Let me start off by saying that my discovery of the texts found at Nag
Hammadi and the Dead Sea Scrolls have changed the way I look at a lot of
things, including but certainly not limited to, religion and world
history.

Back in the third and fourth centuries, when the Christian Church was in
it's infancy and still finding it's way among all the different sects
and offshoots, monumental changes were brought forth. After Constantine
married a Christian woman and learned of the massive numbers of "closet
Christians" there were throughout the world, he had his big "conversion
experience. The fact that utilizing those massive numbers of Christian
warriors would almost guarantee his take-over of the Roman Empire
probably had nothing to do with it (yeah, right. ) But logic and
study of history does convince me that Constantine and the other "powers
that be" in those days created the Church as they wished it to be in
order to control more of the masses and put forth their own concepts of
right and wrong, good and evil, and they completely ignored what
thousands had held to be the truth.

The Nicene Council of bishops chose (and rewrote in some cases) the 66
books that we know as the Holy Bible, and they had an agenda to put
forward -- that of controlling the masses of humanity and making The
Church the ruler of everything on this earth. Anyone with an ounce of
curiosity and common sense, it seems to me, would be interested in
knowing just what was in those texts that they discarded and later
suppressed and tried to destroy. These texts make up what has come to
be known as the Gnostic Bible, and ladies and gentlemen, there is no
more fascinating reading to be found.

The Gospel of Mary Magdalene is one of those forbidden texts and this
book explores in detail exactly who Mary was and why the Church fathers
wanted her and her gospel suppressed. This text, unfortunately, did not
survive in it's entirety, so this study is incomplete, but what does
remain is very powerful.

It has long been believed among Gnostics that Mary Magdalene was the
wife of Jesus, and this gospel goes a long way to proving that. Not by
coming out with it in so many words, but by the insinuation that the
truths Jesus revealed to Mary were much deeper and more mystical than
any he ever revealed to any man. Remember how the gospels agree that
Mary was the first person to see the resurrected Christ on Easter
morning? And how he told her not to touch him? LeLoup in this study
opines that a world of information passed between them in those silent
moments in front of that tomb that morning, in a form of information
conduit between two joined souls. Anyone who has ever been fortunate
enough to marry their "soulmate" will understand exactly how such a
thing can be. The other disciples, especially Peter, were exceedingly
jealous that Jesus would choose to reveal these truths to Mary, a mere
woman, and not to one of them. Some of the disciples joined him in his
scoffing, but others (most notably Thomas and Bartholomew) studied at
Mary's feet. It was in these moments, as Mary taught them the truths
revealed to her by Christ, that the chasm between the Gnostic Christians
and what would later go on to become the Catholic Church began.

Obviously, this particular Gospel was discarded and suppressed because
it came to us through a woman, but there is a great deal more to it
than that. It reveals the innate equality between men and women in the
mind and heart of God and the men who ran the church just couldn't abide
that. It also reveals certain "truths" that are diametrically opposed
to what the Church wanted to embrace, pertaining to the nature of God
and spirituality itself.

This gospel is a fairly short text, fragmented by the loss of time, but
still holds many powerful truths. Leloup's commentary is easy to follow
and understand and it is very well researched. There is much food for
thought within this slim volume, which is why I would not recommend it
as a "quick read." It should be eaten in small bites and chewed long.
But at the end of it, I walked away more satisfied than I've been in a
long time. ( )

Found this generally fascinating. Not sure if it is the truth or not. Although I do believe that the old generalization of Mary as a prostitute was way off the mark. She does seem, on closer examination, to be a very devout follower of Jesus when the demons were driven from her. ( )

I liked this book because of the history but it wasn't what I expected and I thought it was lacking something. it left me unsatisfied. ( )

Le jour d’après ( )

This book has a very comprehensive introduction for the only mildly clued in reader. A good companion to those people who like the scathingly anti-Catholic part of the DaVinci Code. Also pairs nicely with Tori Amos's "Piece by Piece."