Mary Magdalene

This semester I am taking a class titled "The Bible as Literature."   I have seen many different types of images of females with in the Bible. There is the image of the "barren" woman who is useless to her husband, the "raped" woman Dinah and Tamera. These women are raped, and the men who rape them are not apologetic about it. But the image that has made the largest impression on me is Mary Magdalene as a "prostitute." 


I have read the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John this semester, and within those texts there is no evidence that Mary Magdalene ever sold herself for sex. In 1969 the church officially cleared her name and recognized that she was not a prostitute. Why do so many people still believe that she was a prostitute even though there is no evidence? She is mentioned before other women, and many times she is mentioned as "the one the savior loved more than other women." (Gospel of Mary Magdalene 6.1) Mary herself wrote a gospel, it was not "canonized" (aka used as a sacred text in the Bible) because of Mary's possible relationship with Jesus. Her gospel was considered heresy and it was "destroyed," but it was found years later. 


Whether you believe that Mary was Jesus's wife, his lover, or just one if his favorite apostles, there is no evidence to support the claim that she was a repentant prostitute. The view that many within the religious community have of her is negative. Since she was a woman she was doubted, ad many failed to recognize that she was an important figure to Jesus.