The Nag Hammadi Codices Conspiracy: The Gospel of Mary

There are two instances in which a woman is described as having received the Vision which is to be understood as the Vision of the “Son of man”; the Vision which is also referred to in the Quran as the “Night Journey” of Mohammed.

The first is described in relation to Hagar in Genesis 16:9-14:

“The angel of Yahweh said to her, ‘ Go back to your mistress and submit to her.’ The angel of Yahweh said to her, ‘I will make your descendants too numerous to be counted.’ Then the angel of Yahweh said to her: ‘Now you have conceived, and you will bear a son, and you shall call him Ishmael, for Yahweh has heard your cries of distress. A wild ass of a man he will be, against every man, and every man against him, setting himself to defy his brothers.’ Hagar gave a name to Yahweh Who had spoken to her: ‘You are El Roi [meaning “God of Vision”], for, she said, ‘Surely this is a place where I, in my turn, have seen the One Who sees me?’”

And the second is in relation to Mary, the follower of Jesus, as described in the Gospel of Mary found at Nag Hammadi, Egypt:

www.maryofmagdala.com...

Now, for reasons which should be obvious, the Jewish religious ‘authorities’ cannot be expected to emphasize or even so much as acknowledge that Hagar, the mother of Ishmael, received a Vision which was also received by Moses, Isaiah, Daniel and Ezekiel; especially after Jesus and John and Mohammed received the same Vision.

But the problems for Christian theology of acknowledging the validity of the Gospel of Mary are even more disastrous.

To begin with, Mary was a woman; and, to acknowledge that a woman, no less than a man, is capable of receiving Revelations would have seriously threatened the masculine power structure even within the Gnostic community, as can be clearly seen in the last passages of the Gospel of Thomas:

“Saying 114: ‘Let Mary leave us, for women are not worthy of life.’

Jesus said: ‘You nitwit son of a bitch…’ (which, however, has been deleted from the written version of the Gospel of Thomas) [Just joking.] ‘I myself shall lead her in order to make her male, so that she too may become a living spirit resembling you males. For every woman who will make herself male will enter the kingdom of heaven.’”

Secondly, certain passages in the Gospel of Mary are, in fact, detailed descriptions of the “Messages to the Seven Churches” referred to in the Revelation of John; which, however, creates a third problem:

According to both the Gospel of Mary and the Gospel of Philip, Jesus loved Mary ‘more than the other disciples’; whereas, in the Gospel of John, John is said to have been the “disciple that Jesus loved”.

And, briefly, it satisfies the male chauvinist, anti-feminine fantasies of a celibate priesthood and religious establishment to believe that Jesus loved John more than Mary, and that he conveyed more of his Teaching to John than he did to Mary.

Thus, according to the Christian religious ‘authorities’, the Gospel of Mary can only be understood as an heretical work.

And, as expected over the past 60 years or so, the media continues to publish only those points of view which preserve the economic interests of the Jewish, Christian and Muslim religious 'authorities'.

Michael Cecil

reply to post by Michael Cecil


There are actually quite a few heroins in the Big Black Book (yes, the infamed Black Book of the Dark Ages was not a Book of Witches, but the Bible, and if the Spanish Inquisition found one in your shelf, or any other book for that matter, the Catholic Church ordered that you should be burnt at the stake). My favorite is Jael, one daughter of Kain who killed the enemy of Barak's Most Desired Land:

Judges 5:24 "Most blessed of women be Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, most blessed of tent-dwelling women. 25 He asked for water, and she gave him milk; in a bowl fit for nobles she brought him curdled milk. 26 Her hand reached for the tent peg, her right hand for the workman's hammer. She struck Sisera, she crushed his head, she shattered and pierced his temple. 27 At her feet he sank, he fell; there he lay. At her feet he sank, he fell; where he sank, there he fell--dead."

Not a very nice thing to do, but it brought her up with our heroes together with David and Jesjuah.

reply to post by Neo Christian Mystic

Not talking about heroines, Sir.

I am talking about women who have received the Vision of the "Son of man".

This is orders of magnitude above any 'heroine'.

Male chauvinist religious 'authorities' love heroines.

What they do not appreciate at all are women who have received Revelations...

Like Hagar and Mary.

Michael Cecil

reply to post by Michael Cecil


Indeed. I acknowledge your sentiment, and I am aware that Mary and Hagar have special places within our religious history. Mary even saw Hell after having asked for it. God has a special place for women like Hagar (giving her virtually the same promise as he gave Abraham as an example) and Magdalene, Jesjuah's wife.

There wasn't "masculine power structures" within Gnostic communities, so I don't know why you say there was. Women were allowed to preach even in those communities.

You, and other scholars, really misunderstand what is being said in that saying. And why you started the part Jesus says in such a manner...it's really stupid frankly. All he say's is "Look", why you'd think of it as some sort of insult to the disciples is odd as well. He's more saying "See with spiritual eyes". In any case, the point that people need to see, is that we're born as spiritually female. He isn't referring to a physical gender. As fallen, uncorrected portions of Sophia, we are also female as she is spiritually.

‘I myself shall lead her in order to make her male, so that she too may become a living spirit resembling you males. For every woman who will make herself male will enter the kingdom of heaven.’”


There is a lot of humor and sarcasm in the Bible, unfortunately scholars tend to interpret many passages as strictly spiritual and forget human nature.


Jesus is being very sarcastic with Simon Peter; If her being a woman bother you that much, think of her as a man, in fact think of every Woman as a Man, will that help you through your narrow minded suffering..?

The Nag Hammadi scrolls tend to focus on the themes only briefly touched upon in popularly approved gospels, which is that the Kingdom of God exists within each person. it is not an abstract ideal existing on another plane, but is attainable by each person.
This undercuts the authority of the Organized Church, so it was stamped out save a few passages here and there in the Cannonized Bible.

reply to post by ghaleon12


I believe that Jesjuah didn't mean that the women had to become literal males to enter the kingdom, but that they would have to correspont to what were the male demands. That they would have to act as males, or make themselves accepted on the same level as males. I don't know Koptic and there are no good interlinear Koptic-English versions around of the Nag-Hamadi scriptures.

reply to post by Michael Cecil

And, briefly, it satisfies the male chauvinist, anti-feminine fantasies of a celibate priesthood and religious establishment to believe that Jesus loved John more than Mary, and that he conveyed more of his Teaching to John than he did to Mary.

[sarcasm]I guess that's why so many protestants accuse the Church of worshiping Mary, right?[sarcasm]


Which is it people, do Catholics hate all women and want to oppress them or do we worship Mary?

If anyone actually took the time to look into Catholic theology, they would see that there is a whole lot more to it than silly, simple minded caricatures.

Then again, looking in to Catholic theology can be dangerous; plenty of folks who studied that theology in order to debunk it ended up becoming Catholic in the end.

Originally posted by ghaleon12
There wasn't "masculine power structures" within Gnostic communities,

From the statement of Peter in the Gospel of Thomas and others in the Gospel of Mary, he was clearly a male chauvinist.

This is not any minor problem.

It indicates a very fundamental misunderstanding of the Teaching of Jesus.

so I don't know why you say there was. Women were allowed to preach even in those communities.

So what? Women could preach. Power was retained in the hands of the men.

You, and other scholars,

I am not any scholar.

Michael Cecil

Originally posted by FortAnthem

[sarcasm]I guess that's why so many protestants accuse the Church of worshiping Mary, right?[sarcasm]

Wrong Mary.

This is not the mother of Jesus, but the companion of Jesus.

Which is it people, do Catholics hate all women and want to oppress them or do we worship Mary?

Worshiping a Feminine Ideal is the other element of the male chauvinist psychology of hating the Feminine Real.

What does the Roman church say about the Gospel of Mary?

That it is an heretical text, despite the fact it includes information not even found in the Revelation of John.

That is a masculine perverse distortion of the Teaching of Jesus.

Michael Cecil

In Judaism, though not broadly acknowledged, Woman is lesser than Man, since she simply happened to eat first from Knowledge. And she handed the drug over to Adam, and Woman then became the enemy of Man, like the Serpent had become the enemy of Womanhood. She was bit in the ancle, but thanks to Adam also eating, her heal will crush the skull of the Serpent. And other serpents will eat the dead Serpent and become aware that Woman is their greatest enemy. Babylon will gather the serpents and Man will destroy Babylon like Samuel (wordplay on Samael, the name of Satan before the fall. Latin nicknamed Lucifer -- the Clear Morning Star), destroyed his enemies. k