For further literature, see Volbeding, Index Program- matum, p. 9 ; Darling, Cgclopwdia Bibliograjjhica, coL 1841 sq. ; 'Da.nz,\Vdrterhuch, s. v. Maria; Winer, 7?e«k'. s. V. See Jesus Christ; Virgin.
2. Mary, the Magdalene {Mapia ij Mayca\t]v{], A. V. '• Marj' Magdalene"), one of the most interesting, but at the same time most contradictorily-interpreted characters in the N. T. In the following statements re- specting her we largely foUow the article in Smith's Bic- tionai-y of the Bible, s. v.
I. The Name. — Four different explanations have been given of this. (1) That which at first suggests itself as the most natural, that she came from the town of Mag- dala. The statement that the women with whom she journeyed followed Jesus in Galilee (]\lark xv, 41), agrees with this notion. Magdala was originally a tower or fortress, as its name indicates, the situation of which is probabh' the s?me with that of the modern village of el-Mejdel, on the western shore of the Lake of Tiberias (Stanley). But Lightfoot starts another supposition, both with regard to the place of residence and to the identity of Mary Magdalene. He shows that there was a place called Magdala very near Jerusalem, so near that a per- son who set up his candles in order on the eve of the
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{?,iobalh, might afterwards go to Jerusalem, pray there, and return and light up his candles when the Sabbath \vr.s now coming in (^Exercit. John xii, 3), This place is stated in the Talmud to have been destroyed on ac- count of its adidteries. Now, it is argued by liaronius, that Mary INIagdalene must liave been the same person as Mary the sister of Martha and Lazarus, and on this point Lightfoot entirely agrees with him, and he thinks that, Betliany and jNIagdala being both near Jerusalem, she may have married a man of Magdala, and acquired the dissolute morals of the place ; or that Magdala may have been another name for Bethany. All this, how- ever, is full of improbabilities. (2) Another explanation has been found in the fact that tlie Talmudic writers, in their calumnies against the Nazarenes, make mention of a Miriam Megaddda (XPI^'O), and, deriving that •word from the Piel of PTil, to twine, explain it as mean- ing '■ the twiner or plaiter of hair." They connect with this name a story wliich will be mentioned later ; but the derivation has been accepted by Lightfoot {Ilor. Ileh. on Matt, xxvi, 50 ; Harm. Evang. on Luke viii, 3) as satisfactory, and pointing to the previous worldliness of "Miriam with the braided locks" as identical with " the woman that was a sinner" of Luke vii, 37. It has been urged in favor of this that the r) KciXovfiivr] of Luke viii, 3 implies something peculiar, and is not used where the word that follows points only to origin or residence. (3) Either seriously, or with the patristic fondness for paronomasia, Jerome sees in her name, and in that of her town, the old Migdol ("'a watch-tower"), and dwells on the coincidence accordingly. The name denotes the steadfastness of her faith. She is " vere Trypyt'rj/c, vere turris candoris et Libani, qure prospicit in faciem Damas- ci" {Epist. ad Principiam). He is followed in this by later Latin writers, and the pun forms the theme of a panegyric sermon by Odo of Cliigni (.4 eta Sanctorum, Antwerp, 1727, July 12). (4) Origen, lastly, looking to the more common meaning of P'la (r/nJar, tobegreat), sees in her name a prophecy of iier spiritual greatness as having ministered to the Lord, and been the first wit- ness of his resurrection {T?-act. in Matt. xxxv). See Magdalene.
IL Scripture Incidents. — 1. Mary Magdalene comes be- fore us for the first time in Luke viii, 2 (A.D. 28). It was the custom of Jewish women (.Jerome on 1 Cor. ix, 5) to contribute to the support of rabbis whom they reverenced, and, in conformity with that custom, there were among the disciples of Jesus women who " minis- tered unto him of their substance." All appear to have occupied a position of comparative wealth. With all the chief motive was that of gratitude for their deliver- ance from " evil spirits and infirmities." Of Mary it is said specially that " seven diemohs (Saij-wvia) went out of her," and the number indicates, as in Matt, xii, 45, and the ''legion" of the Gadarene dasmoniac (Mark v. 9), a possession of more than ordinary malignity. We must think of her, accordingly, as having had, iii their most aggravated forms, some of the phenomena of mental and spiritual disease which we meet with in other divmoni- acs — the wretchedness of despair, the divided conscious- ness, the preternatural frenzy, the long-continued fits of silence. The appearance of the same description in INIark xvi, 9 (whatever opinion we may form as to the authorship of the closing section of that Gospel), indi- cates that this was the fact most intimately coimected with her name in the minds of the early disciples. From that state of misery she had been set free by the presence of the Healer, and, in the absence, as we may infer, of oth- er ties and duties, she found her safety and her blessed- ness in following him. The silence of the Gospels as to the presence of these women at other periotls of the Lord's ministry, makes it probable that they attended on him chietiy in his more solemn jjrogresses through the towns and vdlages of Galilee, while at other times he journeyed to and fro without any other attendants than the Twelve, and sometimes without even them.