Archaeologists have found several small statues of a Lady looking out from her tower often identified as a prostitute looking out for new clients. It is in fact the Lady looking out, watching from her tower-shrine. The name Magdalene, which we associate with Mary Magdalene, was originally a title for the Lady: it means both ‘the Lady of the tower’ and also ‘the exalted Lady’, and its partner word is ‘sevenfold knowledge.’ The Lady of the Tower was Lady Wisdom at home in the temple. Magdalene is an example of Jesus’ disciples adopting the names and titles from the old temple.
The temple represented the creation. The Lady and her wisdom were therefore at the heart of the creation. This aspect of the creation story in the Bible is not often mentioned. We hear only of God giving commands and separating the various parts of the creation into their different roles, and then resting on the seventh day. The forgotten Lady held all that diversity in one system, as we shall see. She united the creation and held it in harmony with her wisdom. Her angels sang, and this was a sign of the harmony.
When the Lady and her Son returned, the shepherds at Bethlehem heard angels singing about the glory in heaven and peace on earth. This meant peace restored to the earth when the Lady had given birth to her Son (Luke 2.14 [Luke 2:2]).
Appearances to Mary Magdalene & the Women
She stays behind after the others have gone, and she is the first person on earth to see him, though not the first to recognize him. Across town, the men who set the guard are counting out money for a better story.
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Note. Of the Joseph Smith Translation’s changes here, one changes everything the scene has been taken to mean: “Touch me not” becomes “Hold me not.” A canonized modern vision describes an embrace, and uses the same word.
? How to read this edition
The reading is the Joseph Smith Translation, in the text of the Covenant Christian Edition, carried beside each Gospel and set against the King James baseline. Headers give both numbering systems: the CCE chapter and verse, and the traditional KJV reference.
9And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail. They came and held him by the feet and worshipped him. 10Then said Jesus unto them, Be not afraid. Go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, and there shall they see me.
11Now when they were going, behold, some of the watch came into the city and showed unto the chief priests all the things that were done. 12And when they had assembled with the elders and had taken counsel, they gave large money unto the soldiers, 13saying, Say: His disciples came by night and stole him while we slept. 14And if this come to the governor’s ears, we will persuade him and keep you out of trouble. 15So they took the money and did as they were taught, and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day.
9Now when Jesus had risen, early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils. 10And she went and told them who had been with him, as they mourned and wept. 11And they, when they heard that he was alive and had been seen of her, believed not.
11But Mary stood outside at the sepulcher, weeping. And as she wept, she stooped down and looked into the sepulcher, 12and sees two angels in white sitting, the one at the head and the other at the feet where the body of Jesus had lain. 13And they said unto her, Woman, why do you weep? She says unto them, Because they have taken away my Lord and I know not where they have laid him. 14And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus. 15Jesus says unto her, Woman, why do you weep? Whom do you seek? She, supposing him to be the gardener, says unto him, Sir, if you have borne him from here, tell me where you have laid him and I will take him away. 16Jesus says unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and says unto him, Rabboni — which is to say, Master. 17Jesus says unto her, Touch Hold me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father. But go to my brethren and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God. 18Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord and that he had spoken these things unto her.
Where He Had Been, and Where He Was Going
A Ministering Spirit, While His Body Lay in the Sepulchre
“I am not yet ascended to my Father” implies an errand still outstanding on the morning of the third day: something between the tomb and the throne that had not yet been done. At the October 1841 conference Joseph Smith, distinguishing an angel from a ministering spirit, said in a sentence what that errand had been and when it ended.
Discourse, 3 October 1841, Nauvoo · published in the conference minutes, Times and Seasons, 15 October 1841 (2:577–578); reported by Willard Richards (Words of Joseph Smith, 76–79) · Joseph Smith Papers ↗He explained a difference between an angel and a ministering spirit; the one a resurrected or translated body, with its spirit, ministering to embodied spirits—the other a disembodied spirit, visiting and ministering to disembodied spirits. Jesus Christ became a minestering spirit, while his body laying in the sepulchre, to the spirits in prison; to fulfil an important part of his mission, without which he could not have perfected his work or entered into his rest. After his resurrection, he appeared as an angel to his disciples &c. …
… It is no more incredible that God should save the dead, than that he should raise the dead. There is never a time when the spirit is too old to approach God. All are within the reach of pardoning mercy, who have not committed the unpardonable sin, which hath no forgiveness, neither in this world, nor in the world to come. There is a way to release the spirit of the dead; that is, by the power and authority of the Priest[h]ood—by binding and loosing on earth
The Lady of the Tower
Magdalene is universally explained as a place name: Mary of Magdala. Barker, working from the temple vocabulary that the disciples kept reusing, argues it was something else first: a title, and one belonging to the figure who had stood in the holy of holies.
The Lady was the Queen in the holy of holies, the most sacred part of the temple; she joined together and she destroyed. The holy of holies was often called the watchtower, and the Lady was a wall encircling the city. Isaiah, writing in the eighth century BCE, said that a choice vine and a watchtower were set in the LORD’s vineyard (Isaiah 5.2 [Isa. 1:13]). The vine was the Lady, and from her tower she looked out to guard her people. These words form a pattern around the menorah, the shape of the words themselves in some way reflecting their meaning. This is a feature of the lead books. The prophet Micah, one of Isaiah’s companions in Jerusalem who fled with him from the wicked city, said the Lady had been dragged from the tower which was the place of her kingdom, but she would return and bring judgment on her enemies (Micah 4.8-13 [Mic. 1:9-10]).
Barker is reading the Jordan lead books and the temple vocabulary behind them.