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The Canonical Four Gospels and the Epistles of St. Paul tell of how Jesus rose from the dead. When Mother Mary and Mary Magdalene went to the tomb where Jesus was laid after the crucifixion to anoint his body with spices before dawn, they found the stone rolled back and the interior empty. Angels appeared to them at this time and told them of the whereabouts of Jesus. Mary Magdalene, as the "Apostle to the Apostles", went and told John and Peter about the message of the angels and the empty tomb. Afterwards, Jesus Christ first appeared to the grieving Mary Magdalene, well before he appeared to the other apostles. The Ascension of Jesus "The Christ" into the Higher Heavens occurred forty days after his Resurrection. In the presence of his disciples, Christ used his own power of presence to ascend into Heaven. Since none of the disciples who partook of the Last Supper with Jesus wrote about their experiences as his disciples, what we know about their last meal together was written down by others many decades afterwards based on the oral traditions. The early custom of Christians for the first four decades after the Ascension of Christ was to honor his request to remember him by breaking bread together and drinking wine in a home setting; rather than, the bloody animal sacrifcial offerings that were practiced in the temple at the time.
Women disciples were at
the Last Supper and for many decades Christians remembered Christ by sharing a
meal together in a home with both men and women in attendance, sharing the
ceremonial aspects of the celebratory meal.
Later on a power struggle ensued between the early Christian male and female disciples; and, the remembrance of the Last Supper was moved out of the home into a separate building where it was rigidly ritualized with men deciding that only men would be allowed to officiate at what later on morphed into the Sacrament of Holy Communion and the ritual of Mass in a Church. What Christ taught and asked his disciples to do was to remember him by gathering together at a home sharing bread and wine and a meal in remembrance of him with men and women equally participating in the process. Mary Magdalene, "The Beloved" of Jesus and an early Church leader, who had been noted as his devoted disciple in both the apocrypha and canonical New Testament, had a keener understanding of his esoteric revelations and teachings than any of the other disciples. Some scholars have even suggested that it was she rather than Peter who was the person designated by Jesus to assume leadership of his disciples should anything happen to him. The Coptic Gospel of the Egyptians, and the Gospel of Thomas noted that there were often intense conflicts and altercations between Mary Magdalene and the more orthodox apostles Peter and Andrew over the rights of women to preach, to teach, and to assume positions of leadership.
Recently some writers have pointed out that the Gnostic writings; as well as,
the Gospel of Philip portrayed Mary Magdalene as being closer to Jesus then the
rest of the disciples. Such physical affection and closeness in those days was normally
reserved for one's spouse. The gospel storytelling of her presence at the foot of the cross during the
Crucifixion and at his tomb afterwards was the epitome of a faithful, loyal, and
grieving wife. Researchers have also suggested that the account of the Marriage
at Cana referred to the wedding of Jesus and Mary Magdalene...
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