Reflection Paper 5 - Mary Magdalene & John

Anthony Schoen
Religion 120-05
April 17, 2010
Reflection Paper 5
Mary Magdalene and John
When reading the gospel of John and Ehrman, the way women were ignored in the bible has become very apparent to me. The more I continued to read, the ambiguities of how John truly felt grew. John was clear in several of his writings that women were able to play roles in the church, and did not mention much about them being limited on who or what they could teach or do in society. Although writings said to come from him sometimes depicted a contradictory belief. Through his writings I came to the conclusion that he had a split view on women.
John seemed to feel that women are equal in they eyes of God, but even under this conclusion he still felt that the methods used in society should not change. This meant that women were not viewed as equal to men, not sharing the rights men held. Such a belief seems ridiculous to me, especially when this conclusion is drawn from the story of Adam and Eve. The order in which God created man and woman should have no significance in how we measure a woman’s social equality and the rights they are allowed to when compared to that of a man.
Many of the reasons I feel that religion is skewed are the continual efforts of people attempting to break apart the text of the bible. With people breaking apart the word of God, and creating their own versions of the writings, the real word of God becomes more and more distant from what we are truly supposed to read. Even in the story of Mary Magdalene, nothing is said about her being a prostitute, and yet people associate her with that of a prostitute. She was the first to witness one of the most incredible actions in the bible, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. People have turned this into the belief that she must have had some other relations with Jesus, and such a relationship is the only reason he allowed her to see him first.
Once again a story in the bible showing the greatness of our lord is altered to ruining the reputation of an innocent individual who played a significant role in Jesus and his disciples lives. Women in general played very few roles within the bible, and the gospels. The few times they are mentioned, people view this as an insignificant factor, and that if they are sinful individuals, their sin is sexually related.
Overall I feel that the reputation that woman have gained in the bible, and the lack of the role they played is completely wrong and unjust. In the eyes of God we are all equal, no matter what race, sex, religion, or sexual orientation we are. He gives us the freedoms to choose most of these after birth, but sex is not something that we are able to choose, and thus is probably the most insignificant factor in which judgment should be placed on an individual!