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150:2.2 It was at Magdala that the women first demonstrated their usefulness and vindicated the wisdom of their choosing. Andrew had imposed rather strict rules upon his associates about doing personal work with women, especially with those of questionable character. When the party entered Magdala, these ten women evangelists were free to enter the evil resorts and preach the glad tidings directly to all their inmates. And when visiting the sick, these women were able to draw very close in their ministry to their afflicted sisters. As the result of the ministry of these ten women (afterward known as the twelve women) at this place, Mary Magdalene was won for the kingdom. Through a succession of misfortunes and in consequence of the attitude of reputable society toward women who commit such errors of judgment, this woman had found herself in one of the nefarious resorts of Magdala. It was Martha and Rachel who made plain to Mary that the doors of the kingdom were open to even such as she. Mary believed the good news and was baptized by Peter the next day.
1. The Women’s Evangelistic Corps (1678.5) 150:1.1 Of all the daring things which Jesus did in connection with his earth career, the most amazing was his sudden announcement on the evening of January 16: “On the morrow we will set apart ten women for the ministering work of the kingdom.” At the beginning of the two weeks’ period during which the apostles and the evangelists were to be absent from Bethsaida on their furlough, Jesus requested David to summon his parents back to their home and to dispatch messengers calling to Bethsaida ten devout women who had served in the administration of the former encampment and the tented infirmary. These women had all listened to the instruction given the young evangelists, but it had never occurred to either themselves or their teachers that Jesus would dare to commission women to teach the gospel of the kingdom and minister to the sick. These ten women selected and commissioned by Jesus were: Susanna, the daughter of the former chazan of the Nazareth synagogue; Joanna, the wife of Chuza, the steward of Herod Antipas; Elizabeth, the daughter of a wealthy Jew of Tiberias and Sepphoris; Martha, the elder sister of Andrew and Peter; Rachel, the sister-in-law of Jude, the Master’s brother in the flesh; Nasanta, the daughter of Elman, the Syrian physician; Milcha, a cousin of the Apostle Thomas; Ruth, the eldest daughter of Matthew Levi; Celta, the daughter of a Roman centurion; and Agaman, a widow of Damascus. Subsequently, Jesus added two other women to this group — Mary Magdalene and Rebecca, the daughter of Joseph of Arimathea. (1679.1) 150:1.2 Jesus authorized these women to effect their own organization and directed Judas to provide funds for their equipment and for pack animals. The ten elected Susanna as their chief and Joanna as their treasurer. From this time on they furnished their own funds; never again did they draw upon Judas for support. (1679.2) 150:1.3 It was most astounding in that day, when women were not even allowed on the main floor of the synagogue (being confined to the women’s gallery), to behold them being recognized as authorized teachers of the new gospel of the kingdom. The charge which Jesus gave these ten women as he set them apart for gospel teaching and ministry was the emancipation proclamation which set free all women and for all time; no more was man to look upon woman as his spiritual inferior. This was a decided shock to even the twelve apostles. Notwithstanding they had many times heard the Master say that “in the kingdom of heaven there is neither rich nor poor, free nor bond, male nor female, all are equally the sons and daughters of God,” they were literally stunned when he proposed formally to commission these ten women as religious teachers and even to permit their traveling about with them. The whole country was stirred up by this proceeding, the enemies of Jesus making great capital out of this move, but everywhere the women believers in the good news stood stanchly behind their chosen sisters and voiced no uncertain approval of this tardy acknowledgment of woman’s place in religious work. And this liberation of women, giving them due recognition, was practiced by the apostles immediately after the Master’s departure, albeit they fell back to the olden customs in subsequent generations. Throughout the early days of the Christian church women teachers and ministers were called deaconesses and were accorded general recognition. But Paul, despite the fact that he conceded all this in theory, never really incorporated it into his own attitude and personally found it difficult to carry out in practice.
Originally posted by NEMOats
A better reason is that the document was seriously doubted as authentic:
1. It is not cited by any other apostles and unknown to many of the original apostolic churches when the canon was established.
2. It is Gnostic in its nature and message, hence not Christian.
If there is any conspiracy here, it was that Book of Mary was forged by Gnostics to lay credence to their very unapostolic views. Stranger things have happened in mankind's religions....just look around.
edit on 26-7-2011 by NEMOats because: bad choice of a word
But more importantly, the codex preserves the most complete surviving fragment of the Gospel of Mary (as the text is named in the manuscript, though it is clear this named Mary is the person we call Mary of Magdala). Two other small fragments of the Gospel of Mary from separate Greek editions were later unearthed in archaeological excavations at Oxyrhynchus in lower Egypt. (Fragments of the Gospel of Thomas were also found at this ancient site; see the Oxyrhynchus and Gospel of Thomas page for more information about Oxyrhynchus.) Finding three fragments of a text of this antiquity is extremely unusual, and it is thus evidenced that the Gospel of Mary was well distributed in early Christian times and existed in both an original Greek and a Coptic language translation.
Originally posted by Mividau
reply to post by MrOysterhead
Even if that is true. It gives you Faith which inturn is a very powerfull gift.
Faith alone can improve a persons very quality of life. Not only this, if you wish to believe in the words.
It gives you an ultimate being who created everything but takes time out just to listen to you.
Even when you're very own love ones ignore you.
A sence of reason and belonging in you're life. Which by being humans we deeply crave.
It can even lend you the strength of our ancestor's in our very time of need.
Yes we have people who decide to distort these very princeable's and turn them into weapons of hate.
But should we be judged equaly to a mad man that kill's in GODS name. Because they decided they are above the very thing the book teach's.
You may not believe in it on you're consious level. But the very spirit of it is written in you're heart.
How do I know this. Do you just walk by and let someone beat a child with a baseball bat.
We are all spiritual brothers and sisters weather we accept it or not.
LOTZA LUV 2 U
Originally posted by Kharron
reply to post by Mividau
To me, this is just another example of the fallacy of Christianity - the censorship of what is claimed to be the word of God. On one hand people are looking for secret mathematical formulae within the Bible, claiming it to be divine writing and without fault, and on the other hand we've got centuries of mere humans editing and scavenging the "divine writing" as they see fit. In the end, it is nothing more than the most edited book in the history of the world, custom fit to help those in power remain there.
Khar
Originally posted by Mividau
reply to post by MrOysterhead
Even if that is true. It gives you Faith which inturn is a very powerfull gift.
Faith alone can improve a persons very quality of life. Not only this, if you wish to believe in the words.
It gives you an ultimate being who created everything but takes time out just to listen to you.
Even when you're very own love ones ignore you.
A sence of reason and belonging in you're life. Which by being humans we deeply crave.
It can even lend you the strength of our ancestor's in our very time of need.
Yes we have people who decide to distort these very princeable's and turn them into weapons of hate.
But should we be judged equaly to a mad man that kill's in GODS name. Because they decided they are above the very thing the book teach's.
You may not believe in it on you're consious level. But the very spirit of it is written in you're heart.
How do I know this. Do you just walk by and let someone beat a child with a baseball bat.
We are all spiritual brothers and sisters weather we accept it or not.
LOTZA LUV 2 U