Maris Tiller
FSEM – Forbidden Texts
09/02/2021
I find the topic of “lost texts” very interesting. The fact that an entire record of something can just be entirely lost due to negligence or lack of ability to preserve it is just endlessly interesting to me. I find it even more intriguing when we have bits and pieces of the lost work and most of what we “know” is just speculation. This is the case for The Gospel of Mary Magdala, the text of which we only have parts of. The speculation on this particular text is mostly on how/why it was lost. Really, we will never know what was the reason for losing this particular text for so many years. In fact, we do not even know if the text we have now is even real. The man who found it could have made the thing up entirely. I, personally, believe in the authenticity of the text purely because of how it was found.
I also found it interesting how this text reflects the nature of early Christianity. It’s difficult for us in the modern day to imagine religions as anything but complete doctrines which were always agreed upon. But this text shows us that is not true. There was controversy; there were debates. And that is very interesting to me, that there were pieces of the Christian doctrine left out for one reason or another from the main thing. There was, at one point in time, a group of people who sat down and decided which were the important bits. And how does one even decide which pieces are important and which are not? We can’t, really. I have no doubt this was a difficult task, but the question has to be raised: Who gets to decide what is and what needs to be important?