In which I sabotage my work ethic.

[tree_and_leaf]

I'm trying to condense the draft of an article for presentation at a colloquium in a couple of weeks. It also has to be translated into German, which is increasing the time/ work rather greatly.

It's sadly predictable, then, that having looked up a paper I gave two years ago, to remind myself how many pages equal twenty minutes, that I got distracted by fic. You see, the paper was on Der Saelden Hort (the treasure of salvation, more or less), which among other things is a life of Mary Magdalen. It posits, in line with many other mediaeval commemntators (though oddly enough, the idea doesn't appear in the Legenda Aurea), that Mary Magdalen was supposed to marry John the Evangelist, until he left her to go off and follow Jesus, at which point Mary, understandably fed up at being dumped, went thoroughly off the rails, until she heard Christ preach and repented. Apart from the detail that the dumping was supposed to have taken place at the marriage at Cana, which on this theory never actually took place - which I think is absurd - I find this story strangely brilliant, and I would like to write about it myself (well; aparently I did, as the paper is followed by a scene of dialogue, which fortunately I didn't read out at the colloquium!). So as well as the distraction of the internet, I'm also spending far too much time thinking about Mary Magdalen.

At any rate, it's a more interesting take on her character than the 'Jesus/MaryOMGTHEIRLOVEISSOGNOSTIC!!!1!!!!11' school of thought, which I have to admit I find terribly boring, quite apart from my theological views (although it might have been OK in 'The Last Temptation of Christ,' which also focused on the 'vocation versus ordinary happiness' aspect, if they'd actually given their interpretation of Christ a personality and a backbone. Conflict is good dramatically, constant indecisive angsting less so.)

Comments

[eagles-rock.livejournal.com]

I think you writing about this would be a splendid idea.

(Were any of the disciples married, do you know? I'm just curious. I'd imagine their wives were none too happy.)

[tree_and_leaf]

Peter certainly was; Jesus healed his mother-in-law. The wife herself is never mentioned, poor woman, although I suppose she might have been dead. I'm quite sure ome of the others must have been married, though nothing's said to that effect in the Gospels (which have an annoying tendency to ignore women except when you really can't tell a particular story without mentioning them - the 'not counting the women and children' effect). I suspect James and John weren't, as they seem to have been still working for their father, and their mother trailed about the country looking after them.

I'd imagine their wives were none too happy.

An understatement, I should think.

[helflaed.livejournal.com]

Such as the way that all Jesus' brothers are named, but although there are references to "sisters" we have no idea how many!

[tree_and_leaf]

Quite. It's almost enough to make a wonam despair...

[helflaed.livejournal.com]

What a wonderful userpic (the academic one)

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

Agreed.

[tree_and_leaf]

It's angevin9's work, and really rather true...

[tree_and_leaf]

Er, I meant angevin2.