Mary Magdalene

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I have always understood that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute but I recently heard this is not the case. I read through the gospels over the past few days and I can’t see any reference to her being described as a prostitute. Can anyone tell where where in the gospels this is mentioned?
 
Isn’t John 8:1-15 talking about Mary?

If it is, it says she committed adultery (8:4).

And in Mark 16:9 it says Jesus casted 7 demons out of her.
 
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thistle:
I have always understood that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute but I recently heard this is not the case. I read through the gospels over the past few days and I can’t see any reference to her being described as a prostitute. Can anyone tell where where in the gospels this is mentioned?
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It isn’t. Mary M (John 12:1-7) was lumped together with the woman who did as she did by anointing Jesus with precious ointment in Mark 14:3-9. Since 7 demons were driven from Mary M (Luke 8:2) some of the Early Church Fathers thought that she probably was a prostitute. However, the Gospels don’t make it clear, so no one really knows for sure except Mary M, the other woman (if there was one), and God.
 
John 8:1-15 makes no mention of a name. He simply talks about a woman. It could be any woman.

Mark 16:9 indeed does talk about having driven out 7 demons from Mary Magdalene but how does that imply she was a prostitute.

I don’t think there is anything in scriptures about her being a prostitute.
 
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Laud_God:
Isn’t John 8:1-15 talking about Mary?

If it is, it says she committed adultery (8:4).

And in Mark 16:9 it says Jesus casted 7 demons out of her.
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The woman taken in adultery is unnamed, so we cannot know if she was Mary M or not. Mel Gibson used that scenario and with some justification since some of the ECFs thought MM was probably the woman of John 8:1-15. I don’t agree with that, though because John tells the story of Mary M and her sister Martha receiving Jesus into their home after the raising up of Lazarus. If MM had been the woman taken in adultery, I think John would have said so there, but he makes no mention of that in John 12. And, having 7 demons does not necessarily indicate a life of debauchery, although I can see how many might equate the two.
 
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thistle:
John 8:1-15 makes no mention of a name. He simply talks about a woman. It could be any woman.
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I’m just saying, that’s how I was brought up thinking.

Since your looking for a direct statement saying “Mary was a prostitute” you won’t find one.
👍
 
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Laud_God:
I’m just saying, that’s how I was brought up thinking.

Since your looking for a direct statement saying “Mary was a prostitute” you won’t find one.
👍/QUOTE

I too was brought up thinking the same as you. Its only now that I’ve gone throught the gospels with a fine toothcomb that I couldn’t find anything about it.
Even recently on EWTN a priest mentioned she was a prostitute but this is obviously not correct, at least as far as the scriptures are concerned.
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Della:
The woman taken in adultery is unnamed, so we cannot know if she was Mary M or not. Mel Gibson used that scenario and with some justification since some of the ECFs thought MM was probably the woman of John 8:1-15. I don’t agree with that, though because John tells the story of Mary M and her sister Martha receiving Jesus into their home after the raising up of Lazarus. If MM had been the woman taken in adultery, I think John would have said so there, but he makes no mention of that in John 12. And, having 7 demons does not necessarily indicate a life of debauchery, although I can see how many might equate the two.
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Mary of Bethany (Martha’s sister) is not Mary of Magdala.

Scripture is completely silent on whether Mary Magdalene was a prostitute.
 
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thistle:
John 8:1-15 makes no mention of a name. He simply talks about a woman. It could be any woman.

Mark 16:9 indeed does talk about having driven out 7 demons from Mary Magdalene but how does that imply she was a prostitute.

I don’t think there is anything in scriptures about her being a prostitute.
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It was an early tradition (small t).
 
Thanks Fidelis. Its a really interesting article by Father Saunders. I’m not actually convinced by the arguments because for me the evidence is not even circumstantial. I also didn’t know that there was a view that Mary of Bethany and Mary Magdalene might be the same person. Do you know if Father Saunder’s arguments are those of Pope Gregory the Great or is he putting forward what he thinks might have been Pope Gregory’s arguments. Is it an actual teaching of the Church (i.e. we have to accept it) that Mary Magdalen was a prostitute?
Personally it doesn’t matter to me if she was or was not.
As a Catholic I also reject the anti-catholic and totally untrue assertions that she was the wife of Jesus and movies like the da Vinci code should be banned as blasphemous!
 
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thistle:
I also didn’t know that there was a view that Mary of Bethany and Mary Magdalene might be the same person. Do you know if Father Saunder’s arguments are those of Pope Gregory the Great or is he putting forward what he thinks might have been Pope Gregory’s arguments.
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I believe that is substantially Pope Gregory’s argument. If I remember correctly, there is an extended treatment about this in a chapter about Mary Magdalene in the book “The DaVinci Hoax.”
carl-olson.com/abouttdvc.html
 
Let’s face it back then a woman did not have much calling other than a few jobs-and all of them probably in service to a man in one way or another.
 
I never noticed in any part of the Holy Scripture that describes Mary Magdalena as a prostitute.:hmmm: I think this myth was made up.🤓
 
Remember when we “little people” of the congregation were not thought intellegent enough to be given ALL the facts, but wee expected to just follow blindly to what we were told? I think part of this comes from that system. Now that we all have our own Bibles and study guides we are learning the subtle differences. Mary was such a common name, there may have been many! I believe what is important is the story and ow it relates our lives to Christ and in turn how that plays out in our lives’ devotion to HIM.
 
May the Lord spare us from cultural Catholicism. Presuming that Hebrew women did not have many opportunities outside of prostitution is to ignore the many financiers and organizers mentioned in the New Testament who were female. One might say the early producers of Christianity were women.

Gnosticism’s exaltation of the divine feminine has proven to be destructive to woman’s freedom. Freemasonry-Gnosticism has relied on casting Mary Magdalene as a prostitute who became the wife of Christ. Gnosticism, as shown in the Gnostic “Gospels” has great disdain for women, and a homosexual bent. DaVinci himself was arrested for pederasty though never convicted for lack of witnesses, and showed evidence in his paintings of following a heretical, vegetarian Johannite cult exalting John the Baptist over Christ.

There are no secret marriages and have not been in the multi-thousand year old tradition of marriage. Marriage is a public witness. More dangerously, there are no genetic Christians, Merovingians or otherwise, who will rule over us in Christ’s stead. Peter rules as holder of the Keys to the Kingdom.

Christ was so disdainful of of genetic, religious and social affinity groups (like today’s cultural Catholicism promotes with, for example, AmChurch Democrats support of anti-Catholic positions like abortion and gay “marriage”) His response to His own question of who His mother and brothers are is to say it is those who “hear and obey.”
 
It’s like the tradition that it was Mary Magdalene who anointed Jesus (she is generally shown in pictures as holding a pot of ointment), but there is nothing in the Gospels to make this connection. There are a lot of these “traditions” (small t) in Catholicism. Some of them may have a basis in history but most are just pious fantasies in my opinion.
 
i’ve been thinking about this a lot because i like the name Magdaline “maggie” for a girl but wouldn’t want her to be associated with the Mary Magdaline was a prostitue idea. do you think people would think that?
 
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spacecadet:
i’ve been thinking about this a lot because i like the name Magdaline “maggie” for a girl but wouldn’t want her to be associated with the Mary Magdaline was a prostitue idea. do you think people would think that?
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Nobody would make that connection. But as a point of personal privilege, I would recommend spelling the name the usual way: Magdalene.

Madeline (Madelaine etc.) is the more usual form of this name but Magdalene would be nifty. She is associated with love and penance and has been credited as the first preacher of the Gospel because she ran to tell the disciples that she had “seen the Lord.” She is the patroness of the Order of Preachers (Dominicans.)
 
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