Mary, Called Magdalene

Written by Margaret George

625 pages

Published by Penguin Books

Review by Joanna L. Oates

Receives:

As Anita Diamant did for Jacob's daughter Dinah in The Red Tent Margaret George does for Mary Magdalene in Mary, Called Magdalene. George gives Mary Magdalene something she has rarely had in 2000 years of history--a voice. According to the New Testament, Mary Magdelene was the first person Jesus revealed himself to after his resurrection, but still, despite her obvious importance she has come down to us through the centuries as a prostitute though there is no biblical evidence to support such claims.

This is a novel about doubt that becomes faith as an ordinary woman is swept up in the current of extraordinary circumstances. Margaret George uses biblical and scholarly texts to add depth and detail to her largely imagined story. Little is known about Mary Magdalene since all we have are the brief mentions of her in the New Testament. George presents a different vision of Mary than the prostitute she has been depicted as these many years. George's Mary is a complex woman who grapples with her place in a male-driven society. As a girl Mary wishes to study Torah, a role forbidden to her as a girl. Mary finds an idol, and though she knows it is forbidden to her she cannot part with it. She becomes possessed by demons, which she attributes to the forbidden idol, and as she grows older and marries the demons continue to haunt her. Just as she is at her breaking point, Jesus drives her demons away. After Jesus rids her of demons Mary is cast out from her family, and Mary follows Jesus even when they receive unfriendly, unwanted attention from the skeptics and the Roman authorities controlling Jerusalem. Mary, despite her guilt at leaving her young daughter behind, remains with Jesus until his crucifixion. When Jesus is resurrected and appears before her, Mary can no longer doubt Jesus' true identity. She becomes a leader among the disciples after his death.

George recreates the details of life in Galilee and the oppressions of Jewish people under Roman rule in a way that modern readers can relate to. Mary is a woman who struggles like many women struggle--she wants to be true to her calling, to follow Jesus and spread his message, while she must reconcile her absence from her young daughter's life. Throughout the story Mary struggles with doubt, about Jesus, about her role among his disciples, about the prophetic visions she has, about her decision to remain with Jesus. But Mary believes that she has been called upon by God, and until the end of her life she remains true to that calling.

With few facts, intensive period research and a lot of imagination, Margaret George has crafted a novel that shows readers what life could have been like in that place at that time. Mary, Called Magdalene will be appreciated by readers who want to ponder the possibilities of who Mary Magdalene might have been.

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Joanna L. Oates is a Master’s candidate in medieval European history at UCLA in Los Angeles, California. She has taught high school history for the past five years. She is an avid reader of historical fiction.