The Mystery of Mary
Magdalene
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Here is the Woman,
but Where Is the Man?
(Key words have been
underlined for the purpose of
discussion.)
I will begin this
investigation with a review of John
8: “The teachers of
the law and the Pharisees
brought in a woman caught in
adultery. They made her stand before
the group and said to Jesus,
‘Teacher, this woman was caught
in the act of adultery. In
the Law, Moses
commanded us to stone such women.
Now, what do you say?’ They
were using this question as
a trap to have a basis for
accusing him. But Jesus
bent down and started to write on the
ground with his finger. When they
kept on questioning him, he
straightened up and said to them,
“If any of you is without sin,
let him be the first to throw a stone
at her.’ Again he stooped down
and wrote on the ground. At this,
those who heard and began to go away
one at a time, the older
ones first, until only
Jesus was left, with the woman still
standing there. Jesus straightened up
and asked her, ‘Woman, where are
they? Has no one condemned you?’
‘No sir,’ she said,
“Then neither do I
condemn you.’ Jesus
declared. ‘Go now and
leave your life of sin. (John
8: 3-11, emphasis mine)
This passage presents
a number of issues that are important
to our quest. To fully appreciate
these issues though, we need to take
off our Nike’s and stand in the
ancient sandals of the accused. The
first issue that we need to address
concerns the Law of Moses. To which
law are the Pharisees appealing? Is
it the law that condemns two married
people for committing adultery
(Leviticus 20:10), or is it the law
that condemns a woman for being
promiscuous? (Deuteronomy 22: 13-21)
Limiting our choices to the evidence
in John 8, it appears that the
teachers and Pharisees appealed to
the law that condemns a promiscuous
woman. I conclude this because (a)
the woman was known for her life of
sin, (b) stoning is specifically
stated in the law for promiscuous
women, and (c) an adulterous man is
not present nor mentioned in John 8.
Given this legal setting, here are
four points that warrant further
discussion:
Point 1. When
it comes to sexual immorality,
God’s Word indicates there is a
difference between fornication and
adultery. Fornication occurs between
unmarried people, whereas adultery
occurs when a married person has a
sexual experience with someone other
than his or her spouse. When adultery
occurs between two married people,
the faithful spouses become
plaintiffs (that is, the parties
seeking restitution). If a single
woman is caught having a sexual
relationship with a married man,
there are still two plaintiffs –
the faithful spouse or the next of
kin, and the witnesses who caught the
pair in the act. This woman was
caught in the act of adultery and
there was no husband seeking justice.
Since there was no mention of an
adulterous man in John 8, it appears
the witnesses were her plaintiffs.
So, on the fact of what is reported
in Scripture, it appears the woman
was likely an unmarried prostitute,
and it is quite possible that the
teachers and Pharisees knew of her
promiscuous life (her past life of
sin) prior to this event. If this is
indeed true, the teachers and
Pharisees had an airtight case for
testing Jesus on the Law of Moses
because at the time of the test,
stoning a prostitute was legally
defensible in Israel. The teachers
and Pharisees concocted this test
because they wanted to see if Jesus
would uphold or subvert the Law of
Moses. If Jesus said the woman should
not be stoned, then Jesus would be
found guilty of blasphemy
(diminishing the Law of Moses). How
clever of them!
Point 2. How
did Jesus silence His adversaries?
The answer to this question becomes
obvious as we investigate the story.
Jesus wrote the names of His
adversaries in the dust and beside
their names, He itemized their sins.
The list started with Israel’s
elders of Israel (men of rank and
position). This is why they walked
away first. Self-righteous,
externally pious and esteemed elders
of Israel could not condemn a common
prostitute when their own sins were
exposed for others to see. The
teachers and Pharisees were
speechless. How did Jesus know their
sins? Then, when Jesus stood up and
said: “If any of you is
without sin, let him be the first to
throw a stone at her.” Jesus
terminated their trap without saying
one word about the demands of the
law. Embarrassed and humiliated, the
teachers and Pharisees slipped away
because they knew they could not
condemn this woman without
embarrassing themselves. How clever
of Jesus!
Point 3. As
I calculate it, this test occurred
about six months before Jesus was
crucified. Even then, the teachers
and Pharisees were already scheming
to put Jesus to death because they
thought Jesus was undermining their
religious and national interests. The
easiest way to condemn Jesus to death
(they thought) was through a charge
of blasphemy. They wanted to force
Jesus into a controlled setting where
they could catch Him subverting the
Law of Moses. So, they carefully
planned this incident to entrap
Jesus. It was not necessary for the
teachers and Pharisees to sneak
around Jerusalem peering into
bedrooms to find someone having
unlawful sex. Hiring a prostitute and
positioning witnesses to that she
could be caught in the act was
all they needed to put Jesus to the
test. They were so determined to
entrap Jesus that they did not care
that this prostitute would have to
die in the process. To make this a
case of “adultery,” I
suspect a married man was found and
gained immunity for his cooperation.
This could explain why no adulterous
man was mentioned in John 8.
Point 4. Finally,
we come to a substantial issue that
might help us move from the unnamed
woman to a specific person. Consider
this: When confronted with the guilty
woman and the witnesses, why
didn’t Jesus just agree with the
Pharisees? If Jesus had agreed, He
would have terminated the
Pharisees’ trap and silenced
them because it would have proved
that he supported the Law of Moses!
After all, Jesus knew this woman had
lived a life of sin and that she had
been caught in sin again.
So again I ask, “Why did Jesus
refuse to condemn her?” This is
not a rhetorical question. Consider
that Jesus was not above the Law of
Moses. (Galatians 4:4; 1 Peter 2:22)
His actions had to stay within the
bounds of the law at all times or He
would have sinned. Jesus Himself had
crafted and delivered the law
concerning promiscuous women to Moses
on Mount Sinai, so why didn’t
Jesus uphold the demands of His own
law? This is a thorny question, but
the answer produces an important clue
in our search for the identity of the
woman caught in adultery.
Loophole
There is only one
loophole that I can find that
lawfully justifies Jesus’
actions. As God, Jesus did not
condemn the woman to death because
she was demon possessed. Yes she
was guilty of sin. Yes, she had
broken the law. Yes, she was caught
in the act of committing adultery,
and according to the law, the penalty
of promiscuous behavior was death by
stoning. However, Jesus knew about
her demonic possession and He could
not condemn the woman to death
because her life of sin was
involuntary. The Bible teaches that God
does not condemn a person to death
for involuntary sin! (Leviticus
4:13,14; Numbers 15:22-28; 35:22-25;
Romans 7:14-19; 1 John 5:16,17) In
today’s justice system, this is
similar to an insane defense. If it
can be demonstrated in court that a
man is impaired to the point that he
cannot tell right from wrong when he
breaks the law, he can be found
“not guilty by reason of
insanity.”
For another example,
consider a person with an addition.
Can an addict “just say no”
to their addition? Of course not.
Without external help, an addict
cannot stop doing the very thing that
controls him. (Do not confuse
addition with the unpardonable sin.
They are not the same. Given genetic
and hereditary weaknesses, it is
possible to become addicted to a
substance or obsessed with something
without committing the unpardonable
sin.)
So, what does demon
possession have to do with the
woman’s identity? We know from
Scripture that seven demons
controlled a woman named Mary
Magdalene. (The number seven
indicates totality and completeness.)
In other words, Mary Magdalene could
not control herself because she was
totally possessed. Let us assume, for
a moment, that the woman caught in
adultery proves to be Mary Magdalene.
If so, consider the dilemma: (a) Mary
knew that she was guilty of sin and
worthy of death, (b) Mary also knew
that she could not sexually control
herself, and (c) Mary heard that
Jesus say that she must leave her
sinful life behind. Given these
parameters and her gratitude to Jesus
for saving her life from stoning,
what else could a prisoner of Satan
do but ask Jesus to set her free of
“her demons” so that she
could live a life pleasing to God? I
believe the woman caught in adultery
asked for deliverance and Jesus
granted her wish – even though
John’s account does not mention
this. (However, Mark 16:9 and Luke
8:2 tells us that Jesus did cast
seven demons out of Mary Magdalene.)
Summary on John 8:
The evidence presented in John 8
suggests the woman caught in adultery
was an unmarried prostitute, since
the plaintiffs were witnesses instead
of a spouse and she had a history of
sinful living. The woman was
unwittingly caught up in a sting
operation that was designed to kill
her and condemn Jesus. When she was
“caught in the act” by the
religious police and turned over to
the authorities, she must have had a
sickening realization that she had
been duped and that she was about to
be stoned to death. Given the sudden
gravity of her situation, it would be
reasonable to conclude that she was
overwhelmed with gratitude when Jesus
saved her from death by silencing her
accusers. Staying within the bounds
of the Law of Moses, Jesus did not
condemn the woman for her past life
of sin because He knew that she was
demon possessed – she was not
guilty by reason of demonic
possession. After saving her from
physical death, Jesus told her to
leave her sinful life behind, but how
could she possibly do this on her
own?
Jesus Gets Acquainted
with Martha
(Note: In
an effort to keep this investigation
an simple and straightforward as
possible, let us continue this
investigation as though the woman
caught in adultery was Mary
Magdalene, even though supporting
evidence has not been completely
presented. By using this approach,
maybe the details in this
investigation will prove to be easier
to synthesize.)
Unbeknown to the
Pharisees, they chose the wrong
prostitute to condemn Jesus. The
woman caught in adultery had a legal
defense that permitted Jesus to lawfully
spare the woman from death. Jesus did
not usurp the Laws of Moses or the
Law of God – in fact, He
brilliantly demonstrated how the laws
should work! (In God’s order,
mercy does not negate the demands of
the law.) This loophole indicates
that Mary Magdalene could have been
the woman caught in adultery because
Mary Magdalene was totally evil. I
have no doubt that when divine joy
displaced demonic depravity within
her body, Mary worshiped at the feet
of Jesus Furthermore;
consider the behavior of Mary
Magdalene. After Mary became a free
woman, she reciprocated in three
ways. First, Mary Magdalene anointed
the feet of Jesus with the most
expensive perfume that money could
buy. Second, Mary Magdalene bravely
stood at Jesus’ feet as He hung
from the cross. And finally, Mary
Magdalene was at the tomb Sunday
morning when Jesus arose. I think
Mary’s gratitude toward Jesus is
displayed by her action. On the very
day that Jesus cast out her demons, I
am sure that she invited Jesus to
come to her home and meet her sister.
It makes sense that Mary’s
gratitude to Jesus and her miraculous
transformation paved the way for
Martha to also become a devout
believer in Jesus. (Martha’s
faith and devotion is revealed in
John 11:20-27)
The next question we
need to address is this: Could Mary
Magdalene have been a sister of
Lazarus? I think the Bible affirms
this, but the evidence comes in small
steps. First, review the passage: “Now
a man named Lazarus was sick. He was
from Bethany, the village
of Mary and her sister
Martha. This Mary, whose
brother Lazarus now lay
sick, was the same one who
poured perfume on the Lord and wiped
his feet with her hair. So
the sisters sent word to Jesus,
“Lord, the one you
love is sick.’” (John
11:1-3)
(Note: John
wrote this account many years after
the fact and even then, John makes it
clear that Mary, the sister of
Lazarus, was the same Mary who poured
perfume on the Lord’s feet. But
was she Mary Magdalene?)
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