A (former) demoniac but not a prostitute and not Jesus' wife

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Was Mary Magdalene Wife of Jesus? Was Mary Magdalene a Prostitute? How did her reputation evolve “from saint to sinner”?. We haven't gone over this ground for awhile, so let's do it again. The answer to the first question is that we have no evidence that she and Jesus were married. The answer to the second is the idea that she was a prostitute came from some much later unfounded inferences about Mary and stories about anonymous women in the Gospels. But Luke (8:2) does say that she had seven demons cast out of her, so that's in the Bible.

This BHD post includes the full text of a 2005 Bible Review article by Birger Pearson.

Many years ago I discussed the question of whether Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene. My review of the The Da Vinci Code book is here and of the rather better movie is here. For many, many posts on the infamous Gospel of Jesus' Wife forgery, start here and follow the links. For more on the erroneous idea that the Gospels present Mary as a prostitute, see here and here.

There are many other PaleoJudaica posts on Mary Magdale in the archives. You can find them with the blog's search engine.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.