“The portrayal of Mary Magdalene as a prostitute began in 591 AD, when Pope Gregory I conflated Mary Magdalene, who was introduced in Luke 8, with Mary of Bethany (Luke 10:39) and the unnamed “sinful woman” who anointed Jesus’s feet in Luke 7. Pope Gregory’s Easter sermon resulted in a widespread, but wrong, belief that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute.

John Calvin not only rejected Gregory’s composite Magdalene, but criticized the church as ignorant for having ever believed in it.”

Key texts featuring Mary Magdalene: Luke 8:1-3; Mark 15:40-41; Mark 15:47; Mark 16:1-8; Matt. 28:1-10; John 20:1-18.

Key texts not about Mary Magdalene: Luke 7:36-50; Mark 14:3-9 // Matt. 26:6-13; John 7:53-8.11.

Dr Mark S. Goodacre is a New Testament scholar and Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins at Duke University. Dr Goodacre earned his BA., M.Phil. and PhD in Theology at the University of Oxford. He is a leading academic on the Gospels and a practicing Christian.