Mary

AI summary: Mary Magdalene matters because the cross references present her as a faithful witness when many others have scattered. She appears among the women at the crucifixion, at the tomb, and in the first morning of resurrection discovery, and John's Gospel gives her a particularly intimate role in encountering the risen Jesus. The Gospels do not treat her as marginal support, but as one of the clearest witnesses to the climactic turn from death to life. Taken together, the material presents this Mary as a devoted disciple whose presence links the Passion and resurrection with unusual clarity.¹

A surname derived from Magdala, the place of her nativity, given to one of the Marys of the Gospels to distinguish her from the other Marys (Matt. 27:56, 61; 28:1, etc.). A mistaken notion has prevailed that this Mary was a woman of bad character, that she was the woman who is emphatically called “a sinner” (Luke 7:36-50). (See MARY.) ³