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"You left something in your room," he whispered. His eyes shimmered golden without revealing any emotion. I knew immediately he meant the dress and swallowed hard once.
“I can’t take it with me,” I replied in a trembling voice. Again, the tears made their way up. He nodded knowingly and sighed briefly.
"It's better this way," he breathed now, but his words sounded hard, cold, and inescapable. "Alex will be a good husband."
My eyes widened. How did he know my fiancé’s name?
"Now go, Myrina!" Almost as if he had burned himself on me, he let go of my chin, turned, and disappeared through the same door through which his wife had just passed. Shakily, I took a breath, closed my eyelids for a moment, and then walked with trembling knees to the limousine, where Sam winked encouragingly at me as he opened the car door for me.
Before I got in, I looked back at the house one last time. I had fallen in love with this beautiful property and, at the same time,lost my heart here. To a man who had apparently only played with me. Cold, calculating, and heartless.
At one of the upper windows, I noticed a dark shadow staring down at me, unmoving. As coldly as he had ditched me, I turned my back on him and got into the car.Never again will I waste a single thought on him, I swore to myself and felt a protective coldness settle around my heart.
The two hours of the return trip passed much faster than yesterday's outward journey. Whether it was because I was too busy not thinking abouthimor not showing anyone my pain, I didn't know. As soon as we drove through the gate of the estate out onto the street, the clouds had pushed in front of the sun again, and it was pouring down.
We arrived in New York City late in the afternoon. After our arrival, I struggled to get through dinner. Exhausted, I then fell onto my bed in my dress and into a dreamless sleep.
"We have focused on Rebecca and Dina in your absence," Edward reported a few hours later. "But even these two Bible women do not seem relevant to the Knights of the Seals."
“Islam also knows some prophetesses. Maybe we should focus on that?” asked Chris thoughtfully.
“First, let’s take a closer look at the two most important women of the New Testament. Mary, mother of Christ, and Mary Magdalene. They are definitely very interesting and controversial figures of Christianity,” Alex suggested.
"Good idea," Chris agreed with him. "I can also make a first contribution to the topic. The figure of Mary, and by that, I don't mean in a historical context but purely in a faith context, was probably derived from the Egyptian goddess Isis. The goddess of birth and rebirth was depicted in the times of the pharaohs, just as Mary was depicted in art after the birth of Jesus. A mother with a child on her lap."
"That's right!" Now Edward also interfered. "There are even further parallels to the Egyptian faith world. The birth of Christ is also such an adoption of previous beliefs by the Christians. In fact, the Pharaohs were believed to be half God and half human. They received the human part from their mother and the divine from the paternal side, from Amun, the father of the gods."
Alex laughed out. "If that doesn't remind you of a famous Christmas story!"
Edward pushed a couple of books toward us. “You know how to do it by now.”
So far, I had not joined in the conversation and continued to silently accept one of the readings. I readThe Gospel of Mary Magdaleneon the dust jacket. Confused, I looked at Edward.
"Is this about Mary Magdalene, the so-called sinner from the Bible?" I wanted to know from him.
"Exactly. It is a Gospel that deals with Mary Magdalene but was not written by her. Unfortunately, not all the pages of this ancient document have been found, but only a part. You will notice that this one is very revealing," Edward explained calmly.
I nodded and then went with my book to the reading chair that had become my regular place. I was quickly immersed in these scholarly texts that dealt with a Gospel that was not included in the canon of the Bible. A Gospel that presented the women of early Christianity as equal in Jesus' eyes and sight. Mary Magdalene held the role of a prophetess and an apostle, which did not seem appropriate to the patriarchal times and the Church Fathers.
According to John, she was the one who first arrived at Jesus' empty tomb. She had also received the commission from Christ to carry God's word out into the world. The Church degraded this trust of Jesus in his disciple as a reparation of the original sin of the woman, which had been imposed on them by Eve. Until the point was reached where Mary of Magdala wasportrayed as a sinner, a whore, making three biblical women into a single one that protected the image of the male-oriented Church. An image that guaranteed the Church was led only by men until today.
"Then Peter said to Mary: Sister, we know the Savior loved you, unlike the rest of the women. Tell us the words he entrusted to you, which you remember and of which we have no knowledge," I read to the others from the Gospel of Mary Magdalene, which was important for our research.
"It is quite clear that this woman held a much higher position among the disciples than the Bible would have us believe. She was a disciple, as were Peter, John, and Andrew. She was also a prophetess who received the Word of God and an apostle who was allowed to pass on the teachings. In our church system today, just as in the two thousand years before, only men were allowed to fulfill this role in the priesthood."
"Your discovery agrees with what I have found out," Alex said, but he did not look at me. "Apparently, the Church has tried with all its might to build Christianity only on male pillars and has summarily made any women who were involved in the spread of the faith disappear, so to speak. Like Lydia, the first man in Europe to be baptized. Phoebe, the bearer of Paul's letters to the Romans, and Junia, a female apostle named by Paul in the greeting of this letter, but renamed Junias by the Church, thus becoming a man.”
"That means there are actually many stories in the New Testament about women and the female companions of Jesus that were simply adapted over time by the church fathers?" I asked, surprised. Alex nodded mutely.
"Perhaps one of these women is the one we are searching for?" pondered Edward. "After all, they had different roles than the Church gives them credit for, and apparently, a lot of effort was made to hide that. The whole Bible was built up accordinglyand is now a book written by men about men. But the stories of these women have not been entirely suppressed, which must mean they were essential."
"You could be right," Chris interjected. "Mary, the mother of God, I think we can leave out, by the way. But like you said, Alex, Mary of Magdala, Lydia, and Phoebe, we should take another look at their stories."
"I'll look around in the University basements for that," Edward offered.
"Why in the basements?" I asked, surprised, and everyone else stared at him, equally puzzled.
“Someone there has hidden these kinds of books that deal with the role of women in Christianity, as well as other works that, according to the Knights of the Seals, must no longer be taught or read,” he revealed to us.
