The first episode of the fourth season of the Retelling the Bible Podcast is posted today (January 28, 2020). You can listen to the episode right now and subscribe to the podcast by following one of these links or by searching for the podcast on your favourite platform:

Show Notes

This episode is different. It is not really an independent story but rather a chapter (the second chapter to be specific) of a book that I have been working on for a few years. The working title of the book is The Seven Demons of Miryam of Magala and it allows the main character (known in English as Mary Magdalene) to tell the story of Jesus from her own point of view. I wanted to share this chapter because the book is almost ready to share with the world and I am looking for some help in contacting publishers or agents who might be willing to help take the next steps. If you can help me to make any such contacts, please do contact me!

Who is Mary?

We we are told very little about Mary Magdalene in the Gospels. All we have is her name which may include a clue to where she comes from. We are also told, in the Gospel of Luke, that she had seven demons who had been cast out of her and that she was one of a small group of women who supported the ministry of Jesus financially. (Luke 8:1-3) In addition, all of the gospels agree that she was one of the first witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus. That is about it.

There are, of course, many extrabiblical traditions about Mary that have grown up over the centuries. One of the most persistent stories about Mary in Christian tradition is that she was a prostitute, but there is absolutely nothing about this to be found in the scriptures so I have not included it in her story.

This might not seem like a lot to go on to tell her story, but, as this chapter indicates, even her name can tell us a lot about her.

Herod’s queen, called Mariamne by historian, Josephus, would have been called “Miryam” in the common language of the people.

Mary, or the Aramaic name Miryam, does seem to have been an extremely common female name in first century Palestine — quite possibly the most common. What many people don’t realize is that there is a good reason for why the name was so popular. It has to do with the wife of King Herod the Great.

Herod’s wife is called Mariamne in the writings of first-century historian, Flavius Josephus. But Josephus wrote in Greek. In the common language of the people, she would have been known as Miryam.

Everything seems to indicate that this woman was well loved by the people. Her beauty was legendary. In addition, she was one of the last heirs of the Hasmonean dynasty, the last truly Jewish Dynasty to rule in Judea. This was why Herod, who was an Idumean and who sought legitimacy for his rule over Judeans, married her in the first place, but it is also why he resented her, mistreated her and ultimately had her put to death.

The saga of Mariamne all took place a couple of decades before when Mary Magdalene would have been born. Given the love that the people bore for their beautiful princess, it does seem quite likely that she was named after the princess and that the story of Mariamne would have been told to her. I loved being able to speculate on how this might have affected the development of her character and her story.

Magdala

The site of the ancient town of Magdala, nestled under the towing cliff of Mount Arbel.

There has been an extraordinary amount of archaeology in Magdala over the last few decades. Many of the details that I have included in this chapter about Mary’s early life have come from this work. We do know that Magdala was an important fishing hub and that it was a key site for the processing of fish for trade. There was also a sector in the town that was devoted to the dying industry. The name of the town, Magdala, does refer to a tower and there has been much discussion about what that tower might have been. I believe the most likely explanation is that it refers to the cliff of Mount Arbel that towers over the town but I did try to incorporate other ideas into my story.

Another unique and somewhat surprising feature about ancient Magdala is that, in the first century CE, it had a stone synagogue. Synagogues, an important part of first century Jewish diaspora communities, were actually quite rare in Judea and Galilee prior to the destruction of the temple in 70 CE. They were not needed by Jewish communities that still looked to the temple in Jerusalem as the centre of their faith and cultural life.

The mere existence of such a synagogue in Magdala during Mary’s lifetime is an indication of the existence of at least a small group of prosperous citizens who were able to patronize such an ambitious project. But there are developments that seem to indicate that the prosperity of Magdala faced a serious challenge during Mary’s lifetime.

King Herod Antipas’ decision to establish a new capital for his kingdom, and to establish it so close to Magdala must have had a devastating impact on the town’s economy. Very clearly, Herod did this in order to dominate trade in fish from the Sea of Galilee and must have seriously disrupted the town that had previously been so central to the trade. I believe that this change was a major driver in the plot of Mary’s life.

Mary Magdalene

But there is something even more surprising in the name that is given for this woman in the Gospels. Women, in that world, were not really allowed to have an independent identity. They were defined by their relationships to the men in their lives. Therefore, almost all of the women in the Bible are given names that reflect that primary relationship. Thus we have, for example, Joanna the wife of Chusa, Martha the sister of Lazarus and Mary the mother of James to mention a few. The simple fact that Mary was known by a name that did not link her to any man, marks her as are uniquely strong woman for her age.

What kind of work did Jesus do?

Christians have long imagined Jesus growing up in a prosperous carpenter’s shop. This is not historically accurate.

In Mark 6:3, the people of Nazareth dismiss Jesus for being a “tekton.” In Matthew 13:55 for being the son of a tekton. This Greek word, tekton, is usually translated as carpenter and, while technically correct in that it does indicate that Jesus was someone who might have worked with wood, this traditional translation often gives a wrong impression to modern readers.

The word tekton does not, in any sense, imply what we imagine when we think of a professional carpenter. It did not denote a skilled labourer or craftsman. Christian art down through the centuries has often depicted Jesus and Joseph working side-by-side in what looks like a pretty prosperous carpenter shop, but sadly that carpenter shop never existed. Tektons did not have workshops and often did not have much of anything beyond a few tools. They were unskilled construction workers who are generally hired on a day-labour basis. It was a precarious existence at best, as I have attempted to reflect in this episode.

The Rest of the Story

My Table of Contents

In my book, I continue to tell Miryam’s story. She will, of course, meet the young construction worker, Yeshua, again and remain with him to the bitter end and beyond. But first she must suffer loss, must find and deal with her “demons” (all seven of them) before finding freedom from their dominance over her life. I believe that the story I tell will absolutely help people to see Mary Magdalene in new ways.

So I hope that I can find some ways to bring the full book to the public. Once again, any assistance you can give me to that end would be much appreciated!

Music in this episode

“AhDah” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

“The Descent” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Acknowledgement

Thank you to Gabrielle McAndless for lending her voice to this story. She is a budding music producer and engineer and I look forward to following her future career.

Contact me:

Email

Twitter

Facebook