Christ is risen is written in Greek as follows – ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ (Christos Anesti), but the early Christians not only wrote ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ; they also devised a symbol for the event of Christ’s resurrection, which they even depicted on the gravestones of deceased Christians, reminding themselves and those around them that Christ has conquered death and will raise from the dead also those who believe in Him.
This symbol was quite simple, with abbreviations of Greek words, or with the so-called nomina sacra (from Lat. – sacred names) designation (in the picture), which meant ΙΗΣΟΥΣ ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΝΙΚΑ – Jesus Christ conquers! It is easy to remember, because the famous sportswear manufacturer NIKE has chosen precisely this word – victory.
About Easter and women.
After His resurrection, Jesus appeared first to Mary Magdalene!
While in the West Mary Magdalene has been identified with a former prostitute, in the Eastern Church Mary Magdalene has been called the Apostola Apostolorum (from Lat. – apostle to the apostles), because this woman was the first person to meet the risen Jesus Christ, and Jesus sent her (in Greek – apostello means “to send”) to the rest of the disciples with the joyful news that the Teacher and Lord is alive again. Apostle is a derivative of the verb “apostello” and means “sent”.
It is interesting that the sending of Mary Magdalene, which can be called apostolic, is recorded in the gospel, whereas Saul, or Paul, was never together with Jesus, but only on seeing Jesus in a vision became convinced of his calling to be an apostle. Mary Magdalene, on the other hand, was sent to preach by the risen Christ Himself. Paul’s case seems essentially more subjective than Mary’s calling to be one who is sent.
But how did Mary become a prostitute?
Already in the second generation of Christians, drastic changes had taken place regarding women in the congregations. To restrict women’s activities, the patriarchal order and sinful nature mobilized: the pseudo-Pauline letters to Timothy and Titus were written, whose language, style and theology do not match the thought and language of Paul’s time. In the letter to Timothy we read about church hierarchy, about the bishop and about the fact that a woman must not teach, because she, you see, sinned in the figure of Eve, but Adam (the man) did not. The next change affected existing letters – into 1 Corinthians a paragraph was inserted stating that women must keep silent in all the congregations (1 Cor. 14:34,35). This act is betrayed by the fact that it was apparently written not in the text itself or at the time the letter was copied, but later in the margin. As a result, manuscripts of 1 Corinthians have come down to us in which, in one group of manuscripts, these verses that silence women are placed after verse 33, while in another group of manuscripts these same verses are placed at the end of the chapter – after verse 40. Where exactly did “Paul” intend to write them? If Paul himself had written this prohibition, the verses would hardly be found in two different places.
Mary Magdalene was quietly rehabilitated from the reputation of a prostitute in 1969, removing this label from her. It should be recalled that it was precisely Pope Gregory the Great who had officially “pinned” the prostitute label on Magdalene with his sermon on 14 September 1591, calling Magdalene both the sinful woman in the Gospel of Luke and, at the same time, Mary of Bethany (the sister of Lazarus).
In 1988 Pope John Paul II put in a good word for Mary Magdalene, saying that in the time of early Christianity Mary Magdalene endured the most difficult test of faith and faithfulness “more firmly than the apostles”. With such a loud appraisal of Magdalene, as we know, the situation of women in the Catholic church did not change; quite the opposite – it worsened with the letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis issued by Pope John Paul II (which was prepared by none other than Joseph Ratzinger, who later became Pope Benedict XVI). In this letter the Vatican closed the door not only to women, but also to discussion about the ordination of women in the Catholic church. It was precisely this document that Pope Francis had in mind when, in response to journalists’ question about the ordination of women in the Catholic church, he replied in the summer of 2013 – the door is closed. One can only conclude that the test of faith and faithfulness is not on the list of decisive criteria for those who are ordained as ministers of Christ in the Catholic church (and likewise in the ELCL); it is enough that they are men.
As for Mary Magdalene, in 2016 Pope Francis recognized Mary Magdalene as the Apostolorum Apostola (the one sent to the apostles) and set 22 July in the Catholic church’s liturgical calendar as the feast day of Mary Magdalene.
The story of Mary Magdalene is a story about a woman and about women who are guilty without guilt. Magdalene regained her reputation and good name after nearly 2,000 years. But how many women have still not regained theirs to this day? How many have been falsely likened to Eves, Jezebels?
There is yet another woman, but who will rehabilitate her? The apostle Junia!*
There is yet another woman in the Bible who not only lost her reputation but lost her gender. Her very gender. It is the apostle Junia, whom Paul greets in chapter 16, verse 7 of the letter to the Romans. No, we will not find this woman in the Latvian Bible. That is because in 1927 Nestle, the publisher of the Greek New Testament, changed the female personal name Junia to the male Junias. The personal name in Rom 16:7 is in the accusative case, so there was not much to forge; it was enough to change only the accent over the word. Thus Junia became the man Junias. But there is sufficient archaeological and biblical evidence, including dozens of manuscripts in Greek and Latin, gravestones and wall inscriptions, for researchers to establish that up until 1927, in every ancient manuscript and in the New Testament, there existed a woman Junia who travelled together with Andronicus. Paul knew them both, Paul greets them both in his letter, and says that Andronicus and Junia are held in high esteem among the apostles. We are speaking of the fact that already in Paul’s time there was a woman apostle whom Paul knew and valued. Junia was the one whom Christ had called and sent to preach the good news.
In this short article about the resurrection we have discovered that there were two women apostles whom Jesus sent to preach the good news – Mary Magdalene, witness of the resurrection, and Junia, who was held in high esteem among the apostles.
The first woman experienced her own demonization and the smearing of her reputation over the course of 2,000 years. The second experienced gender manipulation at the hands of male theologians, who subtly remade the woman Junia into a man.
Christ said that we will know the truth and the truth will set us free. We strive for the truth that brings freedom and God’s justice with regard to women in Christianity.
A blessed feast of Christ’s resurrection!
* Biblical, archaeological and theological arguments that Junia in Rom 16:7 was a woman apostle can be read in the following book by a world-class expert in manuscript research and textual critic, Eldon Jay Epp Eldon J. Epp, Junia: The First Woman Apostle (
editor Aļesja Lavrinoviča