Recently, a trailer came out for an upcoming movie called Mary Magdalene. Said movie will be centered around the titular character, who will be played by Rooney Mara from The Social Network and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Meanwhile, the role of Jesus will be played by Joaquin Phoenix, meaning that the movie will have a cast filled with stars. Given the sheer range of interpretations that exist for Mary Magdalene, it will be interesting to see how the upcoming movie treats her, particularly since the marketing blurb revealed little save that she joins up with Jesus’s social movement in defiance of the strict hierarchies of her times.
Who Was Mary Magdalene?
For starters, there have been a lot of interpretations of Mary Magdalene because it can be a serious challenge to tell which Mary is which in the New Testament. The name saw extensive use in the relevant period because of its association with the Hasmonean and Herodian dynasties, which is why there were multiple Marys just among Jesus’s disciples. As a result, Mary Magdalene has been conflated with other Marys at various times to various extents, which is something that has happened between those other Marys as well.
To name one example of the conflation, Mary Magdalene and Mary of Bethany are considered separate figures in modern times, but for a significant part of the medieval period, much of Western Christianity saw saw them as one and the same, which was fueled by the fact that both were close to Jesus. This is interesting because Mary of Bethany was sister to both Martha and Lazarus, who are well-known figures in their own right. After all, Martha is said to have subdued a dragon called the Tarasque in southern France, while Lazarus was resurrected by Jesus, which has been a favorite subject of artists for centuries and centuries.
With that said, a lot of people might be most familiar with Mary Magdalene as the repentant prostitute. This is not something that was ever stated in the four canonical gospels, but it became popular in medieval times because of the critical importance of repentance in medieval theology. Other people might be more familiar with Mary Magdalene as the supposed spouse of Jesus, which has been popularized by Dan Brown and other authors inspired by the idea of a Jesus bloodline. However, it is interesting to note that while this is something that has become popular in modern times, it might have precedents in the beliefs of some Gnostic as well as Cathar sects.
Summed up, Mary Magdalene is a fascinating figure based on the absolute minimum of 12 mentions of her in the New Testament, which speaks volumes about her importance because that is more than the mentions of most of the apostles. However, there is a great deal of extra-canonical material surrounding her, which offer even more storytelling possibilities. As a result, it will be fascinating to see how the upcoming movie will choose from these possibilities to create a coherent whole, which is something that is bound to receive more mention as it approaches its release date in 2018.
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