Bad Girls of the Bible: Mary Magdalene – The Woman Who Wasn’t What They Said She Was

Alex Andrews
2 days ago
4 min read

When people hear the name Mary Magdalene, the mental Rolodex usually lands on one of three words: prostitute, fallen, sinner. For nearly two thousand years, her reputation has been dragged through the mud by pulpits, paintings, and pop culture.

Here’s the kicker: the Bible never calls her a prostitute. Not once.

So how did one of Jesus’ closest companions - and the very first witness to the resurrection - get reduced to a morality tale in heels? The answer lies in who controlled the narrative (spoiler: not women), and how reputations get skewed to reinforce patriarchal power.

The Real Mary Magdalene

Mary Magdalene shows up in the Gospels more often than most of the male disciples. Consider her actual résumé:

She traveled with Jesus and financially supported his ministry (Luke 8:1–3).
She was present at the crucifixion after most of the male disciples had already run for the hills (Matthew 27:55–56; Mark 15:40).
She was the first witness of the resurrection and the one commissioned to tell the others (John 20:11–18).

That’s not “fallen woman” energy. That’s loyalty, courage, and leadership.

Her name, Magdalene, ties her to the town of Magdala - a fishing village on the Sea of Galilee. Luke does say she was healed of “seven demons” (Luke 8:2), but let’s remember: in the first century, “demons” was a catch-all category. It could mean illness, trauma, or literally anything people didn’t understand. No brothel. No scandal. No “sinful woman.” Just healing.

Mary Magdalene: Not Just a Disciple, But a Patron

The Gospel of Luke is very clear: Mary Magdalene wasn’t just tagging along behind Jesus like an extra in the background. She and a group of other women were literally paying the bills.

“The Twelve were with him, as well as some women… Mary, called Magdalene… Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward Chuza, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their resources.” (Luke 8:1–3)

In other words: she was wealthy. Likely a widow with independent means. And instead of spending her resources polishing her reputation in polite society, she put her money where her faith was and funded an itinerant preacher who was constantly dodging the authorities. That’s not sin - that’s risk.

The early Church, of course, never loved talking about women with money and influence. Easier to remember Magdalene as a weepy “fallen woman” than as a woman who financed the very movement Christianity rests on. But let’s be honest: without Mary Magdalene’s purse strings, Jesus’ traveling ministry might have stalled out somewhere on the Galilee roadside.

The Smear Campaign

Fast-forward about 600 years. Pope Gregory the Great, in a 591 CE sermon, played biblical mix-and-match. He lumped together:

The unnamed “sinful woman” who anoints Jesus’ feet (Luke 7:36–50),
Mary of Bethany, sister of Martha and Lazarus (John 11), and
Mary Magdalene (Luke 8:2).

Voila! Out of thin air, Mary Magdalene was branded the Church’s premier penitent prostitute.

This mashup stuck harder than gum on a sandal. For centuries, she became the poster child of “fallen women redeemed” - the original “before and after” testimony. And just in case that wasn’t damaging enough, entire institutions like the Magdalene laundries in Ireland borrowed her name to justify locking up women accused of sexual sin.

Why Was She Labeled “Bad”?

Simple: powerful women are inconvenient. Mary Magdalene was close to Jesus. She stuck around when men fled. She was first to see the risen Christ. Imagine the nerve!

If the Church let her story stand as-is, we’d have to admit that women not only belonged in the Jesus movement, but led in it. So instead, they bent her into a stereotype: the whore redeemed by grace, not the leader proclaiming resurrection.

Because heaven forbid a woman’s authority come from anything but “being rescued.”

The Lesson for Us Today

Mary Magdalene’s story is textbook reputation warfare. She was rewritten to serve a patriarchal agenda: women’s power is dangerous, women’s sexuality is shameful, and women’s value is in being “redeemed.”

Sound familiar? It should. Sex workers and criminalized women today are still fighting the same playbook:

Labels are slapped on us so others can feel superior.
Survival choices get reframed as sin, vice, or moral failing.
Leadership and brilliance are erased so we can be turned into cautionary tales.

Mary Magdalene’s story reminds us that the way society talks about us often has nothing to do with who we really are - and everything to do with who benefits from our silence.

Reclaiming Magdalene

If we tell the story straight, Mary Magdalene was no “whore turned holy.” She was a disciple, a financial backer, a witness, and - let’s just say it - the first preacher of the resurrection.

Maybe that’s the real reason she got branded “bad”: because she refused to stay silent, and because her voice carried authority that male leaders couldn’t erase without rewriting the script.

And maybe that’s the lesson for us too. Our reputations don’t belong to those who want to weaponize them. They belong to us. Like Magdalene, we get to reclaim our names, our work, and our witness.