Magdalene

Home About the Author About the Book Endorsements Reviews
Study Guide How to Order Comments More Metaphors

Magdalene, noun A misreading of the gospel stories associated with Mary Magdalene produced a metaphor indicating a reformed and repentant prostitute. The name Magdalene, with or without the final e, has been used to indicate not only women who abandoned their profession as sex workers but also the institutions in which they found refuge and support for changing their lives. In 18^th and 19^th century Britain, Magdalen was the shorthand name for a hospital or a hospital ward, a home, a house, an asylum, or a charity devoted to the care of former prostitutes. Magdalen (pronounced Maudlin) College, Oxford, founded in 1448 is the exception to the rule that institutions bearing the name were established for wayward women, but the pronunciation of the college name is a reminder that when the word is spelled as it sometimes sounds, magdalene/maudlin has developed other figurative connotations. To be maudlin is to be weepy and overly sentimental, especially after having had too much alcohol to drink. This development of the metaphor apparently was the result of Mary Magdalene appearing in paintings as a tearful penitent.

Nothing in the gospels, however, links Mary Magdalene with prostitution. This Mary, whose last name in English is a transliteration of the Greek, probably came from the village of Magdala near Tiberius on the west side of the Lake of Gennesaret. She appears at the end of all four gospels, but they say very little about her by way of identification. Only Luke introduces her early in his version of the story. Luke, along with Mark and Matthew, identifies Mary Magdalene as one of the women who had “provided for” Jesus. The verb in all three of these gospels is diakoneo, from which we get such English words as deacon¹ and deaconate.

Soon afterwards he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. The twelve were with him, as well as some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Herod's steward Chuza, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their resources. [Luke 8:1-3]

Many women were also at Golgotha, looking on from a distance; they had followed Jesus from Galilee and had provided for him. Among them were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee. [Matthew 27:55-56]

All four gospels place Mary Magdalene at the crucifixion of Jesus and later at his tomb. Matthew, Luke, and John say that Mary Magdalene was among the women who told the male disciples that Jesus lived. Only Mark, in what is commonly accepted as the end of his gospel, says that the women refused the assignment of reporting to the other disciples.

          After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. . . Suddenly Jesus met them and said, "Greetings!" And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me." [Matthew 28:1, 9-10]

        Then they remembered Jesus’ words, and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles. [Luke 24:8-10]

         Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord"; and she told them that he had said these things to her. [John 20:18]

         When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. . . As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. But he said to them, "Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you." So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid. [Mark 16:1, 5-8]

Apparently the notion that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute was the result of a compound error. John’s gospel has a brief account about Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus of Bethany, anointing Jesus’s feet and wiping them with her hair.

Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus' feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. [John 12:3]

This account in John is very similar to one in Luke where a nameless woman anointing Jesus’s feet is clearly a prostitute. She is described as a sinner, and as in John’s account, she carries a tool of her trade, perfumed ointment.

A woman in the city, who was a sinner, having learned that he was eating in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster jar of ointment. She stood behind him at his feet, weeping, and began to bathe his feet with her tears and to dry them with her hair. Then she continued kissing his feet and anointing them with the ointment. [Luke 7:37-38]

The irony of identifying Mary Magdalene with the nameless sex worker of Luke’s gospel arises from the possibility that she was particularly close to Jesus, perhaps his wife. Admittedly, the evidence for Jesus being married to anyone is fairly slim, but an intriguing hint appears in John’s gospel in the scene where the crucified Jesus appears to her.

Jesus said to her, "Mary!" She turned and said to him in Hebrew, "Rabbouni!" (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, "Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father."
[John 20:16-17]

The King James Version at this point is a bit more dramatic. Jesus says, “Touch me not.” The Greek verb in question is hapto, which can mean take hold of or touch or cling to. Hapto could also be used as a euphemism for sexual intercourse²as it is in the Greek translation of Genesis and in a letter of St. Paul.

Then God said to Abimelech in the dream, "Yes, I know that you did this in the integrity of your heart; furthermore it was I who kept you from sinning against me. Therefore I did not let you touch Abraham’s wife." [Genesis 20:6]

Now concerning the matters about which you wrote: "It is well for a man not to touch a woman." But because of cases of sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. [I Corinthians 7:1-2]

In the Hebrew culture of Jesus’s time, only two women could claim the right to embrace or even touch a man: his mother and his wife. If Jesus had to admonish Mary Magdalene to refrain from embracing him, the story suggests that both of them recognized her right to do so. Mary Magdalene was not Jesus’s mother, so the tradition behind the story indicates that at least some of Jesus’s early followers thought she was his wife.

Whether Mary Magdalene was or was not Jesus’s wife, the use of her name as a metaphor meaning prostitute seems grossly unfair to her memory. Fortunately, that figurative use of her name has faded. Understanding the origin of the metaphor is now more important for understanding 18^th and 19^th century English usage that for understanding the Bible.

___________

1. For deacon, see From Literal to Literary, pp. 72-73
2. For other sexual euphemisms in the Bible, see know, lie with