Mary Magdalene: Discrimination in Biblical Times and Still Today

By Linda Hansell

The Bible does not say Mary Magdalene was a prostitute, but some people today still believe that. What the Bible does tell about Mary Magdalene, however, is heavily slanted toward the culture with women considered inferior and men totally dominating their lives. Attempting

• Language: English
• Publisher: Authors Press
• Release date: Dec 19, 2022
• ISBN: 9781643147734

Linda Hansell

Almost a lifetime resident of Virginia, she was born in West Virginia and moved at the age of four. She still saw a lot of the U.S. traveling for her work and has been to Europe on vacations. She was a working mother while building a career with the federal government, and loved both positions. With federal workforce changes after Congress passed the Equal Rights Amendment, she became a spokesperson for women and it became a lifetime interest. She and her second husband, Bill Hansell, met on the job and when retired, moved from northern Virginia to make their home in a rural area near Williamsburg. She realized she had been writing all her life and enjoyed it, but had been mostly technical in nature. Feeling her Christian faith is always guiding her, she is writing in her retirement years by combining her faith, love of history, and as an advocate for women. She and Bill combined their families of her son and his three daughters and now have one grandson and three granddaughters. A member of the Williamsburg United Methodist Church, she is also on the Board of Directors for the College of William and Mary Wesley Foundation.

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Copyright © 2022 by Linda Hansell

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INTRODUCTION

I never planned to

write a book. I wonder how many people who wrote books said that. I expected what I was writing to be short. At 78 years, I had started all the new adventures I wanted in my lifetime. I still find new interests but I had not anticipated my interest in the life of Mary Magdalene would lead me to a new adventure. Reading about Mary Magdalene in the Bible, I detected clues that could expand her story and I might find out who she truly was. Organizing my notes, I typed six double-spaced pages. Done! However, new materials seemed to pop up overnight and I was surprised that my regular periodicals had articles on Mary Magdalene and the history of her time. My notes were growing.

One of my most powerful thoughts came from the discrimination Mary Magdalene and the women of her time would have suffered. That explained for me why so little is written about women in the Bible, and it struck a nerve. I had been a victim of gender discrimination along with the women of my time. I would have more privileges than Mary Magdalene, but still the foundation of gender discrimination was still alive in my generation. It was an eye-opener when I realized it had taken two-thousand years to get from Mary Magdalene’s generation to the time gender discrimination would legally come to an end. For the United States it would be the first time in the history of our country when women citizens were no longer treated as second class. I had no idea about this as a young adult and that we only now were coming out of the dark ages for women.

I thought of the young women today who may not know how to recognize or know what it feels like to be discriminated against simply for being female. I have by this time learned to stand up for women’s rights; and I cannot express too strongly how important it is to maintain awareness to insure women never lose those rights. I added to my notes some early personal experiences in contending with gender discrimination on the job. Then when the federal government passed legislation to protect women, including civil service employees like me, life changed for women and the men, too. I could not type fast enough as memories flooded my mind, releasing feelings I thought long buried. I could not write about discrimination against women without touching on prejudice for reasons other than gender; they are closely related.

I worked on my notes sometimes seven days a week, and usually ended the day when I felt I had finished what I was writing; but the next morning new ideas would come. I repeated this daily scenario for weeks that grew into months. But it was not a chore; I was enjoying it and it felt like the Holy Spirit was making this a team effort. I ask for your indulgence when I bring up my faith. It comes through with everything I do because it is always there. It is one reason I wanted to know more about Mary Magdalene, but the driving force was knowing how history had been so unfair to her memory. It is important for me to say that I never expect or ask anyone to believe as I do. I do not expect you to know who I am. I believe you are required only to know who you are.

After typing maybe seventy pages of notes, I surprised myself by saying out loud, I am writing a book! Now I could own up to what it felt like I was doing, and my immediate concern was lack of credentials. I am not a theologian, historian or scholastically connected to any university. Maybe learning in the religious world, reading all my life, and just living life for a long time could count. After all, God’s values and human values are not necessarily the same. I kept writing and kept on reading everything I could find.

I have loved all kinds of history since childhood, particularly biographies because I can be inspired and learn from other people’s stories. I continued to read the Bible and ultimately added other religious and spiritual books by contemporary authors in my faith journey. As years went by, I expanded to other areas that became interesting to me like nature, science and animals. I rely on the knowledge my reading has provided with the Holy Spirit nudging me along these paths.

I believe Mary Magdalene was most blessed because she shared time with Jesus when he walked the earth. Still, I knew Mary Magdalene had been cheated just by being female; and even after her death, a stain was put on her reputation so she would not receive the honor she so richly deserved. This was my conclusion after putting together a more comprehensive story for Mary Magdalene than what is written in the Bible. It never felt like I was making up a story. I was sticking to the truths I could find in my research and based my conclusions on them. I give reasons for any of my conclusions.

My purpose in writing this book is to know there is more to the story of Mary Magdalene and her importance to Jesus and the Christian faith. Her story has not been told accurately or adequately enough to recognize the person she truly was and to prove to the world Mary Magdalene had not been a prostitute, ever.

My introduction to Jesus came through wonderful parents who simply wanted me in church, so they took me there as a baby. One of the first books my parents gave me as I got a little older was First Steps for Little Feet and I miss it today, even with its crayon scribbles. My first church was the Evangelical United Brethren Church in West Virginia. I remember little of it because I was too young. We moved to Virginia when I was four years old, during World War II. We did not have a car; few people then did. The neighborhood church we could walk to was Southern Baptist and became our new church home.

I loved Sunday School. I still have a vivid memory of the family oversleeping one Sunday morning when I was five years old and my daddy saying we were too late. I threw a tantrum and no coaxing would change my mind. Daddy quickly dressed while mommy put clothes on me, and the two of us walked as fast as we could to the church. We were still late, but I did not care. I was again the happy little girl. You might have guessed by now I was an only child.

Church attendance was a major part of my growing up years, and I experienced diversity with friends of different faiths. The little girl next door was Catholic and an only child like me, and the little girl across the street was Church of God. It made no difference; we were friends who played together and loved each other, most days.

In the years ahead and eventually marriage, and moving a few times within a small radius of Virginia, I would join several neighborhood Baptist churches, and raised two children in the Baptist faith. A life-changing crisis was endured with the loving support of my Baptist Pastor and his wife, special friends, and the entire church congregation taking care of our family. But our beloved Pastor left this church with his family to become missionaries, in the heat of our family crisis. A new pastor would come, the church fell apart and half the congregation would eventually leave, including my family. No details required; it happens.

I could not feel at home in another Baptist Church, and my husband and I tried all of them in the area. We had been through the painful experience of losing a child, with the loss of my church home on top of it. We already felt defeated and we gave up. I would not attend church again for thirty years.

Having no church home had to affect my faith, but my faith never left me. I continued working my job and eventually experienced the women’s equal rights movement that changed my future. I divorced, but this had more to do with life’s difficulties than not attending church or my being involved in the women’s movement. I know a lot of Christian people are sure these were the causes, but I know better. Experiencing such overwhelming grief, it is a well documented fact the divorce rate is abnormally high for parents who lose a child.

I married again about five years later. My second husband and I met through our work and I would find new happiness. I was thinking this would be the final new adventure of my life. Well, almost. Ten years after we married, my husband and I retired on the same day and moved to the south-eastern part of Virginia. I had worked thirty-four years for the federal government, but we both soon took part-time jobs because we wanted some new adventures after all. I love working and having the responsibility of a job. We both discovered a successful and happy second career was doing something entirely different from our first careers. We now could have a fun job and not be concerned about things that counted the first time around, like money and prestige. My husband began teaching Tai Chi, and after all those years in government finance, I became concierge at a luxury hotel.

My husband and I built a new life in a country setting and formed new friendships. We were not that far from old friends and family in northern Virginia who we could still visit, and we could be there quickly if needed. My mother and father lived apart and thinking of future responsibilities became a major reason in selecting our retirement destination.

After a few years settling in our more relaxed lifestyle, I had an awakening shortly before one Easter. I wanted to attend an Easter church service. A large church on my way to where I worked had posted the times for services and the 8:00 a. m. service was perfect for me to be at work by 9:30 a. m. (there are no weekends, holidays or special days for employees in the hotel business). That Sunday service seemed to be the most beautiful Easter service I had ever attended. No new Easter outfit like the tradition of the past; I had on my hotel uniform. But it did not matter how I looked, I felt familiar arms of love around me. I knew I would go back.

At the church door the next Sunday, it suddenly hit me and I said to myself, God, what are you thinking? I am not even a Methodist. But the pull of that church was so strong, and I knew I was sent where God wanted me. No one was taking me here; and as far as I knew, none of my friends went here. I had simply felt a spiritual love engulfing me that first Sunday, and I would soon become a member, joining the choir and having active roles on committees.

I was surprised to learn the Evangelical United Brethren Church had combined with the Methodist Church years ago and became the United Methodist Church. Maybe it was not about leaving the Baptist denomination, after all. It could be I had come home to the church where I had been taken as a baby. But I would eventually get another answer to the question I had asked God that Sunday morning. I was led to this church because the Methodist faith was ready for me. It was never intended to put down my Baptist faith, and I will always appreciate growing up in the faith and the years I was there. But my life had changed over those thirty years. I had become a women’s advocate and could not be silent if I witnessed segregation or lack of opportunity for women to be leaders, and in the case of my church, the clergy. The United Methodist Church had made that transition. I did not know if the Baptist Church now allowed women to be deacons but I knew there were yet to be women Southern Baptist ministers and therefore, not ready for me yet. I realized how unhappy I might have been in the Baptist church at this time, and even more aware of how unhappy the Baptist church could have been with me.

I am now retired from the hotel where I spent another eighteen years working and I no longer have the work-on-Sundays reason for driving to town that provided the opportunity to attend my church. Although I have a distance to go from where I live, it is my church home and I drive there knowing it is where I am meant to be, at least for now. During my time at this large church, four different women have served as Associate Pastor, moving on to become the Senior Pastor at their own church, and the Minister of Congregational Care is a woman Pastor at this church for years. I am not concerned about the Senior Pastor being a man; the best person for the job at the time may just happen to be a man.

I have never known a woman stepping into a higher position thinking of it as taking over; it has been more like joining the men. The Senior Pastor of my church is supportive of women in leadership positions. Besides women clergy and women chairing a variety of committees in the church, our Methodist District Supervisor currently is a woman and our Virginia Methodist Bishop is a woman. I love this church because there are no distinctions about who should come, the doors are open to everyone and the overall mission is to help others. I do not know a lot about cause and effect, but this is the happiest church I have ever known.

Writing about Mary Magdalene led me down another path, to speak out for women’s rights so the world might understand why it has been so difficult and why it is so important. I wish for everyone to understand what happened and I use this opportunity to urge women to remain diligent to safeguard the rights women now have. The title of this book is expected to catch the attention of women, but I hope to interest men in reading it as well.

I believe this book can provide understanding of the life women were once dealt and why change was important. Men had lived a certain way for centuries and probably few have a desire to look back at women’s history. For some there would be little interest and maybe some do not want to know for fear of what might be revealed. But men will realize most women do not hold grudges; women understand men were caught up in the same life cycle they had been. The life women lived was all they had known and they may have failed to realize it could have been different. The way life played out for men was all the men had known, too.

Women’s rights are still being challenged every day. It has been a long road to equality in the United States and a long way ahead to freeing all women from abuse in the world. I hope my story will interest women and men in continuing to end gender discrimination and abuse once and for all. It cannot be considered accomplished until gender equality is no longer questioned in any part of the world. There is much left to do.

CHAPTER ONE

Although she lived two-thousand

years ago, the name Mary Magdalene is easily recognized today but not everyone recognizes her to be the same person. Mary Magdalene is the name Jesus called her. Adding Magdalene to her name has helped identify her from other women named Mary in the Bible. She was Mary of Magdala, a town located on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee and is why she would be called the Magdalene. The Bible tells about Mary Magdalene; however, so little is written she is more mystery than what we can know.

It is not unusual that people think they know more about Mary Magdalene but it would have come from sources other than the Bible. Mary Magdalene has been characterized in apparently oral stories as several different women in the Bible, particularly those women the Bible does not name. That has contributed to a wide spectrum of who she might be, from harlot to saint. But what is most important, nowhere in the Bible is the woman named Mary Magdalene accused of any wrongdoing.

The Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican and Lutheran Churches eventually would declare Mary Magdalene a Saint, and she has a Feast Day. Maybe not as popular as another Mary in the Bible, Jesus’ mother, but I believe Mary Magdalene possibly also played a major role in Jesus’ life. We have clues in the Bible although little confirmation of the full extent of her life’s role. She obviously is important because the Bible names her, a distinction only a few women were so privileged. Because of Jesus’ interaction with Mary Magdalene, she is a part of history, but I am thinking there must be a reason why the Bible would tell so little about her. I am thankful at least to know of her existence. In the culture of the time she lived, women mostly had been left out of writings. Men had total rule over women and all decisions having to do with women were made by men.

I could not help but wonder why late in life I feel drawn to the story of Mary Magdalene after knowing of her for most of my life. I have felt there must be a purpose. I began researching materials for information not found in the Bible and now have pondered her life to the point where I feel I have met Mary Magdalene. I sensed as women we could have had some of the same experiences regardless of the centuries between us. You relate to people with similar experiences and maybe we had some of the same feelings and same thoughts. I can at least know Mary Magdalene and I experienced discrimination for nothing more than being born female.

I found it hard to fathom that women had lived with this same state of affairs from the time of Mary Magdalene all the way to my generation; women did not have equality with men. It made me wonder how all the women who had lived over a period of two-thousand years, and more, could let this continue. We will come back to the question, but first, let us become more familiar with Mary Magdalene and what it is like for women living in a male-dominated world. We will look at what has changed as well as what still needs to be changed. For a start, possibly we can discern more of Mary Magdalene’s story by attempting to add the part not told in the Bible. Researching the Bible along with other written material about the life of Mary Magdalene, I would discover how culture affected both women and men and how this would color almost every part of the Bible. I developed a better understanding of some scriptures, what was happening and why. I will go into this experience more later, but I want everyone to know this does not take away my love of the Bible even though I no longer believe in its perfection. I believe the Bible is meant for everyone today but that had not always been true. The Bible was created by assembling early writings by men and for men. For as far back as we know, women were considered inferior and there was no reason to think women should be interested in the Bible. Women would be told what men thought women should know.

It is a clear possibility the Bible was not even created for all men. The early Christian church consisted of Eastern and Western Orthodox and around the time the Bible was created, Western Orthodox broke away to become the Roman Catholic Church. Scholars have agreed for years the Bible is Orthodox thinking. The Catholic Church throughout history believed only priests should read the Bible and pass on to the believers the messages interpreted through divine intervention. This information is from history and not the faith, but it is well known members of the Catholic Church were discouraged from reading the Bible themselves and this attitude did not change until the middle twentieth century. The Bible therefore had been created only for clergy rather than all believers.

Considering the culture in the time of Paul, I now know Paul most likely began his teaching expecting only men to read his letters to the early churches, and for me what had seemed to be conflicts took on new meaning. Scriptures written by Paul can be a good example. Paul said, In every place of worship, I want men to pray with holy hands lifted up to God, free from anger and controversy. (1st Tim. 2: 8 NLT) The commentary in the Life Application Study Bible builds on this statement but makes no explanation about the use of the word men. There is no reason to believe Paul meant men as in all human beings, because in his next sentence, Paul addresses women saying, and I want women to be modest in their appearance. There can be little doubt Paul was instructing men to pray and saw women only in the background. I am sure women had scriptures read to them in churches over thousands of years to back up men subjugating women in the Christian faith. And it has not been very long ago, in my lifetime, when women began to take their place with clergy and other leadership roles in the Christian church, at least in some Protestant churches.

In his same letter, Paul added—to equip the saints for the work of ministry, building up the body of Christ. We can know Paul was talking specifically to the men and was not looking to women building up the body of Christ, gathering converts for the Christian church. Paul in his writings was not kind to women. He was either establishing rules like women’s manner of dress or telling them to be silent. I must remember Paul was not a follower when Jesus lived on earth. He had never seen Jesus with either Mary Magdalene or interacting with any of the women followers; therefore, Paul did not have the opportunity to learn from Jesus’ example. We know what the culture was like for women when Paul lived and, therefore, all Paul had ever known was male domination and subjugation of women. But there is also something else to remember when reading such an ancient book as the Bible, there is so much we cannot know.

One of the major questions is who actually wrote the writings that make up the Bible we know. Most forward thinking theologians have questioned if the four gospels in the Bible were written by the disciples themselves or could they be written by others who heard the stories told by the disciples. None were written immediately following the happenings by probably thirty years or more. There is the question of who could read and write in those days; also, this was not a culture where the written word was prevalent nor any reason to think people had the desire or were encouraged to put their knowledge into written words. This questioning of the gospels no doubt extends to all the books of the Bible. In Paul’s defense, it is feasible the Book of Timothy could have been written by someone else and the emotions you pick up toward women could have been those of another writer rather than Paul. We know there would be women with Paul in his ministry.

There is an important point to make here. I believe it is best to read the Bible with an open mind. Consider there are likely circumstances we may not know when something seems out of the normal or particularly judgmental; therefore, I do not want to be adamant about how I interpret anything in the Bible because there’s so much we cannot know. I have not questioned the words attributed to Jesus in the Bible; but I do question some of what a disciple might say about Jesus. I am particularly suspicious of anything where God’s love has been removed.

There is something else attributed to Paul, being against marriage for men who devote themselves to the Christian life. No matter from whom this came, this advice is seriously being questioned as the church has experienced many complications by demanding celibacy of the priesthood. The church has criminal actions the church now must answer. What is particularly regretful is the church condoning criminal behavior of offending priests by protecting them at the expense of good and faithful priests doing God’s work. The Catholic church has not wanted for people within its ranks needing forgiveness. Regardless of their position or ranking, they are human beings and fallible as are all human beings, but we cannot let crimes continue at the expense of unsuspecting victims for what they think is the good of the church. The seriousness of this situation has only come to the public’s attention within a very few years. It is frightening to think how long this criminal attitude was allowed to continue.

Women of past centuries seemed to have been more isolated and this contributed to maintaining the status quo for centuries where men ruled. Women today have learned to stand together in greater numbers than ever before which started opening doors to a new way of life for women. There still is much yet that needs to change. Gender equality is not worldwide and there are still spots in the United States where women have yet to join ranks with their sisters and accept nothing less than full equality. There are still women who allow certain institutions to treat them as inferior to men which I believe is meant to be corrected. Women now having equality with men by law must remain aware of any situation where women do not have equality and must remain diligent in promoting and protecting women’s rights. It may not seem likely, but laws that now protect women can be changed.

As would be expected, there have been major changes in how people lived spanning two-thousand years, both women and men. In addition to continuing growth in science and technology which obviously changed the culture, other factors changed the culture, too. And, what we learned as change is hoped for, experience proved human nature to be the toughest change of all. When it came to status of women, as well as different races, changes before the twentieth century had been relatively ineffective in changing peoples’ thinking about the equality of all humankind.

In the twentieth century, although my generation was destined to experience women’s rights and equality with men for the first time in the United States, women had to first figure out how to change themselves. I remember as children we learned about the suffragists winning the right to vote for our grandmothers and future generations of women. I do not think we were that impressed; it seemed like a good story along with all the other stories we learned in the history of our country. In particular, we did not see the story continue so we had no idea there could be a finale. We now know there were at least a few women who saw the right to vote as only the beginning. When I finally realized as a maturing adult what these women had to do and the length of time it had taken, I was horrified! In the time I already had lived, I had no idea there were rights being withheld from me.

From what I could read about the time when women won the right to vote, both men and women likely were thinking, what else could women possibly want? There were some women who wanted more, but there were still more women who did not think they should want more. The lack of women’s solidarity always would be a stumbling block for women’s equality, and the education of women as to who they are and the rights they should have would become a prime necessity for the success of any women’s movement.

Looking back at history preceding the twentieth century, women experienced situations young women of today can hardly believe. For centuries, women were prohibited to own property, keep the wages they might earn, legally make a contract or initiate a suit in court. In addition, women would be segregated in churches and other organizations and most likely they felt separated from the mainstream without totally understanding how it was affecting them. Then on top of this, culture and tradition had added a long list of what women would not be allowed to do. I believe at that time women were not even to have an opinion, or at least one that counted for anything. Everything belonged to men and men had full dominion over the lives of women.

Considering American history, probably most evident in the seventeenth through the nineteenth centuries, many women entered marriage out of necessity. Marriage would be the biggest change in a woman’s life, and it may have seemed important because it was expected to lead to motherhood. What was important was a woman found someone to provide a life for her and financial support no matter how meager.

Hopefully the husband would treat his wife with some degree of kindness. Everything depended on the husband, and the wife belonged to him to be treated in what manner he chose. We find in the history of those earlier centuries, women desperate to marry. There is an example in seventeenth century Virginia, beginning in 1607 when the original English colonists arrived in North America attempting to successfully establish the first permanent English colony (two previous attempts had failed).

The first ships to arrive in 1607 brought only men and boys and a manifest