In Praise of Mary Magdalene
Oh, the things that books and movies say about Mary Magdalene and Jesus. From salacious eroticism to creative conspiracy theories, audiences lap up inventive tales and tawdry gossip about the two figures. Sadly, the legend that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute began in the sixth century when Pope Gregory I conflated Mary Magdalene (Lk 8:2) with Mary of Bethany (Lk 10:39) and with the anonymous “sinful woman” who washed Jesus’s feet (Lk 7:36-50). From there you get all sorts of things like the song “I Don’t Know How To Love Him” in Jesus Christ Superstar to the fanciful fiction in Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code. The truth about Mary Magdalene is not tedious, there is much to see here, but it is hardly sensational.
For a start, Mary, probably for Miriam, was a common Jewish name for women. More disputed is the meaning of her family name “Magadalene.” It could designate the village of Magdala, derived from the Hebrew word Migdal for “tower,” located on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee as Mary’s place of origin. Alternatively, given the nicknames that many of Jesus’s followers were given by their teacher (see Mk 3:27; Mt 16:17), maybe “Magdalene” means something like “Tower,” for her towering faith and support. Speculation of course, not implausible, but we do not know for sure.
Otherwise, Mary Magadene is mentioned in two places in the Gospel of Luke, in association with Jesus’s Galilean ministry and as a witness to his resurrection.
1 Soon afterwards he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. The twelve were with him, 2 as well as some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, 3 and Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward Chuza, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their resources (Lk 8.1-3)
It is little known, but should be much noted, that Jesus was financially supported in his prophetic work by three prominent women: Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Susanna, among others. These women were most likely financially well-off if not outright affluent in the case of Joanna whose husband was Herod Antipas’ chief administrator. Concerning Mary, just as Christians kept alive the memory of key disciples and their experiences of Jesus, like Peter’s call, confession, and betrayal, so too, in the case of Mary, they remembered her exceptional exorcism.[1] Mary was a demoniac – though what that precisely means we are not told – who then joined the “Jesus movement,” remained faithful to Jesus even into his death.
1 But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they [i.e., some female disciples] came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. 2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they went in, they did not find the body. 4 While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. 5 The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, ‘Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. 6 Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, 7 that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.’ 8 Then they remembered his words, 9 and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. 10 Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles. 11 But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them (Lk 24.1-11).
Just as women are prominent in the Lucan birth and infancy narrative, so too are they prominent in the resurrection narrative. Luke is largely re-working Marcan material about the women visiting the tomb and there encountering a glorious angel who announced the resurrection of Jesus which led them to flee fearful and confused (Mk 16.1-8). However, Luke reports that these women “remembered his words” (Lk 24.8) and “they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest” (Lk 24.9). In Luke’s telling, the women, led by Mary Magdalene, were the first to connect Jesus’s death with his passion predictions, and the first to proclaim the resurrection to the apostles. This is precisely why, since Thomas Aquinas, Mary Magdalene has been known as the “apostle to the apostles.”
[1] Bovon, Luke 1, 300.