Ca 120 CE

A possible date and place for the publication of the mystery school Gospel of Mary is about 120 CE in Osrhenia which was a small kingdom in Parthia which Queen Helen’s family had ruled over but now was probably being challenged by Roman Christianity as Roman and Parthian influences waxed and waned alternately with military and diplomatic successes and failures.  The Gospel of Mary is probably a suturing of two similar literary efforts.  Both show a dependence upon the Roman Gospels as well as the Gospel of Thomas and Gospel of Philip.  The disciple Andrew does not tend to show up in the oldest gospel material except for the Roman Gospels but does in the second half of ‘Mary’.  Both halves are concerned with soul travel and uplifting the role of Mary in instructing and bucking up the courage of the disciples. The first half reminds the disciples that Jesus “prepared us and made us into men” while the second half counsels them to “put on the perfect man”.  These phrases refer to the androgenous Primal Adam theology of Bridal Chamber Christianity.  Both halves stress letting go of the concepts of sin and judgment but asserting all things will dissolve into their root.  Both sides can be seen to be simple sermons using stock phrases and constructed in a period of turbulence when memory had to be relied upon for what could be remembered from the Roman Gospels along with the Gospels of Thomas and Philip and the Dialogue of the Savior sermons.