Jennifer Ristine, author of the work "Mary Magdalene: Perceptions from Ancient Magdala," maintains that Mary, the famous believer of Jesus, was not a prostitute, but a wealthy woman from Magdala, a seafaring town in the old Galilee.
It has always been popularly said: Mary Magdalene , the famous disciple of Jesus of Nazareth, was an adulteress and prostitute. That is why it is enough to type in Google “most famous prostitutes in history” for her name to appear alongside other women, such as Madame Pompadour, Theodora of Byzantium, Julia Bulette (to whom we already dedicated an article in this blog) or Victorine Meurent, muse of Manet, put their charms up for rent at some point during their lives.
It has been said that Mary Magdalene or Mary of Magdala (since that was the name of the town, located next to the Sea of Galilee, from which this woman was a native) was the “public woman” whom Jesus Christ saved from being stoned, who was next to the cross at the time of the crucifixion and who was one of the first women to contemplate the resurrected Jesus
.Among all the versions that have been given throughout history about who Mary Magdalene really was (and among them we can find both those given by the official Gospels and the one given by the apocryphal gospels, that is, by those who have not been accepted by the Catholic Church), the one that we have exposed previously is the one that has seemed to triumph, if not in the minds of theologians and scholars of sacred texts, then in the popular imagination. According to this, then, the Magdalene traded with her body. In other words: she was a prostitute.
However, there is a woman who, coming from the field of faith, has recently come to refute this version of the life and work of Mary Magdalene . The woman we are talking about is called Jennifer Ristine and she is the author of the book Mary Magdalene: Perceptions from Ancient Magdala . Ristine, director of the Magdalene Institute, has relied on the integration of biblical and historical references with recent archaeological discoveries made in Magdala (modern Migdal) to affirm that Mary Magdalene was not a prostitute but a wealthy woman.
Magdala, in the times of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene , was a prosperous town. Located, as has been said, next to the Sea of Galilee, its inhabitants were mainly dedicated to the fishing industry. Recent excavations in what was the northern part of the town have brought to light a 1st century synagogue, a stone representation of the Temple of Jerusalem, ritual purification baths, domestic houses and a port. All these excavations, points out Jennifer Ristine, demonstrate the extent to which Magdala was an economically well-positioned town. And the Magdalena ? Well, according to Ristine, if the texts that refer to her are read carefully, these texts are integrated correctly and historically framed with the social reality of Magdala in those years, the result would be that Mary Magdalene would not be so much a prostitute as a woman with significant economic resources.
In a way, what Jennifer Ristine does by stating the above is giving a monetary meaning to the word "goods" when she reads a paragraph written by Luke in his gospel. “Now it came to pass,” says Luke, “that Jesus went through all the cities and villages, preaching and announcing the gospel of the kingdom of God, and the twelve were with him and certain women who had been healed of evil spirits and diseases: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had come out; Juana, wife of Chuza, Herod's steward; Susana and some others, who served him with their goods.” These assets, according to Ristine, had to do with pecuniary matters and served, in some way, to finance part of the expenses of the faithful who followed the Nazarene.
For Ristine, Mary Magdalene should be seen today as a leadership model for women. Because? Because it was influential in two senses: economically and socially. And, affirms the author of María Magdalena: perceptions from the ancient Magdala , María Magdalena , at the same time that she was a well-to-do woman, was a woman who, despite growing up in a strictly sexist and religious society such as the Jewish of the time, decided to break with all the schemes and become the first and most faithful follower of Jesus.
The Catholic Church, for its part, like the Orthodox Church, considers Mary Magdalene a saint and celebrates her holiday on July 22. After all, Pope Francis named Saint Mary Magdalene the “apostle of the apostles.” Despite this, for many people, Mary of Magdala will always be, and forever and ever, one of the most famous prostitutes in history. And that's why we talk about it here.
