butswana

Where does it say in the NT that Mary was a redhead? I've done a quick search of an online KJV, and I'm coming up empty.
My wife has gotten all caught up in this DaVinci Code bullshit. She was watching a DaVinci Code show on tv, and Graham Hancocks' conclusion that it was total horse shit was completely lost on her. She was prancing around the house yesterday, asking me how I would feel if she(a redhead herself) was a descendant of Jesus. She wasn't too thrilled when I told her that certain members of the Greek pantheon would regularly leave Mount Olympus to score some mortal ass, so I didn't see much difference in the god of Abraham doing the same thing. Both are pure myth. She fires off the standard I think I'm so smart, I don't know everything, blah, blah, blah.... Any way.....
It seems pretty unlikely to me that a redhead would pop up in that area of the world at that time. But I think I'm really smart and I know everything!

premjan

There's a lot of blondes in the Middle East though (no significant number of redheads though come to think of it) and I suppose some are natural.

k_smith123

The idea that Mary was a redhead comes through allegoric interpretation. "Red" is the color of true knowledge, but "women" generally represent the "cover" that hides true knowledge. The "Mary" metaphor represents the teachings of Philo, and those like him, who admitted truthfully that the Old Testament writings were allegory which made them in a sense "male" or "red", but the actual interpretations were false and in this respect Philo was "female". As a result, those that know the truth about Biblical allegory must come up with some sort of metaphoric means of including the "male" and "female" ideas into any portrayal of Philo (a.k.a. John).

I came up this these understandings by treating Biblical allegory as a code and using writings like Proverbs and Song of Solomon to determine metaphoric relationships and meanings. Naturally, this was a long and involved process that could take hundreds of pages to explain, so you will just have to take my word for it--or not.

Toto

It's been a while since I forced myself to read the Da Vinci Code, but I don't remember that Mary Magdalene was identified a redhead, although the main female protagonists is a redhead IIRC. I guess the idea was that Mary Magdalene was identified with the effeminate young apostle John in the Last Supper, and Leonardo Da Vinci painted him with red hair - but I suspect that was not based on hard historical data.

I think it is unlikely that a 1st c. Jewish woman in Palestine would have red hair. Alexander the Great is reputed to have had red hair, probably from some Northern European genetic heritage.

Many modern Ashkenazi Jews have red hair. There is a lot of speculation that they are descended from the Khazars and that the Khazars had red hair. See also The Red Jews: Antisemitism in an Apocalyptic Age 1200-1600

Orestes

It might not be that unlikely, but it really all depends on certain things.

The area at the time was under control of the Roman Empire, but they would only have been there for around 40 or so years by the time Mary would have been born. While the Romans did make use of Thracians (known to have red hair) in their auxiliaries and later their legions, I think that was sometime after Mary would have been born.

Prior to that, however, it was under the control of the Seleucid and Ptolemaic Successor kingdoms, who made heavy use of foreigners as soldiers, particularly their garrison troops, such as Greeks, Macedonians, Galatians, and Thracians. It's not entirely inconcievable that, perhaps, some Thracian or Galatian soldiers (Galatians, i believe, were a celtic tribe that migrated to central Turkey around 290 BC or so, and were subjugated by the Seleucids around 270) were stationed in Judea. It wasnt uncommon for such men to intermingle with the locals wherever they were stationed. So perhaps one or more of Marys ancestors got jiggy with some soldiers in the not too distant past, and bam, red heads in Judea, or she was descended directly from soldiers who decided to stay and live in the area.

But now, I cant help but think that I put entirely too much thought into this. Oh well.

Mageth

Maybe she got it from a bottle?

Capybara

Henna?

ISVfan

Mary was Jewish so I don't think she would have been red haired. And lets remember DaVinci code is just fiction maybe you should remind her of that.

fta

Isn't Judas Iscariot a redhead in some (no doubt apocryphal) traditions?

Hallandale

"""And he sent, and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, and withal of a beautiful countenance, and goodly to look to. And the LORD said, Arise, anoint him: for this is he.""" 1Sam 16:12 KJV

"""And when the Philistine looked about, and saw David, he disdained him: for he was but a youth, and ruddy, and of a fair countenance.""" 1Sam 17:42

King David is described as being "ruddy"

Several years ago, Biblical Archeology Review, had an article that said that the Hebrew word for "ruddy" is more acurately translated "redhaired"
They had references to extra-biblical sources to substantiate this translation.

If King David was "redhaired", red hair may have been a symbol of being a descendant of King David and prized among the Jews.

"""My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand."""
Song of Solomon 5:10

"""Her Nazarites were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk, they were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was of sapphire:""" Lam 4:7

Nick Hallandale