28:1, Mark 16:1, John 20:1), after which she returned and told the Twelve (Luke 24:10, John 20:18). 27:61, Mark 16:47) and his resurrection (Matt. 27:55, Mark 15:41), and there she witnessed the Crucifixion (Matt. She had come with his traveling party to his final Passover in Jerusalem (Matt. She had money-i.e., disposable income that she could use to support Jesus and his mission.Īll four Gospels indicate that Mary was a key witness to the events of the climax of Jesus’ ministry. She is also grouped among the women who provided for Jesus and the Twelve “out of their means.” This suggests that Mary was a woman of means. This tells us that “seven demons had gone out” of Mary, so she was a former demoniac, and given the context, it was likely Jesus who cast the demons out of her, something that is explicitly stated in the longer ending of Mark (Mark 16:9). And the Twelve were with him, and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their means (8:1-3). Soon afterward went on through cities and villages, preaching and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. Luke tells us two interesting things about Mary Magdalene. The identifying thing that stuck out in the minds of the first Christian communities was that she was a Galilean from Magdala, so that’s how they referred to her. Most likely, she had no father, husband, or sons-and she certainly didn’t have any who were well known. This suggests that she didn’t have any relatives who were well known in the early Christian community, so they defaulted back to a place name. Instead of specifying which Mary we’re talking about by referring to her relatives, she gets a place designation. And if a woman didn’t have a living father, husband, or son, she might be referred to by the name of her siblings-e.g., though the Gospels never do this, you could refer to “Mary the sister of Martha and Lazarus.”īut none of these things happens for Mary Magdalene.This would happen especially if the woman was a widow and no longer had a husband. A woman who was a mother might be referred to using the name of her son or sons-e.g., “Mary the mother of Jesus” (Acts 1:14), “Mary the mother of James and Joseph” (Matt.A married woman would be referred to using her husband’s name-e.g., “Joanna the wife of Chuza” (Luke 8:3).An unmarried woman would be referred to using her father’s name-e.g., “Anna the daughter of Phanuel” (Luke 2:36). Consequently, women were commonly referred to in different ways: However, when an Israelite woman got married, she left the house of her father and became a member of her husband’s household. Women were normally named based on their relatives. Men were often referred to using a patronym-that is, their father’s name-as in “Simon son of Jonah” (Matt. This place designation is not the most common way that women were referred to in first-century Palestinian Jewish culture. She is thus being referred to by a naming convention whereby you give the person’s name and place of origin-as in “Jesus of Nazareth” (Acts 10:38) or “Jesus the Nazarene” (Matt. The specific kind of person a Magdalene represents is someone from the fishing village of Magdala, which was a mostly Gentile town of about 40,000 people on the western side of the Sea of Galilee. These would be literally translated as “Mary the Magdalene”-so a Magdalene is a kind of person. In Matthew, Mark, and John, she is referred to as Maria hê Magdalênê or Mariam hê Magdalênê. It helps if you look at the Greek behind it. They didn’t have last names in first-century Jewish society, so what does this term mean? The first thing to note is her name: Mary Magdalene.
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