[Magdalen] Non-canonicality; was, Salve Regina.

[M J _Mike_ Logsdon]

>>>The "canonical New Testament" as we know it now was not accepted until 367
AD, well after the time of Jesus, by which time what you are calling
"legend" (and what we Orthodox call tradition) was pretty firmly accepted
by many Christians. Debates over what was and is important continue into
the present day, in light of comparatively recent discovery of ancient
texts (Nag Hammadi, etc.) and re-interpretation of gnostic Gospels. So
there's that.<<<

I highly recommend Bart Ehrman's 2003 Oxford "Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew" and "Lost Scriptures: Books that Did Not Make It into the New Testament", the latter being a companion volume to the former.  It is true, he's a controversial figure ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bart_D._Ehrman ).  But I found the first volume absolutely amazing, and with the arising of this thread I'm going to re-read it, then first-read the second (though much of its contents I'm already familiar with via older encounters with such material).

All I can say is, there's much to be said for what the Powers That Were forbade entry into the canon.  Likewise, there's much not to be said (it can get rather kooky sometimes).  But damn! if it ain't all interesting as hell!

M J (Mike) Logsdon.

"Aaugh[.]" -- Charles Brown.
"Avoid dull needles and use a soft cloth." -- E Kovacs.
"Because that's the kind of guy, I'm." -- C Reiner, "Your Show of Shows", skit: "From Here to Obscurity".