Who was Mary Magdalene?

Bible People & HistoryIn theological review

The short answer

Mary Magdalene was a follower of Jesus from Magdala in Galilee, delivered by him from seven demons, who supported his ministry, watched his crucifixion and became the first witness of the empty tomb and the risen Jesus. The Bible never calls her a prostitute: that identification came centuries later from a sermon tradition in the Western church, not from the text.

The fuller answer

Mary Magdalene is named for Magdala, a fishing town on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. Luke introduces her among the women who travelled with Jesus and the Twelve and supported the ministry from their own means. Luke says seven demons had come out of her, which tells us Jesus had freed her from severe spiritual oppression. Nothing in any Gospel calls her a prostitute, an adulteress or the sinful woman who anointed Jesus in Luke 7. Those women are not named as Mary, and the Gospels keep them distinct from her.

as well as some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out,

Luke 8:2 (BSB)

The idea that Mary Magdalene was a reformed prostitute has a traceable history. In a sermon preached in 591, Pope Gregory the Great identified Mary Magdalene with the unnamed sinful woman of Luke 7 and with Mary of Bethany, the sister of Lazarus, treating three different women as one person. That conflation shaped Western preaching, art and popular imagination for well over a thousand years. The Eastern church never made that identification and always honoured the three women separately. In the Bible itself, Mary of Bethany and Mary Magdalene appear in different places and different company, and no text merges them.

He is not here; He has risen, just as He said! Come, see the place where He lay.

Matthew 28:6 (BSB)

What the Gospels do say about Mary Magdalene is remarkable without any additions. She followed Jesus from Galilee, she was present at the crucifixion when most of the male disciples had fled, and she watched where his body was laid. Early on the Sunday morning she came to the tomb with other women and found the stone rolled away. In John's account she stayed weeping when others had gone home, spoke with the risen Jesus, mistaking him at first for the gardener, and recognised him when he spoke her name.

Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them what He had said to her.

John 20:18 (BSB)

Jesus then sent Mary to tell the disciples that he had risen, and she went and announced it to them. Because she carried the resurrection news to the apostles themselves, later Christian writers gave her the honouring title apostle to the apostles. Her story needs no borrowed past to be powerful. A woman delivered from darkness became a loyal follower in life, a brave witness at the cross, and the first herald of the resurrection. Popular books and films that make her Jesus's wife or a fallen woman rescued from prostitution are working from later legend, not from the four Gospels.

Sources

Berean Standard Bible (BSB)
Gregory the Great, Homily 33

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Who was Mary, the mother of Jesus?Mary was a young Jewish woman from Nazareth in Galilee whom God chose to be the mother of Jesus. Luke 1 and 2 tell how the angel Gabriel announced the conception by the Holy Spirit, how she believed and submitted to God's word, gave birth in Bethlehem, raised Jesus, stood at his cross and prayed with the first disciples after his resurrection.Was Jesus married?There is no evidence that Jesus was married. The Gospels name his mother, brothers, sisters, friends and even women who funded his ministry, yet never mention a wife, and neither do Josephus or the earliest Christian writers. Modern claims rest on late, fragmentary texts and fiction, not on the first century record.Who was Peter?Peter, first called Simon, was a Galilean fisherman whom Jesus called to follow him, and he became the most prominent of the twelve apostles. He confessed Jesus as the Christ, walked briefly on water, denied Jesus three times on the night of the trial, was restored by the risen Jesus, preached at Pentecost and led the early church in Jerusalem, while still being a man who could fail publicly and be corrected.Was Jesus a real person?Yes. Whatever a person concludes about his claims, the historical existence of Jesus of Nazareth is confirmed by sources outside the Bible, including one that hated his followers. The Roman historian Tacitus records that Christus suffered the death penalty under Pontius Pilate in the reign of Tiberius, and the Jewish historian Josephus wrote about him within the same century. The debate worth having is not whether he lived, but who he was.Bible Character: Mary MagdaleneThe woman delivered from seven demons, who followed Jesus from Galilee and supported his ministry, watched at the cross and the burial, and was the first to see him risen and to carry the news.Bible Character: JesusThe Son of God, born of Mary in Bethlehem, who preached the kingdom of God, was crucified for our sins according to the Scriptures, and was raised on the third day.Bible Character: PeterThe Galilean fisherman who confessed Jesus as the Christ, denied him three times on the night he was betrayed, was restored by the risen Lord, and preached at Pentecost.