The Hidden Gospels - Part 4: Gospel of Philip

31/07/09 | Posted by MattPage

“The companion of the Saviour is Mary Magdalene. Christ loved her more than all the disciples, and used to kiss her often on her mouth”.¹ It’s the most famous quote from the Gospel of Philip courtesy of Dan Brown’s “The Da Vinci Code”. Interestingly the scene plays differently in the movie. Arch-conspiracy theorist Leigh Teabing gets cut off with the final “mouth” not yet upon his lips. The reason for this discrepancy goes back to the ancient text itself. Apparently parts of the only existing copy of “The Gospel of Philip” got gnawed away², meaning that, at best, we can only speculate as to where exactly Jesus was supposed to have planted one on Mary Magdalene.

 Last Temptation explores Jesus getting married to Mary Magdalene

But “mouth” does seem to be the most likely option. Aside from the fact that elsewhere in “Philip” Magdalene is put on a par with Jesus’ mother and his aunty, (also bizarrely called Mary – according to “Philip” at least), she is also called his companion. Scholars are divided as to what this means. Some say that “companion” really meant “wife”. Others consider that unlikely. 

Does the double occurrence suggest that Jesus really was married to Mary? Not really. Setting aside the doubts over the missing word and the intended meaning of companion, there’s the age of Philip to be taken into account. At the very earliest it’s dated at 150AD, and the likelihood is that it first came into existence about 50 years after that around 200 years after Jesus was born.³ If this is the only piece of evidence we have (from among 20+ ‘gospels’ written by 200AD) that suggests that Jesus was married to Mary then it seems fairly unlikely. Besides, if it was a romantic kiss, then why do the disciples get so jealous about it in the very next sentence? .

Of the hidden gospels I’ve looked at so far, Philip is easily the longest, and actually much of it reads like a commentary, or one of Paul’s letters. Of course Luke, and quite possibly Mark, Matthew and John were also technically letters, but Philip feels much more like someone is making an argument rather than telling a story. Jesus is quoted, as are a few New Testament books, but it’s the author’s voice we’re most aware of. And it’s less about a revolutionary teaching programme than about the ceremonial aspects of church life – marriage, death, anointing with oil, baptism and communion.

It also seems much harder to understand than the gospels of Thomas and Mary. Again this is probably because its later than those texts. The Gnostic⁴ ideas here are more developed and more prevalent. “Knowledge is freedom” says the author in one place. And elsewhere, “it is proper to destroy the flesh”. There’s also some flat out contradiction to more orthodox ideas about Jesus. Those that say “Mary conceived by the Holy Spirit ” are “in error”. Joseph is identified as the one “who made the cross”, and Jesus is said to have been resurrected before he died.

Other sections are just plain bizarre. “God is a man-eater”. “The world is a corpse-eater”. And my personal favourite, “Echmoth is the wisdom of death”.

In fact, the text is so packed with bizarre or complicated ideas that it’s hard to imagine it found anything but the narrowest of audiences. Little wonder that the text was entirely unknown to us before it’s discovery in 1945. The Gospel of Thomas was mentioned and even quoted in other works - when it turned up at Nag Hammadi, it was simple to identify. But even the name “The Gospel of Philip” is a modern invention. Philip isn’t the author, he’s just the only disciple to be named. And so ultimately, what’s most surprising about the The Gospel of Philip is not its contents, but that in spite of theological obscurity, the passing of history and, perhaps even a spot of persecution, it somehow survived for 1800 years and has become one of the most well known of all the hidden gospels.

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