An Infallible Fiction
Would the real Mary Magdalene please stand up?
In Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ (2004), controversial for more than its violence, Mary Magdalene crawls toward Jesus’ feet after he saves her from stoning. The Gospels of Mark and Luke name Mary Magdalene as a woman from whom Jesus drives devils, whereas the adulteress he saves from stoning in John and the sinful woman who anoints his feet in Luke 7, often portrayed as a prostitute, are left unnamed. Thus, it would seem that Gibson has erred. However, he’s in good company. According to Amy Welborn in Mary Magdalene: Truth, Legends and Lies, the one most to blame for the conflating of women in the Gospels is Pope Gregory I, who I’m told was infallible.