crazysoccermom’s blog

Mary Magdalene – Prostitute or Pious?

07 Jan 2009 2 Comments

by crazysoccermom in religious ramblings Tags: bible, controversy, gossip, jesus, Mary Magdalene, prostitute, rumor, scripture, women

For quite a while, I have held the belief that the idea of Mary Magdalene being a prostitute was a wrongly held “rumor.” But recently when I was faced with a situation where I had to stand up for this belief, I decided I should do a little more research.

I first have to ask the question, “Who was Mary Magdalene?” When I Googled the name Mary Magdalene I got an astounding array of over 1.6 million options to choose from. Apparently MM, as I will refer to her, is quite a popular figure. It’s amazing that a woman who is only mentioned 13 times in the Bible now warrants so much attention.

But, here is the root of the controversy…we don’t actually know how many times she was mentioned in the Bible due to the fact that it seems that everyone in those days was naming their daughter Mary. Mary was like the Jennifer of the 1970’s, or the Brittany of the 1990’s. The name Mary is used an estimated 51 times in the New Testament, and how many of those Mary’s were actually MM is up for interpretation.

So, who are all of these women? Well, there is obviously Mary the mother of Jesus, aka The Virgin Mary; then there is Mary of Bethany the sister of Lazarus and Martha; Mary the mother of Mark and sister of Barnabas; Mary wife of Cleops; Mary the mother of James and Joses; there is a Christian in Rome named Mary; and then there was Mary Magdalene. Are you confused yet? Sometimes the Biblical writers are clear about which Mary they are speaking, but sometimes, unfortunately, they aren’t.

MM was so named because she was from the town of Magdala north of Jerusalem. We don’t know details about her age, status, or family, but based on where and when she lived, it is likely that she and her family worked in the fish markets. It is also possible that because she carried the name of her origin, and not of a husband, that MM was not married. But, the Bible does not suggest that she was married, or a widow, or a mother – we only know what it doesn’t say.

Most Biblical scholars agree that MM is clearly the Mary being referred to as a woman who followed Jesus and his apostles throughout his ministry. She and several other women supported his work of spreading the “good news” around the area of Judea. It is also clear that MM was present at the foot of the cross with Jesus’ mother Mary and the apostle John. It is also clear that she was the first to see Jesus after he had arisen from the dead. She was actually the first to preach of this amazing occurrence!

These facts alone make MM a very important person in the history of Christianity. It is easy to see why people are so drawn to her story. But, the question remains, why does she also carry such a negative stigma as a woman of the night, or to put it bluntly, a whore?

When the Mary’s identities get blurry, so does MM’s persona. MM is most often confused with two other women: Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus; and an unnamed woman form Luke 7:36-50. The controversy surrounding MM’s background all started in the 6^th century when Pope Gregory the Great made the assumption that these three ladies were one in the same. In one brief sermon, MM officially became a penitent sinner – a prostitute.

But, the question remains – was this an accurate assessment, or has MM been the victim of undeserved gossip for over 1400 years?

It was stated in Luke 8:2 that Jesus cast seven demons out of MM. But, does this cryptically refer to a life as a woman of the red light district? Did this exorcism heal her of the infliction of prostitution, or did she perhaps have a mental illness like depression or schizophrenia. Perhaps she had a physical illness, or a handicap, or a drug addiction. The fact is, we just don’t know. What we do know is that this exorcism leads MM to become a head cheerleader for Jesus’ spiritual movement.

It has also been suggested that perhaps Mary’s hometown gives her a bad rap. Magdala was referred to as a place of fornication in one Jewish text. Due to the Roman conquest, heavy taxation led many women to fall into less than noble means of employment. Perhaps this was MM’s fate – but, again, this is mere speculation. Perhaps the fact that MM was a single woman, well past the respectable marrying age, gave her a bad reputation. Rumors like this still plague our society today, unclaimed women are often labeled as either “loose” or lesbian.

MM has also incorrectly been associated with the woman in John 8:1-11 whom Jesus saves from stoning after she was identified as being an adulterer. This was a correlation made in the movie “The Passion of the Christ,” and holds no merit.

The most often used evidence for MM’s aberrant beginnings is the confusion of identities. First there is the unnamed “sinner” in Luke 7:36-38:

And, behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster box of ointment, and stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment.

Then there is Mary of Bethany, the sister of Lazarus, in John 11:1-2:

Now there was a certain man sick, named Lazarus, of Bethania, of the town of Mary and Martha her sister. And Mary was she that anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair: whose brother Lazarus was sick.

Though they both wiped Jesus’ feet with their hair and anointed him with ointment, there is no direct reference to the fact that these were the same women. And to go a step further and associate MM with these two women is even more scripturally unfounded. There is simply no hard evidence that MM was a prostitute.

That leaves me with one final question – why does it matter? Why has the issue created so much controversy and heated debate? Does it make the story of early Christianity any different? And, if there is no evidence to support it, why did Christian leaders shoulder MM with this stigma?

Regardless of whether MM was a prostitute, a drug dealer, a murderer, or just your average run-of-the-mill sinner like you and me – the fact is that Jesus forgave her. He didn’t judge her. And the fact is, you and I continue to judge her (for what she may or may not have done) 2000 years later!

When you think of MM, you probably conjure images of a voluptuous, half naked, raving redhead with a look of longing, sensuous desire on her face. The fact is, maybe this is how Satan wants us to view Jesus’ first missionary. Perhaps we have, for centuries, let Satan’s ability to spread rumors and false information get in the way of seeing MM the way that Jesus saw her.

We love labels. How many times have you referred to someone by a rumor you heard about them? There is your kid’s psycho friend, or that gay guy next door, or that slut you work with. Can you really sum up a person in one negative adjective? What if God could only know you based on one adjective. What would it be?

Maybe it’s time we stop thinking of MM as Mary Magdalene the Prostitute, and start thinking of her as Mary Magdalene, the Messenger of the greatest story ever told – Jesus’ Resurrection.