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by Lesa Bellevie
Mary Magdalene, The First Apostle: The Struggle for Authority, by Ann Graham Brock (Harvard Univ Press, November 2002)
Ann Graham Brock has masterfully and succinctly stated a problem that has been bothering me for a very long time. In several early
Christian texts that feature Mary Magdalene, she faces opposition by Peter, leaving the reader with the impression that there was some
rivalry between the two. The apparent conflict was vague and unsettling, and not being a Biblical scholar, I didn't know what to do
with it.
In "Mary Magdalene, The First Apostle," Brock cleanly lays out an explanation for not only how and why Mary Magdalene and Peter are
treated differently in rival texts, but also an argument for why, although Magdalene meets every requirement for apostleship, she has
been denied her rightful title.
Early Christianity was a hotbed of competing ideas from which different schools of thought emerged. Inevitably, these groups were drawn
to the apostle, both as they were written about in the Gospels and how they were perceived in popular tradition, who best represented
their beliefs. As these groups produced texts, and in very early cases, edited the canonical Gospels, they tended to slant their
writings toward one of two polar extremes: Peter as the foundation for an androcentric authority structure, or Mary Magdalene as an
example of a more egalitarian religion in which both women and men were capable of leadership. As a result, in texts that feature both
Mary Magdalene and Peter, the role of one or the other is diminished, either subtly or directly. In some cases, texts featuring a
strong Mary Magdalene were changed so she was completely replaced by Peter or Mary, Jesus' mother. Where Magdalene is replaced by
Jesus' mother, Mary of Nazareth often plays the foil to Magdalene, deferring to Peter in all matters because he is male.
In addition to analyzing several texts for their position on Peter and Magdalene, Brock spends a great deal of time on the subject of
apostleship, how the term and the concept evolved, and what the requirements were to be considered an apostle. She points out that
although Paul is considered an apostle, by some definitions he doesn't even meet the criteria while Magdalene, by every definition,
always meets the criteria. She discusses how Magdalene's identity as an apostle was threatening to the emerging Petrine orthodoxy,
and why it was beneficial to knock her down to nothing more than a penitent sinner.
This book is geared toward an academic audience and is heavily footnoted; as a Magdalene researcher, I found her footnotes and references
to be just as vaulable as the text. Although this book will be challenging for some readers, it is definitely worth the purchase if you
are interested in Mary Magdalene or the politics of early Christianity. Highly recommended.
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