Author(s): MEYER MARVIN

Gnosticism & the Dead Sea Scrolls

The Gospels of Mary presents English translations of the earliest and most reliable texts that shed light on Mary Magdalene-texts that unveil her importance as Jesus's beloved disciple and an apostle and evangelist in her own right, a figure whose importance for Christianity is only now emerging from the shadows of history after years of suppression by the early Church.

Marvin Meyer's translation of the Gospel of Mary and several other Mary-related texts (including passages from the New Testament Gospels) reveals a vibrant oral tradition in which Mary Magdalene is not only a follower of Jesus, but also his companion and closest disciple.

An interpretive essay by Esther de Boer, a respected scholar of the Gospel of Mary, places Meyer's translation in context.

Marvin Meyer is the foremost expert on the Nag Hammadi texts and the texts about Jesus outside the New Testament. He is Griset Professor of Bible and Christian Studies and Co-Chair of the Department of Religious Studies, and Director of the Albert Schweitzer Institute, at Chapman University, Orange, CA. He is also the author of The Gospel of Thomas and The Gnostic Gospels of Jesus.

"An excellent compilation of all the earliest texts, both gospels and apocrypha, in which Mary Magdalene appears, showing her importance to the early Church, and highlighting her powerful

roles as disciple, apostle, and companion of Christ." -Susan Haskins, author of Mary Magdalene: Myth and Metaphor

--Spirituality and Health magazine