If you're looking for a scholarly book about Mary Magdalene, you're probably better off reading Margaret Starbird or Karen King. But if you want a well written story about the life of Mary, then this book is for you. Higgs is a prolific author of fiction and non-fiction, and sometimes she blurs the lines. Her previous books on Bad Girls in the Bible were just a prelude to this one book on Mary, which is actually two books in one - the first half is a fictional story and the second half is the factional stone. I say "factional" rather than non-fiction because Higgs is very liberal in her interpretation of the gospels and rarely does she address alternate theories.
Higgs' discussion of Mary Magdalene assumes that Mary is not Mary from Bethany, yet there are a great many reasons to assume she is, and Higgs ignores most of these issues in her zeal to isolate Mary M as only the woman from whom 7 demons are exorcized. Yet in focusing exclusively on this aspect of Mary's story, Higgs seems oblivious to the meaning of the 7 demons within 1st Century jewish context. Moreover, she takes the easy road by assuming that Magdalene refers to the fact that Mary came from Magadan, when it makes more sense that Magdalene derived from Migdal (tower) and referred to the fact that Mary was the "tower", which, as Margaret Starbird points out, is equivalent to saying "Mary the Great". Jesus' disciples all had nicknames (Peter was called Rocky, John and James were the Brothers of Thunder, Judas was the Daggerman, Simon was the Zealot, etc.) None of these nicknames referred to places but to personality characteristics, so "Mary the Great" is in keeping with Jesus' nicknaming stragey, and "Mary from Magadan" is not.
Don't let these criticisms stop you from reading this book. It is a quick read, quite funny in parts, and generally stays true to the gospels. It is informative up to a point. I recommend it, with some cautions |
