Were Jesus and Mary Magdalene married?
There has always been this lingering question, but not from the places you think. It’s popularized today by authors like Dan Brown and his Da Vinci Code books. There have been secret societies and organizations throughout history that have propagated this perspective.
But it is by no means biblical. You will not find one place anywhere in the New Testament that even suggests this connection. In a moment, I will list all of the places where Mary Magdalene and Jesus interact. You will see that there is no “there, there.”
The throughout history, groups like the Gnostics began to suggest that there is something there between Jesus and Mary my billing. It was part of the mystic understanding they thought they had about Christ and God. But they were sorely mistaken.
One of the chief places you find concerning this idea that Mary Magdalene was married to Jesus is from the Gnostic Gospel According to Mary Magdalene. Here’s a quote from this writing that scholars get the idea of Jesus married to Mary Magdalene:
5) Peter said to Mary, Sister we know that the Savior loved you more than the rest of woman.
6) Tell us the words of the Savior which you remember which you know, but we do not, nor have we heard them.
7) Mary answered and said, What is hidden from you I will proclaim to you.
8) And she began to speak to them these words: I, she said, I saw the Lord in a vision and I said to Him, Lord I saw you today in a vision. He answered and said to me,
Source: 5) Peter said to Mary, Sister we know that the Savior loved you more than the rest of woman.
6) Tell us the words of the Savior which you remember which you know, but we do not, nor have we heard them.
7) Mary answered and said, What is hidden from you I will proclaim to you.
8) And she began to speak to them these words: I, she said, I saw the Lord in a vision and I said to Him, Lord I saw you today in a vision. He answered and said to me,
5) Peter said to Mary, Sister we know that the Savior loved you more than the rest of woman.
6) Tell us the words of the Savior which you remember which you know, but we do not, nor have we heard them.
7) Mary answered and said, What is hidden from you I will proclaim to you.
8) And she began to speak to them these words: I, she said, I saw the Lord in a vision and I said to Him, Lord I saw you today in a vision. He answered and said to me,
Source: http://gnosis.org/library/marygosp.htm
When you look at chapter 5, verses 5-6, the impression you get is that Jesus chose made my billing as his wife because he loved her more than other women. And then Peter proceeds to ask her to tell them something they don’t know as his disciples.
The fact that she is loved Jesus more than other women and that Peter looks to her to teach them about Jesus suggests that she had a more intimate relationship with him. The problem is that this was not written by Mary Magdalene because it was written after the first century AD.
This book was written by Gnostic somewhere. We don’t know who. The author chose to use Mary Magdalene’s name and attribute authorship to her. But the moment that the author of the book did this, the book is discredited. It can’t even be considered for the New Testament canon because the book opens with a lie about the author. God does not lie (Numbers 23:19).
Novels like Dan Brown’s go on to suggest that the holy Grail look for in the medieval ages was not a chalice, the one that was at the Last Supper, but was actually a blood relative of Jesus himself. This makes for great fiction but it’s terrible history.
Why anyone would like to search for the chalice that Jesus and the disciples drank out of at the Last Supper I don’t understand either. Although it contains the DNA of Jesus, 12 other men drink from the same cup. Have fun trying to figure out who’s DNA is who’s.
I also don’t understand the need to have the blood of Jesus. Perhaps they think it can be used in a mystical or magical sense. Jesus cure diseases and did mighty miracles throughout the Gospels. His blood is attributed in the New Testament to saving the human soul by covering the sins of the person. But the power of Jesus’ blood is not in the chemicals that make up liquid. It is in the person of Jesus who inhabited the body.
Aside from all of the speculation, pure speculation and fictional approach, we know that Jesus never married. The Scriptures would make a big deal out of it if he did. He did not come to earth to marry and have children. He came to earth to save the world of sin.
As a final note, here are all the places in the scriptures that talk about Jesus and Mary Magdalene together. You will see that there is no intimate interaction whatsoever between the two. Jesus exorcised Mary from demonic possession and she became one of his supporters as his disciple. But that’s where the New Testament draws the line.
First, we meet Mary Magdalene during Jesus’ ministry in Galilee (Mark 15:41). It is assumed that Mary Magdalene was among the other women to minister to Jesus. But even the word “minister” cannot be sustained by some sinister meaning. She is with other disciples and they are not alone.
The reason we understand that Mary Magdalene was part of the group of women is that she is mentioned in the only other two events in the New Testament with the other women who are actually named.
The first time she is mentioned with other women who are Jesus’ disciples is at the cross (Matthew 27:16; Mark 15:47; John 19:25). Here she is with Mary, Jesus’ mother. Jesus is on the cross. Once again, they are not alone and this is not an intimate situation.
The next time she is mentioned in the New Testament is at the resurrection of Jesus. Here she begins in a group of women and then is alone with Jesus in the garden according to John (Matthew 28:
Mark has her with several other women going to the tomb so that they can properly tend to Jesus’ body according to Jewish burial practices (Mark 16:1, 6). Then when Jesus rose from the dead on that first day, Sunday, he appeared first to Mary Magdaleno (Mark 16:9). This is where we land some of her background before she became one of Jesus’ disciples. He had set her free from seven demons.
Matthew 28:1-8 has her in a group of women again going to the tomb to find Jesus’ body. John has the most extensive account of her at the tomb meeting Jesus (John 20:1-?). Mary is there looking for Jesus’ tomb and meets a Gardener that she does not realize is Jesus at first (John 20:13-15).
Then when Jesus says her name, she recognizes him as her Rabbi, her Teacher (John 20:16). Once again, if they were married, should recognize him as much more than her Teacher. To further explain the separation of disciple and teacher, Jesus tells her not to touch him because he hasn’t yet into the Father (John 20:17).
To stress the point again, Jesus told her not to cling to him or to touch him. If they were married, this would not be the case. When married people have been away from each other for any time, and especially if Jesus were Mary’s husband who had died and rose from the grave, he would not forbid her to touch him.
The biblical evidence is clear. There was no intimate relationship between Mary Magdaleno and Jesus, let alone a marriage that was proclaimed in the Gospels. Anyone who suggests such a relationship is getting it from fanciful, unverifiable documents from the Gnostics, a heretical sect.
