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Mary Magdalene - facts and conjectures
The primary sources
These are the references to Mary Magdalene in the earliest Christian documents.
St Mark's Gospel
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Probable date of writing: about AD 68
St Mark introduces Mary Magdalene in his account of the death of Jesus by crucifixion. She is with other women by the cross, sees the body of Jesus put in the tomb, and sees the evidence for the resurrection on Sunday morning. Note that the Gospel according to St Mark lost its last page at a very early date. Other Christians provided brief endings for the truncated work; two of them are given here.
Read all that Mark writes on Mary Magdalene here.
St Matthew's Gospel
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Probable date of writing: about AD 88
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Author: Unknown, using a collection of Jesus' sayings by Matthew. The author used the Gospel of St Mark and added Matthew's sayings (in Greek, logia) and material from a lost source named by scholars 'Q' standing for Quelle, German for 'source'.
Read all that Matthew writes on Mary Magdalene here.
St Luke's Gospel
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Probable date of writing: about AD 88
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Author: Probably Luke, companion of St Paul. The same author wrote the Acts of the Apostles.
Like the author of Matthew, Luke used St Mark's Gospel as a basis, adding material from 'Q' (as Matthew did, but inserting the material in different places) and also using material of his own. Where this material came from is not certain. It is an attractive possibility that Luke consulted Mary the Mother of Jesus.
Luke mentions Mary Magdalene earlier than Mark or Matthew, telling us that she was one of a group of women who travelled with Jesus during his ministry.
Read all that Luke writes on Mary Magdalene here.
St John's Gospel
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Probable date of writing: about AD 96
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Author: The author of the Gospel as we have it is unknown, but was probably a companion of St John, one of Jesus' twelve apostles. The same author may well have written the three letters (1, 2 and 3 John) in the New Testament.
It is all but certain that the author of the Revelation, known as John the Divine, was not the same as the author of the Gospel.
John develops the story of Mary Magdalene's experiences of the risen Jesus. Where the other three Gospels include her in a group of women, John pictures her alone at the tomb, and includes a moving account of her meeting with Jesus, and her role as the first preacher of the resurrection. She is the apostle to the apostles.
Read all that John writes on Mary Magdalene here.
Mary in Church history
Read how Mary Magdalene was confused with other women in the Gospels. This page will explain why Mary Magdalene is often considered a former prostitute. . Link here.
Mary in later (gnostic) writings
Several Gnostic writings have survived and are freely available in print and on the internet. Dan Brown makes his character claim that there were 80 'gospels' in existence. This is pure fantasy. There are a few short texts which claim to be gospels, but which are either alleged conversations between Jesus and his disciples after the resurrection, or alleged conversations among the disciples, again after the resurrection.
Dan Brown makes use of two so-called gospels, the Gospel of Philip [text here] and the Gospel of Mary Magdalene. [Text here].
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Thursday 28th of August 2008
