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The Individual Eschatology of the Gospel of Mary
from Part II
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 August 2019
Chapter 5 analyzes the individual eschatology of the Gospel of Mary: the revelation of Jesus to Mary regarding the ascent of the individual and paradigmatic soul to its heavenly ‘rest’. It is argued that this revelation is based on the reference to Jesus’ ascension in John 20.17, which he instructed Mary to disclose to his ‘brothers’. The basic message of the later gospel is not dissimilar to what we find in John: Jesus is Saviour – he has descended – he has ascended – his disciples can follow. In the Gospel of Mary the ascent narrative acts as a didactic story for the disciple's salvation: through Jesus’ ascension he has paved a way for the ascent of the disciple’s soul, and here we find instruction on how to follow him. The characterization of Mary suggests that she is already free from the influence of passions, sin and death and has already partly followed Jesus into eternal ‘rest’. Therefore, for the disciple, the ascension may be post-mortem, when the soul frees itself from the bodily passions, or realized in the present, as exemplified by Mary.
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