Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #83275 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-08-10
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 50 minutes

Amazon.com
Modern scholarship debunks the myth of Mary Magdalene as prostitute turned saint in this installment of A&E's popular Biography series, in which viewers learn of Mary's true role as evangelist, prophet, and influential leader of the early Christian church. Mary was born into an affluent family, but became Jesus's follower and patroness as well as his closest friend. Although her smeared reputation likely was the result of medieval opposition to women's leadership in the Church, Mary Magdalene is emerging as an object of veneration rather than one of controversy. This episode features interviews with scholars and evokes Mary Magdalene's times through re-enactments and references to classic works of art. --Patty Stuart

Customer Reviews

Fails to distinguish between Biblical and apocryphal sources
Mary Magdalene is one of the most fascinating and least understood individuals in the Bible, and the redefinition of this follower of Jesus has been all the rage in recent years. While this is in many ways an excellent account of Mary Magdalene's life, I believe it goes too far, stating as fact things that are based on questionable sources, and really just taking too much liberty with the evidence. It also fails to adequately address one of the most controversial explanations for Mary's supposed misunderstanding in the history of Christianity, mentioning but never really going into detail about the supposed schism that pitted Mary Magdalene and her followers against Peter and the Christian church.

Mary Magdalene has long been looked upon as a prostitute, and the video offers an effective defense to those charges, showing how Mary Magdalene has probably been confused with some of the other Marys as well as unknown women such as the prostitute who bathed Jesus' feet in the house of Simon the Pharisee in Luke 7. However, as the video also points out, a charge of prostitution in the Biblical era could also imply a woman who gives her love too freely, and I think the jury is still out on this question. Mary would have had no reason to sell her body because, as this video explains, she was probably independently wealthy and thus free to live a nontraditional female life - she even served in some capacity as Jesus' benefactor as he traveled the land spreading the Gospel.

The problem I have with this video is that it weaves back and forth between Biblical and apocryphal texts without identifying the source of many of its claims. Mention is made of provocative ancient texts discovered in Egypt in 1945, texts that imply Mary Magdalene and Jesus may have had a physical relationship (a charge most Biblical scholars strongly dispute), but references to such texts as the Gospel of Mary Magdalen and the Gospel of Philip are made without placing those works in their true apocryphal contexts - Protestants do not recognize these apocryphal books. Here, we are told - as if the facts are not in dispute - that Mary specifically did this and that after the death of Jesus, traveling far and wide as an evangelist and prophet, eventually ending up in France and, in the last three decades of her life, living alone out in the wilderness, fasting in a full-fledged return to nature and communing with the Lord and his angels up in the clouds. The Bible does not refer to Mary Magdalene after the resurrection of Jesus, and I cannot accept apocryphal accounts as certifiably true. The viewer is told that Jesus gave Mary Magdalene secret teachings that he shared with no one else, including his twelve disciples, but most claims along these lines come from apocryphal sources.

I was slightly disappointed and certainly surprised that the video did not go into much more detail concerning the history of the early Church. The jealousy of the disciples toward Mary can be found in the Bible, and by many accounts the early Christian church basically split between the respective followers of Mary Magdalene and Simon Peter. Some modern scholars, particularly feminists, like to make much hay of this, condemning the early church for its refusal to allow women a central role in the movement. This is alluded to but never really addressed in any detail here in this video. One of the interviewed historians seems to imply that the leadership of Mary Magdalene prevented the early Church from failing in its early days, but there is just very little information offered to back up many sweeping statements such as this. Too many times, no evidence of citation of source is offered up for provocative statements and theories, and the end result is a mishmash of ideas. I am coming at this topic from a Protestant viewpoint, and I was a little uncomfortable seeing so many ideas that Protestants do not accept put forth as fact; had the sources been fully vetted in the narrative, this would have been a much better biographical account, in my opinion.

Another Bad A&E documentary
I wish I had looked at the producer of this documentary before watching it. A&E has got to be one of the worst documentary producers in existence. This is no exception.

This documentary is about Mary Magdalene, one of Jesus Christ's followers. It contains some Biblical information, some from the Nag Hammadi texts, some from fictional accounts, and a whole lot of speculation.

One of my biggest problems with this documentary was that they never gave the sources from which various details in Mary Magdalene's life came from. During the narration, this would have be helpful to them in arguing their point. There is way too much speculation for my taste. Nearly half of the documentary is speculation based on a few bits of information.

They also never established whether the Nag Hammadi texts were reliable or not. They just assume that they are authentic and reliable. No mention that they date from the 2nd - 3rd century C.E., no mention of why they were rejected by early Christians, most of these texts are pseudographs (like a few of Paul's letters), written in Coptic, not mention of their completeness, etc.

There is also only a few quotation from the Gnostic texts throughout the whole documentary! Less than three if I remember correctly! If you're trying to derive information from text, at least quote from the documents! At least make an attempt to back the claims up.

Another problem was that they seemed to accept as fact, the end part of Mary Magdalene's life, as mentioned in a Medieval legend book concerning the live of Christian saints, "The Golden Legend." I had never heard of the "Golden legend" but after listening to their quotation from it, it should be obvious that that portion concerning Mary Magdalene was a product of medieval European society (Mary Magdalene receiving last rites? Last rites evolved in later centuries in the Roman Catholic Church. They didn't exist in the first century C.E. It's clearly the writer imposing his current belief system onto a earlier time period.)

At least they managed not to bungle the fact that the Bible never says that the repentant sinner is Mary Magdalene (the repentant sinner is never actually named in this story).

INSPIRING WONDERFUL EYE OPENING
Mary Magdalene The Hidden Apostle is such a beautiful tale of a woman misrepresented in a male dominated world. The lady is a Queen of Divine Spirits second only to the Mother of Jesus. I am looking all over for more information. They mentioned The Gospel of Mary in the documentary but that only brings up on amazon gospel songs. I will continue to look. If someone knows more please email me MLSiskin@peoplepc.com
I have just become a new bible student. I love the unconventional views. This is a great buy.