A thread and poll by Trey of Diamonds -
Was Mary Magdalene a Prostitute? have already been covered, but I would like to revisit the topic, because, it is interesting topic. The other reason why I bringing this topic back, because I got into a debate with Kark R in another thread -
Is Judas Iscariot in heaven?
In the nutshell, the Western Roman Orthodox Church (now the Roman Catholic Church) believed that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute, despite there being no explicit or implied references in the gospels and early church traditions to identified her as a prostitute.
So the topic is about her identity...or mistaken identity, depending on how you look at it.
Other than the prostitute, Mary Magdalene has also being identified with Mary of Bethany and with other Marys that are found in the gospels.
The prostitute that she was linked with by the Catholics was the penitent sinner or the sinful woman, who washed Jesus' feet with her tears and wiped them with hair, before pouring perfume on his feet, in Luke 7:36-50.
This took place at the house of Simon the Pharisee, mostly like in a town of Galilee, because earlier in this chapter (7), two towns of Galilee were mentioned, Capernaum and Nain. In Capernaum, Jesus healed a servant of a centurion (Luke 7:1-10. In Nain, she raised a son of an unnamed widow (Luke 7:11-17).
This woman was never named in this episode (Luke 7:36-50) of the Sinful Woman.
However, there are 3 other instances (gospels), which are similar to the Sinful Woman episode, which took place in Bethany, before the Last Supper, where a woman anointed Jesus with perfume.
ONLY, in John 12:1-11, did the woman poured perfume, on Jesus' feet, like in Luke 7:36-50. AND ONLY in John 12:1-11, did the gospel identify the woman by name - Mary. This Mary was a sister of Lazarus and Martha, so this woman was usually known as Mary of Bethany. The same Lazarus, whom Jesus raised from the dead, in the previous chapter (John 11).
The other two gospels (Mark 14:1- and Matthew 26:3-13) also mentioned the anointing of Jesus in Bethany, that is slightly different to what happen in John 12. For one, Jesus was at the home of Simon the Leper, not Lazarus' home. Secondly, the woman who did anointing was never named. And lastly, and most important of all, the unnamed woman anointed Jesus' head, not his feet.
Given that Mark's gospel was written earlier than all other gospels (in the bible), and Matthew's version pretty much back up Mark's version, I would have to say the gospel of John (being the last one written) either got it wrong or deliberately change it.
This is quite understandable, considering the gospel of John had written many things that were either slightly different in details, or completely unique and found in John's. The contradictions of what happen in Bethany.
For example, no other gospels told about the death of Lazarus and being risen from the dead. Something as important as raising one from the dead, would be considered astonishing, but Mark, Matthew and Luke say absolutely nothing about it.
Anyway getting back to the point. Only John's version mentioned a woman by name, in which Jesus' feet was anointed with perfume. However, Mary of Bethany was never called a prostitute too, because it was generally accepted that what happen in Luke 7, was at a different time and different place.
In any case, Mary Magdalene have been a labelled as a prostitute for about 1400 years, because someone had identified Mary Magdalene with both Mary of Bethany and the Sinful Woman in the Western Roman Church. Before that identification, the Roman Orthodox Church had accepted that the 3 characters were 3 different women.
There are no textual evidences that state Mary Magdalene was the same person as the Sinful Woman (prostitute) or even that of Mary of Bethany. None of the early traditions of the saints had identified her (MM) with the prostitute.
So where did identification with the prostitute originate from?
It came from Pope Gregory I, in
homily XXXIII to the gospel of Luke, in 591 CE. It is because of this Pope Gregory that Catholics have accepted his assumption for about 1400 years.
It is only in the last 40 years did the Vatican have reviewed Gregory's claim, and rejected it.
The Eastern Orthodox Church had always maintain that there were 3 different women, and have never accepted the Western Church acceptance of Gregory's claim.
There are only a couple of things known about Mary Magdalene's background in the gospels apart from her being witness one of the women to Jesus' death and the 1st to see the risen Jesus. These are:
- She came from Galilee, and followed Jesus with other women also from Galilee.
- Like these other women who had exorcise demons from them, but she had 7 demons ejected.
And only 2 gospels speak about the 7 demons:
But still some people persisted that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute, because of Gregory's claim.
Gregory linked the identification of prostitute on the basis that the 7 demons, were of 7 vices (for example, 7 deadly sins), which is completely unsupported.
If demon referred to vice, like lust or prostitution, then couldn't you say that the other women who followed Jesus, like Joanna and Susanna, be considered to be prostitutes as well?
