Mary Magdalene and the Forbidden Sect in Ephesus

Описание: In the footsteps of Mary Magdalene

Although Ephesus, in present-day Turkey, is best known as the place where Mary, the mother of Jesus, spent her final years, there are also several indications that Mary Magdalene lived there.
It may have been in Ephesus that she encountered Nicolaus, the founder of a rather unusual Christian sect from the early days of the faith: the Nicolaitans. A sect condemned in the Bible itself for its free and sexual morality.
Here unfolds a lesser-known episode from the life of Mary Magdalene.

From I, Mary Magdalene.

The journey to Ephesus was long and demanding, but to her surprise Nicolaus and Shifra had offered to travel with her. They had grown weary of the shallow pleasures Antioch had to offer. They longed for new inspiration. Ephesus seemed a promising place to settle for a while.

And so the three of them set out together, with ample time and space to deepen their friendship. Shifra had felt like a soul-sister from the very beginning. It was refreshing to share not only serious thoughts but also lighter chatter, to laugh together until their sides hurt at things Nicolaus could not find amusing at all.

Yet during the journey, something began to trouble Mary Magdalene: Nicolaus was consumed by jealousy. He could not bear the lingering stares of other men who were enchanted by his beautiful wife. At such moments he would fall silent, sullen, trailing behind the women for hours. And if Shifra so much as smiled a little too warmly at a merchant, Nicolaus would become furious and keep reproaching her long after the incident had passed.

Shifra had confided to Mary Magdalene that, at the beginning of their marriage, she had found Nicolaus’s jealousy almost flattering. It made her feel cherished. But over time, she had come to see it as suffocating. She herself enjoyed the attention of men—it gave her a sense of pride, of radiant energy. Yet, because she knew Nicolaus could not bear it, she began to shrink into herself whenever a man was present. She felt imprisoned.

“Why are you so jealous?” Mary Magdalene asked him one evening. “Shifra is beautiful—her golden hair, her clear blue eyes. She is a jewel to be proud of. Why should others not admire her? I too love to look at her.”

At first, Nicolaus reacted angrily to her interference. But as the days passed, her words gnawed at him. For in truth, his jealousy was his own torment. It consumed him, made him bitter, dragged him down. How could he resent other men for being moved by the very beauty that had captivated him? Why did it make him so insecure? Was it because, deep down, he feared he was unworthy of her love? That he might lose her?

“Were you never jealous when Jesus received the admiration of other women?” Nicolaus asked one night, as the three of them lay beneath a canopy of stars, the desert sand cool beneath them. Nearby, Tamar slept soundly in her little basket.

“I would have had no life if I had been,” Mary Magdalene laughed. “Women adored him. Many followed him. And he delighted in their attention. He loved women.”

Nicolaus was astonished. There was not a trace of envy in her voice.

“Did anything ever happen?” Shifra asked softly.

“Of course,” Mary Magdalene said with a smile. “I encouraged it. I was not always with him on his journeys. I was glad when he found warmth in another woman’s arms. He was extraordinary, but he was also a man. And I knew I was the one he loved most deeply. He was overwhelming, generous, dominant—too much man for one woman alone. Out of pure love for him, and for myself, I urged him to love others as well. He was too much not to share. I wanted other women to feel the radiance of his energy. I knew none of them sought to take him from me; they knew he and I belonged together. And besides, none could have borne the fullness of him—his brilliance, but also his darker sides.”

“How remarkable,” whispered Shifra, turning toward her with shining eyes. “From the way you speak of him, I can imagine… he must indeed have been too much for one woman to carry alone.”

From: I, Mary Magdalene by Geert Kimpen
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