Chapter 1: The Apostle They Erased

This chapter is part of the book The Sacred Editors: Lost Women.

The cave was cool and still. A single oil lamp flickered at the entrance, its light softening the rock walls and casting shadows over a painted niche. From within, a woman knelt over a wooden tablet, stylus in hand. It was sometime in the second century, perhaps near Ephesus, or maybe in a Judean monastic community long since buried. She whispered aloud as she copied the words before her:

"The Savior said, 'Blessed are you that you did not waver at the sight of me. For where the mind is, there is the treasure.'"

She paused and looked toward the image on the wall—a faint fresco of a veiled woman, right hand raised in teaching. Mary. The Magdalene. The one who first saw the risen Christ and called him "Rabboni." The one who taught the others when the men had fled. The one whose name was known but whose authority had been steadily erased.

The woman adjusted the tablet in her lap and continued. This was no ordinary Gospel—that is, no text that would later be included in the canonical collection Christians recognize today. It was a text attributed to Mary herself, one of a growing number of writings passed quietly among those who believed the story was bigger than the official collection being formed. She would never know whether the copy she made would survive. But she made it anyway.¹

Mary Magdalene stands as perhaps the most paradoxical figure in early Christianity: simultaneously present at its most foundational moments and yet persistently recast, diminished, and dismissed across centuries. She is named in all four canonical Gospels as the first witness to the resurrection—a fact so central that it meets the highest standards of historical reliability in New Testament scholarship.² Yet she is also the subject of profound misrepresentation: conflated with a prostitute, stripped of apostolic status, and relegated to a symbol of repentance rather than leadership.

In the earliest strata of Christian tradition, Mary is a figure of remarkable authority. The Gospel of John portrays her as the first to encounter the risen Jesus (John 20:1–18). In that passage, she is not only the first witness but the first preacher of the resurrection—sent by Christ himself to "go to my brothers and say to them..." (John 20:17). Scholars such as Jane Schaberg and Elizabeth Schrader argue that this encounter designates her as apostola apostolorum—the apostle to the apostles.³

Her prominence, however, became increasingly uncomfortable to early church leaders. In the third century, Origen's commentary already reflects anxiety about Mary's role. By the time of Pope Gregory the Great in the sixth century, a formal conflation was made: Mary Magdalene was declared to be the same person as the anonymous sinful woman of Luke 7:36–50 and Mary of Bethany, sister of Martha and Lazarus.⁴ This merging allowed the church to sideline her apostolic authority and emphasize instead a model of feminine penitence. Notably, Eastern Christianity largely avoided this conflation, maintaining a clearer distinction between these biblical figures and preserving Mary Magdalene's status as a holy woman without the overlay of repentant prostitute.

But Mary's voice persisted in texts that would later be labeled heretical. The Gospel of Mary, discovered in the late 19th century and published in full only in the 20th, presents Mary as a teacher and visionary.⁵ In this text, she comforts the male disciples after Jesus's departure, offers insight into Christ's hidden teachings, and withstands Peter's skepticism. "Do you think I have thought these things up by myself?" she asks. "Or that I am lying about the Savior?"⁶ The tension between Mary and Peter in this gospel reflects a broader tension in early Christianity: the struggle over who had the right to interpret and transmit the teachings of Jesus.

In several other non-canonical texts—such as the Pistis Sophia and the Dialogue of the Savior—Mary again appears as a favored disciple, often understanding Christ more clearly than the male apostles.⁷ While some of these texts were associated with communities later deemed Gnostic, their inclusion of Mary as a primary voice is notable for both its consistency and its theological richness. Her portrayal across these diverse texts suggests a persistent memory of her authority that institutional Christianity worked steadily to contain.

Recent scholarship has uncovered even more dramatic evidence of Mary's marginalization. Elizabeth Schrader's detailed textual analysis of the Gospel of John suggests that scribes may have deliberately altered references to Mary Magdalene, replacing her name with "Martha" in key scenes to diminish her prominence.⁸ If Schrader's reconstruction is correct, Mary Magdalene originally appears in John 11:2 as the woman who anointed Jesus's feet, and her sister Martha was a later scribal addition to redirect attention away from Mary's intimate relationship with Jesus.

Why was she erased? The answer lies partly in the consolidation of orthodoxy. As the church moved toward institutional unity in the second through fourth centuries, the authority of women—especially visionary or teaching women—was increasingly marginalized. Apostolic succession was framed through male leadership. Canonical texts were selected, in part, based on their alignment with emerging ecclesial structures. And women's roles were recast to emphasize repentance rather than proclamation.

Mary Magdalene survived this process, but in altered form. She became the "reformed sinner," a model of forgiven repentance rather than authorized speech. Her feast day remained, but her voice was softened. Her gospel was lost—buried in the sands of Egypt and dismissed by bishops. Only in recent decades has her legacy begun to be revisited seriously by scholars like Karen L. King, Ann Graham Brock, and the researchers mentioned above, who have analyzed the theological, textual, and political dimensions of her marginalization.

Mary Magdalene was not forgotten. But the version of her that survived was not the one who held the ink.

The trajectory is clear: early Christianity included women in positions of authority, teaching, and spiritual leadership. But as institutional structures solidified, these roles were systematically constrained, reinterpreted, or erased. Mary Magdalene's story became the template: preserve the name, transform the role, emphasize penitence over proclamation.

Peter said to Mary, "Sister, we know that the Savior loved you more than the rest of women. Tell us the words of the Savior which you remember..." But when she shared her vision, he protested: "Did he really speak with a woman without our knowledge?" The struggle documented in the Gospel of Mary was not merely theological but deeply political: who had the right to speak for Jesus?⁹

The woman we call Mary Magdalene was not erased by accident. She was reshaped by theology, edited by tradition, and silenced by institutional anxiety. Her story survived, but not her voice—not fully. And yet even through centuries of distortion, the outline remains: a woman who stood first at the tomb, who spoke when others fled, who bore witness to the divine not as a footnote to male leadership, but as its necessary beginning. Her ink faded. But her echo remains.

Also Remembered

Junia (1st century CE): Described in Romans 16:7 as "outstanding among the apostles," Junia was later masculinized in manuscripts to "Junias"—a name otherwise unattested in antiquity. Like Mary Magdalene, her apostolic authority was gradually written out of the record through scribal choices.

Phoebe (1st century CE): Named in Romans 16:1–2 as a deacon (diakonos) and "benefactor" (prostatis) of Paul, Phoebe likely served as a messenger and interpreter of Paul's letter to the Romans. Her ministerial role was later downplayed in translation and commentary.

Thecla (2nd century CE): The protagonist of the Acts of Paul and Thecla, she was a teacher and baptizer whose story circulated widely in early Christianity. Unlike Mary Magdalene, Thecla's authority was contained not through conflation but through the eventual classification of her story as fictional rather than historical.

The Syro-Phoenician Woman (1st century CE): Appearing in Mark 7 and Matthew 15, this unnamed woman engages in theological dialogue with Jesus, challenging and expanding his mission through her wit and faith. Her theological acumen is preserved in the canonical text but rarely emphasized in interpretation.

Perpetua (3rd century CE): A Christian martyr whose prison diary (Passio Perpetuae) is among the earliest known writings by a Christian woman. Her visionary experiences and theological insights were preserved because they were framed within the acceptable category of martyrdom rather than ongoing church leadership.

Notes

This opening vignette represents a plausible composite based on documented practices of early Christian manuscript copying and the known circulation of the Gospel of Mary. While no specific woman copying this text is historically documented, the Gospel of Mary survives in three manuscript fragments (Papyrus Berolinensis 8502, Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 3525, and Papyrus Rylands 463), indicating it was copied and preserved by early Christian communities. On early Christian scribal practices and the preservation of non-canonical texts, see Kim Haines-Eitzen, Guardians of Letters: Literacy, Power, and the Transmitters of Early Christian Literature (Oxford University Press, 2000), 89–112.
Bart D. Ehrman, Peter, Paul, and Mary Magdalene: The Followers of Jesus in History and Legend (Oxford University Press, 2006), 187–192.
Jane Schaberg, The Resurrection of Mary Magdalene: Legends, Apocrypha, and the Christian Testament(Continuum, 2002), 78–84; Elizabeth Schrader, "Was Martha of Bethany Added to the Fourth Gospel in the Second Century?" Harvard Theological Review 110, no. 3 (2017): 360–392.
Gregory the Great, Homiliae in Evangelia 33, PL 76:1238–1246.
Karen L. King, The Gospel of Mary of Magdala: Jesus and the First Woman Apostle (Polebridge Press, 2003).
Gospel of Mary, Papyrus Berolinensis 8502, 17.10–18, translation by Karen L. King.
Anne Pasquier, "The Role of Mary Magdalene in the Pistis Sophia," in Studies in Gnosticism and Hellenistic Religions, ed. R. van den Broek and M. J. Vermaseren (Brill, 1981), 491–514.
Schrader, "Was Martha of Bethany Added to the Fourth Gospel in the Second Century?" 376–381.
Gospel of Mary, Papyrus Berolinensis 8502, 17.10–18, translation by Karen L. King.
Gospel of Mary, Papyrus Berolinensis 8502, 9.1–10.10, translation by Karen L. King.

Further Reading

Karen L. King, The Gospel of Mary of Magdala: Jesus and the First Woman Apostle (Polebridge Press, 2003). The definitive scholarly treatment of the Gospel of Mary and its implications for understanding Mary Magdalene's role in early Christianity.

Jane Schaberg, The Resurrection of Mary Magdalene: Legends, Apocrypha, and the Christian Testament (Continuum, 2002). A comprehensive examination of Mary Magdalene's transformation from apostle to penitent across early Christian literature.

Ann Graham Brock, Mary Magdalene, the First Apostle: The Struggle for Authority (Harvard University Press, 2003). Analysis of the competition between Mary Magdalene and Peter in early Christian texts and its implications for women's authority.

Elizabeth Schrader, "Was Martha of Bethany Added to the Fourth Gospel in the Second Century?" Harvard Theological Review 110, no. 3 (2017): 360–392. Groundbreaking textual criticism suggesting systematic scribal alterations to diminish Mary Magdalene's role in the Gospel of John.

Mary Rose D'Angelo, "Reconstructing 'Real' Women from Gospel Texts," in Women & Christian Origins, ed. Ross Kraemer and Mary Rose D'Angelo (Oxford University Press, 1999). Methodological approaches to recovering women's voices from male-authored early Christian texts.