Who Was Mary Magdalene? The Gospels, the Gnostic Texts and the Legends

Mary Magdalene is the woman who stayed. She stood at the cross, waited at the tomb, and in the Gospel of John she is the first to see the risen Jesus, called by name in the garden at dawn. Centuries of myth have buried her, and beneath that myth is one of the most luminous figures on the Christian mystical path. This guide follows her through the Gospels, the Gnostic texts that remember her as a teacher, the legend of Provence, and the visionary and mystical traditions that still speak her name.

Who Was Mary Magdalene?

Mary Magdalene was one of Jesus’s most devoted followers. Her name probably points to Magdala, a fishing town on the Sea of Galilee, and she appears in all four Gospels. She is named at the crucifixion, at the burial, and at the empty tomb. In the Gospel of John (20:11 to 18) she is the first person to see the risen Jesus and is sent to tell the others. Because of this, early writers such as Hippolytus (3rd century) called her the “apostle to the apostles.”

Beyond that, the New Testament says very little about her life. Luke 8:2 says seven demons had gone out of her, and that she supported Jesus’s ministry with her own resources, alongside other women. Almost everything else people say about her comes from later writings and legend.

What the Gospels Say

Notice what is missing. No canonical Gospel calls her a prostitute, and none says she was married to Jesus.

How She Became “the Repentant Sinner”

In 591 CE, Pope Gregory the Great gave a sermon that merged three women: Mary Magdalene, the unnamed “sinful woman” who anoints Jesus (Luke 7), and Mary of Bethany. For centuries, Western tradition pictured Mary Magdalene as a reformed prostitute. The Gospels do not support this. In 1969 the Catholic Church quietly dropped the identification from its liturgical calendar. In 2016, Pope Francis raised her July 22 observance from a memorial to a feast, the same rank as the apostles, and affirmed her title as “apostle of the apostles.”

Mary in the Gnostic and Apocryphal Texts

Outside the New Testament, Mary appears as a spiritual leader.

• Gospel of Mary (2nd century): found in a Cairo codex bought in 1896, and published in 1955. In it Mary comforts the disciples and shares a vision from Jesus, which causes Peter to question her. Levi defends her.
• Gospel of Philip (found at Nag Hammadi): calls her Jesus’s koinonos, a Greek word for companion. A famous line about Jesus kissing her is partly missing from the manuscript, so scholars cannot be sure what the original said.
• Gospel of Thomas, saying 114, has Peter objecting to Mary’s presence and Jesus saying he will guide her.

These texts show that some early Christians remembered Mary as a favored disciple and a source of teaching. Scholars such as Karen L. King, in The Gospel of Mary of Magdala (2003), argue that the texts reveal a real early debate about women’s authority. Learn more in our guide to the Gnostic Gospels.

Was Mary Magdalene Married to Jesus?

The idea that Jesus and Mary were married is popular but unproven. No ancient source says so directly. Supporters point to the Gospel of Philip’s word “companion,” to Mary’s prominence, and to the likelihood that a Jewish man of that age would be married. Critics note that the sources are silent, that “companion” need not mean wife, and that the earliest texts that discuss the idea are late and symbolic.

The modern theory was spread by Holy Blood, Holy Grail (1982) and Dan Brown’s novel The Da Vinci Code (2003). Those books are speculation, and the story endures because it touches something people long for: a sacred union of the masculine and feminine, and a divine love that is fully human. In 2012, Harvard professor Karen King announced a papyrus fragment with the words “Jesus said to them, my wife,” which was later widely judged to be a modern forgery. Our guests have explored the bloodline idea from different angles, including Freddy Silva.

The Legend of Mary Magdalene in France

A medieval legend says Mary Magdalene sailed to southern France after the crucifixion and spent her last years as a hermit in a cave at La Sainte-Baume in Provence. The story was spread widely in the 13th century by The Golden Legend and by the pilgrimage center at Vezelay. In the legend she spent her last years in prayer and silence, and the grotto remains a place of pilgrimage where people come to sit in stillness. The story is carried by devotion rather than documents, and for many pilgrims that is where its power lives.

Timeline: How the Image of Mary Changed

What Mary Magdalene Means for Seekers Today

For many people, Mary represents the path of devotion, inner knowing and love. Contemplative writers such as Cynthia Bourgeault, in The Meaning of Mary Magdalene (2010), see her as a model of spiritual intimacy with the divine. For others she stands for the recovery of women’s voices in religion. Whatever your view, her story invites you to ask who gets heard, and what we lose when a witness is turned into a stereotype. A simple practice is to read John 20 slowly, imagine yourself at the tomb, and notice what rises in you.

Magdala: The Place She Came From

Archaeologists have excavated Magdala, on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee, where they found a first-century synagogue in 2009. The site includes a carved stone with a seven-branched menorah, one of the oldest such images known. The town was a busy fishing and trade center, which fits the Gospels’ picture of Mary as a woman of independent means who helped fund Jesus’s ministry. For a seeker, it roots her story in a real shoreline: the place where a woman heard a call and followed it.

Mary and the Sacred Feminine

Many modern readers see Mary Magdalene as a symbol of the sacred feminine, a balance to the masculine imagery that dominates much religious language. Writers such as Margaret Starbird and Cynthia Bourgeault explore this, each differently. She is a doorway into the part of the path that is felt before it is understood: devotion, intuition, and a love that knows its beloved by name. The sources tell us who she was in the record. The symbol invites us to ask who she can become in us.

Mary in Art

Artists often show Mary with an alabaster jar of ointment, long hair and a skull or book. Titian and Caravaggio painted her in the 16th and 17th centuries, often as a penitent, which reflects the post-591 image rather than the Gospels. Medieval art also shows her as a preacher in Provence. Looking at how she is painted is a quick way to see how views of her changed.

A Contemplative Practice With John 20

1. Read John 20:1 to 18 slowly, twice.
2. Imagine standing in the garden before dawn.
3. Notice what Mary feels when she hears her name.
4. Sit in silence for five minutes.
5. Write down what you noticed about grief, love and recognition.

Questions to Reflect On

• What do I know about Mary Magdalene, and where did I learn it?
• Whose voices in my own life have been overlooked?
• What would it mean to be sent to tell others, as Mary was?

Visionary and Channeled Mary Magdalene

Over the centuries, many mystics have said they saw or heard Mary Magdalene. These are not historical sources, but they have shaped how millions picture her.

Read these as mystical literature. They disagree with each other about her story, which is typical of visionary material. They are valuable for what they say about devotion, love and spiritual authority. Hear a related perspective in our episode with William Henry on the true Mary Magdalene.

The Bride, the Song of Songs and the Mystical Reading

Christian mystics have long read the Song of Songs, the biblical poem of love between a bride and beloved, as a picture of the soul seeking God. Origen (3rd century) and Bernard of Clairvaux (12th century) wrote famous commentaries. Medieval preachers linked the bride’s search in the garden with Mary Magdalene seeking Jesus in the garden at dawn in John 20. In this view, Mary is the soul that loves so much that it cannot stop seeking. The scene where Jesus says her name and she answers Rabboni (“Teacher”) is, for contemplatives, a picture of recognition: being known by the divine.

Scholars Who Have Studied Mary

These scholars agree on one point: the later image of Mary as a repentant prostitute is not in the Gospels. What remains is a woman of authority, devotion and spiritual insight, and the mystics have always known her that way.

Cathars, the Grail and the Bloodline Tradition

Medieval southern France also produced a rich mystical tradition. Some writers connect Mary Magdalene with the Cathars, a Christian movement suppressed in the 13th century, and with the Holy Grail stories, in which the “grail” is read as a symbol of the sacred feminine or a bloodline. These ideas gained fame through Holy Blood, Holy Grail (1982) and The Da Vinci Code (2003). The grail has long been read as a cup of the sacred feminine, and Mary as its keeper. Whether or not the medieval record supports these stories, they have inspired pilgrims, poets and artists for centuries, and they show how deeply people have wanted to remember her as holy.

Go Deeper: The True Teachings of Jesus with John Davis

Mary Magdalene stood closest to the teaching of love. John Davis explores that teaching as a path of inner awakening in his Next Level Soul Mastery course.

Join John as he guides you through the true teachings of Jesus, not as religion, but as a direct path of inner awakening. You will find practical insights into love, forgiveness, presence, and the Kingdom of Heaven within that you can embody in everyday life.

What you will walk away with

• Live from love
• Find the Kingdom within
• Release fear and judgment
• Live your awakening

14 lessons, part of Next Level Soul Mastery, our collection of in-depth courses.

Watch and Listen on Next Level Soul

• The True Mary Magdalene with William Henry. A conversation on her role and hidden history. Listen to the episode
• Ancient Watchers and the Bloodline of Jesus with Freddy Silva. Another view of the bloodline idea. Listen to the episode
• The Mystical Christ Revealed with Fr. Seán ÓLaoire. A priest on the mystical Christ. Listen to the episode
• The Lost Teachings of Jesus Christ with Paul Wallis. On teachings that were lost or set aside. Listen to the episode
• The Christ Within Audio Course. Teachings on the inner Christ. Explore the course

Books on Mary Magdalene

• The Meaning of Mary Magdalene by Cynthia Bourgeault. A contemplative portrait.
• The Gospel of Mary of Magdala by Karen L. King. The scholarly study of the Gospel of Mary.
• Peter, Paul, and Mary Magdalene by Bart Ehrman. What history can say about the three.
• The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels. Context for the early texts.
• The Woman with the Alabaster Jar by Margaret Starbird. The sacred-feminine reading.
• The Gospel of Mary Magdalene by Jean-Yves Leloup. A translation with commentary.

As an Amazon Associate, Next Level Soul earns from qualifying purchases.

Watch and Listen on Next Level Soul TV

These titles from the Next Level Soul TV catalog go deeper into this topic.

• Ascended Master Mary Magdalene. Show on NLS TV.
• Ascended Masters Channeled. Show on NLS TV.
• Mary Magdalene Speaks: Awakening Love & Hope with Christy Whitman. Episode.
• Mary Magdalene’s Truth Revealed with Wendy Rose Williams. Episode.
• Ascended Master Mother Mary. Show on NLS TV.
• Mother Mary’s Messages. Audiobook on NLS TV.
• The Vatican Files: The Bible’s Secret History. Show on NLS TV.
• Hidden Teachings of Master Mother Mary with Marguerite Rigoglioso. Episode.

Where to Go Next

• The Gnostic Gospels explained
• The lost years of Jesus
• Ascended masters
• Top 20 spiritual books
• Soul groups and soulmates
• Go deeper with Next Level Soul Mastery, our collection of in-depth courses.

Frequently Asked Questions