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Through the recording of Christ’s earthly ministry, the gospel writers reveal many people whom our Savior interacted with. Some are present for a moment in the story, while others pop up several times throughout those few years. One familiar character is Mary Magdalene, the first person to see Jesus Christ after His glorious resurrection.
When we talk about Mary Magdalene, we like to mention that she was a prostitute. But is that what God’s word tells us about her, or is it an assumption we make? And if the Bible doesn’t call her a prostitute, how did we start doing it?
A Mary amongst many
If you’re writing fiction, there’s one clear rule that must be followed: your readers need to be able to keep track of your main characters. Skilled authors have many ways to do this, but one of the easiest ways is to give characters unique names. Without that, it’s easy for readers to get confused about which character is doing what.
However, because the Bible is recorded history and not a fabricated story, our characters aren’t always clearly defined by their names. We see several instances of this throughout the Bible.
We have the much-despised Judas Iscariot, but John 14:22 talks about Judas (not Iscariot), who was Christ’s half-brother and wrote the short letter of Jude.
We have John acting as a forerunner for the King of Kings and being beheaded in Matthew 14:1-11, likely in 28 AD. However, 60 years later, we start getting the Gospel of John, 1-3 John, and Revelation. A completely different John writes these, often distinguished as John the Apostle (rather than John the Baptist).
These repeated names are good evidence that the Bible records actual history, but they can certainly leave us confused.
Then we have Mary, yet another common name at the time. We are all familiar with Mary, the mother of Jesus. There’s also Mary of Bethany, sister of Martha and Lazarus in Luke 10:38–42 and John 11:1. Then we have Mary Magdalene specifically named in a few places.
We first meet her as a traveling companion who was healed from demons:
Soon afterward he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with him, and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s household manager, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their means. (Luke 8:1-3)
She supported Christ’s ministry, likely financially:
There were also many women there, looking on from a distance, who had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to him, among whom were Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joseph and the mother of the sons of Zebedee. (Matthew 27:55-56)
She was also present as her Savior died on the cross for the sin of the world:
But standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. (John 19:25)
John 20:1-18 tells us Mary Magdalene went to the tomb, was surprised to see Christ resurrected, and reported it to the disciples:
Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb…Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher)…. Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”—and that he had said these things to her. (John 20:1, 16, 18)
That’s all we see of Mary Magdalene in the gospel accounts. None of these indicate that she’s a prostitute, but what about that one story of Mary Magdalene we all think about?
Is she that sinful woman?
We assume that Mary Magdalene is the same woman we see in another part of Christ’s ministry, recorded in Luke 7:36-50:
And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment. Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner.” … Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.” (Luke 7:37-39, 47)
A “woman of the city” and “what sort of woman this is” tell us this unnamed woman wasn’t just a regular sinner, but a prostitute. This entire scene was certainly scandalous to the Pharisees in the room, who believed they should be unstained from such deplorable sinners.
However, notice there’s nothing here tying this woman to Mary Magdalene, let alone anyone named Mary. It’s certainly possible that a woman who had seven demons had either turned to prostitution because of the demons, or was an easy vessel for demons because she was already a prostitute. However, nothing in the text encourages us to link this prostitute with Mary Magdalene.
So it’s clear that God’s word doesn’t portray Mary Magdalene as anything more than a woman who was demon-possessed and then became a follower of Christ. So why do we always call this woman a prostitute when the Bible doesn’t?
Thanks, Pope
The earliest record we seem to have of Mary Magdalene being officially linked to this prostitute (and Mary of Bethany) comes from Pope Gregory I in the late 6th century. During one particular sermon named “Homily 33,” Pope Gregory I declared that Mary Magdalene was officially the unidentified prostitute in Luke 7 who washed Christ’s feet:
“We believe that this woman [Mary Magdalen] is Luke’s female sinner, the woman John calls Mary, and that Mary from whom Mark says seven demons were cast out.” (from Homiliarum in Evangelia, Latin translation found on ArtHistory.net)
From there, it’s a matter of time and tradition that the assumption of the Catholic church would find itself becoming part of even our Protestant tradition.
How?
I’ve written at considerable length about how we went from the Apostles to the Catholic church, and after many centuries we eventually find ourselves where we are today as Protestants. Understanding church history makes it unsurprising that a 6th-century teaching from a pope could eventually find its way to our modern beliefs. However, here’s a quick summary of how it likely happened:
The church spent nearly 1,000 years teaching that Mary Magdalene encompassed every non-Virgin Mary in the Bible, also identifying her as the unnamed prostitute who washed Christ’s feet. When men like Martin Luther broke from the Roman Catholic Church, they had a lot of unbiblical teachings and assumptions to correct. The identity of Mary Magdalene throughout Scripture was likely very low on their list of priorities.
Over time, the church kept having more and more doctrinal issues to iron out for the health and safety of the church and believers around the world. Again, what we assume about a minor character in the gospels will be a low priority for people with limited time and means of writing or debating various aspects of God’s word.
And that’s where we find ourselves today. “Mary Magdalene the Prostitute” has been so ingrained in our church culture and tradition that we automatically fill in her name when talking about the unnamed prostitute who washed her Savior’s feet. When her name appears in Scripture, we mentally or verbally mention that she was a former prostitute.
This tradition has been repeated so often, by so many different sources, that we all just assume it’s a fact. However, if we’re staying true to God’s word, we realize that it’s unlikely these are the same women. It’s a tradition that dates back to one sermon from a pope that, unfortunately, became an assumed part of Scripture.
So what?
Like Martin Luther and other Christians throughout history, I recognize that the identity of Mary Magdalene isn’t something that will divide Christ’s followers. It’s not something we should use to feel superior if a friend, author, or pastor calls Mary Magdalene a prostitute.
However, I hope this has demonstrated how easily we can read our assumptions and presuppositions into the text. It’s challenging to separate what we’ve heard from what God’s word says. We see how easily a human teaching repeats enough that, over time, it becomes an undeniable part of God’s perfect word.
This article has focused on Mary Magdalene. However, I hope it calls us to always be diligent in our study and never be satisfied with taking someone else’s word about what God has revealed. Sometimes we have no choice but to take a teacher’s word for now, but we must be careful not to keep repeating a human tradition and presenting it as timeless, biblical truth.
Sometimes that tradition is accurate, and sometimes it makes us spend over 1,000 years falsely accusing another Christian of being a prostitute.
