Q.
Was Mary Magdalene a prostitute?
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Magdalene, former prostitute, crying and anointing because Jesus has forgiven
her.
For that, you can thank Pope Gregory the Great. In 591 C.E., he delivered
a sermon in which he combined these many Marys with the woman of Luke 7,
and though the text intimates nothing, he contended that she was a prostitute.
Mary was one of many women who were part of the early Jesus move-
ment, perhaps even on par with Peter as an early leader. Mary also may have
been a woman of means, as Luke 8 says that the women supported the dis-
ciples fi nancially. John also contends that she had an extended conversation
with the resurrected Christ.Jim L. Robinson
A.
The idea that Mary was a prostitute is an example of a need some
people feel to decorate and embellish the scriptures, perhaps to
make them more interesting and appealing. The same license is
taken in regard to the Samaritan woman who met Jesus at Jacob’s well near
the village of Sychar (Jn. 4).
Fred Craddock recalls hearing a sermon in which the preacher said of the
woman of Sychar, “She was wearing a short skirt, slit up the side. She wore
fi shnet stockings and her feet were pushed into spike heels. Her sweater was
two sizes too small, and she was leaning on a lamp post, smoking a cigarette
in a long holder.”
Fred says, “I don’t know where he got all that; but I was thirteen, and I
was interested!”
Interested, but misled. I wonder how many ideas are fl oating around in
the church whose origin is in that kind of embellishment of the scriptures! All
the more reason to read and reread the scriptures for yourself!Scriptural References
Matthew 27:56, 61; 28:1; Mark 15:40, 47; 16:1, 9; Luke 7:36–50; 8:1–3; 24:10–11;
John 7:53—8:11; 20:1–2, 11–18; 19:25Suggested Additional Sources for Reading
- Christians for Biblical Equality: http://www.cbeinternational.org.
- Bart D. Ehrman, Peter, Paul, and Mary Magdalene: The Followers of Jesus in
History and Legend (Oxford Univ. Press, 2008). - Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, In Memory of Her (Crossroad, 1994).
- Margaret George, Mary, Called Magdalene (Penguin, 2003).