Fourth Gospel

This website is designed as a showcase for the book "Mary Magdelene and The Gospel of John" by Dr Ian Poole. The book is a genuinely new and quite revolutionary view of the relationship between Jesus and Mary Magdalene, and underlines her seminal role in the foundation of the Christian Church.

The basis is that the Fourth Gospel was not written by John the Apostle (or the other candidates usually suggested) but by Mary Magdalene. Not only was she the Beloved Disciple, but her contribution to the Gospel was enormous. Being an intelligent woman she was the first to comprehend Jesus’ intentions, and became his trusted friend and advisor. Her memories were the proto-gospel which became the Fourth Gospel. It is not merely a case of the replacement of one name by another: the whole gospel takes on a fascinatingly new interpretation. Mary’s status within Christianity has recently gained ground, and this work greatly adds to that picture. This (non-Da Vinci code!) interpretation of the relationship will, I am sure, gain steady acceptance. The book brings out exactly what is the relationship between Jesus and herself, and uses the Fourth Gospel as the basis for understanding both their relationship and the development of early Christianity.

In the course of the book the life of Jesus has been recast by reinterpreting key events which are often unique to the Fourth Gospel. Many of these aspects are difficult, if not impossible, to understand within conventional scholarship and can now be explained within a proposed life of Jesus. There are therefore radically different interpretations of:

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The ‘marriage’ at Cana
The identity of Nicodemus
The Raising of Lazarus
The Samaritan Woman
The ‘Last’ Supper
The role and identity of Judas
The washing of Jesus’ feet
The Crucifixion
The Empty Tomb

This is not an ‘academic’ book intended for the theological specialist. Although it references only respected academic authors, the intention is to produce a book which is perfectly readable by a person with a genuine interest in this subject and is the culmination of years of careful thought and research. It does not ‘fly in the face’ of accepted scholarship on the Fourth Gospel, but provides a solution to many of the conundrums which have bedevilled the composition and understanding of the Fourth Gospel. The ‘theology’ of the Fourth Gospel is unaffected. It concentrates upon the authorship, and how the concealment of that authorship has also concealed events in Jesus’ life. Mary is not important because she was thought to be Jesus’ consort (amazingly the ‘accepted’ Feminist position), but she was crucially important as an intelligent and perceptive woman in her own right.

To remove any misconceptions: I do not propose that Jesus was married to anyone, especially not Mary Magdalene. Their relationship was entirely spiritual: she believed he was the incarnate Logos. Nor do I support the view that Mary Magdalene came to Europe and founded a bloodline: she died in Ephesus to where she and John the Apostle moved from Jerusalem in 64 CE. There they worked together on the notes which became the Fourth Gospel.