South of North - No ‘whore,’ not a ‘maudlin’ penitent, Mary Magdalene was the victim of two centuries of mistaken identity
Her name was Miriam. She was from Magdala, a town 120 miles north of Jerusalem on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. She was to become, first, Miriam of Magdala, then Mary of Magdala, and finally Mary Magdalene, which alternated with The Magdalene. She was the one female member of Christ’s followers whose personal closeness to Jesus evidently irritated Saint Peter (before he was a saint). That was when her life was being mauled by what was to become about 2,000 years’ worth of full-time misogynism. The original Miriam became “the whore” primarily due to her fellow Christians’ mental flaccidity.