As a Christian, the origins of the Bible is a somewhat uncomfortable topic. We generally ignore that aspect of the text, and instead place great value upon the stories and their messages. The idea that certain stories were censored is particularly upsetting. My understanding of the Gospel of Mary is that Jesus offered advice contradictory to his usual messages, and the disciples actually seemed afraid to follow his words for fear that they would be killed as well. Mary tries to reassure them, saying that she received wisdom in a vision, but the disciples reject her advice and seem to deny that she could have received such knowledge. After the small argument is resolved, the writing ends. More interesting than the origins of the text, at least to me, are the reasons that it would have been censored. I know that the reason most people will reference is that Mary is a woman, however, women have received messages from God on many occasions in the New Testament of the Bible, and there are also numerous female characters of significance in the Bible. I obviously don’t deny that it may have been a factor, but analysis of this text seems to ignore the contradicting statements that Jesus made. The New Testament is almost entirely about Jesus and his teachings, and the resulting teachings of his disciples. It is best that the lessons he provides are clear and never contradict themselves, however, this text explicitly states that Jesus makes statements about sin which are not the same in the current Bible. Combined with the fact that we don’t specifically know what Mary said, leads me to believe that the content of the writing, rather than Mary’s status as a woman, resulted in its censorship from the Bible. The other possibility, of course, is that it was simply forgotten, which is also a very likely possibility. Regardless, it was an interesting topic to explore.
writing about more offensive writing
