Mary Magdalene - Lynn Picknett

This book offers a fascinating exercise in historical detection, as the author strips away the layers of deception and propaganda surrounding the Christian story to find the real woman who was Mary Magdalene.
Was she a truly reformed prostitute who spent the rest of her life in penitence as the Church has claimed? Was she merely one of the women who followed Jesus at a respectful distance and of no real importance when compared to the male disciples? There is even a question over whether she was really a Jewish woman from the shores of Lake Galilee, or whether she in fact came from Ethiopia, a land with its own cult of itinerant priestesses, known to have travelled as far as Egypt and Israel to preach.
Using both scholastic and heretical sources - and a good deal of reason and common sense - Picknett makes her case that virtually everything the Church has ever led us to believe about the Magdalene is not only wrong but part of a deliberate two-millennia long conspiracy to cover up some uncomfortable facts. The Church of Rome may have deliberately excised references to her from the Christian gospels, seeing her as a threat to its own power. The picture of a very different woman emerges during the course of Picknett's investigations. She claims that not only was Mary Magdalene a sexual companion to the son of God, but that she was in fact the 'Apostle of the Apostles' and Jesus' true successor.
This book could make you forget everything you've ever learnt about Mary: after centuries of propaganda it is time to see the real woman and reassess the history of Christianity.