Additional information
by Michael Counsell (Author)
Many people claim that the Bible supports their views, when they are simply selecting verses and reading them out of context to bolster their prejudices. This book imagines Mary Magdalene telling her life story. It is by a published author who has made a lifelong study of the text of the Bible, and of the way people lived in the time of Jesus; it should encourage readers to use their own imagination to enter into the minds of Jesus and his disciples. It is fiction, in that all these events are unlikely to have happened to one person. But each event is closely based on the Bible account of something which certainly happened to somebody, and the fictional structure should help people to imagine what the experiences felt like, and what the words meant to the hearers at a particular point in history. At this time there are many debates about the role that women should play in the home, society, the church and its ministry. 'She was the First Apostle' may make you think again about what answers the Bible gives to these questions.
Author Biography
Michael Counsell was educated in Birmingham, Cambridge and Oxford, during which time he studied the Bible and learnt to read it in the original Hebrew and Greek. He was ordained in the Church of England in Birmingham, and during his missionary service in Singapore, Saigon and the Seychelles he tried to learn the local languages. In the Seychelles he was asked to lead a Bible Study group, and found that the local people spoke Seychelles Creole, a language developed from Pidgin-French, and that none of the Gospels had been translated into this language. So with the help of Seychellois friends, he translated the four Gospels into Creole, and published the Gospel of Mark, the first book ever to be printed in that language. To help him with the translation, he paid a visit to the Holy Land, visiting all the places where Jesus walked, and making a careful study of the archaeological and literary evidence for the way people lived in the time of Christ. As described in the introduction, the debate about the ordination of women as priests moved him to imagine how Mary Magdalene would have described her life as 'The First Apostle'. For this he was criticised by some conservative Christians, who thought that the Bible teaches that women are subordinate to men, and also by some feminists who thought that no man had the right to write about feminism! This was performed as a one-woman show in many places, and because it shows so clearly the Jewish roots of the Christian faith, some Jewish friends invited him to go to the Holy Land again, where the show was filmed with authentic costumes and scenery. Now, with the debate about women bishops, he thought it was time to remind readers of the prominent role played by many women in the life of the early Church. Having learnt how to self-publish paperbacks on amazon through CreateSpace, and e-books on Kindle, he has now republished it in both formats, and hopes it will continue to stir discussion. After leaving the Seychelles, he was a vicar in Birmingham and then in London, and started writing books for Canterbury Press. After retirement he was locum chaplain in several places for the Diocese in Europe, including Oberammergau, Hamburg, Strasbourg, Athens, Malaga, Corfu and Tangier. Now he lives in a small flat in his native Birmingham, and enjoys singing in several choirs.
