Mary Magdalene #84

Mary Magdalene was a devoted follower of Jesus, named more often in the Gospels than most of the women who travelled with him. Her surname most likely points to Magdala, a town on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. She is best known as the first witness to the resurrection of Jesus, though later legend has clouded what the Bible actually says about her.

Biblical Significance

Luke introduces her among the women who accompanied Jesus and the twelve as he preached through towns and villages. She is described as Mary called Magdalene, “out of whom went seven devils,” and she and others supported Jesus and his disciples “of their substance” (Luke 8:1-3). She stayed with him to the end. Matthew, Mark and John all place her among the women who watched the crucifixion (Mark 15:40-41; John 19:25), and she saw where Jesus was laid (Mark 15:47).

Early on the first day of the week she went to the tomb and found the stone rolled away, and she ran to tell Peter and the beloved disciple (John 20:1-2). After they left, she stayed weeping outside the tomb, saw two angels, and then met Jesus, whom she at first took for the gardener. He spoke her name, “Mary,” and she recognized him (John 20:11-16). He sent her to tell the disciples that he was ascending to his Father, and she reported, “I have seen the Lord” (John 20:17-18). Matthew also records Jesus meeting the women on the way from the tomb (Matthew 28:1-10). The longer ending of Mark names her as the first to see him (Mark 16:9), though many scholars note that this ending is missing from some of the earliest manuscripts.

Legacy

Popular tradition has often described Mary Magdalene as a repentant prostitute, but no Gospel says this. The identification came largely from a sixth-century sermon by Pope Gregory the Great, which merged her with the unnamed sinful woman of Luke 7:36-50 and with Mary of Bethany. Most modern scholars treat these as separate people, and the Catholic Church’s liturgical calendar no longer merges them.

Early Christian writers, including Hippolytus, portrayed her as a kind of apostle to the apostles because she carried the news of the resurrection to the eleven, and the Western church keeps her feast on July 22. Second and third century texts outside the New Testament, such as the Gospel of Mary, give her a prominent role, but they are late and do not shape the canonical picture. The Gospel accounts are enough to show her as a loyal, grateful disciple who was present at the cross, the tomb and the first Easter morning.