On a History Channel program about Christ, a very brief mention was
made about a gospel (or scripture) that was not included in the New
Testament, but that was written by a woman and was about women
desciples. Specifically, it stated that there were some seven female
apostles of Christ of equal stature to the well known males. It does
not appear that the program was referring to the scriptures of Mary
Magdaline, although I am not sure. Can you advise what woman and
writing that they may be referring to, and were there female apostles?

Dear fulks,

I feel certain that the scriptures you have in mind are "The Sophia of
Jesus Christ" and "The First Apocalypse of James". Those are Gnostic
scriptures that have not been included in the New Testament as we know
it today. The texts themselves date from the 1st to the 3rd century,
and the actual copies that have been discovered in Nag Hammadi (Egypt)
in 1945 were written and concealed (most likely to rescue them from
destruction) in the 4th century.


In "The Sophia of Jesus Christ", we read:

"After he rose from the dead, his twelve disciples and seven women
continued to be his followers..."

Later in the text, Mary (Mariamme) who is one of those "seven women"
participates in the dialogues with Jesus just like the male disciples.
Unfortunately, the names of the other six women are not mentioned in
"The Sophia of Jesus Christ".


In "The First Apocalypse of James", the "seven women" are mentioned again:

"James said, "I am satisfied [...] and they are [...] my soul. Yet
another thing I ask of you: who are the seven women who have been your
disciples?"

This scripture, however, reveals four of these women's names, when
Jesus speaks to James:

"When you speak these words of this perception, encourage these four:
Salome and Mariam and Martha and Arsinoe..."

Since the various forms of the name we know as Mary today were very
common in Jesus' times (Marianne, Mariam, Mariamne, Mariamme, Miriam),
it is hard to say whether the Mariam from this text is identical with
Mary from the "Sophia of Jesus Christ". It is possible that there were
two women of similar names, so it is not clear whether we know five or
four of the "seven women" by name.


A word on the "authorship" of those Gnostic scriptures: While the
title "The Sophia of Jesus Christ" might upon reading or hearing
easily lead to the conclusion that a woman named Sophia was the
author, this would be a misunderstanding. "Sophia" is indeed also a
Greek first name, but it was derived from the word for "wisdom" - and
that is what is meant in this case, the "Wisdom of Jesus Christ" which
he reveals to the twelve men and seven women (and to the reader). The
actual author of the scripture is unknown.


For further reading, please follow these links to the Gnostic Society Library:

The Nag Hammadi Library
http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/nhl.html

The Sophia of Jesus Christ
http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/sjc.html

The First Apocalypse of James
http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/1ja.html


I hope that this is useful information for you!
Regards,
Scriptor



Sources:

Mary Ann, "nag hamadhi, apocraphyl books of bible". Online posting
(Wed Nov 5, 2003), ARE Clinic's Edgar Cayce Forum at Yahoo Groups.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/areclinicsedgarcayceforum/message/4971

University of Pennsylvania, Department of Religious Studies: "Gnostic" Gospels
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/rs/rak/courses/435/nhljesus.htm

University Library Groningen, Faculty of Theology: The Acts of Philip (PDF file)
http://www.ub.rug.nl/eldoc/dis/theology/i.czachesz/c6.pdf

Search terms used:
jesus "seven women"
://www.google.de/search?q=jesus+%22seven+women%22&hl=de&lr=&newwindow=1&c2coff=1&start=0&sa=N
"mary magdalene" gnostic
://www.google.de/search?hl=de&newwindow=1&c2coff=1&q=%22mary+magdalene%22+gnostic&btnG=Suche&meta=
"seven women apostles"
://www.google.de/search?hl=de&newwindow=1&c2coff=1&q=%22seven+women+apostles%22&btnG=Suche&meta=
"Nag Hammadi" "seven women" sophia
://www.google.de/search?q=%22Nag+Hammadi%22+%22seven+women%22+sophia&hl=de&lr=&newwindow=1&c2coff=1&start=0&sa=N
Nag "seven women" Martha Salome Arsinoe
://www.google.de/search?hl=de&newwindow=1&c2coff=1&q=Nag+%22seven+women%22+Martha+Salome+Arsinoe&btnG=Suche&meta=

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Request for Answer Clarification by fulks-ga on 30 Mar 2005 11:47 PST

Thanks Scriptor-ga for the thorough answer. It is exactly what I was
looking for, as well as the appropriate references. Thanks especially
for pointing out that Sophia is not necessarily the name of a woman
... I would have struggled with that issue. However, I do have a
question of clarification. It would appear that you use the terms
Apostle and Desciple and the terms Gospel and Scripture almost
interchangeably, but I am sure that you don't. Can you tell me the
distinction between Apostle and Desciple and between Gospel and
Scripture? Thanks, Tom

---

Clarification of Answer by scriptor-ga on 30 Mar 2005 13:00 PST

While the term "disciple" means "follower, pupil", the Greek word
"apostle" means "ambassador, delegate, messenger". According to Luke
6:13, the "original" twelve apostles we think of today were
hand-picked by Jesus himself among all of his disciples (this also
shows that Jesus had more than just the 12 disciples we usually think
of today): "And when it was day, he called unto him his disciples: and
of them he chose twelve, whom also he named apostles".
And in Matthew 10:1-2, we learn: "And when he had called unto him his
twelve disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast
them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of
disease. Now the names of the twelve apostles are these..."
So basically, the apostles were "elite disciples" who were assigned
special tasks by Jesus himself, as described in Mark 3:13-15: "And he
goeth up into a mountain, and calleth unto him whom he would: and they
came unto him. And he ordained twelve, that they should be with him,
and that he might send them forth to preach, And to have power to heal
sicknesses, and to cast out devils."
No rule without exceptions: In Acts 1:26, we can read how a
replacement for Judas Ischariot was chosen by the remaining 11
apostles (Paul, who has not even been one of Jesus' disciples,
declared himself an apostle in Romans 11:13).

Now, these and other parts of the New Testament refer only to the
twelve men as original apostles; however, it is important to know that
the Bible - and in particular the New Testament - as we know it today
is the result of much editing in and after the 4th century. Texts that
were considered not appropriate in the eyes of the editors were
changed or not even included in the list of holy texts. One can easily
imagine that parts of the texts referring to women of extraordinary
importance - such as having the status of apostles - were removed.

As for the distinction between Gospel and scripture: A Gospel is, as I
understand it, the tale of Jesus' life, death and teachings,
considered written down by an contemporary of Jesus, such as a
disciple. A scripture can be any ancient text, while only Scriptures
(note the capital S) are "sacred" texts from the biblical environment
(but not necessarily recognized by every Christian church - for
example, the Catholic church recognizes the Books of the Maccabees in
the Old Testament as part of the Holy Bible, while those texts are not
part of Lutheran bibles.

Regards,
Scriptor

The answer, comment, and clarification are spot-on and a good value. I
still have some questions, but am pursuing the references provided by
scriptor-ga with some success. Perhaps I will be back with another
well formulated question after further research. Tom Fulks

Ephesians 5;22-25 " Let wives be in SUBJECTION to their husbands as to
the Lord. 23. because a husband is head of his wife, as the Christ is
head of the congregation, he being a saviour of this body. 24. In
fact, as the congregation is in SUBJECTION to the Christ, so let wives
also be to their husbands in everything".
First Corinthians 14;33-35 " For God is  a God, not of disorder, but
of peace.. As in all the congregations of the holy ones, [34] let the
women keep silent in the congregations, for it is not permitted for
them to speak [teach], but let them be in SUBJECTION, even as the law
says. [35] If then they want to learn something, let them question
their own husbands at home, for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak
in a congregation".
Apostles were the primary teachers and as such were all men. Women
could never be classified as teachers, based on the above scripture.
But they could be very spiritual followers of Jesus' teachings and
throughout the Bible were always accorded respect and even honoured,
as shown by the fact that Mary Magdalene, Salome and Mary, Jesus'
mother were the first to be told that Jesus had been resurrected [Mark
16;1-8]