Mary Magdalene

Mary Magdalene (or Mary of Magdala) has risen from relative obscurity to international stardom over the past few decades. This is mostly because some feminist theologians have asked questions about her significance, which were then popularised in the book and film The Da Vinci Code.

The gospels mention two Marys (other than the Virgin Mary) - Mary Magdalene and Mary of Bethany. Some in the early Christian movement thought there were good reasons to believe that these two were one and the same. After identifying the two together, they then linked this joint character with the ‘loose woman' mentioned in Luke 7.36-8:2. This was because it sounded similar to a story about Mary of Bethany in John 12.3. A number of scholars now think this was possibly a case of mistaken identity, rather than deliberate slander. There are those, however, who do still believe that the two Marys are identical and it remains an open question.

Some have claimed that the early Church undertook a propaganda campaign against Mary Magdalene, to hide the fact that she was actually the honoured wife of Jesus. However, the fact that early Christians believed Mary Magdalene to be a reformed sinner does not mean that she was looked down upon within the early Church. The early Christian writer Hippolytus, for example, spoke about her positively as the first witness to the resurrection of Jesus.

The gospel of John does suggest that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were close - after all, when she met him in the garden, Mary Magdalene wanted to give Jesus a hug (John 20.16,17). And if Mary Magdalene is the same as Mary of Bethany, then Jesus often visited the house she shared with her sister Martha and brother Lazarus (Luke 10.38-42; John 11.1-3; 12.1-3). There is no real evidence, even in the Gnostic texts, that Mary was married to Jesus.