(8) Literature. Mrs. Jameson, Legends of the Madonna (Lond. 1852),; Jones, On the New Testament, vol. ii, cc. mil, xv ; Wilberforce, Rome—Her New Dogma, etc. (Oxford, 1855). 2. Mary Magdalene. (ma'ry mag'da-lene), (Gr. 111cry6aXvitn), mag.-dal-ay-nay'), probably so called from Magdala in Galilee, the town where she is supposed to have dwelt. According to the Talmudists, Magdalene signifies 'a plaiter of hair.' (1) Name. lquch wrong has been done to this individual from imagining that she was the person spoken of by St. Luke in ch. vii :39.; but there is no evidence to support this opinion. There were two occasions on which Christ was anointed. The first is thus recorded in John xii: t, 3: 'Six days before the Passover Jesus came tii-Bethany, where Lazarus was which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead. There they made him a supper; and Martha served. Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair.' This Mary was certainly the sister of Martha. The second instance oc curred in the house of Simon, 'And, behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster box of ointment, and stood at his feet behind him weeping, and be gan to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment' (Luke vii :37). How Mary Magdalene came to be identified with the person here mentioned, it is difficult to say; but such is the case and accord ingly she is generally regarded as having been a woman of depraved character. For such an inference, however, there appears to be no just ground whatever.
(2) Personal History. The earliest notice of Mary Magdalene is in St. Luke's Gospel (viii: 2), where it is recorded that out of her 'had gone seven devils,' and that she was 'with Joanna, the wife of Herod's steward, and Susanna, and many others, which ministered unto Christ of their substance.' This is sufficient to prove that she had not been known as a person of bad character ; and it also implies that she was not poor, or amongst the lower classes, when she was the companion of one whose husband held an important office in the king's household.
It is as unjust to say that she who had been so physically wretched as to be possessed by seven devils was dissolute, as to affirm that an insane person is necessarily depraved. In the Savior's last hours, and at his death and resurrection, Mary Magdalene was a chief and important wit ness. There had followed him from Galilee many women (Matt.xxvii:55,56),and there stood by the cross several, of whom Mary Magdalene was one; and, after his death, she 'and Mary the mother of Jesus beheld where the body was laid' (Mark xv:47; Luke xxiii :55. 56); 'and they re turned and prepared spices and ointments."The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulcher, and seeth the stone taken away from the sep ulcher' (John xx:1).
Then she returned to tell Peter and John that the stone was removed. Peter immediately ran to the place with the other disciple, when they saw only the napkin and linen clothes lying; and 'the disciples went away again unto their own homes' (John xx:2-1i). But she 'who was last at the cross and first at the tomb' 'stood at the sepulcher weeping,' and saw two angels, who said to her, 'Woman, why weepest thou ? She saith, because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him.' Her pa tient waiting was rewarded, for she had scarcely ceased speaking when Jesus himself asked her the same question, and as soon as he said 'Mary,' she turned herself, and then, seeing who it was, said unto him, 'Rabboni,' and at once acknowl edged his risen person; when he not only as sured her of his resurrection, but also announced his intended ascension (John xx:17). Mary Magdalene then returned and told these things to the apostles (Luke xxiv :to, it), 'and her words seemed to them as idle tales,"and they, when they had heard that he was alive, and had been seen of her, believed her not' (Mark xvi: to). On every occasion Christ selected the most
fit and proper persons, and on this, bis first ap pearance from the dead, he chose Mary Magda lene to be the only witness of his resurrection; and to other women had been also vouchsafed the vision of angels (Luke xxiv :to). These persons, with the acute perception of their sex, receiving distinct evidence without captious disbelief, at once saw, believed, and 'worshiped' their risen Lord (Matt. xxviii:9) ; whilst the men who had been his daily companions during the whole time of his public ministry,and had heard 'the gracious words which fell from his lips,' entirely refused the testimony of eye-witnesses, to whom, 'by in fallible proofs, he had shown himself alive,' ancl remained unconvinced until 'Jesus stood in the midst of them,' and 'showed them his hands and his feet' (Luke xxiv :36, 40) ; and even then 'they believed not for joy.' But the faith of Mary Magdalene is 'in ever lasting remembrance,' inasmuch as, when others were 'fools and slow of heart to believe,' she, with less evidence than they possessed, at once acknowledged that 'Christ is risen from the dead, and is become the first-fruits of them that slept,' and to her was granted the honor of being the first witness of that great event, the Resurrection, without which Christ would have died in vain (1 Cor. xv.). S. P.
"Nothing is really known to us of the subse quent history of the Magdalene. The Greek Church believed that she died at Ephesus,whither she had followed St. John, and that her relics were removed from thence to Constantinople by the Emperor Leo VI. The story, however, which took root in the West was very different. It was said that she belonged to a wealthy family possessed of great estates at Magdala and Beth any; that she abused all her admirable gifts to tempt others to sin; that after the Ascension she remained at Bethany till the disciples were scat tered by the persecution which followed the martyrdom-of Stephen. She and her sister with others were placed in a boat by their persecutors, and were providentially carried without oars or sails to Massilia, where, by their,,preaching and miracles, they converted the heathen, and Lazarus was made bishop, while Mary retired to the wil derness and lived a life of extreme asceticism for thirty years. Finally, she was carried up to heaven in the arms of ascending angels." (J. B. Mayor, Hastings' Bib. Diet.) 3. Mary, Wife of Cleophas or Alphteus, and sister of the Lord's mother ( Matt. xxvii :56; Mark xv :4o; John xix :25). This Mary was one of those holy women who followed Christ, and was present at the crucifixion ; and she is that 'other Mary' who, with NIary Magdalene, at tended the body of Christ to the sepulcher when taken down from the cross (Matt. xxvii :61 ; Mark xv :47; Luke xxiii :55). She was also among those who went on the morning of the first day of the week to the sepulcher to anoint the body, and who became the first witnesses of the resurrection (Matt. xxviii :t ; Mark xvi ; Luke xxiv :I). James, Joses, Jude, and Simon, who are called the Lord's brethren (see the names; also ALPHXUS; BROTHER, 1), are very generally supposcd to have been the sons of this Mary, and therefore cousins of Jesus, the term brother having been used with great latitude among the Hebrews. This is the usual alternative of those who deny that these persons were sons of our Lord's mother by her husband Joseph ; although some imagine that they may have been sons of Joseph by a former wife. The fact seems to be this: Christ had four 'brethren' called James. Joses, Simon, and Jude; he had also three apostles called James, Simon, and Jude, who were his cousins, being sons of Alphmus and this Mary ; and it is certainly very difficult to resist the conclusion that the three cousins and apostles are to be regarded as the same with those three of the four 'brethren' who bore the same names.