Podcast appearances and mentions of Joan E Taylor

An opening question for our sermonic adventure: Of all the Marys in our gospels, WHICH MARY is the Mary in John 11 and John 12? If you think you know the answer, your answer may be complicated by what you hear here. The biblical world has been shaken by the research of Elizabeth Schrader, and many of us have been introduced to Schrader's incredible findings about Mary Magdalene in John's gospel thanks to Diana Butler Bass preaching about it during the Wild Goose Festival in summer of 2022. A parting, poignant, and - for Pastor Megan and many others - deeply personal question to close: WHAT IF we had all grown up with both Peter the Rock and Mary the Tower?Sermon begins at minute marker 4:11John 12.1-8ResourcesElizabeth Schrader, research: https://www.elizabethschrader.com/about-7 “All the Marys,” sermon by Diana Butler Bass, preached at the Wild Goose Festival, summer 2022, listen to the audio OR read the text. This is the sermon, featuring Elizabeth Schrader's research, upon which Megan's is entirely based!“Magdalene,” song by Libbie SchraderNestle Aland Greek New Testament (Novum Testamentum Graece), edited by the Institut für neutestamentliche Textforschung at the University of Munster (Germany).“Magdala's Mistaken Identity,” Joan E. Taylor, Biblical Archaeology Review 48:3, Fall 2022. “The site of Magdala on the shores of the Sea of Galilee is associated by many with Jesus's famous disciple, Mary Magdalene. Ancient sources, however, indicate that the site's first-century remains are likely those of the Galilean harbor city of Taricheae. Explore what we know of this ancient Jewish town and how it came to be mistakenly identified with Magdala.”Voices Together 527 Bless the Arms That Comfort. Text: Mary Louise Bringle. Music: Gustav Holst, 1906. Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-726929. All rights reserved.Image: Detail of Papyrus 66, red underline added, to underscore the name “Maria” with a theta (Θ - “th”) added above the iota (ί - “i”), changing Maria / Mary to Martha. Available on Wikimedia Commons.

Part 2 of our interview with Dr Katie Turner (independent researcher). Dr Turner holds a doctorate in Theology & Religious Studies from King's College, London. Her research interests include: the clothing and material culture of the New Testament period; and, the reception of the New Testament in art and drama. Most recently, she has published two articles for the T&T Clark Jesus Library entitled, ‘Clothing and Dress in the Time of Jesus' and ‘Reading Christian Art: An Introduction'. Her monograph, Costuming Christ: Re-Dressing First-Century ‘Jews' and ‘Christians' in Passion Dramas is forthcoming with the Library of New Testament Studies. She is an advisor and contributor for Urbs & Polis, a digital hub supporting the study of early Christianity within its Greco-Roman context. She has also acted as a historical consultant for Mattel, Inc. and Rockridge Press. You can find her on Twitter @DrKatieTurner. Some good sources: Turner, Katie. “Clothing and Dress in the Time of Jesus.” in Bloomsbury T&T Clark Jesus Library. London: Bloomsbury, 2022. http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781350928077.003. Turner, Katie. “'The Shoe is the Sign!' Costuming Brian and Dressing the First Century.” In Jesus and Brian: Exploring the Historical Jesus and his Times via Monty Python's Life of Brian, edited by Joan E. Taylor, 221-37. London: T&T Clark, 2015. Cohen, Shaye D. "Those who say they are Jews and are not: How do you know a Jew in Antiquity when you see one?". In The Beginnings of Jewishness, 25-68. London: University of California Press, Ltd., 1999. Fine, Steven. "How do you know a Jew when you see one? Reflections on Jewish Costume in the Roman World." In Fashioning Jews: Clothing, Culture, and Commerce, edited by Leonard J. Greenspoon, 19-28. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press, 2013. Kupfer, Marcia A., ed. The Passion Story: From Visual Representation to Social Drama. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2008. Landis, Deborah. "Scene and Not Heard: The Role of Costume in the Cinematic Storytelling Process." Unpublished PhD, The Royal College of Art, 2003. Maeder, Edward, ed. Hollywood and History: Costume Design in Film. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1987. Taylor, Joan E. What Did Jesus Look Like? London: T&T Clark, 2018.

A return to the Ancient Afterlives feed (and future intermittent releases will be coming) - Part 1 of our interview with Dr Katie Turner (independent researcher). Dr Turner holds a doctorate in Theology & Religious Studies from King's College, London. Her research interests include: the clothing and material culture of the New Testament period; and, the reception of the New Testament in art and drama. Most recently, she has published two articles for the T&T Clark Jesus Library entitled, ‘Clothing and Dress in the Time of Jesus' and ‘Reading Christian Art: An Introduction'. Her monograph, Costuming Christ: Re-Dressing First-Century ‘Jews' and ‘Christians' in Passion Dramas is forthcoming with the Library of New Testament Studies. She is an advisor and contributor for Urbs & Polis, a digital hub supporting the study of early Christianity within its Greco-Roman context. She has also acted as a historical consultant for Mattel, Inc. and Rockridge Press. You can find her on Twitter @DrKatieTurner. Some good sources: Turner, Katie. “Clothing and Dress in the Time of Jesus.” in Bloomsbury T&T Clark Jesus Library. London: Bloomsbury, 2022. http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781350928077.003. Turner, Katie. “'The Shoe is the Sign!' Costuming Brian and Dressing the First Century.” In Jesus and Brian: Exploring the Historical Jesus and his Times via Monty Python's Life of Brian, edited by Joan E. Taylor, 221-37. London: T&T Clark, 2015. Cohen, Shaye D. "Those who say they are Jews and are not: How do you know a Jew in Antiquity when you see one?". In The Beginnings of Jewishness, 25-68. London: University of California Press, Ltd., 1999. Fine, Steven. "How do you know a Jew when you see one? Reflections on Jewish Costume in the Roman World." In Fashioning Jews: Clothing, Culture, and Commerce, edited by Leonard J. Greenspoon, 19-28. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press, 2013. Kupfer, Marcia A., ed. The Passion Story: From Visual Representation to Social Drama. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2008. Landis, Deborah. "Scene and Not Heard: The Role of Costume in the Cinematic Storytelling Process." Unpublished PhD, The Royal College of Art, 2003. Maeder, Edward, ed. Hollywood and History: Costume Design in Film. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1987. Taylor, Joan E. What Did Jesus Look Like? London: T&T Clark, 2018.

Learn why women philosophers in ancient Greece as well as in first century Alexandria were pushed aside and why their sexuality was used to vilify them with Dr. Joanna Kujawa and Joan E. Taylor. Joan E. Taylor is a scholar and author of several books on early women philosophers. She specializes in Jewish and early Christian women-philosophers. In this interview, we focus on her archetypes of women philosophers. kcl.ac.uk/people/joan-taylor Dr. Joanna Kujawa is a spiritual detective and author of The Other Goddess: Mary Magdalene and the Goddesses of Eros and Secret Knowledge. https://www.joannakujawa.com/ Say “Alexa or Okay Google play Sacred Stories podcast” or subscribe to podcast at https://sacredstories.libsyn.com/

Joan Taylor

Six days before Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, home of Lazarus, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. Lazarus and his sisters hosted a dinner for him. Martha served and Lazarus was among those who joined him at the table. Then Mary took an extraordinary amount, almost three-quarters of a pound of very expensive perfume made of pure nard. She anointed Jesus’ feet with it, then wiped his feet dry with her hair. The house was filled with the aroma of the perfume. Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), complained, “This perfume was worth a year’s wages! Why wasn’t it sold and the money given to the poor?” (He said this not because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief. He carried the money bag and would take what was in it.)    Then Jesus said, “Leave her alone. This perfume was to be used in preparation for my burial, and this is how she has used it. You will always have the poor among you, but you won’t always have me.”    THE ANCIENT LESSON Deuteronomy 15:7-11 Now if there are some poor persons among you, say one of your fellow Israelites in one of your cities in the land that the Lord your God is giving you, don’t be hard-hearted or tightfisted toward your poor fellow Israelites. To the contrary! Open your hand wide to them. You must generously lend them whatever they need. But watch yourself! Make sure no wicked thought crosses your mind, such as, The seventh year is coming—the year of debt cancellation—so that you resent your poor fellow Israelites and don’t give them anything. If you do that, they will cry out to the Lord against you, and you will be guilty of sin. No, give generously to needy persons. Don’t resent giving to them because it is this very thing that will lead to the Lord your God’s blessing you in all you do and work at. Poor persons will never disappear from the earth. That’s why I’m giving you this command: you must open your hand generously to your fellow Israelites, to the needy among you, and to the poor who live with you in your land.   I think you have probably guessed that the figure of Judas fascinates me, not only because I am did a two-part sermon series back in 2013, but because I mention him almost every time we do communion in this church. This wasn’t always the case—I don’t think I gave Judas much thought over last 10 years or so, to be honest. During that time I began clarifying for myself what I believed about God’s grace and God’s mercy, and to what lengths God will go to in order to bring us to God’s own self, to bring us in, to bring us home. And so as I have had to articulate what I’ve come to believe, that God ultimately brings us all home, whoever we are whatever we have done – or not done. I have thought of Judas often because he symbolizes such a seemingly lost soul. You probably know of the medieval story about Judas that I’ve often shared here, the legend where Jesus is said to have reconvened his disciples from that last super around some heavenly table, though there were only 11 disciples there because Judas was absent. Suddenly though the door comes the missing disciple Judas, seemingly startled to see his Master and his old friends around that table. The legend goes that Jesus cries out with joy, “Judas, we have been waiting for thee!”   That legend so captures for me the grace of God, that goodness, that mercy that will ultimately include us all. Still, we all know the pain of being betrayed by a friend, a colleague, a spouse, we know that it is one of the most painful of human experiences. There seems to be nothing worse than realizing that our trust in someone was not merited, was not deserved on our part. I once worked at a church where one clergy colleague betrayed another colleague and though I wasn’t either the betrayer or the betrayed on this large pastoral staff, that act of deception, of duplicity, absolutely changed the dynamic among the rest of the clergy, and we were never quite the same again as a team. This clergy leader betrayed our trust in him, and we fellow clergy, numbering 8 or so, never quite knew where we stood with him, because he had criticized the preaching of one of us anonymously, rather than deal with it directly. Probably we have been on both sides of that equation at some point, the liar and the lied to, the betrayer and the betrayed, and that is other side of this dilemma, because it points to this unsettling truth: people rarely, and I mean rarely, are either all good or all evil, either all light or all darkness. Judas wasn’t just some hanger who attached himself to the disciples. He was specifically chosen by Jesus to be one of his disciples, and though that choice carries all sorts of questions with it, one of the things that it clearly does say is that there was a lot of goodness that Jesus saw in Judas, so much so that he brought him into his inner circle, the people that he trusted most. But, of course, that is what most of us did with the friends, the family, the spouse or lover, the colleagues that ended up betraying us, or what we did with those who we ultimately betrayed. That is the human dilemma, that people aren’t all light or all shadow, and that is where so much from where so much pain comes from when we are betrayed, that it was by someone so close to us whom we loved for their light – we often chose them and they often chose us because of what we loved in them, and they in us.   And so this Sunday, I wanted us to look at one of the few stories we have in the canonical Gospels about Judas Iscariot, and what might have caused him to handle himself so poorly in this story, that might have caused him to betray Jesus. This story is actually similar to one found in the Gospel of Mark (14:3-9), but Judas is not explicitly mentioned as the one bringing up the objections about the perfume. That probably has to do with the fact that the Gospel of John is likely the last canonical Gospel written, whereas the Gospel of Mark is the first—the figure of Judas is more fleshed out by the time John was written, and thus Judas is, frankly, made a bit more sinister and menacing in this new telling of Mark’s earlier story about this incident. Still, the story doesn’t actually focus on Judas, but on the anointing of Jesus with that costly perfume, and as probably you have heard before from other preachers, in this moment so many seemingly strict boundaries are crossed. Men and women did not touch in this ancient culture, and it’s hard not to note the oddly sensual nature of the moment, even if it was not meant to be read this way. The typical way of interpreting this moment is following the lead Jesus gives here right in this text—that Mary prepares him for his death, for that will be another moment when perfume and strong spices will be massaged into his flesh, though that flesh will be cold to the touch. And yet, I also think it can be understood as a celebration of the good things in life, things like fragrances, perfumes, food, friendship, love, appreciation—even, even when as we, as Jesus’ disciples, strive to relieve the suffering of the poor, and the least of these amongst us. Life is the worth the living of it and there is joy to be found in this broken but still beautiful world.   And yet this line by Jesus about always having the poor among us is often used as an excuse to ignore the poor, dismiss the poor, and as justification for not tending to the poor. It often is used to justify selfishness among us Christians, as if Jesus was saying, “well, I mean, really, there is no reason to give generously or change policies to help the poor, because, you know, no matter what you do there will always be poor people, so what’s the point?” Just live extravagantly, live big, enjoy our wealth, and don’t give much thought to those have so little in comparison to usBut as you see in the Ancient Lesson, Jesus is actually referring to a passage in the Jewish law that actually says the opposite. In the midst of a portion of the Law that gives instruction on the need to forgive all debts every seven years, the write warns that just because one knows that the forgiveness of debt is coming soon, that seventh year is approaching soon, one shouldn’t be tightfisted with the poor, the assumption being that the poor may get some relief from the forgiveness of debt. Leave behind resentment for the poor – something that you see so often by so many, as if somehow the presence of those in need is an affront to us, causing us to confronted by our much in contrast to their little. Wendell Berry captures this truth in last few verses of his poem “The Guest,” about a man who ask the poet for help. My stranger waits, his hand held out like something to read, as though its emptiness is an accomplishment. I give him a smoke and the price of a meal, no more –not sufficient kindness or believable sham. I paid him to remain strange to my threshold and table, to permit me to forget him– knowing I won’t. He’s the guest of my knowing, though not asked. Instead of being tightfisted, the writer of Deuteronomy says, we should be open handed, ready to help without judgment or resentment, words that Jesus echoes here in John 12. I’m often asked for help by some through the Helping Hand Fund we have here at church, and my mind always tries to evaluate the truthfulness of the asker and whether or not the need is real, but in the end, it doesn’t matter whether or not I am fooled by the person who is asking – you and I will be judged by our generosity, and not on whether or not we were fooled by some soul. Intention on our part is what matters here, something that concerns the writer of this text from Deuteronomy as well.   But let’s go back Judas role here to perhaps explain why some of us, including me, have a hard time being as generous as we know God wants us to be. Here the writer diagnosed greed as Judas’ problem, the reason for his betrayal, for those thirty pieces of silver. But in the Gospel of Luke and also in the Gospel of John, the writer says that Satan entered into him, that he allowed himself to be occupied by a demonic spirit, and that was at least part of the reason he became a betrayer. In Matthew’s Gospel there also seems to be hints that the betrayal was meant to fulfill ancient prophecies about Jesus. Others have wondered whether or not Judas began his campaign of betrayal the moment he realized that Jesus was not going to lead an armed insurrection against the Romans, and so he no longer had use for him—no military leader, no need for him, might have been the mindset. And some have even argued that Judas betrayed Jesus because, like the priests in the temple, he felt it was better for Jesus to die rather than the whole Jewish people to perish in a reprisal if the Roman authorities felt threatened by Jesus and the Messianic murmurings heard about him.   So, clearly we don’t quite know exactly why Judas did what he did, and though each of the Gospels try to help us figure it out in their own way, I want to actually go a bit deeper into Judas’ motives, and to do so by trying to tease out what caused Judas to react so badly to Mary’s gesture with the perfume here in this story, and how that might give us a deeper clue as to why Judas betrayed the Lord and why we are so often resistant to being generous as we could be. I actually want us to look at the last part of Judas’ name, Iscariot, a word that has baffled scholars for centuries. There has been speculation that it might refer to a family name, or to a region of Judah, or that might refer to the sicarii, which were a group of Jewish rebels that were active a few years after Jesus’ death. Other possibilities have been offered, including the idea that the name might refer to red color or even “to deliver” in Aramaic, Jesus’ own tongue, or it might mean “the liar,” which might have been derived from the Hebrew language. But when I was researching Judas, I stumbled upon the work of Joan E. Taylor who has argued that the word Iscariot was perhaps a descriptive name given to Judas by Jesus, much like Peter was named “the Rock” by Jesus, and that the word might be derived from Greek-Aramaic hybrid that denotes “chokiness” or “constriction”   Now, perhaps that “chokiness,” that “constriction,” refers to one of the Gospels description of how Judas died, suicide by hanging, but I think it also might point to something else as well, to this idea that Jesus saw in Judas, a spirit of anxiety, that he saw him as someone who was overwhelmed by personal anxiety, constantly emotionally on guard, fearful. In family systems theory, which is a theory offered by the therapist Murray Bowen and brought to us preacher types for use in our congregations by the Rabbi Edwin Friedman, in family systems theory anxiety is one of the most fundamental characteristics of what it means to be human—we all are anxious, to a lesser or greater degree, most of which we can and should control, lest it control us. But some people are chronically anxious, always fearful, and for these folks, they carry a constant sense of being threatened with them—in fact, someone has said that you can measure your sense of personal anxiety by the degree of threat you carry within you, and how comfortable or uncomfortable you are in this world. My personal definition and measuring stick when I teach my class on systems theory at churches is to ask the this question: to what degree do you feel the universe is for you and what degree do you feel the universe is against you—how safe do you feel in this world, in general?   To be clear, anxiety is not to be confused with a panic attack, because anxiety in our definition is that its imprecise and free floating and most of the time it’s hard to put your finger on exactly what is causing us to live in a constant state of anxiety. But the connection I personally made to Judas, to Judas’ name, is actually found in the Latin roots for our word “anxiety” and those Latin roots are found in other words that denote “to choke” or “to narrow.” If Joan Taylor is right, and Iscariot’s name was given to him by Jesus, and that it was a play on the words “chokiness” and “constriction,” well, you can see the obvious connection – he was an obviously anxious person. Judas’ anxiety is centered around he and the disciples not having enough, and it forms the heart of his objection to the use of the perfume on Jesus. You see, I think the root of the problem for poor Judas is that he is a man absolutely riddled with chronic anxiety, nervous, unsure, untrusting, fearful, and so he attaches to things like the money purse, thinking that if we the disciples have enough in it, we’ll be alright, I’ll be alright, but he then tries to disguise that anxiety as being really a concern for the poor, which is interesting here, since Jesus is all about the poor and their needs.   Because Judas cannot manage his fear, which is manifested in his anxiety, there can then be a million reasons for betraying Jesus—fear for his country at the hands of the Roman if they feel threatened by Jesus; fear that he won’t have enough when the gig is finally up with Jesus, and thus leading to his need to cash out as soon as possible, for thirty pieces of silver. I said earlier that my personal way of defining anxiety is asking people to think about the way they either trust the universe, or distrust the universe, how much they think the universe is for them or against them, but the real question I am asking as a Christian is this: how much do I trust God, and how much, frankly, do I distrust God? There won’t be enough, there is never enough, anxious Judas has come to feel in his bones, something many of us also carry within in our bones – if I am too generous, too kind, I won’t have enough, or enough to make me feel safe. But,of course, having much stuff really never does make us feel safe because we then start to fear losing what we now have. In that text from Deuteronomy, God is said to bless those who give much, in all that they do. Do we believe it, do we trust the God who gave us everything in the first place, to give away at least of what were first given by God? I don’t know if I do yet – and I stand humbled by that reality, that truth, that I cannot always model for you what I know to be true, which is the hard dilemma for any minister. But this is all about trusting God, as Judas should have trusted in Jesus, and that is the work before me, before us – to trust God with everything, and trust that we can give away some of it, for those may be in need of our help. May I – and we – gamble on this truth, this truth that Judas could never allow himself to believe, that God is worthy of our trust, and always will be. Amen.

We often see a White Jesus with blond hair and blue eyes. But how accurate is that? What did he really look like? We hear from author Joan E. Taylor, who reconstructs Christ's image in her new book. And, as a new film about Mary Magdalene is released, we look at the identity of this key Christian figure.

We often see a White Jesus with blond hair and blue eyes. But how accurate is that? What did he really look like? We hear from author Joan E. Taylor, who reconstructs Christ's image in her new book. And, as a new film about Mary Magdalene is released, we look at the identity of this key Christian figure.

Cardinal Vincent Nichols, Head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales says that we are losing the battle against human trafficking. BBC's Religious Affairs Editor Martin Bashir talks to Franklin Graham, the son of the evangelist Billy Graham. A review of sharia councils, launched by Theresa May in 2016 when she was home secretary, was published this week. It calls for sharia councils to be regulated with a code of conduct and recommends Muslim couples should be legally required to civilly register their marriage before or at the same time as their Islamic ceremony. Edward talks to the review's chair Prof Mona Siddiqui. What did Jesus look like? Everyone can conjure an image of Jesus and often he is seen as a handsome, white man with flowing locks and pristine linen robes. But is our popular image of Jesus overly westernized and untrue to historical reality? Christian Origins scholar Joan E. Taylor tells Edward what he really looked like. The Bishop of Manchester is calling for concerted action to tackle child poverty after it was revealed that more than half of children in some parts of the country are living in poverty. Manchester is highlighted as one of the worst areas. Kevin Bocquet has been looking at the reasons children are living in poverty in a growing and affluent city. Edward discusses child poverty with Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, and the Bishop of Manchester, David Walker. According to new research you are more likely to support immigration if you are a Christian and go to Church. Those who say they are Christian, but don't go to Church are the least supportive of immigration in any faith group. Producers: Louise Clarke-Rowbotham and Carmel Lonergan Series Producer: Amanda Hancox.