In my previous post I talked about the Gospel of Mary Magdalene and ended with the passage showing her having a rather serious disagreement (after Jesus’ death) with Peter about whether she could have been favored by Jesus.  I want to pick up there, and show how not just in the Gospel of Mary but in other parts of the early Christian tradition Mary and Peter were sometimes portrayed in controversy over who was Number One!

Here is how I discuss it in my book Peter, Paul, and Mary Magdalene. slightly edited here.

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In some early Christian circles Mary was considered the original apostle – the one commissioned to tell the good news of Christ’s resurrection — based on the New Testament Gospel accounts themselves.  In the Gospel of Mark, it is Mary Magdalene along with Mary the mother of James and Salome who come to the tomb on the third day, learn from a young man there that Jesus has been raised, and are told then to go tell the disciples.  In this account, it is true, they say nothing to anyone “for they were afraid” (Mark 16:8).  And there is no word here of Christ himself appearing to these women (or to the other disciples, for that matter).

But in the later account of Matthew,

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