Viewing the recently released film, “Mary Magdalene,” wasn’t quite as boring as watching paint dry, but the comparison did come to mind. I did wonder at various points how much longer it would go on. And that’s a shame, because Mary of Magdala is an intriguing character. We don’t really know all that much about her, but there is at least an interesting “reception history.”
She was from Magdala, often identified as a village north of Tiberias on the western side of Lake Galilee. Per Luke 8:1-3, she was one of a number of women who followed Jesus along with the familiar twelve disciples, and is said to have been delivered from seven evil spirits (by Jesus we presume). In Mark 15:40, she and other women disciples see Jesus die, then where he was buried (15:47), and then discover the empty tomb (16:1-8).
It is the Gospel of John, however…
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