It must, however, be remembered that the first mention of Mary Magdalene is made when our Lord was in Galilee (Luke viii. 2), nor can there be a doubt that the persons mentioned in Luke xxiv. so, where her name next occurs, ass May Mapict Kai 'Iwcipva cal Mapla lakthpot, cal of Xotra/ az)v abrais, were the same as those described in the 49th and 55th vers. of the 23d chapter in the words -yvvaiKes al cruvaroNouNrarat mini) dra ri7s raXLXatas, and yvvaikes a'ircves icrap raveX01,Viat cu5743 iK rf7s raXiXalas. This appears to mark her unmistakeably as a Galilean (see also Matt. xxviii. 55, 56 ; and Mark xv. 40, 41), and consequently as of Magdala in Galilee, and not of the ill-famed Magdala near Jerusalem. But though one would be glad to clear the character of her former life from groundless aspersions, one cannot but observe how all her actions, as detailed by the evangelists, at the closing scene of our Lord's life, and after his resurrection, are in unison with the feelings of the woman who washed his feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head, and who loved much because she had much forgiven. While Jesus hung upon the cross, and committed his mother to the care of the beloved disciple, she was one of those who stood close by. When the awful scene of the crucifixion had been enacted, and even the ordinary spectators among the crowd smote their breasts and retired, she was one of that little band of friends who stood afar off, beholding these things in silent consternation. And when Joseph of Arimathea obtained possession of the body from Pilate, she followed those who took it down from the cross to carry it to the neighbour. ing garden ; and while they laid it in the new sepulchre hewn in stone, she sat with Mary the mother of Joses over against the sepulchre to see how they laid it. The whole of that day of ago nizing grief she had followed and watched him, and then she returned with the other women and prepared spices and ointments, and on the Sab bath day she rested.
St. John gives us a life-like and beautiful account of her acts on the day following that Sabbath— the first blessed Easter Sunday of the world. There is no doubt considerable difficulty in reconciling his account with the inferences we should be dis posed to draw from the statements of the other evangelists, but if we take his narrative for our guide, we shall find Mary Magdalene alone at a very early hour, while it was yet dark, at the sepulchre, where she discovered to her great sur prise'that the stone which closed its entrance had already been removed. She ran to tell Peter and John what she had seen, and when she came to them she said, They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him.' In the meantime other women may have gone to the sepulchre, and that may have occurred which is related by Matthew, Mark, and Luke, as it was probably some distance from the sepulchre to the house of Peter and John. Peter and John ran to the sepulchre and became separated from Mary Magdalene, as well as from each other, and having satisfied themselves as to the fact of the resurrection, returned home. Mary,
who had followed them, still clung to the place. Peter and John had both gone into the sepulchre —she stood without, near it, weeping, not yet con vinced that he was risen. The opening into the sepulchre was so situated that it was necessary to stoop in order either to enter it or to look within it. Mary stooped down, and saw the two angels sitting, the one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. They ask her why she wept ? She answers, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him.' She scarcely seems to view the angels as supernatural beings ; and when she turns round and sees the Lord himself, she fails to recognise him at first, her whole mind being engaged by the one idea of finding his body. We see her tearful preoccupied countenance, and her gaze wandering from side to side, in the ques tion of the Lord, Woman, why weepest thou ? whom seekest thou ?' and she seems to answer with averted face, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away ;' for it was not till she heard the well-known sound of Mary' from his own lips that she turned herself and said unto him, Rabboni.' The sudden change of manner on this recognition, the eager movement to fall before him and embrace his feet, is all but indicated in the words, 'Touch me not.' Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not, for I have not yet ascended to my Father ; but go to my brethren and say to them, I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God. Thus it was that Mary Magdalene received the assurance of our Lord's resurrection, probably a short time after the other women had been convinced of the fact, without seeing him, by the vision of the angels. Then Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that he had spoken these things unto her. The little apparent discre pancies between the several accounts of these mar vellous transactions rather confirm than shake the credibility of the story, and could be reconciled in many ways. We must take each account sepa rately as a picture complete in itself. No scheme for harmonising them, however plausible, can be looked upon as certainly true.
Besides the derivations of the appellation Mag dalene already given, it may be mentioned that Jerome derives it from Migdol, a tower, and Origen from '1i, to be great. The great force of modern opinion, both among Protestants and Roman Catholics, separates Mary Magdalene on the one hand from the penitent woman, and on the other from the sister of Martha. Dr. Pusey and Isaac Williams adhere with Bishop Andrews, Lightfoot, and Baronius, to the supposition of their identity (Dean Alford, Greek Testament ; Words worth, Do. ; Bengel, Lightfoot, Blographie (Int verselle, etc.)—M. H.