Lost Books of the Bible (184 page)

               To this day there is a battle raging in the Christian world as believers and seekers attempt to reconcile today’s Christianity to the sect of the early Christian church called, “Gnosticism.”

The Sacred Feminine

               One of the most striking differences between the Gnostic church and the modern church is the absence of reverence for Mary, the mother of Jesus. This is due in part to the fact that today’s accepted traditions of Mother Mary were not yet in place. In fact, some of the positions of the Catholic Church regarding Mary were not officially accepted until the mid to late nineteenth century.

               In the writings of the early church fathers (Justin Martyr 165 A.D. and Irenaeus 202 A.D.), Mother Mary was seldom mentioned and only to contrast Mary's obedience with Eve's disobedience.           The doctrine of Mary as Theotokos (God-bearer) probably originated in Alexandria and was first introduced by Origen. It became common in the fourth century and accepted at the Council of Ephesus in 431 A.D.

               Since the orthodox Christian church continued to slip farther and farther toward the belief that sex was evil, the doctrine of the “Ever-Virginity” of Mary was established. This was the belief that Mary conceived as a virgin, but also remained a virgin even after giving birth to Jesus and thereafter for the rest of her life. The Catholic Church rejects the idea that Mary had other children, although the Bible speaks of the brothers and sisters of Jesus. The doctrine of “virginity” was established around 359 A.D.

               The doctrine of the bodily Assumption of Mary was formally developed by St. Gregory of Tours around 594 A.D. This doctrine stated that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was taken up into heaven to be seated at the side of Jesus. The idea has been present in apocryphal texts since the late fourth century.

               The Feast of the Assumption became widespread in the sixth century, and sermons on that occasion tended to emphasize Mary's power in heaven.

               Of all the doctrines regarding Mary, the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception widened the divide between the Catholic churches and other Christian churches. This doctrine  took the position that Mother Mary was born without the stain of original sin. Both Catholics and Orthodox Christians accept this doctrine, but only the Roman Catholic Church has named it "The Immaculate Conception” and articulated it as doctrine.                Eastern Orthodox Christians reject the western doctrine of original sin, preferring instead to speak of a tendency towards sin. They believe Mary was born without sin, but so was everyone else. Mary simply never gave in to sin.

               As we see in the following statement, the doctrine was not formally accepted until 1854 A.D.

“The Most Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, Savior of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin.”

Pope Pius IX, Ineffabilis Deus (1854)

               The evolution of the status of Mary the Mother of Jesus has taken eighteen-hundred years to become what it is today. The status of Mary Magdalene was likely established within the Gnostic communities by 400 A.D.

               Gnostic texts often used sex as a metaphor for spiritual union and release. Since the Godhead itself had both a masculine element of the Supreme God, who is the Father, and a feminine element of Sophia, sexual terms are used freely. The sexual metaphor was expanded in the story of the Supreme God giving rise to Sophia as he spewed forth the essence of everything. According to some sects Sophia became the creator or divine mother of both angels and lesser Gods, including the creator of the material world, the Demiurge.

               Sexual duality found in Gnosticism, along with the concept of the sacred feminine seen in the Sophia myth, allowed for more  reverence and acceptance of women in the Gnostic worship. Owing to this, the concept that Mary Magdalene was somehow special to Jesus, as is reported in the
Gospel of Philip
, or that he may have shared spiritual concepts with her that were unknown to the male apostles, as told in the
Gospel of Mary Magdalene
, is not so difficult to comprehend.

               The parallel between Sophia and Mary Magdalene cannot be overstated. Sophia was the handmaiden of the Supreme God, carrying the life force, which was the emanation of God. She carried the truth within her, which she offered to Adam. The truth was offered up to set him free. Mary was the consort of Jesus, carrying the imparted knowledge and possibly his life force in the form of a child. She revealed to the apostles the truth Jesus personally and intimately gave to her alone.  We will see this stated clearly in
The Gospel of Mary Magdalene
later in this book.

               The mythos of Gnosticism’s sacred feminine force comes full circle in the person of Mary Magdalene. From God to Sophia; from Sophia to the man Adam; from the second Adam, who is Christ Jesus, to Mary Magdalene, who offered up that which was given her to mankind; the circle of knowledge and life was complete once again.

Points of Logic, Faith, and Sex

               Man’s inability to understand the divine is eclipsed only by his inadequacy to accurately articulate what his feeble mind has so tenuously grasped. Each time man desires to “tinker” with theology in order to make that which is spiritual reasonable and logical to the carnal mind, more problems are raised than solved.

               When the Gnostics began to entertain the idea of the man Jesus being the vessel and host of the Holy Spirit they broke from their first basic tenet of faith: that which states that the spiritual world could not co-mingled, with the material world. As Gnostic theology developed, lines blurred and softened to a point where it was realized that if man was a triune being of body, soul, and spirit there must be a level of interface between the two worlds. At this point it was decided that only the Supreme God was too holy and pure to interact with the material world. This left open the possibility for the man Jesus to carry the Holy Spirit.

               But wait… isn’t God and the Holy Spirit the same?  They must not be for this belief to work. If they were the same then the symbiotic relationship of Jesus the man and the Holy Spirit of the Supreme God would not have allowed itself to have a relationship with Mary Magdalene. 

               Even though Jesus was considered the highest earthly creation, he was still not the equal of God.

Yet, according to theology being proclaimed by the established churches, the Holy Spirit was not only equal to God but the essentially the same as God. This presented a point of illogic in the Gnostic theology. This was solved by some Gnostic slight of hand. Since the Holy Spirit was a feminine force, it was not actually God, but was the spouse of the Supreme God. This set the stage for further parallels between Sophia and the Holy Spirit.

               Rising to another level of the Sacred Feminine, it becomes the female part of the Godhead that empowered Jesus. The mother of the Godhead becomes the Christ Spirit that saves and leads mankind.

               Later, as the Catholic Church struggled to make sense of their own female redeemer, they began to elevate Mother Mary by announcing the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, so errors in logic were exposed. If Mother Mary was conceived without sin in order to carry Jesus, who was conceived without sin, one must ask why it wasn’t necessary for the mother of Mary to also be conceived without sin. This logic continues backward ad infinitum until Eve herself and all female offspring must be sinless. Of course, the church flatly refuses this line of reasoning, saying only that certain things must be taken on faith.  This is the same tact taken regarding the “Ever-Virginity” of Mother Mary, even in the face of scriptures proclaiming that the mother, sister, and brothers of Jesus had come to have audience with him.

               It was the Greek Orthodox church that already had the answer to this dilemma. Original sin is not in their doctrine. They state only that humans are born with a predisposition toward sinning. This makes null the problem of sinless birth from the beginning.

               Even though the theological events of doctrine concerning Mother Mary occurred over time, they serve as an undeniable pattern of the Catholic Church as it endeavored to “purify” women and rid them of sexuality.

               It was the Gnostics that continued to increase the sexuality, power, and place of women in the schema of their faith.

               The sexual metaphors used in the Gnostic texts have fanned the flames of great controversy and speculation. It has been widely accepted that societal norms of the time dictated that Jewish men were to be married by the age of thirty. This certainly applied to Rabbis, since marriage and procreation were considered divine commands. Jesus is referred to by the title of Rabbi in the Bible. It has been noted that his marital status would have placed him into a very small minority in the culture at the time, being a male over 30 years of age and unmarried. Thus, some Gnostic followers use this observation to bolster the idea Jesus was married. This idea was held by those who thought that Jesus, the man, was the vehicle for the Christ spirit.

               For other Gnostics who believed Jesus to be an illusion placed on us by the Christ spirit while he was on earth, the idea of a spiritual illusion mingling with flesh was out of the question.

               Most Gnostics held to the idea of the duality of sexes playing out in multiple layers. The feminine force of Sophia becomes the feminine force of the Holy Spirit and is made the bride of God.  The sexual duality continues when the feminine force of the Holy Spirit inhabits the perfect man, Jesus, making him the messiah. The sexual context is ripe for the story to be continued in the persons of Jesus and Mary Magdalene, physically shadowing the spiritual relationship of the Holy Spirit and the Supreme God as well as Jesus and the Holy Spirit. 

               The concept of a married Jesus is revealed in several verses of The Gospel of Philip such verse 118.

There is the Son of Man and there is the son of the son of Man. The Lord is the Son of Man, and his son creates through him. God gave the Son of Man the power to create; he also gave him the ability to have children.     Gospel of Philip

               If one were to examine the writings of Solomon, the play on words between the sexual and the spiritual aspects can be seen clearly. The Gnostics simply expanded on the theme.

Song of Solomon 1 (King James Version)

 1 The song of songs, which is Solomon's.

 2 Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love is better than wine.

 3 Because of the savour of thy good ointments thy name is as ointment poured forth, therefore do the virgins love thee.

 4 Draw me, we will run after thee: the king hath brought me into his chambers: we will be glad and rejoice in thee, we will remember thy love more than wine:

Song of Solomon 2

 16 My beloved is mine, and I am his: he feedeth among the lilies.

 17 Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether.

Song of Solomon 3

 1 By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not.

 2 I will rise now, and go about the city in the streets, and in the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not…

Song of Solomon 5