men. and at the gospel of mary at the end she goes out and preaches. >> i saw the lord jesus christ in a vision. >> the gospel of mary is the only known gospel that depicts mary magdalene as a leader in the early church, but how seriously should we take it as a record of actual events? >> we know that mary of magdalene did not write in gospel. we can tell from the style of the text, from the language, the vocabulary that's used that it really dates back to the middle of the 2nd century. by that time the historical mary magdalene was long gone. >> even if this gospel can't be taken as a serious historical record, it points at something else. a possible dispute over the role of women in the early church. >> well, i think this really speaks to historically a tension between male and female leaders in the church. >> the gospel of mary shows that early christians were still trying to hash out what really the role of women was in the