December (Web-only) 2003

ARTICLE TOOLS

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It's amazing what reading the Bible will do to your thoughts of Scripture. Abraham, instead of the faithful follower, looks to be a bit more fiendish when he tells Pharaoh that his wife Sarah is really his sister and allows Sarah to be part of Pharaoh's harem. David doesn't look like a man after God's own heart when his son runs him out of Jerusalem. And Jesus looks a little more human when he weeps at Lazarus's tomb.

Well, it looks like Newsweek discovered some theologians who are taking a closer look at the Bible and discovering what's been there (and taught in Sunday school) for a very long time. But it's also finding a lot that for good reason has never been taught—it's not true. At any rate, "The Bible's Lost Stories" hops on The Da Vinci Code bandwagon to look at the "lost" stories of women in the Bible. Of course, it wouldn't be a story without something sensational, so there's the obligatory talk of Jesus marrying Mary Magdalene, and very little admitting that there is no proof of Jesus' matrimony.

With so many Marys in the New Testament, it can be easy to confuse them, and Newsweek dives right into the confusion between Mary Magdalene, who was possessed by demons, and Mary, Martha and Lazarus's sister, and Mary the harlot. Newsweek attributes the confusion, not to misreading, but to manipulation by powerful men who vied with Mary for control of the early church. And in order to wipe women from the scene, these men, including the Apostle Peter, falsely called Mary a whore and wrote the history themselves.

Maybe because of the sensation, the new interest in the ladies of the Bible is inspiring many, especially women in small Bible studies, says Newsweek writers Barbara Kantrowitz and Anne Underwood. "College student ...