There is a lot we don't know about the book of Mary Magdalene. I discern these words by the books of the Bible we do have and not by the judgement handed down by Constantine the Great and his priests.
The Blessed One is Yahusha Hamashia called Jesus Christ. I believe this happened after the resurrection and before the Ascension. Very little is known about what Yahusha said at that time. The Apostles didn't even reveal that Mary Magdalene was with Yahusha after the first day He resurrected. Mary Magdalene's time would be short in Z Judea. She was soon to be placed on a boat with others, onto the Mediterranean Sea without oars, without a sail and without a rudder. Life expectancy is about 2 to 4 days, seven days if it rained. We know she reached southern France by Yahuah Elohiym's Mercy. I believe she wrote her book by memory much later in her life.
Subjects to study from these verses are;
1. Peace and receiving Peace
2. Avoid being led astray.
3. Finding Yahusha and Him within us.
4. There's no need for more religious rules.
Peace and receiving Peace, the first step in finding Peace is to recognize oppression as the spiritual enemy. Oppression can be recognized by tyranny, persecution, subjugation and/or hardship. Finding Peace is not terminating oppression. Finding Peace is finding Yahusha Hamashia as High Priest and Savior. Mary Magdalene was persecuted by many. Her and her daughter Sarah Tamar may have been rejected by Sarah's birth father. We don't know her history. What we do know is that Mary Magdalene had money that supported Yahusha Hamashia's ministry. She paid for Yahusha's ministry and had nothing on the boat. Having money does not offer peace. Peace comes by overcoming the demons that oppress you. Yahusha Hamashia knocks on your spiritual heart. It's up to us to let Him in a Peace will follow. The old spirit within you that has fear. Oppression wants you to keep the Fear you have. But the urge is to strong, you open the door to your soul because it needs Peace so desperately. Soon your old spirit passes away. Your born again Spirit, born from Spirit and not of flesh is alive and communicating with Yahuah Elohiym. Your flesh might not recognize Peace, but your Born Again Spirit will.
Avoid being led astray, being led astray is to be influenced into making a wrong decision. If you were to purchase a car or truck, the dealer will tell you all the good things about it and mislead you into jumping on the deal. But you need to know the truth about what you are looking at. There are late model cars and trucks that will have a catastrophic breakdown just past 30,000 miles. Even the recommended vehicles have issues that will cost you down the road. Yahusha said, “See to it that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many." We are to look out for manipulation, false teachings, and unhealthy control over you when in a religious relationship. We are not to have obedience to a pastor or priest. We are to have obedience to the Word of Yahuah Elohiym. Using twisted Bible verses and verses out of context for the collection of Money for anything other than preaching the Gospel of Yahusha Hamashia called Jesus Christ is sort of like spiritual embezzlement. It's a breach of trust, it has a lawful start ending in theft and always used for their personal gain. Taking money from the church earmarked for another cause and shifting it to a cause of your choosing is unjustified because of not keeping your word. This deceptive action puffs you up and leads to pride when you are praised.
Finding Yahusha and Him within us is something the believer should also review. Here is Romans 10:12-17 written by Paul the Apostle who was in the Greek city of Corinth around 57 CE Transcribed by Tertius.
(For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him, for “Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? And how will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who proclaim good news of good things!”. However, they did not all heed the good news, for Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our report?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.)
For the unbeliever, to find someone they are not looking for, first they must hear the Gospel, then they must believe and take heed, calling on His name.
1. Someone speaking the Word of Yahuah Elohiym.
2. Unbeliever hearing the Word
3. Unbeliever believing the Word
4. Believer calling on His name
5. Establishing a relationship with Yahusha who is the Word
Next is the relationship with Yahusha Hamashia called Jesus Christ. For most people calling on somebody you cannot see may seem incredibility stupid. There are those who want to lift up a sinful man to be their Christ. There are those religious people who would let you do that. This would be a substitute Christ or Antichrist. The True Hamashia will speak to you. You will hear without ears. You will see without eyes. You will touch without using your fingers. You will have a relationship without flesh. The key is to have faith in Yahusha Hamashia and pray to the Father in Heaven as Yahusha said to pray. I find that calling upon the Father is like going before a judge. Keep your words respectful but still address Him as Father. Yahusha is like a lawyer who takes you before the Father in Heaven, a Good Shepherd, Teacher and Brother. The Holy Spirit is like a Mother and question your actions. Also She will ask questions that will point you to the Father and in the correct direction.
There's no need for more religious rules, but yet religion keeps writing them.
Matthew 15:8–9, This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far away from Me. But in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commands of men.’”
Mark 7: 19-13, For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘He who speaks evil of father or mother, is to be put to death’; but you say, ‘If a man says to his father or his mother, whatever you might benefit from me is Corban (that is to say, given to God;) you no longer leave him to do anything for his father or his mother; thus invalidating the word of God by your tradition which you have handed down; and you do many things such as that.”
The verses in Matthew are straight forward. Those in Mark reveal the twisted nature of religion. Simply said, religion created rules so that they may circle around their responsibilities Yahuah Elohiym called them to do in the first place.
Church Membership rules are not Biblical. In the Early church there was no Roman Catholic, Lutheran or Others. All Believers were considered the body of Yahusha Hamashia called Jesus Christ. The Ruled and Rulers started with Constantine the Great. If you want to become a member of a church, there's rules you must follow that are not in the Bible. But if you follow these rules and not a member of the body of Yahusha, you're not saved. If you are a member and follow their rules and a member of the body of Yahusha Hamashia, you are saved. If you are unchurched and a member of the body of Yahusha Hamashia, you are saved.
Administrative traditions today are not Biblical. Congregational voting for Pastors and corporate oversight never happened in the early church. That's a Roman and Greek influence on the church. There were believers in United Kingdom, India and Africa before the Catholic Church ever got there. When they arrived, they brought the Inquisition followed by Death with them.
I quote, "While giving cheerfully is taught, enforcing a strict 10% financial tithe on New Testament churchgoers is an extrapolation from ancient Israelite agricultural law."
The church has abandoned Biblical Holy Days and adopted pagan holidays and covered them with a mask that looks Biblical. For example Yahusha Hamashia called Jesus Christ wasn't born December 25th. He was born September 11 in the year 3 BCE. Meanwhile the church ignores the Day of Atonement that is a Sabbath.
Cathars is a Gnostic belief from southern France. Gnostic books were deleted by the Catholic Church. Besides the Gospel of Mary Magdalene, there was The Apocryphon of John, The Gospel of Philip, The Gospel of Judas, and The Thunder Perfect Mind. I'm not saying I endorse these books, I only read two, but why did they try to destroy them completely.
1. The Cathars valued Mary Magdalene as an important spiritual teacher and apostle.
(Pope Gregory the Great stated that Mary Magdalene was a sinful woman, making you assume that she was a prostitute. He delivered this sermon in 591 A.D.)
2. Cathar women could become spiritual leaders called Perfecti.
(Catholic Church doctrine maintains that only men can receive Holy Orders, Apostle by Definition is derived from the Greek word apostolos, meaning "one who is sent out" or an emissary. The question is, why then did Yahusha Hamashia send out Mary Magdalene as an emissary to His Disciples? It looks like Mary Magdalene was the first Apostle. She received Holy orders.)
(Jesus said to her, “Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brothers and say to them, ‘I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.’” Mary Magdalene came, announcing to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” and that He had said these things to her. John 20:17-18
3. Cathars believed that all physical matter was evil and spiritual life was trapped in the material world.
(Catholics view physical matter as good, Holy and a deliberate creation God created. They believe creation will see redemption and resurrection. I see creation as a reformation of a universe that was destroyed earlier and will pass away in the future as written by the Apostle John.)
4. Cathars rejected the crucifix and the physical cross, viewing it as a material instrument of torture created by the evil principle of this world.
(Catholics view the cross as an instrument of human salvation. It reminds themof the physical cost of redemption.)
5. Cathars believed in a spiritual reincarnation of Yahusha Hamashia.
(Yes Yahusha Hamashia was a spiritual reincarnation because He returned to His former Glory. However it was a human resurrection also as the Catholic Church believes. If it wasn't a human resurrection also, there would be no hope for mankind.)
6. Cathars believed in two equal gods. One spiritual and the othe other material. Catholics believed in one supreme Creator.
(This is a subject in it self. I will not take a side because it's complicated. All I can say is that Death is a Rider in the Apocalypse with Hell following him. They will die in the Lake of Fire. If you travel in Space, you will die quickly without life support. What I am saying is that people who reject Yahuah Elohiym make Death, Hell and Satan into a god.)
7. Cathars called the Catholic clergy corrupt, greedy, and hypocritical because of the Church's vast wealth and land ownership.
(Cathars faced a 2O year war with the Catholic Church called the Albigensian Crusade. Also they faced the Medieval Inquisition. What can I say? War is an act of greed.)
Historians estimate that 200,000 to 1,000,000 people died during the Albigensian Crusade and the Inquisition that followed.
What if there was no war between the Cathars and the Catholic Church? Our world would be different today. President Abraham Lincoln once said, "A house divided against itself, cannot stand.". Look at France today,
I quote, "Tensions involving Muslim communities in southern France stem from high immigrant populations, integration challenges, and clashes with the nation's strict secular laws."
I must point out that the Cathars was eradicated by the Inquisition and the Albigensian Crusade by the 14th century. Today only about 46% to 50% of the nationwide population of France identifies as Catholic. Then there was the Wars of Religion (1562–1598). I quote, "France experienced intense violent conflict between Catholics and French Calvinist Protestants, known as Huguenots, who made up a significant minority of the population."
Mankind are like two tiny dogs both wanting the full attention of their Master. They fight and snarl at the other wanting to be before the other dog.