How did Mary Magdalene serve God?

Answer 1

Roman Catholic AnswerSt. Mary of Magdala was one of Jesus' most famous disciples. She first appears in the Gospel as the woman whom Jesus cleansed of seven demons (see Mark 16:9 and Luke 8:2). She accompanied Jesus "through towns and villages" and along with several other women provided for him and his disciples out of their own resources (Luke 8:1-2). She was at his crucifixion, burial, and one of the first to find the tomb empty, and to have the risen Jesus appear to her.

It would appear that the "seven demons" refer to a healing of a physical ailment and that she is not the Mary of Bethany who anointed Jesus' feet in John (12:3-7) nor the penitent in Luke (7:37-48). She was not the prostitute of the Gospels.

Christian Answer

Magdala means tower in Hebrew. A Magdalene was someone who lived in Magdala, a town on Lake Galilee, or in some other town controlled or formerly controlled by the "Tower People" or Tyrians of Tyre (Hebrew Tsor or Migdol). Thus she was not Jewish but Phoenician and probably the Syro-Phoenician woman's daughter.

William Flinders Petrie found a huge Tyrian base at Memphis (Migdol, Raamses or Pithom of The Bible) in his excavations there between 1908 and 1914. The prophet Jeremiah went down to Migdol-Memphis to tell the Jews who fled there after Nebuchadnezzaer's destruction of Judea that they should return to Judea.

Why did God want this woman to be in the Garden of the Tomb to be the first to meet the resurrected Jesus? I suspect this goes back to the strange incident involving Jesus and the "Syro-Phoenician woman". Jesus seemed to strangely and almost disinterestedly rebuff the woman but she kept pleading and then there was the interchange about feeding gentile dogs and small house dogs receiving the master's crumbs. I suspect this led to the Magdalene, the healed daughter of that woman, to join the band of Jewish women who served Jesus. That led her to be at the tomb to help mummify the body on the Sunday, the Jewish Sabbath being a work-less day.

Thus she represents women and gentiles at that scene in the Garden of the Tomb where the terrible news of that fateful day when ("The First") Adam and Eve stood in the Garden of Eden was reversed. Mary was there to figure with the Last Adam (Jesus) and hear that He would ascend to "My Father and your Father, My God and your God" to present His blood as the atonement before God's throne. We note thatJesus also said, "Go tell my (Jewish) brothers that I ascend ... "etc. Obviously from that we can infer that she was not Jewish. The reason why she got the label "Magdalene" is that to label her "Phoenician" would upset the Greek and Roman readers of the gospels so the writers used this code-name instead.

No Jew would ever concoct a story of a risen Messiah appearing first of all to a Phoenician-Gentile woman, rather than His Mother, unless that is precisely what did happen! Peter and John saw something in the way the grave-clothes were arranged that made them realise Jesus had resurrected after all. Jesus said to Martha "I AM THE RESURRECTION". They remembered all that talk and realised what had happened but Mary did not enter the tomb and in their excitement they ran off without so much as a "He is Risen" to Mary. But Jesus orchestrated things this way in order to set up the scene just described so that you may know Jesus the Christ did resurrect from the dead in 30 AD as the New Testament says. It is such an unlikely scene, and so improbable from a Jewish perspective, indeed from most perspectives, that it could only be true. Therefore, one can be assured that Jesus The Christ (Messiah of Israel) is coming back - and the Antichrist is on his way too!

Until William Flinders Petrie realised the ancient city of Memphis in Egypt was also known as "Migdol", we had been in the dark about the meaning of this Mary's surname. By the way, the prefix "sur" in 'surname' is derived from the Hebrew word for the city of Tyre (Tsor or Tsur), famous for its towers (Migdolim) which protected commercial stocks. The French write "Sur" for Tyre and the English write "Tyre". A city-port with the name Sur lies on the coast of Oman. Syracuse and Tarsus are names for former Tyrian colonies.

Unfortunately, the Academy has badly distorted ancient history so that most people are unaware of these connections. The Academy has organised history into a false framework so that the Bible's accounts appear to be erroneous. It's the universities that are in error.

Fortunately, the Bible has been protected by God so that people can re-organise the Academy's version in order to produce the truth. The Truth is that Jesus resurrected from the dead and virtually proved that by setting up the incidents we read of in the Gospels by which Mary Magdalene came to be the only one present when Jesus first appeared in a resurrected physical body, not as a ghost or spirit. That's why Jesus could say "I AM THE WAY, THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE" and claim that no one could come to God the Father except through him.

That is how Mary Magdalene served God. It is quite possible that she and Joseph of Arithamea travelled around the world, or the Mediterranean and Europe, to testify that they were the last to see the buried body of Jesus (Joseph) and the first to see the risen Christ (Mary). Their travels may account for later concoctions about Joseph and Mary the step-father and mother of Jesus travelling to Britain and South France etc.

The very early Christians like Joseph of Arithamea and Mary Magdalene spread the Gospel or Good News about Jesus The Christ and his very physical resurrection. But later emissaries from Rome counterfeited their original message that He is Risen in bodily form. They said he is just risen in spirit form or "in my heart" and depict His body still hanging on the cross. The arrival of the Antichrist and the Return of the Christ will settle that debate. For now, one has to wait and see.

Answer 2

Mary Magdalene is recognized as one of the women who followed Jesus and supported his ministry. She is often portrayed as a devoted disciple who witnessed Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection, and who shared the news of his resurrection with others. Mary Magdalene showed her love and service to God through her faithfulness and commitment to Jesus.