article_snippet.sent: The copy we have of the Gospel of Mary Magdalene comes from the second century, but is The copy we have of the Gospel of Mary Magdalene possible that the Gospel itself could be older (like first century)?
article_snippet.sent: Actually, The copy we have of the Gospel of Mary Magdalene we dates from the fifth century.
article_snippet.sent: There are two other fragments of the Gospel of Mary, both in Greek, and both dating from the third century.
article_snippet.sent: One thing that is worth adding is that the Gospel itself the Gospel of Mary is not actually called "the Gospel of Mary Magdalene.
article_snippet.sent: The term "Magdalene" does not come at all in the texts we have of the Gospel itself.
article_snippet.sent: Mary Magdalene is so prominent at the end of each of the canonical Gospels, and the reader is expecting to see more of Mary Magdalene and to hear more about Mary Magdalene in the rest of the New Testament, but there is nothing.
article_snippet.sent: Mary Magdalene is not mentioned in Acts of the Apostles, or in Paul's letters, or anywhere else.
article_snippet.sent: One possibility is that the early church suppressed Mary Magdalene memory and chose not to tell the story of this famous female apostle.
article_snippet.sent: Another possibility, and we touched on this in the episode, is that Mary Magdalene died not long after the events narrated in the Gospels.
article_snippet.sent: : Why was the Gospel of Mary Magdalene left out of the canon of 66 Biblical Books?
article_snippet.sent: the Gospel of Mary Magdalene is not even mentioned in any of the extant lists of early Christian works.
article_snippet.sent: Further, the Gospel of Mary Magdalene is different from the theology of what became the four canonical Gospels.
article_snippet.sent: However, the Gospel of Mary Magdalene Philip is probably too late (late second to mid-third century) to be able to tell we anything reliable about Mary Magdalene.