Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The subject is relevant and follows a list of studies devoted to Mary Magdalene and her representation in movies. The aim and methodology are well defined and developed. I trust that this study could be of interest for the readers of Religions and is of sufficient scientific merit to be published in the journal. I think, overall, this paper is very interesting, though its approach could be greatly enhanced by more attention to:

 

-          69: Add bibliographical references explaining why it does not correspond to the mentioned Gospels.  

-          84: ‘Conservative Evangelical’: explain what it is.

-          118-121: Develop the paragraph to offer a deeper explanation.

-          213: There is a lack in relation to the healing of Mary Magdalene in the gospels and texts of the Fathers of the Church.

-          367: This is one of the main points of the character and it should be more developed due to it is the first time that appears in a movie.

-          489: Despite the fact the author includes several movies, she/he should compare it too with movies made by other religious companies (Cathedral Films or Nardine Productions, for instance).

Author Response

REVIEW 1

69: Add bibliographical references explaining why it does not correspond to the mentioned Gospels. 

Bibliographical references are included in Section 3.2. Tom y mind, it is not necessary to duplicate them in the Introduction. We also added more information to clear de argument.

Cf. lines 546-562:

An early misinterpretation of the Gospels, which confuses Mary Magdalene with other women (Navarro 2007, pp. 64-65; Rocco 2007, pp. 155-176; Bernabé 2020, pp. 20-29; Bolton 2020, pp. 27-28). During the patristic period (4th-6th centuries CE) a controversy persisted among the Church Fathers about the identification of Mary Magdalene with Mary of Bethany, the sister of Martha and Lazarus (Luke 10:38-42; John 11:1-44), with the woman who anoints the feet of Jesus (Mark 14:3-9; Luke 7:36-50; John 12:1-8), and even with the adulteress of John (John 8:1-11). Justin Martyr and Irenaeus of Lyons are the first Church Fathers who try to resolve the seeming contradictions between the four Gospels, on the one hand, and adapt the subversive memory of Mary Magdalene to the hegemonic culture, on the other. Later on, Jerome, Ambrose and Augustine of Hippo downplay the relevance of the Magdalene as a witness to the resurrection, describing her as faulty and unsuitable for transmitting the news of Christ's resurrection. Gregory the Great completes the process of blending the three women and Mary Magdalene becomes definitively the repentant prostitute who anoints Jesus with costly perfume and weeps in sorrow on the cross.

Lines 661-662:

In line with contemporary exegesis, Mary Magdalene is presented as a woman tortured by powers that overcome her (Atwood 1993, p. 36).

New reference added: Atwood, Richard. 1993. Mary Magdalene in the New Testament Gospels and Early Tradition. Bern: Peter Lang.

 

84: ‘Conservative Evangelical’: explain what it is.

The article focuses on two key elements of American conservative Evangelicalism, and both features are explained throughout the article. To better explain the concept, we moved the explanatory note at the beginning of the article (endnote v is now endnote i).

Furthermore:

• In Section 2 we rephrased the following sentence: …that The Chosen is “Conservative Evangelical” (Foust 2024), a self-referential expression of American Evangelicalism -cf. footnote i; two of its key elements will be further developed in this article. Indeed, the series was born out of American Evangelicalism… (lines 86-89).
• We added the adjective ‘conservative’ to improve the connection between the concepts ‘conservative evangelical’ and ‘Evangelicalism’ throughout the article (lines 7,18,32,69,121,136,183,342,360,695.760).

 

118-121: Develop the paragraph to offer a deeper explanation.

I removed the endnote and included it in the explanation of biblical inerrancy. I also expanded the discussion:

Lines 138-160:

The current doctrine of biblical inerrancy, as defined in mainstream American Evangelical Christianity, dates back to the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy (1978). “Strictly speaking, [biblical inerrancy] applies only to the autographic text of Scripture” (Chicago Statement, Article X), i.e., to the hypothetical “forever lost” original autographs and not to translations. However, The Chicago Statement says (Chicago Statement, Article X): “We deny that any essential element of the Christian faith is affected by the absence of the autographs. We further deny that this absence renders the assertion of Biblical inerrancy invalid or irrelevant”.

In short, the Chicago Statement affirms the plenary, verbal and inerrant inspiration of the Bible; in other words, Scriptures were fully and literally inspired —word by word, by God, reducing the Christian doctrine of inspiration to a mechanical dictation theory of inspiration. As we read (Chicago Statement, Article VI): “We affirm that the whole of Scripture and all its parts, down to the very words of the original, were given by divine inspiration”. Thus, the Scriptures contain no errors or mistakes of any kind in the original manuscripts (Geisler 1980, 2013), as stated (Chicago Statement, Article XI-XII): “We affirm that Scripture, having been given by divine inspiration, is infallible, so that, far from misleading us, it is true and reliable in all the matters it addresses […] We affirm that Scripture in its entirety is inerrant, being free from all falsehood, fraud, or deceit”.

Accordingly, Evangelicalism advocates a literal reading of the biblical text, including healing stories, miracles of various kinds, prophecies or Revelation (Cone 2008), without considering the various literary genres within the Bible, the oral and/or written sources that were used in the final redaction, nor the theological specificities of the particular theological traditions.

New reference added: International Council on Biblical Inerrancy. 1978. The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy. Accessed March 18, 2024. [CrossRef]

 

213: There is a lack in relation to the healing of Mary Magdalene in the gospels and texts of the Fathers of the Church.

This question is developed in Section 3.2.2. We organised this Seccion differently (cf. lines 688-709) and added further explanations:

Lines 660-661:

In line with contemporary exegesis, Mary Magdalene is presented as a woman tortured by powers that overcome her (Atwood 1993, p. 36).

Lines 670-687:

Throughout history, the seven demons have been interpreted in many different ways, and contemporary exegesis also offers multiple alternatives: it is associated with an ancient cult of the goddess, it describes some kind of mental disability or illness, it tries to explain convulsions... (Bernabé 2007, p. 22). To begin with, the Latin Church Fathers developed an exegesis on Luke 8:2 that considered Mary Magdalene a sexual sinner, as lust was considered to be a feminine vice: demon possession was identified with moral evil, embodied in prostitution. This was due to the literary connections and the previous identification established between the woman that anoints Jesus (Luke 7:36-50) and Mary of Bethany (John 12:1-11) (Bernabé 2006, pp. 191-201; 2007, p. 23). According to Monzón and Bernad (Monzón and Bernad 2022, p. 13), “The exegesis on the seven demons […] is one of the most transcendental elements obscuring the importance of Magdalene as a follower of Jesus, recipient of his teachings, witness of his death and resurrection, as well as an apostle of the apostles”.

Gregory the Great identifies the seven demons with the seven deadly sins in his Homilia XXXIII, and this interpretation deeply influences western art and Christian theology: “And what are these seven demons, if not the universality of all vices? Since seven days suffice to embrace the whole of time, the number seven rightly represents universality. Mary had seven demons in her, for she was full of all vices”.

 

References added:

• Bernabé Ubieta, Carmen. 2006. María Magdalena. Sus tradiciones en el cristianismo primitivo. Estella: Verbo Divino.
• Monzón Pertejo, Elena, and Victoria Bernad López. 2022. The Demons of Judas and Mary Magdalene in Medieval Art. Religions 13/11, pp. 1-28.

 

367: This is one of the main points of the character and it should be more developed due to it is the first time that appears in a movie.

We expanded the explanation as follows:

Lines 392-420:

But, after the conversión story of her first encounter with Jesus in S1/E1, Mary Magdalene relapses into her old way of life in S2/E5. For the first time in film fiction featuring Mary Magdalene, she suffers what we would today call a post-traumatic stress episode. As we briefly noted in Section 2.1.1., our heroine encounters by chance a Roman soldier in the countryside who reminds her of the rape she had suffered some time before by another Roman soldier, narrated in flashback in the opening episode and now —we will come to this again in Section 3.2.3:

“Mary Magdalene: I just feel, um... I don't know, I... I saw a Roman on horseback today when I was picking persimmons. […] he didn't even see me. But just the sight of him made me —it filled me with… [shuddered breaths] I just dropped my basket and ran. Totally ignored the prayers in my hands”.

She is ashamed because of her lack of trust on the promise of Psalm 139:8, the text she was learning while picking persimmons (“If I ascend to heaven, You are there. If I make my bed in the depths, You are there”). Next, she witnesses a possessed man that recognizes her as “Lilith” and tries to attack her, another painful reminder of her past:

“Possesed man: Lilith?

Mary Magdalene: I don’t answer to that name.

Possesed man: [Growling] They told me about you.

Mary Magdalene: Did they?

Possesed man: All seven of them.

Mary Magdalene: My name is Mary. It was always Mary.

Possesed man: Oh, the stories they had! You're scared”.

Instead of moving to the place where the group of disciples is camped, she decides to return to the “Red Quarter” of Capernaum. There she recovers his former dishevelled appearance and enters the tavern to fall into alcoholism and addiction to gambling. The scene is presented as a new descent into hell, parallel to S1/E1, which lasts for two days.

Jesus is concerned and sends the disciples Simon and Matthew to find her. The relapsed Mary meets Jesus and the following dialogue takes place, presenting the need to repent of her sins once again:…

Lines 433-435:

Until the airing of S4, S2/E5 is the only episode where Mary Magdalene briefly abandons the Jesus movement. It seems unlikely that a similar event would be repeated, considering the criticisms provoked by this subplot.

 

489: Despite the fact the author includes several movies, she/he should compare it too with movies made by other religious companies (Cathedral Films or Nardine Productions, for instance).

This is a very interesting proposal that would undoubtedly contribute to the research, but it is not the aim of this article to undertake a comparative analysis with other religious productions. I only added some relevant data for the analysis of the cinematographic figure of Mary Magdalene in The Chosen:

Lines 65-77:

In this sense, up to the broadcasting of S4, The Chosen does not alter the perception of Mary Magdalene as a disciple of Jesus. Although she is part of the group of the chosen ones who follow Jesus, her position is alongside other women and her tasks are traditionally feminine: caring in domestic tasks, on the one side, and discipling other women who become part of Jesus' movement, on the other. In doing so, she is set in the conservative Evangelical perspective of a Nardine Productions film, Magdalena Released From Shame (2006). This film follows the docudrama format and includes scenes from the evangelistic film Jesus (1979), inspired by Luke's gospel and targeted at a female audience. Set in 40 AD, Mary Magdalene tells a woman who has not yet heard of Jesus about the life, death and resurrection of the Son of God. Mary and other female disciples witness key moments in Jesus' ministry, such as his address in the synagogue (Luke 4:14-22) or the episode of the woman surprised in adultery (John 8:1-11), but she does not show leadership to the male disciples, who are presented in The Chosen as protective brothers of Mary Magdalene.

Lines 313-316:

This evangelistic interest is not new to film productions within North American evangelicalism. Its best known predecessor was the above mentioned Jesus film by Nardini Productions, a product destined exclusively for the evangelisation of the population which was accompanied by teaching materials, as with The Chosen.

Lines 594-595:

This is the case of the evangelical film Jesus (1979) as well, where Mary Magdalene is a sexually promiscuous woman.

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The Evangelical Reception of Mary Magdalene in Seasons 1 and 2 of the The Chosen Series

 

The article analyzes the treatment given to the figure of Mary Magdalene in the 1st and 2nd season episodes of the series The Chosen. The author has two objectives, to analyze:

1. The influence exerted on the definition of Mary Magdalene in the series The Chosen by the biblical concept of inspiration and, above all, inerrancy. 

2. The reference sources of Mary Magdalene in The Chosen. 

 

The figure of the biblical Mary Magdalene is always attractive and captivating because of the disparate interpretations of her life and her relationship with Jesus Christ that have been forged throughout history. The Gospels themselves show a certain ambiguity in the origin of her person and this is the starting point of speculations that have identified her with the woman from whom Jesus drives away seven demons, with Mary of Bethany and the woman who anoints the feet of Christ. 

 

The author makes a clear introduction to the series and its media impact. Then, in the second section, he analyzes the director's use of the Gospels as a literal source for the script of the different episodes of The Chosen. This section serves to highlight that the textual use of the Gospels is intended to give veracity to the script and promote greater adherence to Christianity, a fact that is related to the production of the series, directed and sponsored to a large extent by North American Evangelists with a conservative view of religion and supporters of a literal reading and interpretation of the Bible. In the third section, the author discusses how the director has fictionalized the figure of Mary Magdalene in order to generate a greater emotional impact on the audience and to show the actuality of the evangelical message preached by Jesus Christ. The analysis of the treatment given to Mary Magdalene is put in relation to strategies followed in other films with a biblical theme, which demonstrates a good knowledge of the medium of the author of the article. 

 

One of the theses of the author of the article is to highlight how the director has relied on the traditional image that Western culture has given to Mary Magdalene, presented as a sinful woman and assimilating her to a prostitute. The director of the series has started from this imaginary but maintaining a balanced ambiguity about the life of the Magdalene, and has also completely fictionalized the childhood and the first steps of this biblical woman until she met Jesus Christ. At this point, the strategies followed by Dallas Jenkins to frame the Magdalene's past as well as the resources used to generate a real picture of life in contemporary Palestine are analyzed. All this is put in relation with biblical exegesis, with the apocryphal texts of medieval origin of the life of Mary Magdalene and with the iconography of the saint. 

 

The author concludes by underlining how Dallas Jenkins has been able to blend different interpretations of Mary Magdalene, always traditional and orthodox, to give rise to a compelling, empathetic and captivating figure that serves the director's purpose. 

 

This is a well-documented work, with abundant references to biblical cinematography, with a good knowledge of the text and the interpretations made of the sacred scriptures.

 

Aspects in which a greater clarity and depth in the exposition would be appreciated are:

• the concept of inerrancy. Although the subject is briefly developed in the critical apparatus, it would deserve a greater explanation in the main text, underlining and distinguishing the concepts of inerrancy and inspiration and expressing with greater clarity the position of the Evangelists regarding the literal use of the biblical text that does not coincide with that defended by Catholicism. Given the importance given to the beliefs of the principal this aspect deserves greater attention. 

• the evangelical references to Mary Magdalene present a degree of ambiguity that the fathers of the Church and the medieval and modern theologians have underlined by showing themselves or not in favor of the identification of this woman with Mary of Bethany... The author mentions these aspects but a clarification would be necessary to understand the historical sequence through which the life of Mary Magdalene has passed until contemporaneity, at least in a footnote.  

• At a formal level, a strong revision of the text is necessary: the citation of abbreviated bibliographical references should be in chronological order, italics or quotation marks are missing in literal quotations, punctuation should be coherent, especially at the end of sentences and quotations, etc. 

Author Response

REVIEW 2

Aspects in which a greater clarity and depth in the exposition would be appreciated are:

The concept of inerrancy. Although the subject is briefly developed in the critical apparatus, it would deserve a greater explanation in the main text, underlining and distinguishing the concepts of inerrancy and inspiration and expressing with greater clarity the position of the Evangelists regarding the literal use of the biblical text that does not coincide with that defended by Catholicism. Given the importance given to the beliefs of the principal this aspect deserves greater attention.

I removed the endnote and included it in the explanation of biblical inerrancy. I also expanded the discussion:

Lines 138-160:

The current doctrine of biblical inerrancy, as defined in mainstream American Evangelical Christianity, dates back to the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy (1978). “Strictly speaking, [biblical inerrancy] applies only to the autographic text of Scripture” (Chicago Statement, Article X), i.e., to the hypothetical “forever lost” original autographs and not to translations. However, The Chicago Statement says (Chicago Statement, Article X): “We deny that any essential element of the Christian faith is affected by the absence of the autographs. We further deny that this absence renders the assertion of Biblical inerrancy invalid or irrelevant”.

In short, the Chicago Statement affirms the plenary, verbal and inerrant inspiration of the Bible; in other words, Scriptures were fully and literally inspired —word by word, by God, reducing the Christian doctrine of inspiration to a mechanical dictation theory of inspiration. As we read (Chicago Statement, Article VI): “We affirm that the whole of Scripture and all its parts, down to the very words of the original, were given by divine inspiration”. Thus, the Scriptures contain no errors or mistakes of any kind in the original manuscripts (Geisler 1980, 2013), as stated (Chicago Statement, Article XI-XII): “We affirm that Scripture, having been given by divine inspiration, is infallible, so that, far from misleading us, it is true and reliable in all the matters it addresses […] We affirm that Scripture in its entirety is inerrant, being free from all falsehood, fraud, or deceit”.

Accordingly, Evangelicalism advocates a literal reading of the biblical text, including healing stories, miracles of various kinds, prophecies or Revelation (Cone 2008), without considering the various literary genres within the Bible, the oral and/or written sources that were used in the final redaction, nor the theological specificities of the particular theological traditions.

New reference added: International Council on Biblical Inerrancy. 1978. The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy. Accessed March 18, 2024. [CrossRef]

However, I did not incluye a discussion on the dogmatic differences between Evangelicals and Catholics, as it is not a theological article. Moreover, why Catholics and not Orthodox, Pentecostals… as they are as much relevant in North American religious landscape?

 

The evangelical references to Mary Magdalene present a degree of ambiguity that the fathers of the Church and the medieval and modern theologians have underlined by showing themselves or not in favor of the identification of this woman with Mary of Bethany... The author mentions these aspects but a clarification would be necessary to understand the historical sequence through which the life of Mary Magdalene has passed until contemporaneity, at least in a footnote. 

We deleted several endnotes and added new information to the main text, cf. lines 548-586:

1. An early misinterpretation of the Gospels, which confuses Mary Magdalene with other women (Navarro 2007, pp. 64-65; Rocco 2007, pp. 155-176; Bernabé 2020, pp. 20-29; Bolton 2020, pp. 27-28). During the patristic period (4th-6th centuries CE) a controversy persisted among the Church Fathers about the identification of Mary Magdalene with Mary of Bethany, the sister of Martha and Lazarus (Luke 10:38-42; John 11:1-44), with the woman who anoints the feet of Jesus (Mark 14:3-9; Luke 7:36-50; John 12:1-8), and even with the adulteress of John (John 8:1-11). Justin Martyr and Irenaeus of Lyons are the first Church Fathers who try to resolve the seeming contradictions between the four Gospels, on the one hand, and adapt the subversive memory of Mary Magdalene to the hegemonic culture, on the other. Later on, Jerome, Ambrose and Augustine of Hippo downplay the relevance of the Magdalene as a witness to the resurrection, describing her as faulty and unsuitable for transmitting the news of Christ's resurrection. Gregory the Great completes the process of blending the three women and Mary Magdalene becomes definitively the repentant prostitute who anoints Jesus with costly perfume and weeps in sorrow on the cross.
2. The Vita of Saint Mary of Egypt (Jansen 2000, pp. 37-38; Schaberg 2008). In the 7th century AD, Sophronius of Jerusalem wrote Vita, which recounts the legend of Mary of Egypt, a repentant prostitute who finished her days as a desert ascetic (Alvar 1969). This Mary will be identified with Mary Magdalene and become a female model of repentance and purity, while the shadow of sin and guilt remains over her.
3. Medieval folk legends about the figure of Mary Magdalene included in the Golden Legend of the Dominican Jacobus de Voragine (1264) (Schaberg 2008). The Golden Legend is one of several hagiographies about Mary Magdalene’s life that place her in French territory in order to legitimate the relics. In this book, Mary Magdalene arrives to Provence by boat, together with her brothers Martha and Lazarus; she is therefore identified with Mary of Bethany. They are all wealthy landowners who followed Jesus and fled with their possessions to save their lives. Mary preaches in Provence, performs miracles and finishes her days in a cave as a penitent.
4. Finally, centuries of artistic representations depicting her as a penitent prostitute (Haskins 1999; Lahr 2006; Sánchez 2007; Apostolos-Cappadona 2023). Apart from the anointings (Mark 14:3-9; Luke 7:36-50; John 12:1-8), the episode in the house of Bethany (Luke 10:38-42) and the Passion cycle (the crucifixion, the visit to the tomb on Easter morning, Noli me tangere), Mary Magdalene is depicted according the Provençal legends, which include the journey across the Mediterranean, the adventures of Marseilles and the retreat to Saint Baume. Related to the Gospel and Provençal texts are the scenes prior to his conversion and her renouncement of material possessions, inspired by medieval theatre. Finally, the isolated representation of Mary Magdalene encompasses two types: the woman who appears with a perfume jar, and the repentant sinner clearly favoured by Baroque art.

Reference added: Sánchez Hernández, María Leticia. 2007. María Magdalena en el arte: entre el enigna y la fascinación. In Maria Magdalena. De apostol, a prostituta y amante. Edited by Isabel Gómez-Acebo. Bilbao: Desclée de Brouwer, pp. 208-262.

At a formal level, a strong revision of the text is necessary: the citation of abbreviated bibliographical references should be in chronological order, italics or quotation marks are missing in literal quotations, punctuation should be coherent, especially at the end of sentences and quotations, etc. 

All changes were made and highlighted. Thank you for the thoughtful review.