The disappearance and attempted reemergence of the Gospel of Mary burns Christianity with a question that has no confirmed answer. Why and how did the writing vanish for fifteen hundred years? Firstly, What is the Gospel of Mary? The Gospel of Mary is about the Savior talking to his disciples and answering their questions after his resurrection. After the discussion, instead of feeling enlightened, some of the disciples were discouraged and frightened. However one apostle, Mary, received extra guidance and knowledge from the Savior and wanted to help out her fellow disciples. Mary tries to explain the true message to the others, however, what she received back was a mouthful of misogyny. The others responded in disbelief of what Mary said because Jesus would ever discuss “advanced teachings” to a woman. Even though Mary had the answers to their confusion, the disciples refused to acknowledge any of her findings simply because they could not believe a woman would have the ability to learn.
As a female, this obviously makes me frustrated; although it does not make my blood boil. It is almost humorous that these male disciples refuse help even though Mary exclaimed that she had an answer that came directly from Jesus. This situation makes me think of gender society nowadays. What I have come to realize is that this kind of male behavior is still too often repeated in today’s modern society. I will admit, the male gender has improved some since the second century CE, but more change is still needed in order to reach full equality between men and women.
The mystery of what happened to this piece of literature is what intrigues me the most. The fact that it disappeared for fifteen hundred years and then magically appeared in, supposedly, a hole in a wall. One of my thoughts is that the book was intentionally hidden either because of the obvious misogyny or because it showed a woman being chosen by Jesus to speak through her. Considering the times, I would assume the latter.