The Gospel of Mary Magdalene was found in the Akhmim Codex, a gnostic text of the New Testament apocrypha acquired by Dr. Rheinhardt in Cairo in 1896. However, it was not published until 1955, after the Nag Hammadi library had also appeared. The other texts of the Akhmim Codex were in the Nag Hammadi texts, but not this Gospel. In this only known copy of the text, pages 1–6 and 11–14 are missing. It has been suggested in popular literature that this is a Gospel of Mary Magdalene, and thus has become known by this name, although her last name is not mentioned in the text, and

The fragmentary text survives in two 3rd century Greek fragments and a longer 5th century translation into Coptic, in which the testimony of a woman first needed to be defended, reflecting the change in Christian views of women between the 3rd and 5th centuries.

All of these manuscripts were first discovered and published between 1938 and 1983, but there are Patristic references to the Gospel of Mary as early as the 3rd century. In the fragmentary text, the disciples ask questions of the risen Savior (a designation that dates the original no earlier than the 2nd century) and are answered.

Then they grieve, saying, "How shall we go to the Gentiles and preach the Gospel of the Kingdom of the Son of Man? If even he was not spared, how shall we be spared?" And Mary bids them take heart: "Let us rather praise his greatness, for he prepared us and made us into men." She then delivers

Her vision does not meet with universal approval:

"But Andrew answered and said to the brethren, 'Say what you think concerning what she said. For I do not believe that the Savior said this. For certainly these teachings are of other ideas."

"Peter also opposed her in regard to these matters and asked them about the Savior. "Did he then speak secretly with a woman, in preference to us, and not openly? Are we to turn back and all listen to her? Did he prefer her to us?"

Karen King has observed, "The confrontation of Mary with Peter, a scenario also found in The Gospel of Thomas, Pistis Sophia, and The Coptic Gospel of the Egyptians, reflects some of the tensions in second-century Christianity. Peter and Andrew represent orthodox positions that deny the validity of esoteric revelation and reject the authority of women to teach." (introduction, The Nag Hammadi Library)

The text is primarily concerned with

• mortality and the origin of mortality as a result of the demi-urge
• Jesus' ascension
• The ascent of the soul according to gnosticism

The larger part of these concerns is expressed as a dialogue between the disciples and Mary, who is the person providing the answers. After the departure of Jesus, within the text, in Mary has been placed the authority of the church, likely indicating that the text originates within a sect who either held their founder to have been Mary, or otherwise valued Mary above other apostles. Part of this favouring of the one known female disciple may have been due to her ability as a female to represent the importance figure of Sophia, the female syzygy of Christ, within gnostic theology.

See also

• New Testament apocrypha

Evangelie van Maria Magdalena Ewangelia Marii Marian evankeliumi Maria Magdalenas evangelium