Who was Mary Magdalene?

At the expense of giving away the punch line for those who have not read the book, The Da Vinci Code says that Mary Magdelene is the Holy Grail (page 249). While most grail seekers, like Indiana Jones, sought a cup, they should have been looking for the bones of Mary Magdelene. The implication of the book is the these enlightened grail seekers would be besides themselves to bow down and worship at the bones of Mary Magdelene. Dan Brown writes, “The quest for the Holy Grail is literally the quest to kneel before the bones of Mary Magdelene.” (page 257) Am I missing something here? Should the bones of a first century woman be worshipped? I fail to see the importance of pursuing any form of the Holy Grail, be it a cup or any other relic from the days of Jesus.

Perhaps my skepticism about finding the Holy Grail has something to do with the fact that my Bible does not instruct me to make a grail search part of my life. Speculation of a Holy Grail is purely for fiction writers, which brings me back to my main thesis, that The Da Vinci Code needs to stay in the world of Superman and Batman.

On the other hand, Mary Magdelene is one of the better known women of the New Testament. We know more about this Mary than we do about half of the 12 disciples. There are also some misconceptions about Mary Magdelene that have been perpetuated throughout the history of Christianity. Dan Brown correctly identifies some of the confusion and then goes on to invent a version of Mary Magdelene that most Gnostics would not even believe.

The best known, but false, information about Mary Magdelene was that she was a prostitute. The Bible does not say that she was a prostitute, but it does say that Jesus cast seven demons out of her (Mark 16:9 & Luke 8:2) before she became a follower. In 591 AD, Pope Gregory declared that the unnamed woman of Luke 7 who was a prostitute, was Mary Magdelene. Most Biblical scholars believe that this is a mistake and in the 20th century the Roman Catholic Church officially declared that Pope Gregory was wrong. May I also note that having seven demons indicates a life of significant trouble. The real Christian message from the life of Mary Magdelene was that Jesus aligned himself with people with a past. That a broken person can come to Jesus and find salvation, forgiveness, and a new start is at the core of the Gospel message. Mary Magdelene has been honored by the church throughout its history, not based on how good she was, but on the love she had for Jesus as a result of how Jesus changed her life.

The Da Vinci Code looks at the prostitute mistake from the following perspective, “The unfortunate misconception is the legacy of a smear campaign launched by the early Church. The Church needed to defame Mary Magdelene in order to cover up her dangerous secret – her role as the Holy Grail.” (page 244)

If the church wanted to discredit Mary Magdelene, why does the Bible present her in such a positive light? All the disciples were dispersed at the cross while the women stayed to watch Jesus die. The Christian Bible has Mary Magdelene coming out of the crucifixion weekend looking like a hero, while Peter denied Jesus three times and looks like a frightened and weak man. The great Christian theologian of the fourth century, Augustine, called Mary Magdelene “the apostle to the Apostles” based on the fact that she was the messenger to tell the disciples that Jesus was risen on the first Easter. This quote from Augustine in no way implies that he believed that Mary Magdelene was the wife of Jesus. I would argue that Mary Magdelene has been honored through the history of Christianity as being the first person to see the resurrected Christ.

The Bible also teaches that Mary Magdelene was likely a wealthy woman. Luke 8:1-3 groups Mary Magdelene with the women who financially supported Jesus and his male disciples. We do not know about the extent of her wealth or her family heritage and Dan Brown is not using inspired Scripture to say that she was from a royal family, the house of Benjamin (page 249). The only Jewish royal line that I know to be important was the house of David, of whom Jesus was a descendent.

It should be noted that the New Testament speaks of six different women named Mary, including the Mother of Jesus, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, and Mary Magdelene. It is understandable that there have been times of confusion keeping these women apart. Magdelene refers to the town that Mary comes from, Magdala. Mary, the sister of Martha, was from Bethany and has at times been confused with Mary Magdelene because her relationship with Jesus is also described as being very close (see John 11).

It is true that the Bible does not fill us in on all the details of the lives of many of the people close to Jesus in his life on earth. This does not give us the license to create a fictional account of the people around Jesus and pass it off as historic.

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Has Christianity given Paganism a bad reputation?