MARIHAM: THE REBELLIOUS VIRGIN

MARIHAM, THE REBELLIOUS VIRGIN

Much have been said about her son, but, apart from the primarily theocratic and secular convenience of a growing sanctification of Mariham, Mary, seemingly synchronized with the changing needs of the patriarchate, this most probably poorly educated rural woman of the insignificant village of Nazareth has made an astonishing journey from being a carpenter´s wife to become the Mother of God and, in one of the recent Vatican Concilium, been given the status of co-Saviour with her son, if I am not misinformed. 


The latter, if so is the case, is little less than revolutionary in Christendom. It may seem confusing, absurd and contradictory to Protestants or non-Catholics in general, leaving the Trinity “opened up”, developing a duo to replace the difficult dogma of a Trinity being a one.

I, am, however, neither a theologian or a philosopher and will not, due to my ignorance in these disciplines, look at Mariham from those perspectives:

I find Mariham of Nazareth as possibly the most interesting woman ever from a social anthropologist´s view point. She acted boldly, apart from her appearance in metaphysical contexts, as a stunningly stubborn woman and contrary to all social, religious and conductural orders in her time and habitat. 

Disregarding whatever opinion you hold of her, Mariham, later known as Miriam or Maria, became gradually, and long after she had passed on, the legendary and successively most holy virgin, immaculate but a human still, until she finally after almost two millennia was named “The Mother Of God”. 

This may cause further confusion unless you are concur with the idea that  “The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit” are one. Somehow, I, personally cannot see Jesus from Nazareth as the son of God, if the previous statement is regarded as a dogma, but rather the incarnation of God in human flesh. Mariham thus symbolically can be understood as the mother of God. 


It is still an enigma how she survived her first-born son in the first place. We may have to tone down the importance of the modest flocks of followers of the crucified son and the activities of the first organized congregations in Jerusalem. The apostles still preached in the synagogues until they were chased away and, apart from believing in the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus from Nazareth, may have kept their Jewish faith. The faith had been challenged and reformed many times before by the numerous prophets and holy women and men before Jesus. The faith, in addition, had been divided and consisted of many "branches" of different dogma and religious coloring's.

The sanctification of Mariham is not of importance to devoted Catholic believers only, but to historians, philosophers, gender science, sociology, social anthropology and cultural geography, to mention a few. It is nothing less than a sensational, if late, emancipation of the woman since her defamation as the responsible for the Fall From Grace, an idea which still is very much alive in all Abrahamic religions, with mythological  parallels in Nomad cosmology and practically a majority of global diverse cultures whether they ever heard of Eve´s temptation, or not. 

The concept of the woman as a treacherous walking sex grenade charged with explosive lust and lewd temptations who must be sternly controlled by men is spread all over the globe and for reasons which are so manifold they cannot be addressed here.

The concept that Mariham, being the biological mother of Jesus, also was to be regarded as holy were non-existent in her time. What is stunning, however, is that gender inequality and private possessions were prohibited in the earliest Judea-Christian congregations in Jerusalem and Judea and kept intact until the early followers of Jesus were forced into exile and to adapt to the strict patriarchates in the diaspora, be it in Greece or Rome and eventuality also in Syria where the earliest social-religious organization and normative mindsets were to be respected the longest.

Gradually this extraordinary woman, who most probably ended her days in the shadow of the enormous Artemis (Greek virgin goddess statue ) in Ephesus, the cosmopolitan center and a busy melting pot of creeds, ideologies, cultures and people of shifting ethnic origins became the Virgin Mother of all times. Mariham had been forcibly exiled from her native country a second time and the woman of modest means and education lived her last days in what could be compared to contemporary New York or any other mega city. The very idea of her physical journey is only overshadowed by her metaphysical one.

Mariham took, seen from an anthropological view, an extraordinary risk by her socially offensive behavior and may have been persecuted, not so much for being regarded as “guilty by association” with regards to her the crucified son, but for leaving her husband´s grave and homestead without permission, stepping out into the public room in a world where a respectable woman did not travel without a husband, a father, a son, a brother or a brother in law, a violation of etiquette which was reserved for women paupers, mad women or prostitutes. She came to enfathom the Judea Christian belief in the equality of the genders and the prohibition of private possessions, all in a provoking contrast to the Roman and Greek legislation, which governed her native country and was hardly immune from attacks from her habitual environment. Needless to say, the gender inequality was as deeply rooted in Hebrew-Abrahamic tradition which stemmed from Nomad tribal customs.

According to early traditions she followed her mazmer (lunatic, crazed) son although he hardly acknowledged her publicly except for at the wedding in Canaan. Could it be that Mariham left the children (her own or the children of Joseph) and the homestead in a society and culture organized in a patrilocal residence pattern like only a prostitute, a mad woman or a female prophet would dare to do, roaming the countryside as one of the many holy men and prophets who had been common in the region since the beginning of time ? She did. That was a remarkable decision seen from all perspectives.

Maria was virtually a nobody until the third century A.C. when the church fathers had erased all traces of what was regarded as deviant or false unorthodox evangelists such as Mary Magdalene, St Thomas and others and started to hint with venom that the Magdalene had been nothing but a common prostitute, which by no means is a scientific truth. 




Even so, it would have made no difference to Jesus as far as I can understand. Maria Magdalena´s prominent position in the first gender equal Judea-Christian congregations and as a preacher seems to have become a threat to the second generation Judea-Christian who gradually accepted the idea of celibacy for their rabbis (yes, they were still of Jewish but reformed faith) and succumb to the Greek and Roman Laws, robbing the woman of her equal status and reinforcing the gender differentiated right to private property until the 1920:s in Europe (still not fully accomplished), a continuous infected political challenge in most parts of the world, except for in egalitarian Hunters and Gatherers societies.

Man´s almost paramount need to be fully convinced of being the authentic  genitor of his offspring promoted a stern concept of an obligatory full scale cadre of chaste and obedient women, initially in the Nomad cultures but with a renaissance in turbulent times in urban and city state contexts. Thus, apparently, a gradually expanding idea grew paramount by pointing at Mariham, Maria, declared a *virgin when giving birth to Jesus as an example, thus regarded as the optimal representative of female virtues for all women to follow as far as reproductive biology would permit. Virgin births were not expected to become an epidemic..

• (this idea has been common in almost every religion or cosmology on a global scale, no matter the time and or the location) 
  
  
  Gods, Greek, Assyrian, Persian, Indo Aryan in general and Pre Colombian semi-gods and heroes were, according to the myths, often born by virgin mothers which gave them a divine status already at birth. My interest is in Mariham, the Aramaic speaking woman of no means who dared to challenge a system which easily could have led to her execution, either by her relatives which by no means would have been regarded as offensive (honor related violence) or must probably the public. As previously mentioned, the patrilocal social order was not open to exceptions from the stern rules of the habitual residence pattern and no women were allowed to go astray or leave their husband´s family grave or homestead. Somehow she takes a first defiant step over the threshold and ends up as a holy Virgin and the Mother of God.
  
  
  The infected discussion regarding the brothers of Christ seem to preoccupy people and, this is a common fact, a cousin could be called a brother and an aunt a mother, as is common on the Horn of Africa today. There are many mistakes to be expected in the translations of the original gospels and the translations of the translations. We know that Jesus´ brothers (adelpho) were leaders of the first Judea-Christian congregations in Jerusalem and that tension may have occurred regarding the legacy between Saint Peter and James, Judas, Joseph and Simon, and last, but certainly not least, Maria Magdalena. This may trigger of a discussion regarding Mariham´s virginity which is not being addressed here. This is not a theological essay.
  
  
  Jesus´ emancipation, if not of his mother Mary, but of women in general ("All women are my Mother"), his socializing with fallen women in the eyes of his contemporaries and the fact that it is a woman who is the first to witness his resurrection are astonishing, whether you literally regard the words of the New Testament as God´s words or you reflect on how such ideas even could be put down in print in the following century. The idea is revolutionary, to say the least.
  
  
  The Evangelists were all brought up in a strict Patriarchy and it would be truly astonishing if they all lied in consensus about Christ´s apparent validating of women and to show it publicly for everyone to see. We may assume that Christ had far more than twelve apostles (messengers) but probably hundreds and many of them women who´d risked everything to walk beside him and daring to speak in front of strangers. 

• 
  
  We have to remember that it is the apostle Paulus, of Greek background and gender ideology, who demands the woman to be silent in the congregation, which reflects his background and has no apparent support in Jesus teachings. But we neither must forget that Jesus was of Jewish faith and that women seldom spoke in the synagogue unless they were regarded as prophets.

Jesus speaks sparingly of sin, whereas his followers seem totally occupied with the concept. A pattern of early domination and control is growing but not by referring to the actual sayings of Jesus. The institutionalization of Christendom, taking speed during the rule of the Roman emperor Constantine, transforms the spiritual movement to a state religion. The Jesus you meet at the Sermon of the Mountain is seemingly the most authentic since the famous sermon with it´s mild and compassionate content can be found in the gospels and scriptures that have been disqualified by the church fathers, despite that they are as old as the "accepted" ones.

Where did his perception of women stem from? Probably, to a degree, from his strong willed grandmother Anna and his mother Maria, Mariham. His love for his mother becomes obvious on the cross where he tries to comfort her by encouraging her to see his disciple John (Johannes) as her son. This ultimate token of affection leaves me humble. He demonstrates for the world to see that he is not only the son of God but also the son of Maria. 

Whether you see Mariham, Miriam, Maria, Mary, as a divine being, or not, it is hard to belittle her immense stamina and devotion. Not because of all the adornments and golden crowns in Christian Palatial churches but of her in-dependency, courage, rebellion and loyalty to her mazmer son and her preparedness to risk her life, her reputation and her social status in order to follow her conviction and first born son. 

The idea of a Supreme Being as a woman is commonly spread and Gaia ruled unchallenged until Zeus and Jupiter usurped her position. The preoccupation with gender is human. To let it be is divine.

Douglas Modig