True Doctrine, circa 175, is the earliest known comprehensive criticism of Christianity and survives exclusively in quotations from it in Contra Celsum, a refutation written in 248 by Origen of Alexandria. Margaret MacDonald says Celsus' study of Christian scripture led him to focus on Mary Magdalene as the witness to the resurrection, as someone deluded by the "sorcery" by which Jesus did miracles, and as someone who then becomes one of Jesus' primary "instigators" and "perpetrators". MacDonald explains that, "In Celsus' work, Mary Magdalene's role in the resurrection story denigrates its credibility... From beginning to end, [Celsus says] the story of Jesus' life has been shaped by the 'fanciful imaginings' of women" thus lending enemy attestation to the importance of women in the early church and of Mary Magdalene herself. MacDonald sees this negative view of Mary as reflecting a challenge taking place within the church of the second century. This was a challenge to Mary's role as a woman disciple and to leadership roles for women in general. "The challenge to Mary's position has been evaluated as an indication of tensions between the existing fact of women's leadership in Christian communities and traditional Greco-Roman views about gender roles." MacDonald adds that "Several apocryphal and gnostic texts provide evidence of such a controversy." Herodias and her daughter In the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, these women are involved with the execution of John the Baptist. Herodias wanted John dead, because he had called her second marriage unlawful, but her husband king Herod prevented this. On Herod's birthday, Herodias' daughter danced for him, and he was so pleased that he took an oath, in front of witnesses, that he would give her what she wanted. Her mother instructed her to ask for the head of John the Baptist on a plate, and Herod sadly agreed. The imprisoned John was beheaded, the head given to the daughter, and she gave it to her mother. Herodias' daughter is unnamed in the gospels, but has outside the Bible been referred to as Salome. Sapphira Ananias and his wife Sapphira were, according to the Acts of the Apostles chapter 5, members of the early Christian church in Jerusalem. The account records their sudden deaths after lying about money. Acts chapter closes by stating that the first followers of Jesus did not consider their possessions to be their own but rather held in common, in order