Mary Magdalene
The short answer
Ask most people who Mary Magdalene was, and you'll likely hear about a repentant prostitute who anointed Jesus' feet. Here's the surprise: the Bible never says any of that. No verse calls her a prostitute. No verse shows her anointing Jesus. That story belongs to later legend, and over the centuries it grew so familiar that it crowded out what Scripture actually tells us.
What the Gospels do say is striking. Luke 8 lists her among the women who supported Jesus' ministry out of their own resources — a patron, not a penitent. She stayed at the cross when most of the disciples had fled. She was among the first at the empty tomb. And in John's Gospel, she becomes the first person to see the risen Jesus and the first to tell anyone the good news — which makes her, on John's telling, the first preacher in Christian history.
The garden scene in John 20 deserves a slow read. Mary stands weeping outside the tomb, mistakes Jesus for the gardener, and recognizes him only when he says her name. She answers, "Rabboni!" — teacher — and reaches for him. When Jesus says, "Don't hold me," it can sound like a rebuke, as if her touch were somehow improper. But John's Gospel is full of touch; bodies matter in this story, and it treats Mary's reaching for Jesus as the natural thing to do. Jesus stops her not out of coldness but because the story has to keep moving: he must return to the God he calls his Father and hers.
Put the two together and a different Mary Magdalene emerges — not a sinner defined by a past the Bible never mentions, but a faithful patron, an intimate witness, and an apostle sent to proclaim the resurrection.
What scholars say
Jaime Clark-Soles asks a pointed question: why do most Christians know a story about Mary Magdalene that appears nowhere in Scripture, while missing her actual biblical roles? She then turns to the garden scene in John, where Mary's touch is natural and Jesus' words are about the story moving forward, not a rebuke.
“You the reader have just read all of the passages in the Bible that refer to Mary Magdalene. Where do you find in these texts any mention of her anointing Jesus’ feet or being a prostitute? You don’t. Then why is it that if you walk up to most Christians and say, “Quick. Tell me everything you know about Mary Magdalene,” you will likely hear all about her prostitute ways and her anointing act (which never appears in Scripture), but nothing about Scripture’s testimony to her role in supporting Jesus’ ministry (Luke 8), her faithful appearance at the cross, her witness to the resurrection, her role as an apostle (defined as someone who walked with Jesus and was sent to proclaim the good news of his resurrection), and John’s designation of her as the first preacher in Christian history?”
“Notice once again how much touching happens in this Gospel. Bodies matter. The text assumes that Mary Magdalene is already touching Jesus and that it would be natural for her to do so. When he tells her to stop touching him, it’s not because he’s puritanical or cold but because he knows how the story unfolds and that, for the story to move forward, he must return to his and her God, the original Gardener.”
What it means for you
It's worth asking where our picture of Mary Magdalene came from — and what else we might believe about the Bible that the Bible never says. Reading the actual texts, rather than the reputation, is a habit that pays off well beyond this one figure.
Her story also offers something warmer. Mary is recognized when Jesus speaks her name, and her instinct to hold on is treated as natural, not shameful. Faith here is personal and embodied — and it comes with a task. Like Mary, we're not asked to stay in the garden clinging to the moment, but to go and tell what we've seen.
In context
John 20 opens on the first day of the week, with Mary Magdalene arriving at the tomb while it is still dark and finding the stone rolled away. She runs to tell Peter and the beloved disciple, who inspect the empty tomb and leave. Mary stays behind, weeping — and that is where the garden encounter happens. After Jesus speaks her name and sends her, she announces to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord!" The chapter then moves to Jesus appearing to the gathered disciples and, a week later, to Thomas.