Bob Dylan: Cooking Up More Mythologies (Part XVII)

An index to the full “Cooking Up More Mythologies” series appears at the end of this article.

by Larry Fyffe

Already pointed out, the influence from writers of figurative-laden tracts, that later became described as ‘Gnostic”, shows up in the Old Testament – i.e., the depiction of a masculine God with a feminine side (called ‘Wisdom’ and/or ‘Sophia’):

Say unto wisdom, "Thou art my sister"
And call understanding thy kinswoman
That they may keep thee from the strange woman
From the stranger which flattereth with her words
(Proverbs 7: 4,5)

Quite clearly the biblical verses above leave a mark on the song lyrics below:

Oh, sister, when I come to lie in your arms
You should not treat me like a stranger
Our father would not like the way that you act
And you must realize the danger
(Bod Dylan: Oh Sister ~ Dylan/Levy)

In Greek/Roman mythology, Apollo, the Sun God, has Artemis, the Moon Goddess, for a sister. In the Gnostic Gospels, while down on Earth, the Christian Messiah, has wise Mary Magdalene as His binary companion:

“The companion of the Saviour is Mary Magdalene”

(Gospel of Philip)

Much later lore asserts that Mary sails off to southern France to spread the Word after Jesus is crucified; unto other places as well.

Should the narrator in the following song lyrics be taken as Jesus Himself, Magdalene journeys to Morocco:

If you see her, say hello
She might be in Tangier
She left here in early spring
Is living there I hear

(Bob Dylan: If You See Her Say Hello)

Of course, no matter how you look at it, Jesus survives; there’s nothing to stop the two from getting back together again.

Kees deGraaf, for example, claims that the narrator in the song lyrics beneath is Jesus speaking:

I could make you happy, make your dreams come true
Nothing that I wouldn't do
Go to the ends of the Earth for you
To make you feel my love
(Bob Dylan: Make You Feel My Love)

Orthodox Christian analysts go to the ends of the Earth to downplay any suggestion that Christ’s relationship with Mary Magdalene is anything other than ‘spiritual’.

Not included in the Holy Bible, the contents of the Gnostic Gospels let loose all the angels and all the demons from Heaven and Hell.

Even Paul the Apostle’s writing has allegorical Gnostic dualities therein, but missing is a Demiurge who creates a dark material Earth:

There are also celestial bodies
And bodies terrestrial
But the glory of the celestial is one
And the glory of the terrestrial is another
There is one glory of the sun
And another glory of the moon
And another glory of the stars
(I Corinthians 15: 40, 41)

So it is said by some religious authorities that the first verse of the Holy Bible ought to be changed from “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” to read “God in the beginning created the heaven and the earth” to avoid any reversed Gnostic-like interpretation that something else exists prior to the Judeo-Christian God (i.e., that it’s Heaven and Earth who create Jehovah)

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