[Re-Post] Mr. & Mrs. Christ

Was Mary Magdalene the Wife of Jesus, and Why Does It Matter If She Was?

The book The Da Vinci Code was almost ubiquitous in the early 2000s. It seems like everyone I knew in college was reading it. I avoided reading it for about a year after its release, until I picked it up one night while visiting my aunt in Germany. I couldn’t put it down. So rather than steal her copy and take it back to the States with me, I bought it as soon as I got to the airport and devoured it in one sitting on the plane ride home.

The premise is compelling: a modern telling of the timeless tale of the search for the Holy Grail. Only in Dan Brown’s version, the Holy Grail is not a fabled chalice, but something related to Mary Magdalene, supposedly the wife of Jesus Christ.

Brown’s story is based on legends I’d heard for years from my history buff father, ones stemming from the tales of the Knights Templar, which stretch as far back as the early Middle Ages and beyond. Sometimes called the Merovingian legends, they propose that Mary Magdalene was not only married to Jesus but also carried and birthed at least one child, a child of royal and holy blood. In French, sang real (literally “holy blood”), which became “San Greal,” and later “Holy Grail.”

Brown’s ancient-premise-born-anew was that the Holy Grail was not an item but a child. A child birthed by his devoted disciple Mary Magdalene.

This old story is as enduring as it is impossible to prove. But one thing remains true.

A whole lot of people across centuries have believed Mary Magdalene was married to Jesus.

But was she? And if she was, why does it matter?

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In order to effectively take up the question of whether Jesus and Mary Magdalene were actually married, there are two viewpoints we must contend with: the historical and the theological.

From a historical perspective, it would have been very unusual for a first century Jewish man in his 30s to be unmarried. Even the most itinerant of Jewish rabbis—of which there were many in Jesus’ time—most often took wives who traveled with them and managed their domestic affairs while they taught and preached. So, from a purely cultural and anthropological view, even though no existing scripture specifically says that Jesus was married, he would be an anomaly if he was not.

Small scraps of evidence about Jesus’ potential marriage pop up from time to time. For example, in 2012, noted Mary Magdalene scholar Karen King presented to a group of scholars in Rome about a small piece of papyrus from the fourth century in which Jesus begins a sentence with the words “My wife…” King is clear in her discussion of this document fragment that it does not prove Jesus was married, but rather that Christians in that era believed that Jesus had a wife. The distinction is as important as it is frustrating, as it shows that so much of what we “know” is actually speculation based on a centuries-long game of telephone.

If Jesus was married, both canonical and non-canonical scripture indicate that Mary Magdalene is the most likely candidate. In the four Biblical gospels, she is present for Jesus’ crucifixion and prepares his body for burial, a role that would have typically fallen to female family members, such as spouses. The Gnostic gospels are more explicit about their close relationship. The Gospel of Mary Magdalene, the Gospel of Thomas, and the Gospel of Philip all refer to some version of her as “favorite” of or “closest” to Jesus. Some texts note that Jesus would often “embrace her” or “kiss her on the mouth.” While there are some potential explanations for this related to the Gnostic practice of the “holy kiss,” that practice likely didn’t develop until after Jesus’ death, and the simpler reason for their physical closeness would be an intimate personal relationship.

Like that of a husband and wife.

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And then there is the theological argument for Jesus having a female life partner. I wrote a while back about how the Hebrew Bible is a pagan, henotheistic text. Contained in its pages are the names of numerous gods… and goddesses. Female names like Sophia and Asherah are sprinkled throughout the scripture, acknowledging that goddess worship existed amongst the Hebrew people. In most pantheons, there were just as many revered female deities as there were male deities considered worthy of worship. That’s because, in the ancient world, every god had a female counterpart. It was considered necessary in their mythology to find their equal, an entity who balanced and reciprocated their energy, with whom they could perpetuate the divine lineage through offspring.

A divine male needed his divine female. Not just a wife, but a partner.

By all cultural and historical measures, once Jesus was deified--named and seen as the Son of God--he should have had a female counterpart. A woman who was both his consort and his equal.

And he did.

And according to legend, she went on teaching, preaching, and healing long after his death. She carried on his exact work and message. Because it was their work and message.

If Mary Magdalene was Jesus’ wife according to the peoples of late antiquity, it doesn’t mean that she cooked his meals and washed his socks. It means that she was his equal. His divine partner. She, too, was an embodiment of Christed consciousness on earth. A holder of the truth of God’s love, a teacher and preacher of that message.

If Mary Magdalene was Jesus’ wife, it was because she was the counterbalance and equal to his role as the masculine face of Christ.

She was the feminine Christ.

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Sue Monk Kidd’s extraordinary book The Book of Longings speculates a fictional wife of Jesus named Anna, who has her own personal and spiritual journey before, during, and after her husband’s brief ministry. In her comments at the end of the book, Kidd says that she was fascinated by the idea of the historical Jesus having a wife in part because, if he did, she would be “the most silenced woman in history.” 

I don’t know if any single written sentence has ever impacted me as deeply as that one.

In all likelihood, given the norms of first century Jewish culture, the historical Jesus had women around him supporting both his life and his ministry. The author of the Book of Luke tells us as much, confirming that women like Joanna and Mary Magdalene traveled with him and paid for his work “out of their own means.” In addition to financial support, he likely had women around him tending to his daily domestic needs and caring for the crowds that gathered around him. Women were there, but--with the exception of a few brief mentions in the Biblical gospels--so very silenced.

And Mary Magdalene herself, clearly a revered figure about whom much was written in two centuries after Jesus’ death, reduced to little more than a follower, and later a repentant sex worker, then later to almost nothing in the grand story of Christ’s followers. So very silenced.

We’ll never know for sure if Mary Magdalene and Jesus were formally married or partnered. But I think part of what’s compelling about the idea is how much hidden Truth the possibility points to. The Truth that Christhood is not a solely male endeavor. 

So, why does the question about whether Mary Magdalene was married to Jesus matter? It matters for the same reason Magdalenean theology matters. It matters for the same reason Mary Magdalene herself matters.

It matters because women matter.

We hope you’re enjoying this month’s focus on women’s roles in the early Christian church and beyond. Next week, we’ll wrap up the month by looking at whether early Christians saw the Holy Spirit as female.

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