Mary Called Magdalene
by Margaret George
Overview
FROM THE PUBLISHER
Was Mary Magdalene a prostitute, a female divinity figure, a church leader, or all of those? Biblical references to her are tantalizingly brief, but we do know that she was the first person to whom the risen Christ appeared-and the one commissioned to tell others the good news, earning her the ancient honorific, "Apostle to the Apostles." Today, Mary continues to spark controversy, curiosity, and veneration. In a vivid re-creation of Mary Magdalene's life story, Margaret George convincingly captures this renowned woman's voice as she moves from girlhood to womanhood, becomes part of the circle of disciples, and comes to grips with the divine. Grounded in biblical scholarship and secular research, this fascinating historical novel is also, ultimately, "the diary of a soul."
My thoughts
I've got to tell you the story behind this book! I was in Kansas City when I popped into a Barnes & Noble bookstore. I have enough books in my not-yet-read stack that I didn't need another book, so I wasn't actively looking for a book. I was merely window shopping. There on the clearance table was this book. A hardback book, 600 pages in length, regularly $27.95 -- for $5.00! It was a couple of weeks before Easter. I had time to spare in the hotel that evening. I'd just finished the book I was reading. I bought it. And I was hooked instantly. I sat around the pool in the hotel entranced with the fictionalized story of Mary Magdalene.
If you go to Amazon.com to read the reviews of this book, you'll find mixed reviews. People love it. People hate it. Read it with a grain of salt. Use your own Biblical knowledge to sort out the parts that are fact and fiction and just enjoy the rest for what it's worth!
One of the most interesting things about this book to me was the whole concept of being possessed by demons, as Mary was. I kept trying to relate it to something in our current lives, convinced that surely people today are still affected by demons, yes? At first I thought our millennium demons are our excesses -- food, television, too many working hours and not enough family time, etc. But then I decided demons must be more than excesses, they must be something much more difficult to overcome. A mental illness, perhaps. Like schitzophrenia. That's what I finally decided demons of Biblical times were. Torment so severe we'd classify it as a mental illness today.
I also was not aware that Mary followed the Disciples so closely. There is a lot of controversy about that today, as you'll see if you research the topic at all, along with the question if she loved Jesus in a physical way, or in the emotional way that a woman loves a man. I'm not going to get hung up on that as I read the book. I'm just going to enjoy the story and ponder the surprises along the way, knowing I don't agree 100% with the Biblical interpretations.
Favorite Passage
Simon looked at her with deep sympathy. Slowly, he spoke to her. "Mary, we have found someone who -- who will want to hear your story."
No! No. She had no strength to tell it again, and there was no purpose in it. She pulled away, sick with longing to escape.
But Simon held her by the shoulders and forced her into the circle surrounding the man she had seen earlier.
"Master," Simon said. "Can you help this woman?"
All Mary saw was a pair of sandals on feet that were strong and well formed. She dared not raise her eyes. She did not want to look at anyone, or have anyone look at her.
"What torments you?" the man was asking.
But she could not explain. It was too difficult, too involved, she had told it too many times already, and now she knew there was no help for her from anyone.
"I can see that you are exhausted," he said. "So I will only asky you: do you want to be made well?" But his voice was hesitant, as if he asked the question reluctantly and was not sure he wanted an answer.
"Yes," she whispered. "Yes." If only those years could roll away, and it could be that she had never picked up Ashara!
The man came forward and pushed the covering from her head. She could feel the shock of the other onlookers that her hair was gone, but in this man she detected no surprise or notice of it. He placed his hands on her head. She felt his fingers gripping her skull, surrounding it, from the crown all the way over her ears.
She expected him to begin a long string of prayers, to invoke God's help and mercy, to recite scripture. Instead, he shouted out, in a searing voice, "Come out of her, you evil spirit."
She felt a wrenching inside.
"What is your name?" the man commanded it.
"Ashara," a surprisingly meek voice answered.
"Leave her, depart, and return no more!"
She could actually feel the spirit leaving, fleeing from her.
