ph2ter

Something odd is happening in the gospels with the female names. It is very suspicious that there are mentioned a whole bunch of women under the name Mary. Mary the mother of Jesus, Mary the sister of Mary, Mary the wife of Cleopas, Mary Magdalene, Mary and Marta... I don't believe that such name was so popular that practically every woman had it.

The etymology of the name Mary is disputed and probably comes from the Aramaic 'Maryam'. 'Mar' means the bitter and 'yam' means the sea. Maryam then would mean 'the bitter sea'.

Maria has been also in Latin associated with the noun mare, meaning the sea. False etymology 'stella maris" - the star of the sea, which was very popular originated with Jerome, but Jerome probably meant 'stilla maris' - the drop of the sea. A sea is a body of water, and in many languages is connected with death. Indo-european roots for sea, death and maiden are very similar and points to female goddess with all such functions.
The Greeks on Crete had a goddess under the name Britomartis later identified with Artemis. Her name is usually derived from britus: sweet or blessing, and martis, i. e. marna: a maiden, so the name would mean, the sweet or blessing maiden or virgin.

Under the name Mary in OT is mentioned only a sister of Moses, a prophetess Maryam (Miryam). After crossing the Red Sea, Maryam took a timbrel (drum) in her hand and start to singing because 'the Lord has the horse and the horseman (of Pharaoh) sent into the sea'. (Exodus 15.20)

Gregory of Nyssa wrote regarding OT Maryam: Was she not a type of the church, who as a virgin with unstained spirit joins together the religious gatherings of the people to sing divine songs? and Ambrose: Perhaps by the tambourine Scripture means to suggest the virginity of the first Mary, who was, I think, the prototype of Mary the mother of God.

It is important to note that here Gregory of Nyssa and Ambrose somehow connected a female drummer with virginity. Relief figures of nude or half nude female drummer were extremely widespread and popular among broad portions of the population of ancient Israel. These figurines are generally and characteristically associated with symbols of fertility and sexuality and probably symbolized love priestesses. As a temple servants, they were dedicated to sacred prostitution associated with the sacred marriage. Timbrel is very important instrument in the cult of female goddesses Cybele and Inana. It was made in secret ceremonies out of a skin taken from the sacrificed bull. Figures of naked female drummers as some form of idolatry certainly came into conflict with the official cult of Israel. The context was transformed in OT betraying concealed sexual motifs. Female drummers in OT were then associated with virginity. OT writers sublimated this aspect through the metaphor of "virgin Israel": "O virgin Israel! Again you shall adorn yourself, beat the drum, and go forth in the (erotic) dance of the merrymakers" Jer. 31.4 (Music in ancient Israel/Palestine (or via: amazon.co.uk) by Joachim Braun).

Now, it is clear why Gregory of Nissa and Ambrose connected female drummer Maryam with the virginity, and successively Ambrose with the virgin Mary. The virgin birth of Christ of Isaiah 7.14 is thus only one of several coherent pieces of the same OT jigsaw.

Few lines later in OT, when Jews three days after the Red Sea crossing were in the wilderness they found the water under the name 'Marah' (bitter) which was bitter (note that 'mar' - bitter is in root of Maryam name). Moses threw a tree into the water and water was made sweet. (Exodus 15.23). Christians connected this water with the water of baptism which becomes life-giving only after it is joined with the cross - a tree which Moses threw into the water. The action of Moses is seen figuratively as the true and proper baptism.(Mystagogy: a theology of liturgy in the patristic age (or via: amazon.co.uk) by Enrico Mazza)

The wood that restores the sweetness to water is Christ; Again, water is restored from its defect to its native grace of sweetness by the tree of Moses. That tree was Christ, restoring of himself the veins of what had been envenomed and bitter nature into the all salutary waters of baptism (Tertullian, On Baptism 9.2).

The waters of baptism are of no avail unless the cross of Christ is preached (Ambrose).

Moses and baptism can be connected also looking at his birth account : "And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses: and she said, Because I drew him out of the water." (Exodus 2.10)

In the center of baptism is death of Jesus. When someone is baptized he goes under the water becoming 'dead' and then goes out of the water becoming again 'alive', like the Christ was after his resurrection. Water signifies death. When someone is under the water, it means that he is dead. When Jesus walks on the water, that means he is capable to conquer the death. In baptism in Jordan he is born again out of the water. Although water signifies a tomb, it signifies a womb too, because Jesus is born again from the very same water and on the symbolic level this water is his mother Mary.

And what can we do then with all that women under name Mary in NT?

In the Greek religion Demeter and his daughter Kora (simply the maiden) were revered as separate goddesses, but their functions are so mingled that one sometimes has problems to make distinction between the two. Important piece of that dichotomy of pagan concept of female goddess is preserved in a gnostic text from Nag Hammadi under the name "The Thunder: Perfect Mind":

...For I am the first and the last....
I am the whore and the holy one.
I am the wife and the virgin.
I am [the mother] and the daughter...
I am the mother of my father
and the sister of my husband
and he is my offspring...
I am the one whom they call Life,
and you have called Death.

Mary is at the same time a virgin, a wife and a mother. Mary Magdalene is a whore and a holy one. Mary is present at birth and death of Jesus and in that way follows all other female goddesses of ancient east.

It could be resumed that NT Mariology is modeled on OT and on pagan mythology without any trace of reality or tradition which originated with an actual person.

youngalexander

Alone of All Her Sex (or via: amazon.co.uk)