Biblical Persona

Mary Magdalene (sometimes called Mary of Magdala, or simply the Magdalene or the Madeleine) was a woman who, according to the four canonical gospels, travelled with Jesus as one of his followers and was a witness to his crucifixion and resurrection. In Gnostic writings, Mary Magdalene is depicted as Jesus's closest disciple who uniquely understood his teachings, causing tension with Peter, and is honored as the "apostle to the apostles".

Historical Persona

Mary Magdalene was a prominent follower of Jesus who was was posibly from Magdala. SHe is believed to have been healed by him, supported his ministry financially, and was present at his crucifixion and burial. She played a key role among his female disciples. Overall, there is limited information about her life. Speculations about Mary Magdalene range from scholarly theories that she was the "disciple whom Jesus loved" in the Gospel of John to popular but unfounded claims, popularized by The Da Vinci Code, that she was Jesus' wife, though mainstream historians and scholars overwhelmingly reject these ideas due to lack of historical or textual evidence.

Life

It is widely accepted among secular historians that, like Jesus, Mary Magdalene was a real historical figure. Nonetheless, very little is known about her life. Unlike Paul the Apostle, Mary Magdalene left behind no known writings of her own. She was never mentioned in any of the Pauline epistles or in any of the general epistles. The earliest and most reliable sources about her life are the three Synoptic Gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke, which were all written during the first century AD.

During Jesus' ministry

Mary Magdalene's epithet Magdalene probably means that she came from Magdala, a village on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee that was primarily known in antiquity as a fishing town. Mary was, by far, the most common Jewish given name for girls and women during the first century, so it was necessary for the authors of the gospels to call her Magdalene in order to distinguish her from the other women named Mary who followed Jesus. Although the Gospel of Mark, reputed by scholars to be the earliest surviving gospel, does not mention Mary Magdalene until Jesus' crucifixion, the Gospel of Luke 8:2-3 provides a brief summary of her role during his ministry:

Because Mary is listed as one of the women who supported Jesus' ministry financially, she must have been relatively wealthy. The places where she and the other women are mentioned throughout the gospels indicate strongly that they were vital to Jesus' ministry and that Mary Magdalene always appears first, whenever she is listed in the Synoptic Gospels as a member of a group of women, indicates that she was seen as the most important out of all of them. Mary Magdalene occupies a similar position among Jesus' female followers as Simon Peter does among the male apostles.

That women played such an active and important role in Jesus' ministry was not entirely radical or even unique; inscriptions from a synagogue in Aphrodisias in Asia Minor from around the same time period reveal that many of the major donors to the synagogue were women. Jesus' ministry did bring women greater liberation than they would typically have held in mainstream Jewish society.

Significance of Mary Magdalene

The Gospel accounts show the reality of Mary Magdalene’s love for Christ and her fidelity to Him during His passion, death, and resurrection. We can be inspired by Mary Magdalene's Story of Redemption as described by the National Shrine:

Mary Magdalene's story is still one of redemption. When Jesus met her, she was possessed by seven demons - a number which, by some accounts, is thought to signify the completeness of the extent to which they had overtaken her mind. At that point in time, Mary was likely deranged, subject to fits of outburst, exhibiting an untidy, disheveled appearance.

However, though her mind was altered, this did not affect her moral condition. Her behavior may have been extremely abnormal, but it was not extremely immoral. Jesus cast out these demons from Mary, restoring her sanity and redeeming her mental state. Following his restoration of her mind, Mary began to accompany Jesus and his followers.

May the life of Mary Magdalene be an encouragement for us all to have faith that the Lord can heal our infirmities and deserves our whole-hearted loyalty.