{"id":3761,"date":"2013-03-28T11:46:22","date_gmt":"2013-03-28T18:46:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/?p=3761"},"modified":"2013-03-28T11:47:05","modified_gmt":"2013-03-28T18:47:05","slug":"umns-mary-magdalene-apostle-or-harlot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/umns-mary-magdalene-apostle-or-harlot\/","title":{"rendered":"UMNS: Mary Magdalene: Apostle or harlot?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cChrist\u2019s Appearance to Mary Magdalene after the Resurrection\u201d is a painting by Alexander Ivanov from 1835. A web-only photo from Wikimedia Commons.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

A UMNS Feature by Heather Hahn*<\/strong><\/p>\n

You\u2019ve got to feel bad for Mary Magdalene.<\/p>\n

Sure, she has fame many of today\u2019s celebrities would envy. She\u2019s played a leading role in works ranging from Renaissance paintings to just about every Passion play and movie made about Jesus\u2019 life. But all that stardom has come with a price.<\/p>\n

Few other followers of Jesus have been saddled with such a notorious reputation. She\u2019s the reformed harlot who is the polar opposite of the Virgin Mary. Or, thanks to the best-selling thriller \u201cThe Da Vinci Code,\u201d she\u2019s seen as Jesus\u2019 secret love interest. If she were a celebrity today, she would get salacious headlines on TMZ and an unflattering photo on the cover of US Weekly.<\/p>\n

Lost in all the speculation about her love life is the biblical record. The New Testament never identifies her as a prostitute, former or otherwise, and certainly not as Jesus\u2019 would-be girlfriend.<\/p>\n

The Bible shows Mary Magdalene as an important disciple of Jesus \u2014 the one witness to the Crucifixion and Resurrection identified in all four canonical Gospels. In three Gospels, she encounters the risen Christ. In the Gospel of John, she is the first person to testify to the good news that Christ has conquered death.<\/p>\n

This Easter Sunday<\/a>, United Methodists and other Christians around the world will hear that account in John 20:1-18. The passage features Mary Magdalene\u2019s tearful conversation with a man she first mistakes for a gardener but ultimately recognizes as the risen Savior.<\/p>\n

The Rev. Sanford \u201cSandy\u201d Brown, senior pastor of First United Methodist Church in Seattle<\/a>, is among the clergy who plan to preach on these verses from the lectionary.<\/p>\n

Brown said it\u2019s significant that the four Gospels agree that women remained with Jesus during the Crucifixion and that women \u2014 particularly Mary Magdalene \u2014 discovered the empty tomb. Given women\u2019s often debased place in first-century society, Brown said, these accounts tell Christians something important about Jesus\u2019 ministry.<\/p>\n

The women \u201cwent to the tomb in love and service to Jesus\u2019 remains and memory,\u201d he said. \u201cThe one who serves is the one who receives the greatest joy. The humble is the one who is exalted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Magdalene in the Bible<\/h3>\n

The New Testament offers few clues as to Mary Magdalene\u2019s background before she followed Jesus. Many scholars speculate that her last name refers to Magdala, a fishing village in Galilee where she might have grown up.<\/p>\n

The Gospels of Luke and Mark identify her as a woman Jesus healed of seven demons, though neither specifies the nature of these unclean spirits. What the first-century world labeled demons could refer to sinfulness or what we would consider physical and mental infirmities today.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A \u201cPenitent Magdalene\u201d is depicted by 17th century painter Nicholas R\u00e9gnier.
A web-only photo from Wikimedia Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Luke first introduces Mary Magdalene with a group of women who support Jesus\u2019 ministry \u201cout of their resources.\u201d But in the previous chapter, Luke tells the story of an unnamed penitent woman with an alabaster jar who anoints Christ\u2019s feet with perfumed oil and wets them with her tears. That seems to be the start of the confusion.<\/p>\n

The Bible does not say what happened to Mary Magdalene after Jesus\u2019 Ascension. She is not named in Paul\u2019s letters or in the Acts of the Apostles, the sequel to the Gospel of Luke.<\/p>\n

Ann Graham Brock, affiliate professor of New Testament at United Methodist-related Iliff School of Theology in Denver, argues in her book \u201cMary Magdalene, The First Apostle: The Struggle for Authority\u201d that the greater the emphasis on Peter\u2019s role in a text, the more diminished Mary Magdalene\u2019s role tended to be. That\u2019s especially evident in Luke and Acts, where Peter is featured prominently.<\/p>\n

However, more than a century after Jesus\u2019 time, Mary Magdalene remained a popular role model of discipleship in extra-canonical texts such as the Gospel of Philip and Gospel of Mary.<\/p>\n

By the third century, Brock writes, some early Christians had given Mary Magdalene the honorific \u201capostle to the apostles.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mary Magdalene was likely the \u201cforemost of Jesus\u2019 women disciples,\u201d Brock told United Methodist News Service.<\/p>\n

Still, as the church grew and became more established, women leaders were sidelined and that included the women named among Jesus\u2019 earliest followers.<\/p>\n

Magdalene and the pope<\/h3>\n

\u201cI always say it was the church hierarchy that drove Mary Magdalene to prostitution,\u201d said Mark A. Chancey, professor of religious studies at United Methodist-related Southern Methodist University in Dallas and co-author of \u201cAlexander to Constantine: Archaeology of the Land of the Bible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDriving her to prostitution fits in the context of putting women in their place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Credit Pope Gregory the Great with fusing Mary Magdalene, Mary of Bethany, the sister of Martha and Lazarus and Luke\u2019s sinful woman in the popular imagination.<\/p>\n

In a sermon delivered in A.D. 591, the pope gave the Roman Catholic Church\u2019s official sanction to the view that Mary Magdalene was the promiscuous woman with the alabaster jar whom Jesus redeemed.<\/p>\n

Mary of Bethany ended up in the mix because in John\u2019s Gospel, she anoints Christ\u2019s feet before the Passion.<\/p>\n

The sermon transformed Mary Magdalene into the bad girl of the Gospels, and his interpretation prevailed in Western Christianity for nearly 1,400 years.<\/p>\n

Magdalene in art<\/h3>\n

That was especially apparent in religious art. Throughout the Middle Ages, miracle plays and pictures frequently showed Magdalene as weeping for her sins. Because of these tearful depictions, the English contraction of Magdalene\u2019s name \u2014 \u201cmaudlin\u201d \u2014 soon took on the connotation of effusive sentimentality.<\/p>\n

[toggle title=”Learn more”]Women of the Bible and supplementary material<\/a>\u00a0by the Rev. James A. Harnish
\n\u201cMary Magdalene, The First Apostle: The Struggle for Authority\u201d<\/a>\u00a0by Ann Graham Brock
\n\u201cMary Magdalen: The Essential History<\/a>\u201d by Susan Haskins
\nLectures by Joan Baldridge, contact\u00a0joanbaldridge@hotmail.com
\n<\/a>Common English Bible<\/a><\/em>
\n[\/toggle]<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, other legends developed about Mary Magdalene\u2019s life after the Ascension. One common story is that she sailed away with Martha and Lazarus and spent the rest of her life in a cave repenting of her decadent life. As the years passed, the story went, her clothes dwindled into rags and she had nothing to cover her but her long, curly hair.<\/p>\n

This image of the later penitent and mostly naked Magdalene proved a popular one with artists such as Renaissance painter Titian.<\/p>\n

Joan Baldridge, an art historian in Little Rock, Ark., said this image of Mary Magdalene gave artists an excuse to paint a sexy \u201cpinup.\u201d She became sort of the Marilyn Monroe of the 16th century.<\/p>\n

In 1969, the Roman Catholic Church officially separated Luke\u2019s sinful woman, Mary of Bethany and Mary Magdalene into three distinct women during a revision of its missal \u2014 the book containing the services of Mass throughout the year.<\/p>\n

But the change has been slow filtering into the pews and into popular culture. As recently as Mel Gibson\u2019s \u201cThe Passion of the Christ\u201d in 2004, Magdalene was still shown as an ex-prostitute.<\/p>\n

Baldridge, an Episcopalian, did her master\u2019s thesis at New York University on Mary Magdalene and the depictions of her in art. In recent years, she has given lectures on Magdalene around the country to churches, art groups and a university religion class.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe that Mary Magdalene is being done a tremendous disservice by the unrelenting myth of her as a reformed prostitute,\u201d Baldridge said. \u201cEven the idea that she had a romantic relationship with Jesus undermines her and implies that is the only reason she was close to Jesus.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rehabilitating Magdalene<\/h3>\n

Instead, Baldridge sees Magdalene as a spiritual inspiration.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe is more prominent in these signal events that we mark at Eastertide than the Virgin Mary or the 12 disciples,\u201d she said. \u201cThe sheer volume of her presence in these accounts is significant. To me, an accurate portrayal of her would be as one of those closest to Christ \u2014 one who, perhaps, understood his teachings better than anyone else around him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like Baldridge, a number of United Methodist scholars and clergy are trying to rehabilitate Mary Magdalene\u2019s reputation.<\/p>\n

Among them is the Rev. James A. Harnish, senior pastor of Hyde Park United Methodist Church<\/a> in Tampa, Fla. Harnish\u2019s study Women of the Bible<\/a> \u2014 part of Abingdon Press\u2019 Converge Bible studies \u2014 gives particular attention to Magdalene.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the reasons Mary is so fascinating is that there are so many ways we can find ourselves in her story,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Her example teaches Christians today, Harnish said, that \u201cextravagant faithfulness grows out of an extravagant awareness of the extravagant love and grace of God in Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

*Hahn is a multimedia news reporter for United Methodist News Service.<\/em><\/p>\n

News media contact: Heather Hahn, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cChrist\u2019s Appearance to Mary Magdalene after the Resurrection\u201d is a painting by Alexander Ivanov from 1835. A web-only photo from Wikimedia Commons. A UMNS Feature by Heather Hahn* You\u2019ve got to feel bad for Mary Magdalene. Sure, she has fame many of today\u2019s celebrities would envy. She\u2019s played a leading role in works ranging from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":3762,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3761","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/mm-umns1.jpeg?fit=636%2C480&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2l75j-YF","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3761"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3761\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3770,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3761\/revisions\/3770"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}