How Mary Magdalene became a prostitute: the making of a Christian myth
The name Magdalene has come down to us as synonymous with ‘fallen woman’, but was Mary Magdalene really the penitent prostitute of popular Christian culture?
Mary Magdalene is one of Christianity’s best-known saints. She is one of the few women named in the gospels, and in terms of recognition, comes second only to the Virgin Mary. To most Christians she is one of Jesus’ most devoted disciples, a penitent prostitute who, nonetheless, was so close to Jesus that she was the first person he revealed himself to after his resurrection.
Her name has become synonymous with ‘fallen woman’, and her moral rehabilitation has been used as a rationale for how Christians treat women they consider sinners. Perhaps the most notorious example is the Magdalene Laundries, institutions in Ireland, the UK and Australia where women forced into prostitution, young women impregnated out of wedlock and girls considered promiscuous or in ‘moral danger’ were incarcerated and forced to do unpaid labour under harsh conditions.
In classical art, Mary Magdalene has been portrayed as a half-naked hermit, living out her life in solitary prayer and penitence in the wilderness. More recently she has become an iconic figure in popular culture — the prostitute in love with a saintly Jesus in the rock opera Jesus Christ: Superstar or his wife and mother of his child, in fact, the Holy Grail itself, in Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code.
However, we must ask ourselves where this characterisation of Mary Magdalene comes from as this is not how she is portrayed in the gospels.
Mary Magdalene in the gospels
Despite her cultural significance, while Mary Magdalene appears in all four gospels, she does not have a major role. In fact, while we are told she is one of a group of women who follow Jesus throughout his ministry, albeit whose names and identities vary from one gospel to the other, she plays no part in the action until the crucifixion narrative.
In the Gospel of Mark, we first see Mary Magdalene when Jesus is dying on the cross.
Some women were watching from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joseph, and Salome. In Galilee these women had followed him and cared for his needs. Many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem were also there. [Mark 15:40–41]
In the Gospel of Matthew, Mary Magdalene is also watching from afar:
Many women were there, watching from a distance. They had followed Jesus from Galilee to care for his needs. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of Zebedee’s sons. [Matthew 27:55–56]
Meanwhile, in the Gospel of John, rather than watching from the distance, Mary Magdalene stands at the very foot of the cross:
Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. [John 19:25]
Luke introduces Mary Magdalene and the other women earlier in the narrative when they would have started to follow Jesus. He elaborates on Mark and Matthew’s characterisation of them, inferring from the fact that they were able to leave their homes and follow Jesus that they must be women of independent means. He also gives them motives for their devotion to him.
After this, Jesus travelled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him, and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; Joanna the wife of Chuza, the manager of Herod’s household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means. [Luke 8:1–3]
In effect this is the only direct reference in the gospels to Mary Magdalene’s possible sinfulness. However, given the context, Luke most likely meant Mary’s demons to be understood as a physical affliction — what we might recognise as mental illness — and not as an aspersion on her moral character. (A reference to the seven demons in Mark 16:9 can be disregarded, as the last section of that gospel, verses 16:9–20, are considered by most biblical scholars to be a later addition to the text cribbed from the gospels of Matthew and Luke.)
Mary Magdalene and the other women also play intrinsic roles in the resurrection narratives. However, once again, who the women are, what they do and the part Mary Magdalene plays in these events, differ from gospel to gospel.
In the Gospel of Mark, Mary Magdalene is present when Jesus is buried and is among the women who go to his tomb and are told of his resurrection.
Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joseph saw where he was laid… When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body… As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side… ‘Don’t be alarmed,’ he said. ‘You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here.’ Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid. [Mark 15:47 and 16:1–8]
In Matthew, Mary Magdalene is one of the women who see Jesus after his resurrection. When Joseph of Arimathea closes Jesus’ tomb:
Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting there opposite the tomb… After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb… Suddenly Jesus met them. ‘Greetings,’ he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. [Matthew 27:61 and 28:1–9]
In Luke, Mary Magdalene and the other women see the angel, but not Jesus, nor do the male disciples believe their report.
The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it. Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes… On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb… When they came back from the tomb [after seeing the angels], they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. But they did not believe the women… [Luke 23:55–56, and 24:1–11]
However, it is only in the Gospel of John, that Mary Magdalene is singled out to be the first disciple to see Jesus after his resurrection, though at first she doesn’t recognise him.
Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance… Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept… she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. [John 20:1–14]
So, as we can see, there is no indication in the gospels that Mary Magdalene is anything other than a respectable woman, a devoted disciple of Jesus who has left a comfortable home to follow him. How then did she become the prostitute of popular culture?
Mary Magdalene and the Catholic Church
The earliest documented reference to Mary Magdalene as a prostitute is in a homily given by Pope Gregory 1 in 591. It was a time of plague and affliction, which, of course, Christians would have interpreted as sent by God to punish their sins. Therefore, they needed to repent and humbly beg for forgiveness. Gregory took as his text the story in the Gospel of Luke of the woman who anoints Jesus’ feet.
When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them. [Luke 7:36–38]
When he senses that his host disapproves of his letting a sinful woman touch him, Jesus reads him a lesson on hospitality, contrition and forgiveness. [Luke 7:39–50] (For the full text, see In Search of the Woman Who Anoints Jesus.)
Gregory goes on to identify that woman as Mary Magdalene, saying:
The one that Luke calls a sinner, and that John names Mary, we believe that she is that Mary of whom, according to Mark, the Lord has cast out seven demons. (For the full text see A homily of Gregory the Great and Mary Magdalene by Roger Pearse)
Here Gregory is referencing John’s version of this event, which, as we saw in the first part of this study, In Search of the Woman Who Anoints Jesus, differs markedly from Luke’s version. He depicts the woman who anoints Jesus as Mary of Bethany, one of Lazarus’ two sisters.
Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honour. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. [John 12:1–3]
Both these stories are in fact variations on the original version of the story given in the Gospel of Mark (followed closely by the Gospel of Matthew [Matthew 26:6–7]):
While he was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head. [Mark 14:3]
As we saw in the earlier post, there are three distinct versions of this story. In Mark and Matthew’s version we have an unnamed woman who, for no known reason, anoints Jesus on the head, an act one might interpret as an act of veneration. In Luke, the woman, still unnamed but characterised as a sinner, bathes Jesus’ feet in an act of humility and contrition. In John, the woman is named as Mary of Bethany, whom we know to be an ardent disciple of Jesus, and her act can be seen as one of devotion.
Such divergent stories would, of course, lead to confusion for literalists, who, to harmonise the different versions, equated Mary of Bethany with the assumed prostitute in Luke’s version, then, to top it off, conflated her with another Mary, Mary Magdalene, who, they reasoned, must have been an extremely sinful woman to have been possessed by seven demons. And thus, the respectable woman in the gospels became the penitent prostitute of medieval Christianity’s lewd imaginings.
This groundless conflation has troubled biblical scholars in more recent times and, in 1970, Pope Paul VI removed references in the Roman Missal that had previously linked Mary Magdalene to the unnamed ‘sinful woman’. In 2016, Pope Francis gave her a saint’s feast day and called her the ‘Apostle of the Apostles’, the title long given her by the Orthodox Church.
While this misrepresentation of Mary Magdalene is usually attributed to Pope Gregory I, I would argue that it is unlikely that it originated with him. In his homily, Gregory makes the connection between these women in only one sentence, which does not suggest to me that he was propounding an original theory of his own, but rather reminding his audience of a widely held belief on which he intended to hang his sermon.
The question is, therefore, how did this conflation occur? Are we looking at just another example of biblical misogyny that can only cast women as either virgin, mother or whore? Was Mary Magdalene labelled a whore simply because she was too old to be a virgin and had no children? Or is there something else happening here?
Anointing Jesus
In his homily, Gregory focussed on the woman’s contrition and Jesus’ offer of forgiveness, which is at the core of Luke’s version of the story. However, the other three versions take a different tack, which is established in the Gospel of Mark, and thus the earliest version we have. When the woman pours the oil over Jesus’ head:
Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, ‘Why this waste of perfume? It could have been sold for more than a year’s wages and the money given to the poor.’ And they rebuked her harshly.
‘Leave her alone,’ said Jesus. ‘Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me. She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.’
Then Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Jesus to them. They were delighted to hear this and promised to give him money. So he watched for an opportunity to hand him over. [Mark 14:4–11]
Jesus’ reply to the criticism is problematic. Why would someone be anointed before their death, a death no one has anticipated? How could the woman be remembered throughout the world when we don’t even know her name? Or do we?
Is it Mary Magdalene?
In the first part of this study, (see In Search of the Woman Who Anoints Jesus) I concluded that the author of the Gospel of Mark most likely adapted this story from an earlier gospel in which the woman is anointing Jesus in order to declare him the legitimate King of the Jews. He made changes to that gospel, including to this story, in order to depict a different Jesus, the proto-orthodox Christian version of Jesus and his mission. However, in the changes made to this story, the Gospel of Mark draws a direct line between the woman who anoints Jesus in Bethany before the crucifixion and the women who go to his tomb to anoint him after his death and discover his resurrection.
Could this be the key to answering our questions? Could this connection be an indication that one of the women who goes to Jesus’ tomb is the woman who anoints Jesus? While the names and identities of the other women who go to the tomb differ from gospel to gospel, Mary Magdalene is always depicted as one of them if not their leader, beginning with the Gospel of Mark. Could this be an indication that the woman in question was Mary Magdalene? And since we can trace this identification back to Mark, that original Mary Magdalene would not have been Luke’s penitent sinner, but rather Mark’s passionate devotee. Furthermore, as a woman of possibly independent means, might not Mary Magdalene have been rich enough to afford an alabaster jar of pure nard?
As I concluded in the earlier post, in that original gospel, most likely that defiant act of anointing Jesus King of the Jews in front of witnesses, one of whom betrays him to the authorities, leads directly to Jesus’ death. Could this be why Mary Magdalene is one of the first disciples to learn of Jesus’ resurrection, as she would have been the person who most needed to know that Jesus had risen from the dead? Could this also be where the notion that she spent the rest of her life in prayer and penitence arose, though not for any sexual misdeeds, but because her actions, albeit indirectly, caused Jesus’ death?
For whatever reason, Mary Magdalene’s name was removed from the story of the woman who anoints Jesus in the Gospel of Mark, but either moved to or kept in the crucifixion and resurrection narratives, so that, as Jesus predicted, her name would still be remembered throughout the world. It could well be that the author of the Gospel of Mark deemed Mary Magdalene too well-regarded a figure to associate her with what could be seen as a reckless act of betrayal yet thought her too important to be left out of the gospel altogether, and so he featured her in the crucifixion and resurrection narratives.
Nevertheless, it could well be that Mary Magdalene’s reputation was forever tainted by that act, though over time, in the collective Christian memory, that tainted reputation morphed from that of a betrayer, to that of a sinner, as her real role in Jesus’ story was either suppressed or just forgotten.
© Pauline Montagna 2025
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