Mary Magdalene: Jesus' Temptress?

Below is the image of the life-sized nude limewood statue of Mary Magdalene which was sculpted about 1510 by Gregor Erhart (c. 1470-1540), depicting her as a mystic ascetic clothed only by her long hair. This impressive statue can be found now at the Louvre museum in Paris, first appeared publicly on the German art market in the 19th century and was purchased by the Louvre in 1902.  

According to a legend, Mary Magdalene (wrongly labeled as a repentant prostitute by Pope Gregory the Great in 591) lived a secluded life in the cave of Sainte-Baume, clothed only by her long and luxuriant hair. Every day she was raised up in the sky by angels to hear the heavenly chorus. Her languid pose and meditative expression are meant to convey her mystic ecstasy, while her marvelous beauty and glossy golden locks are intended to evoke her holy radiance. Mystics all over the globe in the past and in the present use sensual imagery when they want to express their deepest relation with the sacred. The nudity of Mary Magdalene thus symbolizes her deepest and most intimate relation with the divine.

Mary Magdalene and Jesus: both being bare breasted.
An erotic message?

Look to the second picture painted by Peter Paul Rubens in 1618. Probably this picture depicts an event occurred shortly after Jesus’ resurrection when Mary Magdalene was approaching him and called him “Rabbouni” (in Aramaic with a sense of intimacy and casualness) and wished to hold on to him (John 20:11-18). But the evangelist John does not say that during the encounter, his male disciples were also there together with her. It is difficult to decide where we should locate this picture in Jesus’ lifetime. Despite this difficulty, any body however can grasp the erotic message of this picture. Both Mary Magdalene and Jesus are bare breasted, and she seems to surrender her body unto the strong and open hands of Jesus. Do they want to make love before long? Unquestionably it is not easy to answer. Or does this picture, by depicting the half nudity of Jesus and Mary, want to tell us about the mystical aspect of the relationship between Jesus and Mary Magdalene? 
 

In the Gospel of Philip 63-64, we find an extraordinary text which records the erotic side of the relationship between Jesus and Mary Magdalene, as follows: The companion of the savior is Mary Magdalene. The savior loved her more than all the disciples, and he kissed her often on her mouth (Marvin Meyer, The Gospels of Mary [2004], 49). The word “mouth” is uncertain because here the text has damaged. However, we still have other ancient texts which narrate the special love of Jesus for Mary Magdalene, i.e., Gospel of Mary 10; 17-18; Pistis Sophia 17; 19. Does the word “companion” in the Gospel of Philip 63-64 mean “spouse” or “wife” or “sexual partner”? Does all this text factually reveal the sexual or carnal nature of the relationship between Jesus and Mary Magdalene? Or does all this text wish to tell the mystical aspect of the post-resurrection relationship between Jesus and Mary Magdalene? Whatever all this text means, it seems certain that Mary Magdalene as a woman figure was an important aspect of the most intimate life of Jesus of Nazareth so that her role in Jesus’ personal life should be seriously counted.

Gautama Buddha being tempted by Maara and his hosts

Any most important religious figure of the past is usually depicted as a figure that should undergo severe temptations and ordeals and in the long run should come out as a winner. Siddharta Gautama, for example, during his quest for enlightenment and shortly after he had gained enlightenment and become the Buddha, the Enlightened One, was to face hard temptations from the Devil known in Buddhist texts as Maara or Paapimaa (=the Tempter; the Evil One; or simply the Evil). Maara is depicted as assuming a fearsome guise with a thousand arms, and as riding the elephant called Girimekhalaa. This Evil One along with his ten squadrons or “hosts” assaulted the future Buddha. In the Renunciation or Great Departure, Siddharta was tempted by Maara who appeared in the air and talked of the imminent receipt by the future Buddha of the gem-set wheel of universal monarchy. When rejected, Maara disappeared vowing to keep an eye on him like an omnipresent shadow. 
 

Buddha Gautama being tempted sexually by a daughter of Maara

It is very interesting to note that Maara had three daughters and their names are Desire, Pleasure and Delight. After their father Maara with all his hosts had failed, these three evil ladies conspired and tried to tempt Siddharta Gautama shortly after he had gotten enlightenment. They made a joint effort to destroy the Buddha’s steadiness and readiness to spread dharma to as many people as possible, employing their charms to sexually lure the Buddha. They used dance, song, music, and sweet talk as their arsenal to generate lust in the Buddha’s mind; the Buddha however showed not the slightest interest; and they failed.

Of course we know that before Jesus appeared in public as a prophet or as a messenger of God, he had been tempted by the Devil as narrated in the synoptic gospels (Mark 1:12-13; Matthew 4:1-11; Luke 4:1-13). It is told that to Jesus, the Devil offered easy methods of acquiring food, God’s protection and messiahship, greatness and universal monarchy. In my imagination, to be somewhat complete, there should be another crucial temptation that Jesus had to cope with, that is, the temptation from an enchanting woman as Siddharta Gautama the Buddha, as it was told, had faced long ago. Sexual temptation is a normal life fact that could come either to a woman or to a man in the past and in the present, not a fiction invented out of hatred against women or against men.

The woman who could tempt Jesus sexually is of course Mary Magdalene, no other woman else. When faced with this sexual temptation, Jesus had to decide what he would do with this charming woman. Rather than letting himself continuously be tempted sexually by this woman, Jesus, again you can imagine, decided to marry Mary Magdalene. So Jesus could kiss Mary Magdalene on her mouth either to express the mystical side of his relationship with Mary, or, especially, to release his sexual impulse.