Scholars seek to correct Christian tradition on Mary Magdalene

Published: 2006-05-01

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The fanciful fictions about Mary Magdalene in Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code" are not the only errors about the biblical saint that modern scholars are seeking to correct. They are also trying to set straight centuries of erroneous Christian tradition regarding her that developed, especially in the West. In A.D. 591 Pope St. Gregory the Great preached a sermon in which he identified as one person the New Testament figures of Mary Magdalene, the sinful woman who anointed Jesus' feet and washed them with her tears, and the Mary who was the sister of Lazarus and Martha of Bethany. Although he was only reflecting a tradition that had gained some ground in the West (and was resisted by many of the church's early theologians), the sermon became a reference point for later scholarship, teaching and preaching in the West, Father Raymond F. Collins, a New Testament scholar at The Catholic University of America, said in an interview. The Greek Fathers -- the great theologians of the early church in the East, who wrote in Greek -- consistently maintained that Mary Magdalene, the unnamed repentant sinner and Mary of Bethany were three distinct women. That remains the tradition in the Orthodox churches.

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