Prophecy 2003

(Editor's note: This teaching is included in the Prophetic Word because of the importance of its nature in our walk with the Lord.)

Painting by Amy McCutcheon.

Mary Magdalene  by Lynda Peterson

Mary Magdalene has been one of my Bible heroines, so I did a study on her a while back. I wanted to share it with you and hopefully change the false image some have put on her life.

   Maria Magdalene = of Magdala.  A devoted follower of Jesus who entered the circle of the taught during the Galilean ministry and became prominent during the last days.  The noun “Magdal,” from which the adjective “Magdalene” is formed, does not occur in the Gospels (it is Magadan).   Magdala is only the Greek form of “watch-tower” a place which now bears the name “Mejdel” near the center of the western shore of the lake.

   As she was the first to bear witness to the resurrection of Jesus, it is important that we should get a correct view of her position and character.  The idea that she was a penitent, drawn from the life of the street, undoubtedly arose, in the first instance, from a misconception of the nature of her malady, together with an altogether impossible identification of her with the woman who was a sinner of the preceding section of the Gospel.   It is not possible at least from the biblical evidence, to limit the illness from which Mary was healed to one sphere alone, the physical, the mental or the moral.   It is not to be forgotten that the malady demon-possession, according to NT ideas, had none of the implications of evil temper and malignant disposition popularly associated with “having a devil.”  The possessed was, by Our Lord and the disciples, looked upon as diseased, the victim of an alien and evil power, not an accomplice of it.  Had this always been understood and kept in mind, the unfortunate identification of Mary with the career of public prostitution would have been much less easy.

   According to NT usage, in such cases the name would have been withheld (Lk. 7:37; Jn. 8:3). At the same time the statement that 7 demons had been cast out of Mary means either that the malady was of exceptional severity, possibly involving several relapses (Lk. 11:26) or that the mode of her divided and haunted consciousness (Mk.5:9) suggested the use of the number 7. Even so, she was a healed invalid, not a rescued social derelict.

    The identification of Mary with the sinful woman is, of course, impossible for one who follows carefully the course of the narrative with an eye to the transitions.  The woman of ch 7 is carefully covered with the concealing cloak of namelessness.  Undoubtedly known by name to the intimate circle of first disciples, it is extremely doubtful whether she was so known to Luke. She was from Nain not Madgala.   Her history is definitely closed at verse 50.

    The name of Mary is found at the beginning of a totally new section of the Gospel, where the name of Mary is introduced with a single mark of identification, apart from her former residence, which points away from the preceding narrative and is incompatible with it.  If the preceding account of the anointing were Mary’s introduction into the circle of Christ’s followers, she could not be identified by the phrase of Luke.  Jesus did not cast a demon out of the sinful women of ch 7, and Mary of Magdala is not represented as having anointed the Lord’s feet.  The two statements cannot be fitted together. 

   Mary has been misrepresented in another way, scarcely less serious.   She was one of the very first witnesses to the resurrection, and her testimony is of sufficient importance to make it worth while for those who antagonize the narrative to discredit her testimony.  This is done, on the basis of her mysterious malady, by making her a paranoiac who was in the habit of “seeing things.” 

(1)   To begin with, it is to be remarked that Mary had been cured of her malady in such a marked way that, henceforth, throughout her life, she was a monument to the healing power of Christ.  What He had done for her became almost a part of her name along with the name of her village.  It is not to be supposed that a cure so signal would leave her a nervous wreck, weak of will, wavering in judgment, the victim of hysterical tremors and involuntary hallucinations.

(2)     There is more than this a priori consideration against such an interpretation of Mary.  She was the first at the tomb (Mt. 28:1; Mk. 16:1; Lk. 24:10).  But she was also the last at the cross—she and her companions (Mt. 27:61; Mk 15:40).   A glance at the whole brief narrative of her life in the Gospels will interpret this combination of statements.  Mary first appears near the beginning of the narrative of the Galilean ministry as one of a group consisting of “many” (Lk. 8:3), among them Joanna, wife of Chuzas, Herod’s steward, who followed with the Twelve and ministered to them of their substance.  Mary then disappears from the text to reappear as one of the self-appointed watchers of the cross, thereafter to join the company of witnesses to the resurrection.  The significance of these simple statements for the understanding of Mary’s character and position among the followers of Jesus is not far to seek.   She came into the circle of believers, marked out from the rest by an exceptional experience of the Lord’s healing power.   Henceforth, to the very end, with unwearied devotion, with intent and eager willingness with undaunted courage even in the face of dangers which broke the courage of the chosen Twelve, she followed and served her Lord.   It is impossible that such singleness of purpose, such strength of will, and, above all, such courage in danger, should have been exhibited by a weak, hysterical, neurotic incurable.  The action of these women of whom Mary was one, in serving their Master’s need while in life, and in administering the last rites to His body in death, is characteristic of woman at her best.”

Clearly Mary’s relationship to her Lord, following his resurrection, is to be of a different kind and to continue in another dimension. 

From: The I.N.S.B. Encyclopedia, the Dake Bible and Tyndale New Bible Dictionary

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