Sometimes, a backstory about a biblical character becomes so widespread that its origin is assumed biblical even though it is. The New Testament gives only one, tantalizing detail about Mary Magdalene’s life before she became one of Jesus’s disciples—namely, that seven demons had been exorcised from her. Apart from this, little can be learned about her before she encountered Jesus from the Bible itself. Nevertheless, the idea that she had been a sex worker has persisted for centuries.
When and Why Did Mary’s Backstory as a Sex Worker Arise?
That Jesus shows compassion in the Gospels toward sex workers, or others who were marginalized because of their choices, is clear enough. But none of the sex workers who encounter Jesus are named in the text. It appears that Gregory the Great, Pope of Rome in the sixth century CE, is responsible popularizing the notion that Mary Magdalene was the repentant woman who washes Jesus’s feet with her tears in the seventh chapter of Luke. But, actually, Gregory also conflated Mary of Bethany with this woman.
Mary of Bethany’s background is not mysterious or scandalous in the Gospels. But the Gospel of John records an incident in which she, like the unnamed woman in Luke, also anoints Jesus and washes his feet with her hair. The similarity between these two stories understandably led many to consider them two versions of the same incident. But, if their details are taken into account, they appear to be different episodes.
But, in a sermon he delivered at the basilica in Rome in 591, Pope Gregory conflated the two foot-washing stories, leading him to conclude that Mary of Bethany is, in fact, Mary Magdalene. And, because the woman in Luke seven is called a “sinner”—which many have interpreted as meaning she was a sex worker—Gregory concluded that Mary Magdalene had been a prostitute before repenting and becoming a disciple of Christ. This confusion gave rise to a tradition in which Mary Magdalene’s primary image is that of a repentant sinner. Yet, while repentance is always seen positively in the New Testament, the Magdalene is never portrayed as the quintessential penitent.
Mary Was a Galilean from Magdala
“Magdalene” is not Mary’s surname; it merely refers to her home town of Magdala. Like Jesus, Mary was a Galilean Jew. Magdala was a port city on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee north of Tiberias. Jesus frequented this area early in his ministry and, according to the Gospel of Luke and the appendix of Mark, he exorcised seven demons from Mary. Assuming this momentous event occurred when they first met, nothing else about her life is provided in the text about her life before Mary became one of Jesus’s students.
Typically, a town the size of Magdala would only have one synagogue, but archaeologists have uncovered two in Magdala—both of which appear to have been in use during Mary Magdalene’s lifetime. This suggests that Magdala was a traditional town that valued its Jewish identity and religion. In this regard it was probably very similar to Jesus’s hometown of Nazareth.
Mary Had Been Tormented by Demons, Which Jesus Exorcised
While the Gospels recount many of Jesus’s exorcisms, Mary’ stands out for two reasons. First, normally the exorcised person is not named. Second, normally there is either one demon involved, or a group of them whose number is not specified. Seven is a highly symbolic number throughout the Bible, and typically denotes completeness or finality. In Matthew chapter twelve, Jesus tells a parable about “seven demons,” so the number’s association with the spirit world, as well as their countability, was apparently within either the imagination or the experience of Jesus’s contemporaries. Some scholars see this number as underscoring the high level of oppression Mary had been under by her spiritual nemeses.
In any case, it is important to note that demonization is not associated in the Bible with sinfulness or exceptional moral depravity. Rather, it manifests in a range of ways, including both physical illnesses and behaviors that would be seen as psychiatric in nature today. Demonized people appear in synagogues in the Gospels, so there is no indication that people who suffered from it were ostracized, even though their symptoms often forced them to live on the margins of society. Having experienced liberation for this oppression, Mary’s attachment to Jesus may be better understood not as penitence but as gratitude and conviction that he was indeed the savior that his name proclaimed him to be.
Is Mary a “Star Disciple” in the Gospels?
While such a thing may be difficult to measure, one could argue that Mary is presented in the Gospels as an example of supreme discipleship. While the twelve men, among whom were Peter, James, and John, who studied under Jesus in a traditional student-rabbi relationship abandoned Jesus at his arrest, several women disciples followed him all the way to the cross without denying their relationship to him. One of these was Mary, Jesus’s mother. But another was Mary Magdalene.
But perhaps more importantly, according to the Gospel of John as well as the appendix to Mark, the Magdalene was selected by Jesus to be the first of his disciples to see him after his resurrection. The term “gospel” in first-century Greek usage meant simply “good news,” and was typically associated with the rise of a new monarch or emperor. But in Christian parlance, the term came to refer to the “good news” that Jesus had risen from the dead. According to New Testament tradition, Mary Magdalene was the first gospel preacher.
