He then announces to the two Marys, ‘He is not here: for he is risen’ (28:6). In chapter 28, Matthew narrates how Mary Magdalene and another woman named Mary went to see Jesus’ tomb, only for there to be a great earthquake and for the angel of the Lord to descend from heaven and rolled the stone away from the door of the tomb. She became the first person to see Jesus after the Resurrection, as Matthew 16:9 tells us. And then, on the Sunday morning at ‘the end of the sabbath’ (i.e., Saturday), she went ‘to see the sepulchre’ (28:1). As Asimov puts it, ‘We might much more reasonably consider Mary Magdalene a cured madwoman rather than a reformed prostitute.’Īt the Crucifixion, Matthew tells us that ‘many women were there’ observing from some distance away, including Mary Magdalene (27:55-56). Isaac Asimov points out in his informative analysis of the Mary Magdalene story in Asimov’s Guide to the Bible: The New Testament: 002 that being possessed by demons or devils is more likely to be a sign of mental illness than sexual promiscuity. Which brings us to the second objection to the notion that this fallen woman who anointed Jesus and washed his feet was Mary Magdalene. Meanwhile, because of her significance to the Passion of Jesus Christ, Mary gave her name to two colleges in England: Magdalen (at Oxford) and Magdalene (at Cambridge). In the ancient town of Ephesus, Mary lives alone, years after her son's crucifixion. Consequently, the term ‘magdalen’ was applied to a reformed prostitute, in honour (if that is quite the word) of Mary. Provocative, haunting and indelible, Colm Tibn's portrait of Mary presents her as a solitary older woman still seeking to understand the events that become the narrative of the New Testament and the foundation of Christianity. Mary Magdalene is often considered to have been a prostitute, whose ‘seven devils’ (of lust) Jesus banished from her, leading her to give up a life of prostitution. Mary is ‘called Magdalene’ because she hailed from Magdala, a town on the west shore of the Sea of Galilee. Luke relates the same story, speaking of ‘certain women, which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary called Magdalene, out of whom went seven devils’ (Luke 8:2). In the Gospel of Mark, which is the earliest of the four Gospels to be written, we are told that ‘when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils’ (Mark 16:9). Indeed, Mary Magdalene only makes one small appearance prior to the Crucifixion.
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