The Magdalene Mystique - The Path Inward

Our Monday Group is reading from The Magdalene Mystique, Chapter 6, “Images for a New Humanity in Dura-Europos.” You might want to see the specific images of the women I am referring to by clicking on http://www.philthompson.net/pages/icons/duraeuropos.html Go to the painting shown under “Home Worship of the Early Christians” to see the women.

While I was writing the book, I was continually energized by contemplating these images. I kept going back to them. For me, these images express features for envisioning a new humanity: that seems to have been their purpose in the early third century. My hope is that they can become that for us today.

I included several chapters about Syria and early Syriac Christianity in the book for several reasons:

While many of us know the story of Paul’s vision on the road to Damascus, located in the southwest portion of Syria, few of us know much about the rest of Syria and the development of Christianity there. It is only now that scholars are giving the region (referred to as the Syrian Orient) the attention it deserves. Perhaps this increased interest has to do with our newly discovered Nag Hammadi manuscripts, since some of them, including the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Philip, may have been written there.

The Syrian Orient holds contemporary interest for us as well since this is the geographical area we know now as modern Iraq and Iran. Would you agree that it behooves us to acquaint ourselves with this region’s ancient history? Isn’t it important that we enter into a study of these regions so we might better understand it people?

Archeologists uncovered the images of these women, and what might some think is the oldest surviving image of Mary Magdalene, in 1929. The paintings were found in a frescoed Christian building in Dura-Europos, which is located on the west bank of the Euphrates River in Syria. The paintings differ considerably from the icons we have discovered of the women at the tomb in the West. In the Dura painting the figures of the women are dignified and solemn, giving weight to the epiphany they are about to witness. These figures are of heroic proportions, models of strength and vision and witness — not cowering or weeping as in later Roman and Greek representations. Calm, impressive, and holy, the women move forthrightly to the tomb of Jesus.

The powerful impact of the painting depends on the viewer’s familiarity with the story of the women at the tomb - the rolled-back stone with visitations from angels and the anticipation of a momentous occasion. The story must have been well known to those congregating in this space and its significance recognized in the founding of the Christian movement. It is thought that the space is a liturgical and baptismal space. So the women function as models to the initates for baptism who are ceremoniously approaching the image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd over the baptismal font.

Why do we find in Syria such powerful images of women is a question worth pondering. They are not outsiders but appropriate images for initiates (both men and women) into the community. Is it possible that such images can function as models of vision and courage for all of us today - as representing, not just women, but in general a new humanity at its inquiring best about to discover who we really are?