In
The Last Temptation of Christ
(1988), Martin Scorsese tells a controversial story of a Jesus (played by
Willem Dafoe) who struggles to follow his destiny: is he fully God or fully
human? His companion Mary Magdalene wants him to “be a real man.”
Scorsese
creates a character out of several unrelated biblical women, relying more on
the novel by Kazantzakis than on historical research about Mary Magdalene.
1.
For example, he draws on the Samaritan woman who has multiple husbands (John 4) and presents Mary as prostitute who is
naked, unveiled, and
2.
Mary was Covered with Tattoos,
3.
Having sex with a series of men while others, including Jesus, watch;
4.
She has become a Prostitute because Jesus refused to marry her.
5.
In The Last Temptation, Scorsese also borrows the story of the unnamed woman
caught in adultery (John 8:3-11). Jesus interrupts the stoning
of Mary Magdalene, who is accused of breaking the law by having sex with Romans
on the Sabbath.
6.
Scorsese also pulls in the woman who anoints Jesus (unnamed but “remembered,” Matt 26:6-13, Mark 14:3-9; Mary of Bethany, John 12:1-8; a sinner of the city, Luke 7:36-50). Instead of the woman anointing
Jesus, however, Jesus wipes the feet of Mary Magdalene.
7.
For the Temptation scene (see Luke 4:1-14), Scorsese ignores the gospel details and uses the Garden of Eden motif
instead, casting Mary in both the role of Eve and the serpent (Genesis 3:1-7). As Jesus waits in the desert, a
serpent with Mary’s voice comes to him because, like the first man, Adam, he
was lonely. “Just nod your head,”
says the voice, “and we will be in my bed
together.” At the cross, Satan—in disguise as a guardian angel—offers Jesus
one “last temptation” to come down
from the cross and live like a normal human.
8.
In the following dream sequence, Jesus and Mary Magdalene marry; she becomes pregnant
but unfortunately dies;
9.
Jesus Re-marries Mary and Martha, has several children, and grows to old age.
10.
On his deathbed, he sees that his angel is really Satan and returns to the
cross where he “accomplishes” the
task of the divine Messiah. In order to make this last
temptation believable, Scorsese exaggerates the seductive characteristics of
Mary Magdalene. Alas, she no longer resembles the biblical woman.
11.
According to the gospels, Mary Magdalene was one of the women who had traveled
with Jesus and the disciples and provided for them (Luke 8:2; Mark 15:40-41); she also sees Jesus being
crucified (Matt 27:55-56; Luke 23:49; John 19:25). These two details are the only
biblically accurate moves that Scorsese makes.
12.
Scorses does not recount that Jesus cast seven demons out of her (Luke 8:2; cf. Mark 16:9), nor does he present any resurrection
stories in which Mary Magdalene shines (e.g., Matt 27:61; Mark 15:47; John 20:1-18).
13.
Scorsese literally strips her of the role as “apostle of the apostles”
(so called by later Christian texts) and leaves her the Naked Temptress, for,
according to the film’s Satan-angel,
“There is only one woman, with many
faces.”
Written
by Prof. Jane S. Webster is
Professor of Religious Studies at Barton College in Wilson, N.C., Author of
Ingesting Jesus: Eating and Drinking in the Gospel of John, and Co-editor of
Teaching the Bible in the Liberal Arts Classroom and Lady Parts.
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