121
Q.
Was Mary Magdalene a prostitute?
This is what we know: Mary was from the town of Magdala near the Sea
of Galilee. Jesus cast out seven demons from her. She began following him and
has the distinction of being mentioned in the Bible more often than some of
the twelve disciples.
Here’s what is questionable: Some believe Mary Magdalene was the “sin-
ful” woman who washed Jesus’ feet with her tears, wiped them with her hair,
kissed them, and poured perfume on them (Lk. 7:37–50), but the Bible never
identifi es the woman by name. Immediately after this passage, Luke mentions
Mary Magdalene (Lk. 8:2), but he mentions several other women as well and
doesn’t make a connection with the earlier passage.
Adding to the confusion have been artistic and popular representations
of Mary Magdalene as a prostitute, such as Jean Beraud’s 1891 painting, Mary
Magdalene in the House of Simon the Pharisee, the 1970 rock opera (and subse-
quent movie) Jesus Christ Superstar, and Mel Gibson’s 2004 fi lm The Passion of
the Christ.
Brandon Gilvin
A.
There is absolutely no evidence that Mary Magdalene—more
properly referred to as Mary of Magdala—was a prostitute. It’s
an old tradition that has been used for sexist ends but has no real
biblical basis.
The persistent claim that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute is rooted in a
couple of things. There are seven women named Mary in the New Testament.
These include the following:
- Jesus’ mother Mary
- Mary Magdalene (Mary of Magdala)
- The Mary with a sister named Martha in Luke 10
- Mary, the wife of Clopas, in John 19
- Mary, the mother of James and Joseph, witness of the Resurrection at the
ends of Matthew, Mark, and Luke - Mary, the mother of John Mark, in Acts 12
- The Mary that Paul refers to in Romans 16
Many traditions have amalgamated some of these Marys, especially Mary
Magdalene and Mary, the sister of Martha. It is possible that they are the same
person, but we have no way of proving that, one way or the other.
At some point, the church began to assume that a woman referred to as
“sinful” who anointed Jesus in Luke 7 was Mary Magdalene. Luke’s gospel
does not identify this woman as Mary Magdalene (though in a similar story
in John, Mary, sister of Martha anoints Jesus, but she is not referred to as
“sinful”), nor does it describe the woman’s sinfulness as sexual in any way.
However, if you are at all familiar with this story, you probably imagine Mary