A Clearer Portrait of Mary
A Review of
The Mary We Forgot: What the Apostle to the Apostles Teaches the Church Today
Jennifer Powell McNutt
Paperback: Brazos Press, 2024
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Reviewed by Pete Ford
Reverend Dr. Jennifer Powell McNutt, a Reformation scholar at Wheaton, brings us a popular-level book exploring the myths, legends, and history of Mary Magdalene. While we don’t read much about Mary Magdalene in the New Testament, what we do have has been confused and conflated with other Marys, not only tarnishing her reputation but depriving us of an inspiring example of a Christ follower. As Esau McCaulley says in his foreword, “Dr. McNutt has offered a well-researched and clear case for a recovery of the real Mary Magdalene.”
One of the most helpful things McNutt offers is a “hermeneutic of surprise,” which she introduces in the first chapter to frame the whole conversation. Because we know how humans can use language to deceive, we can tend to also approach Scripture with a hermeneutic of suspicion, assuming anything that strikes us as odd was put there by a later editor or as part of a human agenda. Instead, McNutt suggests a hermeneutic of surprise, ready to notice how God continually works in ways that defy our expectations. This is especially helpful in reading the gospel of Luke, with its theme of the upside-down Kingdom of God. (This childlike surprise of discovery is like how Euguene Peterson references Paul Ricœur’s “second naiveté” in Eat This Book.)
With this framework preparing us to be surprised, McNutt lays out what we do know about Mary Magdalene from the four gospels: Jesus healed her from seven demons (Luke 8:2, Mark 16:9), she financially supported the ministry of Jesus (Luke 8:2–3), she was a witness at both the cross (Matthew 27:56,61, Mark 15:40,47, John 19:25) and the tomb (Matthew 28:1, Mark 16:1, John 20:1), and Jesus appeared to her and sent her to announce the Resurrection to the eleven (Mark 16:9, Luke 24:10, John 20:11–18).
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McNutt spends the next few chapters taking us step-by-step through how the “Marys” have been conflated, obscuring rich examples of faith in Mary Magdalene—as well as the other women. Here McNutt’s expertise as a scholar really shines. (She also includes a chapter about a family trip to follow the legends of Mary through France.) Interpreters from Tertullian to Augustine to Pope Gregory the Great conflated the anointing stories of Mary of Bethany (the sister of Martha and Lazarus) in John 12 and an unnamed “sinful” woman (Matthew 26/Mark 14/Luke 7). From there, it’s an easy move to confuse the combined “anointing” Mary with Mary Magdalene—especially since we know she was one of the women who went to the tomb to anoint the body of Jesus after his death.
From there, interpreters assumed a colorful past for this conflated “sinner” “Mary Magdalene.” Incorrect interpretations about being freed from demon possession still haunt Mary’s reputation. Add to that Dan Brown’s resurrection of old myths about a romantic relationship with Jesus, and we are left with the vague assumption that “Mary Magdalene’s” colorful past includes something about sexual license.
However, instead of focusing on her past—which we can only speculate about, and which the gospel writers only remark about in passing—McNutt wants us to see how Jesus saved Mary Magdalene from her past and called her as a witness to His Kingdom. This is the surprise in the story! Rather than using the former demon possession as a lens to interpret the actions of a “sinner,” we can instead see Mary Magdalene as an example of someone who experienced healing and freedom in Jesus.
In the final chapters, McNutt explores Mary’s role as the first to see the risen Christ (especially the extended passage in John 20 and its confusing “Don’t touch me” verse). In early Christian tradition, Mary was seen as an apostle sent first to the eleven, then carrying the gospel message into France. Throughout the book, McNutt reflects on what we’ve lost without Mary Magdalene’s example for the Church today. She argues that a clear view of Mary Magdalene the message-bearer points us more clearly to Jesus.
McNutt’s book is more exploratory than didactic, more imaginative than prescriptive. Some sections of the book reminded me of Kelley Nikondeha’s imaginative approach to Scripture in Defiant, but from a more scholarly perspective. For example, she imagined what it might have looked like when Mary—along with “many other” women (Luke 8:3)—followed Jesus and funded Jesus’s ministry. Talk about surprise! The gospel writers show us that both men and women have been disciples of Jesus from the very start. An accurate understanding of these disciples draws us toward the Jesus they followed.
Pete Ford
Pete Ford is a stay-at-home dad as well as a digital marketer for Christian publishers and nonprofits. By night, he is a reader, focusing on topics including nonviolence, time, the built environment, and spiritual practices like Sabbath.
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