The Blessing of the Magdalene w/ Elizabeth Schrader Polczer

SPEAKER_1 (0:01)

Are you interested in the parts of history that remain a mystery? Do you want to learn more about the historical myths and misconceptions used to prop up belief today?

I'm Nathaniel Lloyd. In my podcast, Historical Blindness, I delve into all of these topics, sharing puzzling tales from the past and examining hoaxes, conspiracy theories and misremembered events that provide insight into modern politics and religion. New episodes every two weeks find historical blindness on most podcast players and platforms.

Elizabeth Schrader Polczer (0:38)

So, you know, oftentimes people will hold up the Bible and say, the Bible is clear or the Bible says this. And people who do that are not always thinking about where the Bible comes from. I think on some level, they do know that it comes from manuscripts.

And they probably know that there are thousands of manuscripts.

But what they might not know is not every single manuscript was exactly alike. And finding the ones that are closer to the source, oftentimes, those are the oldest manuscripts, even the best manuscripts. And in fact, several text critics have pointed out that the further back you go, the more variation you get, which is not what you would expect if there was this word of God that was carefully preserved. You would expect it like, oh, down the line, some people snuck some things in. But if you go to the very beginnings, you see a lot of textual variation.

Daniel McClellan (1:36)

Hey, everybody, welcome to the Data Over Dogma podcast, where we try to increase the public's access to the academic study of the Bible and religion and confront the spread of misinformation about the same. I am very excited today to have Dr. Elizabeth Schrader Polczer with us. How are you doing today, Elizabeth?

Elizabeth Schrader Polczer (1:55)

I'm doing great. It's a beautiful day here.

Daniel McClellan (1:58)

Good to hear. And where are you located at the moment?

Elizabeth Schrader Polczer (2:00)

I am in Durham, North Carolina, for the next few weeks, and then I'll be moving to Philadelphia shortly.

Daniel McClellan (2:06)

All right. Well, that's trying to think about the difference in weather there.

Fewer mountains, probably.

Elizabeth Schrader Polczer (2:13)

Yeah, it's a little more humid here, but we got both beach and mountain. Like three hours west is mountains, three hours east is beach.

Daniel McClellan (2:22)

Well, we are very excited to be talking to you. Well, I am very excited to be talking to you today. That's a long time viewers, the whole, what, two months that we've been around. We'll recognize that we are one Dan Short. And Dan Beecher, alas, indeed, is unfortunately down with a touch of the COVID, down with the sickness, as the great poet once said.

And so he's not feeling up to, he's not, let's say, I used to say this to my 14 year old all the time.

And now I've forgotten the words that I use. Something about being on camera, I always get a little glitchy. But he's not dressed to receive. Let's just put it that way. Alas.

Elizabeth Schrader Polczer (3:09)

Send him my regards. I was looking forward to chatting with him, but some other time, perhaps.

Daniel McClellan (3:13)

Definitely, some other time.

Now, right before we got started here, you mentioned that you are, this is your second career. And I want to get started into talking about Mary with the fact that you wrote a song about Mary as a singer-songwriter, as part of your previous career. And did that actually play a direct role in your becoming interested in academically studying Mary Magdalene?

Elizabeth Schrader Polczer (3:39)

It was. I always describe it as like a wormhole to another life. I had been doing the music business for a very long time. I was in a band and we toured with people like Jewel and Poe, and we opened for like Rusted Root. We did a lot of fun things. And I was on an episode of the Gilmore Girls. There was like, I did a lot of stuff in the music business.

And I kind of found that over time, there were diminishing returns in the music business, which because it's a very, if anybody's noticed, it's a very youth oriented culture. And so sort of as time went on and I gained more and more experience, it was like less and less successful, which to me was very irksome because I knew I was getting better and better at my craft. And so at a certain point, I was just feeling very frustrated. And it was around that time that I was, I've always been a very spiritual person. I know not everybody on this podcast is a spiritual person, but I have always been a spiritual person. And I was in a garden dedicated to the Virgin Mary.