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This chapter provides an overview of the theses and research that will be detailed in the rest of the book. Most importantly, it situates Mary in her cultural milieu, Judaism. A sampling of some of the literature, from the canonical gospels of John and Luke, to extracanonical gospels such as the , and the Dormition narrative, provides brief justification for the claim that there was an early tradition that Mary was a religious leader.

This chapter delves deeper into the issues brought forward in previous award-winning research published in the . Here I compare eight manuscripts in the Six Books Dormition text tradition to provide a redaction analysis that illustrates why the longest narratives about women are the oldest. This conclusion is especially important because scholars have tended to incorrectly apply a rule-of-thumb used for canonical texts——to extracanonical texts. In fact the longest narrative about a woman will usually be the oldest recension.

This chapter expands the redaction analysis in Chapter 2 to narratives about four women remembered as evangelists. When the longest surviving edition of the narratives about these women are investigated, we discover that each author originally called their female protagonist an “apostle,” depicted her baptizing other people, and performing the types of activities usually associated with male apostles. These four women apostles were Mariamne, Irene, Nino, and Thecla.

This chapter, “Mary, High Priest and Bishop,” delves into the way the Six Books Dormition narrative described Mary raising her arms to lead the prayer, praise God, and bless people like a Temple high priest. Both written and iconographic evidence indicates that the early tradition behind these scenes was so strong that it persisted for centuries. Monumental portrayals of Mary as a bishop and Eucharistic officiant in the altar apses of some churches suggest that she functioned as both a role model for, and a guarantor of, women ministers.

This chapter, provides evidence of the way Mary and her grown son were often paired in art, especially on objects used in the liturgy into the seventh century. This pairing also appears to be present in earlier art. I discuss the theory that the Council of Ephesus in 431 caused Mariology by calling Mary the Theotokos—and the resulting circular dating theory that has required Marian art to be dated later than that council. I argue that when compared to fourth-century iconography of Mary, the Maria Maggiore Basilica mosaics completed after the council do not elevate Mary.

This chapter, “The and Its Antecedents,” examines a very important text about Mary, the . According to this narrative, the women disciples were at the last supper, and both Mary and Jesus officiated at the ritual meal. This chapter surveys ancient textual evidence that supports the hypothesis that this description of the last supper originated in the early era of Jesus followers.

This chapter continues the study of the previous chapter and provides artifacts, both textual and iconographic, that depicted both men and women as officiants. A variety of writers, starting with Irenaeus in the late second century, attest to this tradition. In addition, the two very oldest iconographic artifacts to portray people during the liturgy inside a real church depicted gender parity at the Eucharistic altar—inside the fifth-century sanctuaries of Old Saint Peter’s in Rome and the second Hagia Sophia in Constantinople.

In this chapter, “Silencing of the Past,” I discuss the modes of silencing the past that both ancient and modern scribes have used. I give examples of the ways that censorship continues to buttress our false imagination of the past.