Real Mary Magdalene

Useful article on Mary Magdalene here in the Washington Times:

The Real Mary Magdalene?, Jen Waters

Includes some comments from Liz Curtis Higgs who has a new book on Mary Magdalene (not heard of her before) and Jane Schaberg, author of the fascinating Illegitimacy of Jesus, who now has a new book out entitled The Resurrection of Mary Magdalene: Legends, Apocrypha and the Christian Testament. [Note: she's also also speaking at the SBL in Atlanta next week in a Historical Jesus session with Crossan and Corley -- should be interesting].

The article also has some comment on the role of Maggie in the rock opera !Hero, about which I've blogged a few times. This article has some comments from Rebecca St James who plays Maggie. I'd previously said that I didn't think Maggie was obviously Mary Magdalene. But Rebecca St James clearly thinks that's who she's playing, so it shows how much I know! Of course the name "Maggie" is derived from "Magdalene" too, just as in !Hero Kai is Caiaphas and Petrov is Peter. What I still think is interesting, though, is that here Mary Magdalene is aligned with the Samaritan woman from John 4. Has that connection been made in fiction before? Often she is the woman taken in adultery (John 8) or the Sinner of Luke 7.36-50 or both but this is the first time I've seen her as the Samaritan woman.