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Old 12-12-2011, 08:21 AM   #1
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Default "The Greater Questions of Mary" (Epiphanius via Ehrman)

The lost Gospel of Judas Iscariot: a new look at betrayer and betrayed By Bart D. Ehrman


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p.54



"Epiphanius wrote an eighty-chapter book attacking Christian heretics and the Gospels they used. In the course of his discussion he mentions a Gospel about Mary Magdalene that sounds very bizarre indeed. In this account, Epiphanius alleges, Jesus took Mary to the top of a mountain and then in her presence pulled a woman out from his side (much as Eve came forth from Adam) and began having sexual intercourse with her. When he reached climax, he pulled out of her and consumed his own semen, telling Mary: "Thus must we do, that we may live." Mary, as one might understand, was shocked into unconsciousness. Epiphanius called this alleged book "The Greater Questions of Mary".
Another source for Epiphanius discloses that the text continues ...

Jesus awakens her, raises her up, and announces: "O person of little faith, why did you doubt?"



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Old 12-12-2011, 10:48 AM   #2
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This must be an indication of how many people have Pete on ignore, that this provocative subject has only 8 views and no replies.

But your deep link to google books may be a problem.
The lost Gospel of Judas Iscariot: a new look at betrayer and betrayed (or via: amazon.co.uk) By Bart D. Ehrman

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Robert M Price has a comment here

Quote:
Finally, one more depiction of Mary Magdalene as the special recipient of post‑Easter revelations occurs in the Greater Questions of Mary, yet another Gnostic dialogue. The text, as that of the Lesser Questions of Mary, is not extant, but orthodox heresiologist Epiphanius preserved a particularly juicy tidbit: "they assert that he gave her a revelation, taking her aside to the mountain and praying; and he brought forth from his side a woman and began to [sexually] unite with her, and so, forsooth, taking his effluent, he showed that 'we must so do, that we may live'; and how when Mary fell to the ground abashed, he raised her up again and said to her: 'Why didst thou doubt, O thou of little faith?"' (Panarion 26.8.2‑3).6 A striking and clear pattern emerges from these texts: Mary Magdalene, an especially close disciple of Jesus already in his earthly lifetime, is specially favored with post‑Easter revelations of a Gnostic character. She is opposed by Peter, though neither he nor the other male disciples can deny her privileged position. Her revelations entail equality between women and men, thanks to the enabling grace of the Savior who has made women as men, i.e., eliminated gender‑based subordination by transcending sexuality altogether.This enlightenment is symbolized as sexual union with Christ.

***

[6]. This passage is still so shocking to pious ears that M. R. James refused to translate it! "Epiphanius in Her xxvi. 8 quotes the Lesser Questions of Mary: but I must be excused from repeating the passage." The Apocryphal New Testament (Oxford at the Clarendon Press, 1972), 20. James means the Greater Questions of Mary.
The entire text can be read in The Apocryphal Gospels: Texts and Translations (or via: amazon.co.uk) By Bart D. Ehrman, Zlatko Pleše, p. 610

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Old 12-12-2011, 03:38 PM   #3
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Change the title to "Epiphanius: Jesus eats his own cum". That should bring in the eyes.
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Old 12-12-2011, 05:58 PM   #4
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Originally Posted by Vorkosigan View Post
Change the title to "Epiphanius: Jesus eats his own cum". That should bring in the eyes.
But the subject of the title of the text is Mary, who falls into unconscious after witnessing the entire act, and whom Jesus later resurrects to consciousness, pointedly berating Mary with the comment: "O person of little faith, why did you doubt?". As if Jesus could not pull a woman (from his rib). We are left to imagine what Mary's Greater Question to Jesus might have been.
Do you think you can pull (another) woman out of this thin mountain air?
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