How Mary Magdalene Became Misunderstood
How centuries of interpretation reshaped the story of one of the most important women in the Gospel narrative.
In the Gospel accounts, Mary Magdalene appears as a devoted follower of Jesus and a faithful witness to some of the most significant moments in the Christian story. She remains present at the crucifixion, returns to the tomb after the Sabbath, and in the Gospel of John becomes the first person to encounter the risen Christ.
Yet the way Mary Magdalene would later be remembered in Christian tradition became far more complicated.
Over the centuries, interpretations of her story began to shift. Different women mentioned in the Gospel narratives were sometimes blended together, and assumptions about Magdalene’s identity gradually took hold that were not always rooted in the texts themselves.
One of the most influential moments in shaping this new understanding occurred in the year 591. In a sermon delivered in Rome, Pope Gregory I suggested that Mary Magdalene was the same unnamed “sinful woman” described in the Gospel of Luke who anoints Jesus’s feet. In Pope Gregory’s interpretation, this woman also became associated with Mary of Bethany, the sister of Martha and Lazarus.
Although the Gospel texts never explicitly make these connections, Pope Gregory’s sermon carried enormous influence. Over time, the image of Mary Magdalene as a repentant prostitute became deeply embedded in Christian imagination, shaping art, literature, and religious teaching for centuries.
The Gospels never show Mary Magdalene washing Jesus’s feet, and they never call any of these women a prostitute. That association comes later, when preachers and artists merged three separate stories — an unnamed sinful woman, Mary of Bethany, and Mary Magdalene — and read their gestures of anointing through the sexualized lens of “fallen” woman.
The Penitent Magdalene
In medieval Europe, this image of the “penitent Magdalene” became one of the most powerful and enduring figures in Christian art. Paintings often portrayed her with long flowing hair, tears of repentance, and a contemplative expression. She was shown withdrawing into solitude, sometimes depicted as a hermit in the wilderness, embodying a life of repentance and spiritual devotion.
These images resonated deeply with the spiritual culture of the time. The story of a sinner transformed through repentance offered a powerful example of redemption and spiritual renewal. Over generations, this interpretation became so familiar that many people assumed it was part of the original Gospel story.
Yet when scholars return to the biblical texts themselves, they find that the Gospels never describe Mary Magdalene as a prostitute. Instead, they present a woman who followed Jesus faithfully and stood as a witness to the central events of the Christian narrative.
In the past century, historians and biblical scholars have taken a closer look at how Mary Magdalene’s reputation developed over time. By carefully examining the Gospel texts alongside later traditions, many have concluded that the image of Mary Magdalene as a repentant prostitute emerged through centuries of interpretation rather than from the biblical accounts themselves.
Understanding this history does not diminish the power that the penitent Magdalene held for generations of believers. Instead, it reveals how stories evolve as they pass through different cultures and eras.
And perhaps this is part of what keeps Mary Magdalene so fascinating today. Her story sits at the intersection of history, faith, interpretation, and imagination—inviting each generation to revisit the question of who she was and what her presence in the Gospel story might still have to teach us.
In recent decades, renewed scholarship and newly discovered texts have prompted many readers to look at her story again with fresh curiosity. Exploring that modern rediscovery will be the focus of the final article in this series.
If seeing how Mary Magdalene’s story was reshaped over time makes you wonder where something similar has happened in your own life, or if you find yourself, like me, wanting to move from simply knowing her story in the texts to asking what it might mean for your own, I’ve created a companion series for paid subscribers that explores that question more personally. Part 1 of the series is available to free subscribers here:
Sources & Further Reading
Pope Gregory the Great, Homily 33 on the Gospels (591), where Gregory associates Mary Magdalene with the unnamed sinful woman in Luke 7.
Susan Haskins, Mary Magdalene: Myth and Metaphor (1993).
Karen L. King, The Gospel of Mary of Magdala (2003).
Bart D. Ehrman, Peter, Paul, and Mary Magdalene (2006).
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I have seen this. I have read one of the gnostic gospels, the book of Thomas, but I understand there is a book by Mary Magdalene, too. I’m very interested in her story. She may be an archetype for the Divine Feminine.