JESUS, His MOTHER, HER
SISTER Mary AND MARY
MAGDALENE
The Gnostic Background to
the Gospel of John
Robert Crotty
384 pp paperback rrp AU$69.95
ISBN 987 1 86355 195 5
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The Gospel of John has always been a difficult book to interpret, at
the best of times. Sometimes, it has proved quite enigmatic and even
opaque. The differences between John and the Synoptics have always
been a stumbling block for students. There have been rather simplistic
attempts at exegesis: Jesus changed water into wine at Cana because
he did not want the bridegroom ridiculed; he washed the feet of the
disciples as an act of humility; he brought Mary and John together as
mother and son at the foot of the cross because he wanted his mother
cared for in her old age.
This book takes up these problems. It demonstrates that the
present text has followed a long and tortured journey from Jewish
Gnosticism to a Christian Gnostic compendium, later extensively
edited by Roman Christianity. The result is a surprising re-reading both of the earlier versions of the text and the
editing done by the Roman Christians. Jesus, his Mother, her Sister Mary and Mary Magdalene throws light on a
different Jesus to the canonical one (he is not human), a different Mother (she is Sophia, a divine emanation), a
different Sister Mary (she is Eve), a different Mary Magdalene (she is the Beloved Disciple), a new Judas (he is not
a betrayer and was the first to receive the Gnostic eucharist) and a festering confrontation between Peter and the
Beloved Disciple. The Roman Christians disagreed on all these interpretations and heavily edited the gospel in order
to silence its Gnostic statement.
This book will show how the gospel of John should be read at the present time to take account of this complex
tradition history.
Key features
• An understanding of Christian Gnosticism in the history of early Christianity.
• A new reading of difficult texts in John’s gospel: The Gnostic Hymn to the Word; who was his ‘Mother’?, what role
did Judas play in his ‘betrayal’? who was the ‘Beloved Disciple’? what happened at the foot of the cross?
• A new perspective: the canonical Gospel of John is not Gnostic; major elements of the Gospel of John were
Gnostic.
• An insight into the complexity of Christianity in the first centuries.
• While there are existing books on the Gospel of John (which, from Bultmann on, mention Gnosticism) and
existing books on Gnosticism (which mention the Gospel of John), there is no stand-out books on the interpretive
approach taken in this book. There are also many histories of Christianity that deal with Gnosticism but these do
not go into anything like the detail of this book.
• The content crosses the boundaries of Religion Studies, Biblical Studies, Gnosticism, Early Christian History.
All of these have international appeal. At the moment there is a search for the historicity of both Jesus and the
early Christian Church and a growing interest in Christian Gnosticism. The latter comes from both academic
and committed sources (modern Christians decrying Gnosticism; modern Gnostics decrying mainstream
Christianity). The fact that its argument is based on a word-by-word commentary on the text of John makes it
more appealing to those interested in Biblical Studies.
• Interest in the history of Early Christianity, up to Constantine, is widespread. There has been a plethora of
publications. This book presents a controversial argument that needs to be included or countered.
David Lovell Publishing PO Box 44 Kew East VIC 3102
tel/fax +61 3 9859 0000 [email protected]
The author
Emeritus Professor Robert Crotty, STL (Rome), SSL (Rome), Élève Titulaire de l’École
Biblique (Jerusalem), MA (Melbourne), PhD (Adelaide), Emeritus Professor of Religion and Education,
University of South Australia.
Robert earlier studied Biblical Studies and Theology in Australia, Rome and Jerusalem. He taught
Classics at the University of Melbourne and completed an MA in Ancient History. Thereafter he completed
his PhD in Education at the University of Adelaide and moved into Religion Studies at the University of
South Australia. He has previously published some 28 books with publishers such as Collins, HarperCollins,
Springer, Waxmann and E. J. Brill.
Contents
Foreword Dr Norman Habel
Introduction
1. Some Preliminaries
History and the Bible
Religion and Culture
2. Studying the Jewish Background
Judaism and the Ancient Near East
The Intersection of the Literary and
Historical Israels
3. Studying the Christian Context
The Study of Jesus
The Successors of Jesus in Palestine
4. Introducing Christian Gnosticism
Jewish Proto-Gnosticism
Christian Gnosticism.
The Christian Gnostic Myth
5. Roman Christianity
The Founding of Roman Christianity
Roman Christianity Returns to the East
6. Paul
The Study of Paul
The Three Pauls
7. Christianity in Western Asia Minor
John of Patmos
The Book of Revelation
8. The Gospel Of John
Introduction to the Gospel of John
The Seven Independent Gnostic Treatises
The Book of Seven Signs
The Fourteen Gnostic Discourses
The Five Roman Christian Insertions
Three Stray Traditions
Identifying the Beloved Disciple
9. A Final Summary of the Growth of the
Gospel of John
The Early Christian Groups
The Literary Composition of the Gospel of
John
Conclusion
Bibliography
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