Mary Magdalene is one of the most misunderstood characters in the bible.
She has been identified as other Marys, as a heinous sinner and even as a prostitute.
This idea is so widespread that it has made it into common culture in so far as it is
mentioned in TV shows such as the Simpsons…
In this video we will look at who the real Mary was and why she got this reputation.
Mary Magdalene is one of the most mentioned women in the New testament and yet not a lot
is known about her.
What is known about her is that: She is described as being liberated from 7
spirits by Jesus.
She was one of Jesus’ disciples.
We know where she comes from.
It is a common misconception that Magdalene is just her surname, but the bible actually
calls her “The Magdalene,” which identifies her with her place of birth.
Magdala means “tower” or “castle,” and in the time of Christ was a thriving,
populous town on the coast of Galilee about three miles from Capernaum.
She seems to have been a prominent figure among Jesus’ female followers (coming first
in nearly every list she is in).
She stayed to watch Jesus’ execution along with some other followers including his earthly
mother and one apostle.
She was the first person recorded to have met Jesus after his resurrection.
Important facts about Mary we don’t know include:
Her age.
If she had any family connections That is pretty much everything that is known
about Mary, so you might wonder how on earth did she get labelled a prostitute among other
things, well the answer is simple: The Roman Catholic Church.
The catholic church seemingly adopted this view of Mary during the middle ages.
In the sixth century, Pope Gregory the Great simply and wrongly connected Mary Magdalene
to the the unnamed "sinner" who washed Jesus's feet with her hair in Luke (a close reading
of Luke 7 and 8 shows that they clearly are not the same woman) and also Mary of Bethany,
who anoints Jesus with nard in the gospel of John.
In a sermon the pope used this view of Mary to illustrate how even the worst type of person
imaginable could be forgiven by Jesus, a Christian belief which could have easily been taught
using another figure.
This confusion was furthered by pope Leo who proposed that the reason the reason Mary and
the sinner found in Luke 7 where the same person is because Mary had 7 demons and the
woman appears in Luke 7.
Mary is then first mentioned in Luke chapter 8.
(a wrong view as the numbering of verses came much later than the writing and the church
does not believe the numbering to be divinely inspired).
The Catholic Church further fastened this smear upon Mary Magdalene when at Naples,
in 1324, it established its first “Magdalen House” for the rescue and maintenance of
fallen women.
Because of this unflattering views of Mary Magdalene spread into secular culture.
During the renaissance many artists and painters used this concept to inspire works of art
further imbedding the idea into the collective physic of the west.
At this point you might be wondering, “if this view is so wrong why do people still
believe it?”.
Well that’s because it was only fairly recently that this error was officially corrected.
The catholic church realising the fault, in 1969, 1,378 years after Gregory fused three
New Testament women into Mary Magdalene—and more than 450 years since scholars officially
rejected this mix up of characters—the church officially corrected the mistake.
Even so, the legend of the repentant prostitute still exercises a strong hold on public imagination.
Whatever your thoughts are on the church and Christianity, the sad part about all of this
is that this mistake denied the centuries of Christian history a strong female role
model.
As if you think about it in the eyes of the church Mary should have been quite a remarkable
woman.
She left her home to follow Jesus and travelled with the other disciples (many of which were
women), she was courageous being one of the few followers who did not flee and stayed
for the trial and crucifixion of Jesus, and while the disciples where busy locking themselves
in a room for fear of the Jewish officials she was at the tomb and is recorded to have
been the first person to meet the risen Christ.
This is especially striking as in those days in the middle east a woman’s testimony was
deemed worthless and yet she was the first person to testify about the risen saviour.
Women in the previous centuries really missed out on this thanks to the idle words of a
pope and although the teaching has been rectified today myths about Mary don’t seem to be
going away anytime soon.