A Case of Mistaken Identity

In my New Testament classes at Liberty University the students have to write a final paper for me, and one of the options is to do a “Character Study” on a New Testament character that figured prominently in Jesus’ life and ministry. Every term several choose Mary Magdalene. For centuries she has been one of those New Testament figures about whom much speculation has swirled. Thanks in part to fanciful theories about her relationship with Jesus (see, for example, Nikos Kazantzakis’ The Last Temptation of Christ, and Dan Brown’s The DaVinci Code), Mary of Magdala continues to command curiosity from students and scholars alike.

However, much of what we think we know about Mary Magdalene has no basis in the actual text of the New Testament itself. The name “Mary Magdalene” occurs thirty-two times in twelve verses in the Gospels (Matt. 27:56, 61; 28:1; Mark 15:40, 47; 16:1, 9; Luke 8:2; 24:10; John 19:25; 20:1, 18). Moreover, the situation is further complicated by the fact that the name “Mary” occurs 51 times in the Gospels, and it is not always possible to determine which “Mary” the text has in mind. In brief, there are three “Marys” who figure prominently in Jesus’ life, according to the Gospels: Mary, Jesus’ mother, Mary of Magdala, and Mary of Bethany. Of course, no one mistakes Mary, Jesus’ mother, for the other two Marys, but many have incorrectly assumed that Mary Magdalene and Mary of Bethany are the same person. They are not.

Mary Magdalene is a prominent Galilean woman who became a follower of Jesus. She is called “Magdalene” because she came from Magdala, a small fishing and ship-building village situated on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee at the southern end of the Plain of Gennesaret (the small, but fertile plain on the northwestern side of the Sea of Galilee near the present day kibbutz, Nof Ginosar). [Incidentally, the Sea of Galilee was referred to by locals as “Lake Gennesaret” derived from the Hebrew Kinnereth (cf. Numbers 34:11; Joshua 12:3; 13:27), which in turn comes from the Hebrew kinnor meaning “harp” or “lyre” because the Lake is harp-shaped. The name was pronounced “Gennesaret” in Greek, and the term was applied both to the Lake and the plain on its northwestern shore.] Magdala probably takes its name from the fact that it sat at the foot of the entrance to the Valley of the Wind, or as it’s sometimes called, the Valley of the Doves, because the wind whistles through the valley sounding like cooing doves. The valley is part of the natural wadi system of the Via Maris that guided caravans from Nazareth to Capernaum (see my book, Where Jesus Walked, for more information). Magdala is Greek for the Hebrew migdal which means “watch tower.” At the entrance of the Valley of the Wind (Wadi el-Hamam in Arabic) are two large natural stone towers (migdaloth) that appear to guard the entrance to the wadi. Hence, the village that lay on the Lake’s shore came to be known as Magdala.

In the New Testament, Mary of Magdala is said to have been the woman from whom seven demons had gone out (Luke 8:2). In the New Testament world where there was no notion of secondary causation of things (i.e., they had no concept that illness was caused by germs and viruses), everything was considered either to be the work of God or the work of Satan and evil spirits. Hence, demon possession was thought to be the cause of such physical maladies as leprosy, epilepsy, paralysis, and various forms of mental illness. There is, however, little if any evidence that ancients believed demons to be the cause of promiscuous and salacious behavior (that’s a modern idea). And so, the tradition that Mary was a “loose woman” before she met Christ and that He delivered her from her salacious ways is just that – a tradition that has no basis in the text of the New Testament. The tradition was, perhaps, abetted by the fact that Luke, in his Gospel, introduces Mary of Magdala immediately after his story of the woman (who was a “loose woman” according to Luke) who washed Jesus’ feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair (see Luke 7:36-50). But nowhere does Luke ever identify this woman as Mary Magdalene. Indeed, the fact that he formally introduces Mary in 8:2 probably means that he doesn’t want his readers to understand the woman of 7:36ff. as Mary Magdalene.

Then, of course, the fact that the unnamed woman of Luke 7 washes Jesus’ feet and wipes them with her hair has caused some to mistakenly associate her with the “Mary” who does something similar in John 12:1-8 (see John 11:1-2). However, John specifically identifies this woman as “Mary of Bethany,” sister of Martha and Lazarus, not Mary of Magdala. Mary Magdalene was, as I’ve already indicated, a Galilean, while this “Mary,” sister of Martha and Lazarus, was a Judean from Bethany, a small “bedroom community” on the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives. Moreover, there is no hint in the stories of Mary of Bethany in the New Testament (see also Luke 10:38-42) that she had ever been “delivered from demons.” They are clearly not the same person.

The confusion, unfortunately, continues to be perpetuated by uninformed persons who pass on the misinformation. Hence, I thought it helpful here to offer the evidence from the New Testament itself about Mary of Magdala. She’s been a victim of “identity theft” long enough.