You probably learned that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute whom Jesus forgave. She’s the repentant sinner who washed his feet with tears and dried them with her hair. There’s just one problem: that’s not what the texts say. The Bible never identifies Mary Magdalene as a prostitute. That association came later, in a 6th-century sermon by Pope Gregory the Great, who conflated several different women in the Gospels into a single figure. ...
The Gospel of Philip lists five mysteries practiced by the Valentinian Gnostics: “The master did everything in a mystery: baptism, chrism, eucharist, redemption, and bridal chamber.” Of these, the bridal chamber stands as the highest. If the Temple in Jerusalem had three sections (outer court, middle court, and holy of holies), the Valentinian understanding mapped their sacraments onto these spaces. Baptism was the outer court. Redemption was the middle court. The bridal chamber was the holy of holies itself: the innermost approach to the divine presence. ...