22 July is the feast day of Mary the Magdalene, whom we also call Mary of Magdala. She’s the woman who shows up in all the resurrection stories, ’cause she’s the very first person Jesus appeared to after he was raised from the dead.
John 20.11-18 NLT - 11 Mary was standing outside the tomb crying, and as she wept, she stooped and looked in. 12 She saw two white-robed angels, one sitting at the head and the other at the foot of the place where the body of Jesus had been lying. 13 “Dear woman, why are you crying?” the angels asked her.
- “Because they have taken away my Lord,” she replied, “and I don’t know where they have put him.”
- She turned to leave and saw someone standing there. It was Jesus, but she didn’t recognize him. 15 “Dear woman, why are you crying?” Jesus asked her. “Who are you looking for?”
- She thought he was the gardener. “Sir,” she said, “if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and get him.”
- 16 “Mary!” Jesus said.
- She turned to him and cried out, “Rabboni!” (which is Hebrew for “Teacher”).
- 17 “Don’t cling to me,” Jesus said, “for I haven’t yet ascended to the Father. But go find my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ”
- 18 Mary Magdalene found the disciples and told them, “I have seen the Lord!” Then she gave them his message.
Two of Jesus’s students, Simon Peter and John, had checked out the tomb, saw nothing, and left.
Should’ve; didn’t. Because nobody expected Jesus to rise from the dead before the End Times. The 11 apostles wouldn’t believe the women saw Jesus,
Every so often, I hear a Christian preacher say it was totally sexism. Often they’ll do it in a way which exposes their own sexism. I’ve heard preachers claim in Jesus’s day, women’s testimony was inadmissible because women get hysterical, irrational, and are inherently untrustworthy. (God help these preachers’ wives and daughters.)
It’s bunk, because these preachers don’t know the Law.
I’m not sure whether Paul had that idea in mind when he and Sosthenes listed 500-plus folks who saw the resurrected Jesus,
Judean courts aside, Mary was as reputable as any student, and the students should’ve believed her, if anyone. Still, this isn’t the only time Mary’s been misinterpreted due to sexism.
Who was Mary?
What do we know about Mary the Magdalene?
Well, she was called “the Magdalene” to distinguish her from all the other Marys in the New Testament. Like Jesus’s mom,
Why are there so many Marys? If they weren’t named for other Marys in their families, they were named for Moses’s sister, the prophet Miriam. (
Obviously this Mary’s from Magdala, although we can’t pin down that town on a map:
Luke introduces her like so.
Luke 8.1-3 NLT - 1 Soon afterward Jesus began a tour of the nearby towns and villages, preaching and announcing the Good News about the Kingdom of God. He took his twelve disciples with him, 2 along with some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases. Among them were Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons; 3 Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s business manager; Susanna; and many others who were contributing from their own resources to support Jesus and his disciples.
Mary was either one of Jesus’s financial backers, or otherwise did odd jobs for him out of gratitude. The gospels point out she, unlike most of Jesus’s followers, stuck with him the whole time he was crucified and killed.
Elsewhere I discussed
Yeah, there’s been a lot of unhealthy speculation about how Mary was devoted to Jesus. Popular culture wasn’t really aware of this till Dan Brown’s conspiracy-theory novel The Da Vinci Code, which introduced ’em to the theory Mary was Jesus’s wife. But let’s be clear about two things:
- If Mary was Jesus’s wife… so what? Ain’t no sin in that. Yeah, some Christians get bothered by the idea ’cause New Jerusalem is meant to be Christ’s bride.
Rv 21.2 But you do realize that’s just a metaphor, right? He’snot literally marrying a whole city of women… and men. - Thing is, there’s no evidence in the gospels, nor contemporary accounts, for any such marriage. Any apocryphal gospels which float the theory, are untrustworthy for all sorts of reasons.
Other Christian myths include a story that Mary brought a basket of eggs with her to the cross, and Jesus’s blood got on them and turned ’em red; hence Easter eggs. I don’t buy it, ’cause bodily fluids turn food ritually unclean.
Another myth is Mary was betrothed to the apostle John, went to Ephesus to live with him and Jesus’s mother, and died there. Another is she moved into a cave and lived there with angels for 30 years. For the most part, these myths get so strange and ridiculous, we can’t say with any certainty any of ’em happened.
Hopefully the rest of Mary’s life was good. But then again,
The whore myth.
Pope Gregorius 1 of Rome, or “St. Gregory the Great,” preached a series of messages we call Homiliae in Evangelia/“Homilies on the Gospels.” In September 591 he preached about the sinful woman who anointed Jesus’s feet with perfume.
We don’t know that Luke and John are sharing the same story. I’m pretty sure they’re not, ’cause of some significant differences. Namely how the woman in Luke anointed Jesus’s feet in repentance, but Mary anointed Jesus’s feet in gratitude.
But Gregory believed they’re the same story, which therefore means Mary the Bethanite was some sort of sinner whom Jesus had to forgive. And since Mary the Magdalene had seven devils in her for some reason, Gregory also concluded both Marys were the same woman.
The sinful woman in Luke: John calls her Mary. We believe her to be the Mary from whom Mark says seven demons were thrown out.
Mk 16.9 So what is meant by “seven demons”? All the vices. The week is understood as “seven days,” so the number seven rightly means “everything.” And since the seven demons had Mary, she was full of every vice. Homily 33.1
Y’might notice Gregory liked to
The seven devils were the seven vices, i.e.
Now yes, sometimes that’s how it happens. And sometimes not. Mary might’ve been a sinner; we all sin. But Mary might just as easily have gone to a pagan “physician” for help—and
Knowing human nature, it wasn’t long before the first of the deadly sins—lust—was the dominant one in people’s minds. After all, pick the worst sin someone could commit, yet not get jailed nor executed for it. Till the 1800s, that was usually prostitution. And preachers really liked the idea of a repentant whore who became a saint. Medieval artists really liked the subject matter, ’cause now they had a valid religious excuse to paint acres of whores, in various stages of nudity and fornication.
That’s why the myth spread: It’s provocative. Titillating. Lets you imagine all sorts of messed-up scenarios between Jesus the Nazarene and Mary the Magdalene, wherein she tempts him with nooky, and he valiantly resists his flesh and leads her to God.
Then there’s how Mary got mixed up with
Is there any truth to the stories about Mary’s sexual past? Well, plenty of devout people have had a not-so-devout past. Lots of pagans are promiscuous. Some of ’em even dabbled in whoring. But there’s simply no evidence Mary the Magdalene falls into this category. We have no business saying it’s who she used to be: We don’t know what she used to be, other than possessed, and Jesus freed her. Anything more is slander against a fellow Christian.
The apostle Mary.
Jesus sent Mary the Magdalene to tell his brothers he’s alive. And when Jesus sends you on a mission,
Problem is, certain Christians don’t wanna call her an apostle. Or give her any recognition, any position of honor, anything. They treat her like some groupie who couldn’t get over Jesus’s death; like the only reason Jesus appeared to her first was because she simply wouldn’t leave his tomb. They’re rather fond of the whore myth too, y’notice.
Most of it comes from sexism. They took Paul’s critique of the women who interrupted first-century church services,
Yeah, obviously I believe they’re wrong. Mary the Magdalene is a good example of why. Jesus personally sent her, with specific instructions and info, with good news, to the 11 apostles and his family. He gave her a mission. She tried to fulfill it. Good for her.
And ever since, the Holy Spirit has empowered and equipped women to minister to Christians and pagans alike, to serve Jesus, and to proclaim the good news. If your sexism gets in God’s way of spreading
Among eastern Christians, Mary is recognized as an apostle, equal to the other apostles. If Jesus sent her, that should be enough qualification for anyone. Still, for too many Christians, their sexism takes precedence even over our Lord.
