Mary Magdalene

Mary Magdalene is first named among the people who traveled with Jesus as he went through the towns of Galilee. Luke says that seven demons had gone out from her. Along with Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward Chuza, Susanna, and several other women, Mary supported Jesus and the Twelve from her own resources. Scripture does not identify her parents, age, marital status, or life before she met Jesus. The name Magdalene distinguishes her from other women named Mary, but the Gospels never identify her as Mary of Bethany or as the unnamed woman in Luke 7.

After Jesus was arrested and tried, Mary Magdalene appears at his crucifixion. Matthew and Mark place her among women watching from a distance and say that they had followed and served Jesus from Galilee. John names Mary Magdalene among women standing near the cross. The Gospels do not arrange the women, their companions, and their positions in exactly the same way. They agree, however, in placing Mary at the scene of Jesus’ death rather than among those who had left it.

Mary also watched when Joseph of Arimathea placed Jesus’ body in a new tomb. Matthew says that Mary Magdalene and the other Mary sat opposite the tomb. Mark says the two women saw where the body was laid. Luke describes women from Galilee observing the tomb and the placement of the body before preparing spices. Mary is not presented as the person directing the burial, but she belonged to the witnesses who knew where Jesus’ body had been placed.

The Gospel accounts of the resurrection morning preserve distinct scenes. In Matthew, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. An earthquake came, an angel rolled away the stone, and the women were told that Jesus had risen. They ran to tell the disciples with fear and great joy. Jesus met them on the way, and they took hold of his feet and worshiped him. He told them not to be afraid and to send his brothers to Galilee.

In Mark, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices after the Sabbath and went to the tomb. They wondered who would move the large stone, but found it already rolled away. A young man in white said that the crucified Jesus had risen and told them to inform the disciples and Peter that they would see him in Galilee. At the point where the earliest manuscripts of Mark end, the women flee trembling and say nothing to anyone because they are afraid. This ending need not be forced into one exact moment with Matthew’s scene of the women running to report.

Luke describes a group of women bringing spices at dawn on the first day of the week. At the empty tomb, two men in shining clothes reminded them that Jesus had said he would rise. Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and other women are named as those who carried the report to the apostles. The apostles regarded their words as nonsense and did not believe them. In Luke, Mary’s testimony arrives together with that of the other women and is initially rejected.

John preserves a sequence focused closely on Mary Magdalene. She came while it was still dark, saw that the stone had been moved, and ran to Peter and the disciple Jesus loved. She assumed that someone had taken the body. After the two disciples inspected the tomb and went home, Mary remained outside weeping. Even after seeing two angels inside, she continued asking where the body had been taken. She mistook Jesus standing behind her for the gardener until he called her by name. Jesus told her not to hold on to him, but to go to his brothers and announce that he was ascending to his Father.

Mary went to the disciples and announced that she had seen the Lord, then reported what he had told her. This is the last scene in which the Gospels directly narrate her speech and action. Scripture does not record where she later lived or when and how she died. It also does not identify her as a woman known for sexual sin or merge her with another Mary. Her supported biblical life extends from healing and service in Galilee through the cross and burial to the discovery of the empty tomb and the announcement of the risen Jesus.