Wisdom that originates from women, especially Christian women, is not often seen, to say the least. Although it is unsurprising that such writings as The Gospel of Mary exist, I find it odd that there is more than one fragment of it that has been discovered and reprinted, especially because it contains details that clash with the accepted version of biblical history, such as the enthusiasm and faith of the male Disciples upon learning Jesus’s teachings. Jesus was also said to have stated sin as the product of an innocent soul being misled, rather than malintent. In this version, the savior chose to speak to Mary instead of to his male disciples. Although I do not pretend to be any kind of expert in either bible studies or historical gender roles, I can imagine that this was not taken well by males in power at the time of the old Christian Church. Upon further research I discovered that Mary’s Gospel is far from the only female-written book of the bible, and that many of those books were removed from the bible during a gender-based power struggle. As for whether or not the Gospel of Mary is authentic, I imagine that it is more likely that a woman was written out of history than into it.
Mary and Peter are both said to be Jesus’s primary disciple by different groups of people. While some writings overplay Peter’s role and disregard Mary, others do just the opposite, suggesting that the two were in competition in some way. It is even said that Mary was married to Jesus and bore his child, though other sources regard this as heresy. There is no real way to know for sure which version—if any—is closest to “the truth;” the victors write the history after all, and we do not know if the victor of their struggle skewed history when it was retold.
Catholic priests claimed that one must have faith in the Church and repent to attain salvation. This is also where common Biblical history goes against Mary. She taught that, as we are all made in God’s image, repentance comes from within. This may also be why her viewpoint is downplayed by those who believe that Peter is the main disciple. Two different views of sin, and thereby sinners, cannot coexist. It makes sense that Mary’s version of history might be lost in the struggle between men and women, but the fact that we still have knowledge, relics, and theories about Mary and her connection to Jesus (and that it may have been downplayed) does suggest that there is a history of the bible that is unknown and part that is rewritten, and that is both troublesome to people of faith and is liberating for those who seek a different meaning from their faith.