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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Matthew 28:10
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
10 Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers and sisters to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”
Is there anything in the Greek that indicates “brothers and sisters” are spiritual rather than biological?
It’s a reference to the disciples — they are the ones who go to Galilee (not members of Jesus family)
Yes, thank you. I was wondering if there is a difference with the Greek between the words for spiritual brothers and sisters verses biological brothers and sisters?
Nope — same word, as in English.
“…in the other he first appeared to Peter…”
You have written about this before…Paul actually states the he first appeared to Cephas.
Peter would then be included in the Twelve, correct?
Are you asking if the statement appears to differentiate between Peter and Cephas? yes, I think that case can be made.
Dr Ehrman, so you do think that “Cephas” is “Peter” in 1 Corinthians 15:4?
I doubt it but some days just flip a coin.
Hi Dr Ehrman,
Firstly on the post, it’s hard to imagine that there is not some some sort of truth, in the traditions, where conflict between Mary and Peter occur. On the empty tomb not being mentioned by Paul, I was literally thinking of that today, Paul says Jesus was buried.
As a side note and somewhat unrelated question, I was an Evangelical then after reading your book God’s Problem, that essentially nudged me to become an Agnostic Deist, then after years of leaving this blog and subject, I saw a brief video on Gnosticism and how in their circles women were allegedly treated more as equals, which shocked me as during my apologetics days, they were just heretics to me, not worthy of studying in detail.
Then after reading your book Lost Christianities, Elaine Pagels Gnostic Gospels, then reading the Apocryphon of John, Nature of the Rulers, On the Origin of the World, Gospel of Truth, I was hooked. I now consider myself a Gnostic Christian. I don’t hide it, but in your opinion, is it more, less, on par with other sects in modern Christianity in terms of its “Christian” roots? My family thinks it’s not.
Sure, Gnostic Christians were/are Christian in my view.
In the Catholic Church, (which I attend), some priests’ sermons on Easter Sunday refer only to the Petrine tradition, ie. that Peter was the first to see the risen Christ and not Mary Magdalene. One can only assume that this is to shore up the Catholic Church’s insistence that only men can be ordained.