Who Is Mary Madalene?

Who Is Mary Magdalene?

John 20:11-18

            For the past two thousand years Mary Magdalene has been a center of conroversy.  Accused of living a less-than-honorable lifestyle, suspected of being married to the earthly Jesus, and perhaps eased out of a leadership position in the early church, she has risen above all that to be recognized as a role model for Christian discipleship.

            We know little about Mary from Scripture. 

Luke tells us (8:2) that she was one of the women who traveled with Jesus throughout Galilee after he rid her of seven demons.

Matthew (27:56) and Mark (15:40) place her with other women at the crucifixion.  She also followed the funeral procession to Gethsemane (Matthew 27:61; Mark 15:47)

All four evangelists tell us that Mary went to the tomb the first Easter morning.  She is the only one mentioned by all four.  John (20:1-10) mentions only Mary Magdalene.

How could so much controversy come from so little written evidence?

Let’s deal first with the most damning charge against her:  that she was a prostitute.  Pope Gregory the Great (540-604) decided that Mary Magdalene was also Mary of Bethany (sister of Lazarus and Martha), who figures in John’s version of the story about Jesus’ anointing.  Luke’s version (7:36-50) says the woman who anointed Jesus was a sinner.  Prostitution was the most common way for a woman to be labeled a sinner in the first century.  By combining Luke’s version with John’s, and Mary Magdalene with Mary of Bethany, Gregory decided that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute who repented, anointed Jesus, and became a follower.  He used Luke’s story about Mary’s seven devils to bolster his decision.

I read somewhere that Gregory was seeking a female success story from Jesus’ ministry and decided this was it.  In addition to making assumptions that are unwarranted he overlooked one important piece of evidence that negates his conclusion.  Mary Magdalene was from Magdala, in Galilee—that’s where she got her name.  Bethany is in Judea, near Jerusalem.  It’s difficult to believe the same woman would have been identified with two such widely separated locations.

The speculation that Jesus and Mary were married is based primarily on the fact that most Jewish men were married.  There is no proof anywhere in the gospels that Jesus and Mary were a couple.  The story goes farther.  It claims that at the time of the crucifixion Mary was pregnant.  After the ascension she was taken to southern France by Joseph of Arimathea, where she gave birth to a child (some say female, some male) who became the founder of the Merovingian line of kings.  It’s an interesting story, but more legend than fact.

The other line of speculation at least has the ring of possibility.  It states that Jesus chose Mary to be the leader of the movement after his resurrection.  After the ascension the men, led by Peter, decided they did not want a woman to be in charge, so they squeezed her out.  In opposition, we have the written record of Jesus telling Peter, “on this rock I will build my church,” and Peter’s take-charge sermon in Acts 2.  It is possible, however, that once Mary Magdalene had been pushed aside, the written record could have been adjusted in Peter’s favor.

Where does all this leave us?  Of course, everyone is free to believe what he or she wants, but none of these stories are based on fact.  They are interesting, and since we know so little about Mary, the field is open to all kinds of speculation.  Perhaps the safest route is to accept Mary for what we know her to be, a faithful follower and disciple of Jesus Christ, and the first person of either gender to announce the good news of the resurrection.