Friday, May 26, 2006

What did Mary Magdalene do for a living?

Yesterday i posted on what Jesus did for a living and some of my anoyance over the claim that he was a carpenter. It got me thinking though over the common assumption of folkelore that Mary Magdelane was a prostitute. Again the bible isn't that clear, in fact it seems to have been the Church that first gave her that label.

I for one am not certain about the history behind that but what Brown suggests in the Da Vinci code about the connection between the grail and the arrow in pagan symbols - or the pentagram may suggest that she were. In which case maybe the Church has a far higher view than Brown does of her.
Why do is say that, well in pagan religion the temple priestess and a king would undertake a sacred marriage or symbolic marriage, when they would be joined hence two opposing triangles that make the pentagram. Brown suggests that is what happened bewteen Mary and Jesus - the irony is if that is that case (which it isn't) then it throws a lot of weight back on the Mary is a prostitue claim. Becuase that is what a high priestess in a ferliity pagan ceremony was a prsotiute who would hand herself over to others to 'perform' the ceremony.

If what happened is as Brown claims then Mary is a prostitute - you can change the name but it's still the same job.

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