The form and the formless.

Every nature, every modeled form, every creature exists in and with each other. - Mary 2:2

In Aramaic, the language of Jesus, we can become ihidaya, meaning undivided. This is the ultimate goal. Not a distant salvation is given to us through repentance, guilt, or shame. We realize this aspect of who we are, our divinity, our angelic form. The goal of Mary’s gospel was to become a true child of humanity, which means fully human and divine.

We are Good

The most important message of Mary’s gospel is that we are good and that our goodness can never be lost.

Then Peter said to him, “You have been explaining every topic to us; tell us one other thing. What is the sin of the world?”

The Savior replied, “There is no such thing as sin. Sin doesn't exist, but you're the ones who make sin when you act in accordance with the nature of adultery, which is called 'sin.' That's why the Good came among you, up to the things of every nature in order to restore it within its root. That's why you get sick and die, because you love what tricks you. Anyone who can understand should understand!”

Gospel of Mary 3:1-3

That there is nothing sinful about being human. There is nothing sinful about your body. There is nothing sinful about sex. There is nothing sinful about sexuality. Being human is not a punishment. Life is a gift. God gave you the gift of life. You are one of God’s children. And no one can ever take that right away from you.

The Savior replied, “There is no such thing as sin; rather, you yourselves are what produces sin when you act in accordance with the nature of [ignorance], which is called ‘sin.’ For this reason, the Good came among you, pursuing (the good) which belongs to every nature” - Mary 3:3-5

In Meggan Watterson’s book Mary Magdalene Revealed: The First Apostle, Her Feminist Gospel, and the Christianity We Haven’t Tried Yet she writes the original translation for sin means to forget or to miss the mark. Sin is simply a moment of ignorance. Often we forget that we are a soul living in a human body, and then we act from that state of ignorance. This is a moment of ignorance. Through ignorance, we can feel lost, but Goodness is woven into our nature; it is part of our soul.

The body isn’t sinful. “Sin” is when we believe we are only this body, identify with our material needs and desires, and fear the ego dreams up. Sin in Mary’s Gospel is not about a list of laws or committing the wrong action. “Sin” is mistaking the ego for the true self rather than remembering that the true self is the soul27.

True freedom means having the power to define what being free means in our own lives. Mary’s Gospel is considered an “ascent narrative,” which describes a path we can navigate to liberate the soul, not in death but this lifetime. According to the Gospel of Mary, Ascension is best described as a descent into one’s heart space. The deeper we go within our spirit, the more we discover the Kingdom, the Goodness, and the spark of God within us. The point of Mary’s gospel is not to suggest we need to become someone “better.” It’s about learning to see with the eyes of goodness all the love that surrounds us and the superpower of love that comes from within us. The soul ascends because it does not seek to judge or attempt to dominate anything or anyone.

The disciples of Christ were upset with the revelation that Christ gave Mary unique teachings and not them. The record shows they argued and expressed contempt and disbelief that Christ could reveal such powerful teachings to Mary, a woman, and not to them. Peter was distraught. But as Levi pointed out, if Christ considered her worth, who would they disregard her? Christ loved her completely.

It is high time to repair the idea of Mary Magdalene - the Holy Saint of the Most High. Many misbelieve the blasphemous gossip of Pope Gregory in Homily 33 when he forever defiled the good name of Mary. Dear God, please grant and his family line forgiveness.

The Gospel of Philip, found in the 20th century among the Nag Hammadi Scriptures in Egypt, explicitly confirmed that Mary and Christ had a relationship that distinguished her from the other disciples:

“The companion [koinosos] of the Son is Miriam of Magdala. The Teacher [rabbi] loved her more than all the disciples; he often kissed her on the mouth”

If Jesus' teachings were so “male-focused,” why would Christ choose a woman as his koinonos, his spiritual companion, his equal? Christ’s love for and partnership with Mary Magdalene, virtually an enslaved person in Peter’s eyes, the lowest of the lower levels of existence, caused Peter extreme distress and confusion and threatened his world order. How could Christ love Mary, a woman, more than him, a man?

Do not lay down any rule beyond what I have determined for you, Gospel of Mary

In the Gospel of Mary - a gospel that predates the exclusion of women from positions of power within the church in the 4th century - perhaps he’s referring to the illusion that a person can.

Christ taught that we are all equal in the eyes of god, or the Good, as described in Mary’s gospel, leveled the society's beliefs that divided the people by sex, race, property, wealth, and citizenship. Women were defined by their social status as daughters, wives, and mothers. And women, no matter their social standing, were considered property with as few rights as enslaved persons. Christ gave his life to share that teaching, and the Catholic Church ripped it right out to appease their political masters.