Research is on my mind these days. Last month–has it been a month already? We released Daughter of Eden, Eve’s Story and I turned in the story of Noah’s wife about a week or so later. After a lot of discussion on this one, we have a title! But I can’t share it yet. If you want to hear about it first, please sign up for my newsletter as I’ll post it there as soon as I can.
With two big projects out the door so to speak, I’ve begun research on the next one. Though once my editor reads Noah’s wife, I’ll be tuned back in to making any changes she requests. But hopefully, I can research and edit at the same time.
For my next work-in-progress series I’m moving to the New Testament to study the life of Mary Magdalene. After watching The Chosen a zillion times, this task is daunting! Normally, I don’t read or watch anything by another author on the same subject. Too late. So I’m looking into other ways to portray her life. Plausible ways that hopefully, won’t have The Chosen fans (and I’m one of them) asking me too many questions about the differences in our stories.
But the way I find those differences is research. And interpretation. It’s what allows us to have multiple stories on the same person and yet be so different. Even the gospel writers told the story of Jesus from their unique (though Holy Spirit inspired) points of view. (Biblical novels are NOT Holy Spirit inspired–or as some would say “God-breathed”.)
But back to those questions. We aren’t always going to find answers to our questions, especially on women in Scripture of whom little is known. I had the same problem in the Old Testament. And with Mary of Magdala, there is a lot of conjecture about her and misinformation that has been created over the years. But at the end of the day, we know that Mary had seven demons that Jesus cast out of her, and she was forever after His faithful follower. She was the first person who met the risen Messiah and the first missionary to tell His disciples.
But here is where research gives me fresh ideas. Magdala, where Mary was born and possibly lived, is not far from Capernaum where Jesus spent a lot of His time. Magdala used to be a fishing community, though today the Sea of Galilee’s water level has dropped so that the city is no longer close to the shore. If my source is correct, and I’ll have to check that, Magdala was known for pickling or smoking fish. It’s very possible that this is where the boy with the loaves and fish obtained his fish. Cool, yes?
The town of Magdala with its synagogue, where Jesus would have preached, and marketplace is a recent archeological find. In fact, if we’d traveled to Israel a few years later than we did, we could have seen it, but it was discovered the year after our trip there.
I couldn’t find such things when I wrote Daughter of Eden, of course, because nothing exists today that existed in the beginning. So most of my interpretation and conjecture and imagination came from various parts of Scripture that described the unseen realm or the new heaven and earth and the Garden of Eden itself. And a whole lot of figuring out what life might have been like after Eden.
Asking questions is what research is all about. It’s a good habit to embrace in all of life, even if the answers can’t always be found. Better to ask than to simply accept without any understanding. Even when it comes to our faith in God, God wants us to know Him, not just blindly believe. He’s a person not an unseen force to try to control. Ask Him your questions if you have them. I’d love to hear what you discover about Him in the asking.
~Selah
