Mary the Tower or Mary the Repentant Whore
A few years ago, Rev. Chris Jorgensen and I were minding our own business, chatting with each other at a clergy conference, when a man interrupted to ask if we had heard of Mary Magdalene. We nodded, mostly wondering why he felt so inspired to enter our conversation which was clearly private and our space which was not out in the middle of the room but rather quite off to the side. He proudly announced that she was the most important woman and we know that because she had a last name, Magdalene.
“Her name, Magdalene is likely about her village.” I responded to this random white baby-boomer male who felt so comfortable inserting himself in to a private conversation that other women walked by giving us knowing glances. This was new information to the gun packing local pastor whose only training was three weeks of “Pastor Boot Camp.” Since listening and reading social cues were not his strength, the chat only got worse when he found out we “girls” work in Omaha and we need to carry gun; cute ones to fit in a nice handbag.
Migdala was a fishing village along the sea of Galilee, where Jesus was organizing. Scholars, at least the ones that weren’t obsessed with the “repentant whore” narrative that Gregory the not So Great started, saw and still see Mary as a woman running a fishing business. They propose her husband or father must have died, leaving her to run the family fishing business. Perhaps she wasn’t an age contemporary of Jesus but rather his mother Mary. John Dominic Crossen proposes Mary to be a wise, elder in the disciples. She has skills, money, experience and she still bothers Peter with her very presence.
Maybe Mary is from Migdala, a hotbed for rebels and revolution and it’s caves witnessed the slaughter and violence of Jewish revolutionaries seeking freedom from oppressive governments. In Rabbinical writings its a site of women mystics - Job’s beautiful daughters and Miriam’s well. But if European Christianity was obsessed with Mary and Migdala, it was probably because port cities are known for the wealth, sex work and bad behavior (when the sailors come in). There is church built to honor Mary there and a beach with her name but it’s hard to learn more from the land that remains. There is a small archaical dig in this area but in 1984 Israeli government destroyed the Arab village by pushing everything into the sea (Schaberg p19). Finding Mary in Migdala is hard.
The final challenge of Migdala, most of the folks didn’t call the village Migdala in the First Century (https://dianabutlerbass.substack.com/p/mary-the-tower). That’s why Luke says Mary, called Magdalene right there in the Bible.
Magdalene means tower in Aramaic. Mary the Tower. She has a transformative experience and commitment and Jesus names her Mary the Tower. The one we can look too, the one we can see when we are unsure and uncertain. The one that can help us find our way. The refuge in struggle. The one that stands tall. (Bourgeault). It’s not just Mary, folks have an experience with the divine and they change so much even their names is different.
Saul becomes Paul. On the road to Damasks he encounters God and he miss never the same, the scales fall from his eyes and he can see in new ways.
Simon becomes Peter the rock, he names Jesus as the messiah, dives in with mistakes and grace and Jesus loves him into the Rock.
Jacob wrestles with God, all night he wrestles with the harm he caused his brother and in the morning he transformed. God names him Israel.
Sarah and Abraham weren’t Sarah and Abraham until they encountered God’s promise as vast as the stars in the sky. Sarah even laughs into God’s promise laughs and the divine encounter delights in her transformation.
Bourgeault, Bass and others argue that Mary of Bethany is Mary Magdalene. That Mary of Bethany has a transformative moment and Jesus names her the tower. Perhaps in the Gospel of John it is easier to see, Mary of Bethany anoints Jesus and Mary Magdalene is the one at the cross. The challenge of finding Mary Magdalene, is that practically everyone is named Mary. And with so many Marys how can be hard to tell them all apart. It’s like when I was growing up and all the girls were named Brittney and the boys were named Jason (so that’s really from Hercules, but you get the point.)
This quest is made even more challenging when we look deeply. There is editing at play, to elevate Peter and lessen Mary, her name gets lost. In Luke a mystery woman anoints Jesus even through Jesus says she will always be remembered. And then there is this deep curiosity Dana Buttler Bass elevates, Mary and Martha in Luke might be different from Mary and Martha and Lazarus in John.
In Luke, Martha invites Jesus into her home, she does this with the same authority and language that Jason and Zacchaeus will do later. If she has a brother named Lazarus, Martha can’t invite anyone into her home because it wouldn’t be hers. Later when Martha asks Mary to help her host, we always assume she wants to put Mary in the kitchen. We always imagine Martha, like Julia Child running around with flour in her hair and a chicken in the oven. The church loves to make Martha into a female chauvinist pig; keeping her sister in the kitchen. But the language tells a different story. Martha invites Mary into leadership, not servitude. It is the same service that the church will apply to apostles and ministry. The lesson that Jesus teaches is that even Martha needs to center, Martha you are distracted isn’t like she can’t focus it’s this reminder that she is deeply overwhelmed and overburdened and she needs to sit down and focus. And frankly, the thing that I am shocked to have never noticed is that this story does not happen in Bethany. Mary and Martha are of a certain village and Bethany doesn’t really make sense when you look at the map.
The Gospel of John has Mary and Martha and Lazarus. And this is the point in the gospel where women confess Jesus as the Lord, not Peter. A graduate student looking at the newly digitized manuscripts from the ancient world found something that apparently no one noticed before, which is on this oldest test of the Gospel of John some of the Mary’s in this passage have the name Martha written over them. It’s papyrus 66 and scholars are hearing from her and discerning what to do about it. Lazarus has one sister, the plural is added. Martha’s name is added to this story, right over Mary. Mary becomes two women, one sister becomes two sisters. Why?
Maybe some one assumed it was so? Maybe they wanted it to tie in better with Luke? Maybe they assumed it a typo. Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead is a pretty significant text, which means preachers like to preach on it. The further curiosity from this time in early Christianity is that church fathers, like Tertullian, only talk about Mary and Lazaarus. Did their Gospel of John only have Mary?
Mary the Tower. We can only imagine what faith we might have inherited if the church had decided to look to Mary for wisdom. Instead the church became obsessed with Mary, not for her wisdom but in the model of repentant sinner, reformed prostitute. The church runs wild with stories, she was the bride at the wedding of Cana when the groom, they decided is John converts to follow Jesus and she ends up in the field of sex work. Another proposes, she and Lazarus and Martha have royal, wealthy parents but Mary loves pleasure and abandons her body to sin. Europe is obsessed, an not in a cool way. In 1267 the Dominican Archbishop of Genoa the legends. Europe is in love with her, there are 700 manuscripts, 190 shrines, 600 venerated relics and 170 churches with her name (Schaberg p 50). These stories are rarely connected with Mary as a leader but more completely obsessed with her sinful sexuality and her conversion to a good girl. Even she heals people, supports people and invites people to christianity in Southern France (after getting there on a rudderless boat btw) she sends them to meet Peter in Rome to get the real teaching. That Mary, just so perfect for the Patriarchy.
Maybe that’s why we have a confusing number of Mary’s and wild sexy stories. But even with 2000 years of edits, mistakes, bad sermons, not so great popes named Gregory and cultural norms that keep us from looking for her, Mary the Tower still shines through. Mary of Bethany might just be the one who stands tall, in the Gospel of John Mary names Jesus as the one who could have saved her brother Lazarus, because he brings salvation that is healing. Mary may ride a rudderless boat to France and help women in the pain of birth, but what we do know is she witnesses to life of Jesus even in his darkest hours, without flenching, fear or despair. She offers love and anointing, she does the work of healing from seven demons and she is the first preacher of Easter. Mary the tower, has something to teach us about our faith.