Why is the Gospel of Mary Magdalene kept secret?

Answer 1

It depends on whether you believe there is a secret gospel of Mary Magdalene (do a Google search for "gospel of Mary magdalene" (not in quotes)), and if so, which level of secrets you believe.

A more detailed restatement of the question is: why were some possibly real sayings, statements, beliefs, actions, etc. by and regarding Mary Magdalene and Jesus, not taught by the mainstream Church? The short answer is that the times were sexist, so that the majority of Jesus' apostles didn't like the idea of one female apostle having as much as, if not more, influence as the more numerous male apostles (Mary, mother of Jesus, was something different, and so she has had more influence in the Church than MM); but another answer is that not enough of the apostles believed Jesus told her anything, in private, that he wouldn't have told them, but this is an attitude they may have had towards anyone, man or woman, who might have claimed secret teachings from Jesus. It was likely a combination of the two--sexism and disbelief. The result, in either or both cases, was that they and the later Church suppressed her involvement beyond what's published in the standard Bible, and may have even suppressed things Jesus supposedly said to her that would have changed the nature of the Church.

An actual "Gospel of Mary Magdalene" was discovered in 1896, and has been published; it's been dated to the time of Jesus. It contains things that MM alleges Jesus told her alone, but there is disagreement whether it expresses anything that Jesus actually said, partly because that very gospel contains quotes by the other apostles, in which they doubt Jesus really said what MM alleges, since it doesn't resemble things he said to them. Since this gospel wasn't included in the Bible by the Church founders, that's considered one level of secrecy, but many other gospels were rejected by the Church founders as well, since they couldn't confirm whether they were genuine, or were obviously non-genuine attempts by other thinkers, long after Jesus' death, to put words in his mouth to back their own ideas; Gnostic writings usually fall into this category.

At least one author has investigated whether the Fourth Gospel, currently ascribed to John of Zebedee, was actually written by MM:

http://ramon_k_jusino.tr iPod.com/magdalene.HTML

Many people believe there are other writings, or at least beliefs, by and about Mary Magdalene, that weren't included in her gospel, which includes some of the larger supposed secrets regarding MM (supposedly having a child fathered by Jesus; moving to France and starting the Merovingian bloodline; etc.), but this gets into speculation, requiring the reader to do their own research and make up their own mind. As with anything, details matter, so one shouldn't automatically believe every detail of every conspiracy theory or well-written fictionalization of these events, such as "The Da Vinci Code", even though there may be some historically accurate facts in these writings.

ANSWER

Mary Magdalene means Mary of Tyre or Mary Migdol which was ancient Israel's alternative name for a person of Tyre. Herein lies the reason for embarrassment about her. Why did Jesus wait for everyone else to leave the Garden of the Tomb (wherever it was) and then appear physically to Mary? Peter and John knew already by something they saw in the tomb. In a rather ungentlemanly way they fled leaving poor old Mary all on her own but Jesus would by implication be controlling all this. The reason is that it was in His design that just as Adam and Eve, the First Adam and the First Woman learned of the penalty for their sin of eating of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, so in the Garden of the Tomb the "Last Adam", as Paul describes Jesus, accompanied by the Last Woman representing as it were the Gentiles, stood there to show death had been conquered and had lost its sting. Jews would not have invented these scenarios. They must have been actual historical incidents.

The false history taught by universities and seminaries obscures the realities behind the text in the Bible. Almost certainly, the so-called Gospel of Mary Magdalene did not exist in the days of the very early Jewish church. If it was not a 19th century fake, it could have been an invention of later counterfeiters who wanted to institute a false church. It was in their interests to cunningly suppressed the so-called "Gospel of Mary Magdalene" and other spurious or fake 'gospels' to make it look like the early Christians were embarrassed by them. They were embarrassed, to some extent, that Jesus chose a Phoenician woman to represent the world at the Resurrection. Romans and Greeks loathed Phoenicians. Jesus quite possibly planned it that way to stress that He died to pay for the worst sins anyone could imagine whether they be prostitution or Phoenician pogroms against ancient Greeks and Romans. What looks like suppression, in fact is not and what is not suppressed appears to be. It's a strange conundrum but that is the very reason why someone should believe the Resurrection. No one trying to manufacture some sort of story about a Jewish Messiah resurrecting from the dead, itself a mostly ridiculous idea to Greeks and Romans, would manufacture such a conundrum (a Phoenician woman meeting the Resurrected Jesus) at the same time. Presumably one wants to win converts or adherents not turn them away. Therefore, two thousand years later, the most obvious and sensible conclusion is to accept that Jesus was executed, buried, and resurrected from the dead. Disbelief will lead to a fearful end for those who, in effect willingly, refuse to accept God's way for salvation from their sins. This is why the so-called "Gospel of Mary Magdalene" is so obviously a fake or just another book someone has written. It misses the whole point of Mary's role in witnessing the Resurrection. This is how one can prove it is not a true gospel or Biblical record. Proving it is not a true gospel does not prove Matthew's, Mark's, Luke's and John's are. Ultimately people believe these records by faith although it is not blind faith because so much evidence around us does indeed suggest the Gospels by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are precisely the documents they claim to be.

ANSWER

It should be noted that the synoptic gospels also did not exist in the "very early days of the Jewish church." There is evidence in the Gospel of Thomas that Mary shared a status equal to that of the other followers of Yeshua who are now called "the apostles".

ANSWER

An Apostle was someone who saw the physically-resurrected Jesus. In that sense Mary Magdalene was an Apostle along with about 500 other people (I Corinthians 15:6&7). The 'Twelve Apostles' will rule one of each of the "Twelve Tribes of Israel" in the 1000-year Messianic Kingdom. That is why they were still called "The Twelve" even while Judas was dead and his replacement had not been allotted (or named). The 'office' of the Twelfth Apostle' continued despite Judas's behaviour (even during his 3 years as a disciple). In the New Heaven and New Earth (Revelation 21:14), the city of Jerusalem's foundations will bear the names of the Twelve Apostles. The Apostle Paul, John the Baptist (not an Apostle because he died before Jesus' death burial and resurrection), Luke, the Apostle Mark and Mary Magdalene will be in that eternal city but their names will not be recorded anywhere. Is Apostle Mary Magdalene any more or less significant than Apostle Paul? John the Baptist, described as the greatest of prophets, receives less 'honour' in this sense than James, John, Matthew, Nathaniel or the other disciples yet little is known of some of these 'Twelve Apostles'.

It is in these contexts that the "Twelve apostles" obviously have more significance than any of the other 500 or so Apostles and early church believers. The primary context here is that Israel, its Twelve Tribes, the apostles nominated as rulers of these Tribes in the Messianic Kingdom, does exist into the Eternal Order whereas all the countries of the Gentiles are never named.

That's why there is so much hatred of the current state of Israel. Even though the Jewish people therein "profane" God, according to their prophet Ezekiel, God is nevertheless preparing Israel ("for His Glory not Israel's") to meet the returning Jesus at the Second or Last Coming. And that is bad news for Satan who currently controls this world, and for his antichrist (the counterfeit Jesus). Since we have a candidate at the moment who fits the Biblical requirements for the Antichrist, we really are entering a very significant stage of world history which the Bible says lots about. That's why God is now revealing the true significance of Mary Magdalene. Actually previous generations of Christians knew the truth about her but "The Enlightenment" ('Freemasons') and the Vatican have destroyed so much information about her that it has only been from very recent archaeological finds that we have been able to re-establish her true significance.