by FriendlyFellaAL 5 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Something that always puzzled me as I grew up a Witness was where those in mainstream Christianity gained the notion that Mary Magadalene had been a prostitute. No amount of independent study that I did ever turned up anything to back up the allegation.
Does anyone know where such information comes from? Sorry if this has been discussed before, but I did a quick search and didn't find anything. I've also searched the 'net and haven't been able to come up with anything definitive.
Brian
It's a left over Catholic teaching, here's a link but there are many more.
http://www.uscatholic.org/2000/04/0004cov.htm
There was an issue of US News&World Report with the cover story asking what St. Paul really believed. This question was covered in the story as well. The basic feeling was that the moniker "harlot" was applied to a woman who was seen as too influential within a group as a way of crippling that influence.
The idea that Mary Magdalene had been a prostitute is an ancient tradition that has virtually no evidence to support it. It appears to stem from the idea that the name Magdalene was based upon a Hebrew word meaning to braid or plait the hair - so she acquired the name from excessive attention to her grooming which suggests a woman, so the tradition had it, of rather dubious habits. With that rather tenuous reasoning the connection was made with the story in Luke 7:36-50 and the idea has persisted that this is an account of how Mary Magdalene came to be a disciple. All very dubious. It could be true but there is now way of ever being able to find out for sure.
Robert Crompton.
I have read the Jewish early commentries of the Old Testament, the one that are very well know and have taken almost the same status has the Old Testament it self. The key source of this sort of information is the Jewish Talmud, and Mishna. These both contain information about the figure of Yashuwa (Jesus). Talmud contains some pretty ugly information, regarding JEsus. It recorded that Jesus was first killed on the Cross and then his entire body was lowered in the dung until his mouth ws filled with it. There is also mentioned of of the Mother of Jesus, it is aleged in the Talmud that she was whore, who was raped by a Roman soilder and has a result she conceived Jesus. It goes further to explain that when she gave birth to Jesus she hid this fact, and instead, made up a fictious account of miraoulus birth. In order to stop her family being disgraced, and save her self from being stoned to death. It also reffers to Jesus has "Bastard", "the fatherless" and so on.
So who is the first to shout " He is Anti-Semetic?"
REad the book called "the illegitamacy of Jesus"
by: Jane Schaberg
