Mary Magdalene: A Biography

[Sena]

This is by Bruce Chilton.

Download the pdf:

http://tinyurl.com/krz32w9

A quote from the book:

"But our inability to specify how intimate Mary and Jesus were in sexual terms should not distract us
from the intimacy the sources do make powerfully evident: Anointing was a principal means in Jesus'
movement of conveying Spirit and removing impurity. Jesus confirmed the practice of that touching as
a sign of faith, and he praised the active contact initiated by Mary and the woman with the flow of
blood, as well as by the anonymous anointer in Luke 7.
Many teachers in the early Church were wary about oil and touching. The practice, when recounted in
relation to Jesus and Mary, inevitably awakened suspicion that their relations might have been sexual as
well as ritually intimate. Since neither of them was married, the accusation of adultery was moot, but
by the end of the first century, Christian teachers condemned all sexual relations outside marriage as
fornication. Although the Church relaxed the kosher laws when food was at issue, illicit sexuality
emerged as the primary form of uncleanness in Christian literature from the time of the New Testament
and remained so long after."