Mary Magdalene and the Resurrection of
Jesus: Some Baha'i Perspectives.
Stephen Lambden
Abstract:
New Testament scholars
generally regard Mary Magdalene a female contemporary of Jesus, one of
his ardent admirers, and a Jewish woman who was the most important
female figure within the New Testament relative to the genesis of the
Jesus movement that became Christianity. The gospels conclusively have
it that she was the first to announce the risen Christ after the death
of Jesus upon the cross. Mary was the first to experience his allegedly
quasi-physical or spiritual presence prior to his ascension to heaven
around (tradition has it) 40 days later. It was Mary Magdalene who
encouraged key disciples of Jesus to post-crucifixion faith. She enabled
Peter and others to open themselves to the regenerative experience of
the risen Christ. Peter might have been the “rock” upon which the
future church came to be built but Mary Magdalene might be pictured as
its foremost pillar, architect and fountainhead. She was much more than
an allegedly wayward prostitute which patriarchal male Christian writers
(without any evidence at all to back up their contentions) in later
centuries came to unfairly marginalize and dismiss her.
A Baha’I pilgrim note
has it that at the mentioned of Mary Magdalene Baha’u’llah (d. 1892),
the founder of the Baha’I religion, was moved to smile with joy. In
various of his numerous Arabic and Persian talks and Tablets, 'Abdu'l-Bahā
(d. 1921) the saintly and sage-like son of Baha'u'llah, repeatedly
underlined the centrality of the spirituality of Mary Magdalene for the
growth of Christian understanding, spirituality and religiosity.
Decades before the
recent discovery of the for more than 1,500 years lost `Gospel of Mary
Magdalene’ (perhaps dating to the 2nd cent. CE), `Abdu'l-Baha
perceived the importance of this woman from Magdala (in Palestine) with
the same name as Jesus' mother. He often spoke of her and told her
story in interesting ways. The Christian realization of the risen
Christ, which constitutes the genesis and foundation of the Christian
religion, has its roots in the spirituality of Mary Magdalene. This
point was repeatedly emphasized by `Abdu'l-Baha often with a view to
emphasizing the equality of the sexes. Mary Magdalene was ahead of
the male disciples of Jesus rather like the Bābī Fāṭimah Baraghani,
Ṭāhirih's excellent status among the male `Letters of the Living’. In
this paper, something of the role, mythical history and theological
position of Mary Magdalene will be sketched in light of statements of
Baha'u'llah and 'Abdu'l-Baha about her importance. This will be
supplemented by some observations about the Baha'i understanding of the
death and resurrection of Jesus.
