{"id":56308,"date":"2025-08-19T07:00:25","date_gmt":"2025-08-19T11:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biblicalarchaeology.org\/?p=594"},"modified":"2025-08-18T09:15:02","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T13:15:02","slug":"was-mary-magdalene-wife-of-jesus-was-mary-magdalene-a-prostitute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblicalarchaeology.org\/daily\/people-cultures-in-the-bible\/people-in-the-bible\/was-mary-magdalene-wife-of-jesus-was-mary-magdalene-a-prostitute\/","title":{"rendered":"Was Mary Magdalene Wife of Jesus? Was Mary Magdalene a Prostitute?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>

Was Mary Magdalene a prostitute? Was Mary Magdalene wife of Jesus? Her being a repentant whore was not part of the Biblical text. Pictured here is Chris Gollon\u2019s painting The Pre-penitent Magdalene. Photo: Private Collection \/ Bridgeman Art Library \/ Courtesy of IAP Fine Art.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

When novelists and screenwriters try to insert something salacious into the life of Jesus, they focus on one woman: Mary from Magdala<\/a>. Was Mary Magdalene a prostitute? Was Mary Magdalene the wife of Jesus? Birger A. Pearson addresses these popular notions in the article \u201cFrom Saint to Sinner\u201d below.<\/p>\n

As Pearson notes, there\u2019s no substantial evidence to either of these theories. As for her being named in the New Testament, none of the Gospels hints of her as being Mary Magdalene, wife of Jesus. Three Gospels name her only as a witness of his crucifixion and\/or burial. All four Gospels place her at the scene of Jesus\u2019 resurrection (though Luke does not list her as a witness). Only in the Gospel according to Luke is there even the slightest implication that she might have had a past life that could raise eyebrows and the question: Was Mary Magdalene a prostitute? Luke 8 names her among other female followers and financial supporters and says that she had been released from the power of seven demons.<\/p>\n

Theologians in later centuries consciously tried to downplay her role as an influential follower of Jesus. She became identified with the \u201csinful woman\u201d in Luke 7 whom Jesus forgives as she anoints his feet, as well as the woman \u201ctaken in adultery\u201d whom Jesus saved from stoning. In the sixth century Pope Gregory preached of her being a model penitent.<\/p>\n

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Only the Western church has said that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute. The Eastern church has always honored her as an apostle, noting her as the \u201capostle to the apostles,\u201d based on the account of the Gospel of John<\/a> which has Jesus calling her by name and telling her to give the news of his resurrection to the other disciples.<\/p>\n

As Birger A. Pearson sets forth in \u201cFrom Saint to Sinner\u201d below, a noncanonical Gospel of Mary enhances her role to a greater proportion. Her ongoing role in the early church is subject to speculation, but she is indeed getting more respect in theological circles, not for being Mary Magdalene wife of Jesus nor for being Mary Magdalene a prostitute but for being a faithful follower of her Rabboni\u2014her teacher.<\/p>\n

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