Luke 8:2

Luk_8:2-3

And certain women

Mary of Magdala

This woman has suffered much at the hand of many commentators; preachers, painters, and poets, ancient and modern.

It is high time to do something to remove the foul stain which has so long rested on her fair fame. In the various notices of her history in the Gospels she exhibits a character as pure and as devoted from the very first as any in the Gospel pages--a character not displaying merely the reflex action of a repentant spirit, but the faith which worketh by love. She was--

I. A GREAT SUFFERER HEALED BY CHRIST (Luk_8:2).

II. A GREAT MINISTRANT TO CHRIST (Luk_8:2-3; Mar_15:41).

III. A FAITHFUL ADHERENT TO CHRIST. She follows Him to the last, and is one of the women who played such a prominent part in connection with the death, burial, and resurrection of the Saviour (Mar_15:40; Joh_19:25).

IV. A SINCERE MOURNER FOR CHRIST (cf. Mat_27:61; Mark Joh_20:1-2; Joh_20:11-18).

V. AN HONOURED MESSENGER OF CHRIST (Joh_20:17-18; Mar_16:10). (T. S. Dickson, M. A.)

The ministry of women

We know very little about the women of this little group. Mary of Magdala has had a very hard fate. The Scripture record of her is very sweet and beautiful. Demoniacal possession was neither physical infirmity nor moral evil, however much it may have simulated sometimes the one or the other. Then as to Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herods steward, old Church tradition tells us that she was the consort of the nobleman whose son Christ healed at Capernaum. It does not seem very likely that Herods steward would have been living in Capernaum, and the narrative before us rather seems to show that she herself was the recipient of healing from His hands. However that may be, Herods court was not exactly the place to look for Christian disciples. But, you know, they of Caesars household surrounded with their love the apostle whom Nero murdered, and it is by no means an uncommon experience that the servants hall knows and loves Christ, whom the lord in the saloon does not care about. And then as for Susanna, is it not a sweet fate to be known to all the world for evermore by one line only, which tells of her service to her Master.

I. LOOK AT THE CENTRE FIGURE--THE PAUPER CHRIST--AS THE GREAT PATTERN AND MOTIVE FOR US OF THE LOVE THAT BECOMES POOR.

1. The noblest life that was ever lived on earth was the life of a poor man, of one who emptied Himself for our sakes.

2. Think of the love that stoops to be served. It is much to say, The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister; but I do not know that it is not more to say that the Son of Man let this record be written, which tells us that certain women ministered to Him of their substance.

II. Look at the complement of this love--the love that stoops to be served, and that is THE LOVE THAT DELIGHTS TO SERVE.

1. There is the foundation. Certain women which had been healed of their infirmities. Ah! there you come to it. The consciousness of redemption is the one master-touch that evokes the gratitude that aches to breathe itself in service.

2. Do we not minister to Him best when we do the thing that is nearest His heart, and help Him most in the purpose of His life and death?

III. THE REMEMBRANCE AND RECORD OF THIS SERVICE. Just as a beam of light enables us to see all the motes dancing up and down that lay in its path, so the beam from Christs life shoots athwart the society of His age, and all those little insignificant people come for a moment into the full lustre of the light. The eternity of work done for Christ. How many deeds of faithful love and noble devotion are all compressed into these words: Which ministered unto Him. It is the old story of how life shrinks, and shrinks, and shrinks in the record. How many acres of green forest ferns in the long ago time went to make up a seam of coal as thick as a sixpence? Still there is the record, compressed, indeed, but existent. And how many names may drop out? Do you not think that these anonymous many others which ministered were just as dear to Jesus Christ as Mary and Joanna and Susanna? How strange it must be to those women now I So it will be to you all when you get up yonder. We shall have to say, Lord, when saw I Thee? &c. He will put a meaning and a majesty into it that we know nothing about at present. When we in our poor love have poorly ministered unto Him, who in His great love greatly died for us, then at the last the wonderful word will be fulfilled: Verily I say unto you, He shall gird Himself and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

Self-devotion of women

The reckless rapture of self-forgetfulness, that which dominates and inspires persons and nations, that which is sovereign over obstacle and difficulty, and peril and resistance, it has belonged to womans heart from the beginning. In the early Pagan time, in the Christian development, in missions and in martyrdoms, it has been shown; in the mediaeval age as well as in our own time; in Harriet Newel and Florence Nightingale; in Ann Haseltine as truly and as vividly as in any Hebrew Hadassah or in any French Joan of Arc. You remember the Prussian women after the battle of Jena, when Prussia seemed trampled into the bloody mire under the cannon of Napoleon and the feet of the horses and men in his victorious armies. Prussian women, never losing their courage, flung their ornaments of gold and jewellery into the treasury of the State, taking back the simple cross of Berlin iron, which is now the precious heirloom in so many Prussian families, bearing the inscription, I have gold for iron. That is the glory of womanhood; that passion and self-forgetfulness, that supreme self-devotion with which she flings herself into the championship of a cause that is dear and sacred and trampled under foot. It is her crown of renown, it is her staff of power. (Dr. Storrs.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Luk 8:2-3. And certain women — There were also some women with him; the monuments of his power and mercy, for they had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities — Some of them had been troubled in mind, and in a state of melancholy, through the influence of evil spirits, and others of them afflicted in body in different respects, and he had healed them all, and thereby had shown himself to be the physician of both soul and body. Mary, called Magdalene — Doubtless from Μαγδαλα, the place of her residence, which was a town in Galilee beyond Jordan. Mat 15:39. She seems to have been a woman of high station and opulent fortune; being mentioned by Luke here even before Joanna, the wife of so great a man as Herod’s steward. Besides, the other evangelists, when they have occasion to speak of our Lord’s female friends, commonly assign the first place to Mary Magdalene. Susanna also seems to have been a person of some considerable rank and circumstances in life, as were probably most of the others here referred to. These pious women, deeply sensible of the obligations which they were under to Jesus, for the deliverances he had wrought out for them, and the great blessings which they had received through his heavenly doctrine and holy example, were concerned to render unto him, in some measure, according to the goodness which he had shown them; and therefore ministered to his necessities. Mark, it must be observed, agrees with Luke in the circumstance of our Lord’s being supported by the charity of his friends. For, speaking of the women who were present at Christ’s crucifixion, he says, Mar 15:41, that when Jesus was in Galilee, they followed him, and ministered unto him of their substance. The evangelists nowhere else tell us in what way our Lord and his apostles were supported.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Luke

THE MINISTRY OF WOMEN

Luk 8:2 - Luk 8:3.

The Evangelist Luke has preserved for us several incidents in our Lord’s life in which women play a prominent part. It would not, I think, be difficult to bring that fact into connection with the main characteristics of his Gospel, but at all events it is worth observing that we owe to him those details, and the fact that the service of these grateful women was permanent during the whole of our Lord’s wandering life after His leaving Galilee. An incidental reference to the fact is found in Matthew’s account of the Crucifixion, but had it not been for Luke we should not have known the names of two or three of them, nor should we have known how constantly they adhered to Him. As to the women of the little group, we know very little about them. Mary of Magdala has had a very hard fate. The Scripture record of her is very sweet and beautiful. Delivered by Christ from that mysterious demoniacal possession, she cleaves to Him, like a true woman, with all her heart. She is one of the little group whose strong love, casting out all fear, nerved them to stand by the Cross when all the men except the gentle Apostle of love, as he is called, were cowering in corners, afraid of their lives, and she was one of the same group who would fain have prolonged their ministry beyond His death, and who brought the sweet spices with them in order to anoint Him, and it was she who came to the risen Lord with the rapturous exclamation, ‘Rabboni, my Master.’ By strange misunderstanding of the Gospel story, she has been identified with the woman who was a sinner in the previous chapter in this book, and her fair fame has been blackened and her very name taken as a designation of the class to which there is no reason whatever to believe she belonged. Demoniacal possession was neither physical infirmity nor moral evil, however much it may have simulated sometimes the one or the other.

Then as to Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward, old Church tradition tells us that she was the consort of the nobleman whose son Christ healed at Capernaum. It does not seem very likely that Herod’s steward would have been living in Capernaum, and the narrative before us rather seems to show that she herself was the recipient of healing from His hands. However that may be, Herod’s court was not exactly the place to look for Christian disciples, was it? But you know they of Caesar’s household surrounded with their love the Apostle whom Nero murdered, and it is by no means an uncommon experience that the servants’ hall knows and loves the Christ that the lord in the saloon does not care about.

And then as for Susanna, is it not a sweet fate to be known to all the world for ever more by one line only, which tells of her service to her Master?

So I will try to take out of these little incidents in our text some plain lessons about this matter of Christian service and ministry to Christ, with which it seems to be so full. It will apply to missionary work and all other sorts of work, and perhaps will take us down to the bottom of it all, and show us the foundation on which it should all rest.

Let me ask you for a moment to look with me first of all at the centre figure, as being an illustration of-what shall I say? may I venture to use a rough word and say the pauper Christ?-as the great Pattern and Motive for us, of the love that becomes poor. We very often cover the life of our Lord with so much imaginative reverence that we sometimes lose the hard angles of the facts of it. Now, I want you to realise it, and you may put it into as modern English as you like, for it will help the vividness of the conception, which is a simple, prosaic fact, that Jesus Christ was, in the broadest meaning of the word, a pauper; not indeed with the sodden poverty that you can see in our slums, but still in a very real sense of the word. He had not a thing that He could call His own, and when He came to the end of His life there was nothing for His executioners to gamble for except His one possession, the seamless robe. He is hungry, and there is a fig-tree by the roadside, and He comes, expecting to get His breakfast off that. He is tired, and He borrows a fishing-boat to lie down and sleep in. He is thirsty, and He asks a woman of questionable character to give Him a draught of water. He wants to preach a sermon about the bounds of ecclesiastical and civil society, and He says, ‘Bring Me a penny.’ He has to be indebted to others for the beast of burden on which He made His modest entry into Jerusalem, for the winding sheet that wrapped Him, for the spices that would embalm Him, for the grave in which He lay. He was a pauper in a deeper sense of the word than His Apostle when he said, ‘Having nothing, and yet possessing all things, as poor, and yet making many rich.’ For let us remember that the great mystery of the Gospel system-the blending together in one act and in one Person all the extremes of lowliness and of the loftiness which go deep down into the very profundities of the Gospel, is all here dramatised, as it were, and drawn into a picturesque form on the very surface; and the same blending together of poverty and absolute love, which in its loftiest form is the union in one Person of Godhead and of manhood, is here for us in this fact, that all the dark cloud of poverty, if I may so say, is shot through with strange gleams of light like sunshine caught and tangled in some cold, wet fog, so that whenever you get some definite and strange mark of Christ’s poverty, you get lying beside it some definite and strange mark of His absoluteness and His worth. For instance, take the illustration I have already referred to-He borrows a fishing-boat and lies down, weary, to sleep on the wooden pillow at the end of it; aye, but He rises and He says, ‘Peace, be still,’ and the waves fall. He borrows the upper room, and with a stranger’s wine and another man’s bread He founds the covenant and the sacrament of His new kingdom. He borrows a grave; aye, but He comes out of it, the Lord both of the dead and of the living. And so we have to say, ‘Consider the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, though He was rich, yet for our sakes became poor, that we through His poverty might become rich.’

The noblest life that was ever lived upon earth-I hope you and I think it is a great deal more than that, but we all think it is that at any rate-the noblest life that was ever lived upon earth was the life of a poor man. Remember that pure desires, holy aspirations, noble purposes, and a life peopled with all the refinement and charities that belong to the spirit, and that is ever conscious of the closest presence of God and of the innate union with Him, is possible under such conditions, and so remember that the pauper Christ is, at the least, the perfect Man.

But then what I more immediately intended was to ask you to take that central figure with this external fact of His poverty, of the depth of His true inanition, the emptying of Himself for our sakes, as being the great motive, and Oh! thank God that with all humility, we may venture to say, the great Pattern to which you and I have to conform. There is the reason why we say, ‘I love to speak His name,’ there is the true measure of the devotion of the consecration and the self-surrender which He requires. Christ gave all for us even to the uttermost circumference of external possession, and standing in the midst of those for whose sakes He became poor, He turns to them with a modest appeal when He says, ‘Minister unto Me, for I have made Myself to need your ministrations for the sake of your redemption.’ So much, then, for the first point which I would desire to urge upon you from this incident before us.

Now, in the next place, and pursuing substantially the same course of thought, let me suggest to you to look at the love-the love here that stoops to be served.

It is a familiar observation and a perfectly true one that we have no record of our Lord’s ever having used miraculous power for the supply of His own wants, and the reason for that, I suppose, is to be found not only in that principle of economy and parsimony of miraculous energy, so that the supernatural in His life was ever pared down to the narrowest possible limits, and inosculated immediately with the natural, but it is also to be found in this-let me put it into very plain words-that Christ liked to be helped and served by the people that He loved, and that Christ knew that they liked it as well as He. It delighted Him, and He was quite sure that it delighted them. You fathers and mothers know what it is when one of your little children comes, and seeing you engaged about some occupation says, ‘Let me help you.’ The little hand perhaps does not contribute much to the furtherance of your occupation. It may be rather an encumbrance than otherwise, but is not there a gladness in saying ‘Yes, here, take this and do this little thing for me’? And do not we all know how maimed and imperfect that love is which only gives, and how maimed and imperfect that love is which only receives, so that there must be an assumption of both attitudes in all true commerce of affection, and that same beautiful flashing backwards and forwards from the two poles which makes the sweetness of our earthly love find its highest example there in the heavens. There are the two mirrors facing each other, and they reverberate rays from one polished surface to another, and so Christ loves and gives, and Christ loves and takes, and His servants love and give, and His servants love and take. Sometimes we are accustomed to speak of it as the highest sign of our Lord’s true, deep conviction that He has given so much to us. It seems to me we may well pause and hesitate whether the mightiness and the wonderfulness of His love to us are shown more in that He gives everything to us, or in that He takes so much from us. It is much to say, ‘The Son of man came not to be ministered unto but to minister’; I do not know but that it is more to say that the Son of man let this record be written: ‘Certain women also which ministered to Him of their substance.’ At all events there it stands and for us. What although we have to come and say, ‘All that I bring is Thine’; what then? Does a father like less to get a gift from his boy because he gave him the shilling to buy it? And is there anything that diminishes the true sweetness of our giving to Christ, and as we may believe the true sweetness to Him of receiving it from us, because we have to herald all our offerings, all our love, aspirations, desires, trust, conformity, practical service, substantial help, with the old acknowledgment, ‘All things come of Thee, and of Thine own have we given Thee.’

Now, dear friends, all these principles which I have thus imperfectly touched upon as to the necessity of the blending of the two sides in all true commerce of love, the giving and bestowing the expression of the one affection in both hearts, all bears very directly upon the more special work of Christian men in spreading the name of Christ among those who do not know it. You get the same economy of power there that I was speaking about. The supernatural is finished when the divine life is cast into the world. ‘I am come to fling fire upon the earth,’ said He, ‘and oh, that it were already kindled!’ There is the supernatural; after that you have to deal with the thing according to the ordinary laws of human history and the ordinary conditions of man’s society. God trusts the spread of His word to His people; there will not be one moment’s duration of the barely, nakedly supernatural beyond the absolute necessity. Christ comes; after that you and I have to see to it, and then you say, ‘Collections, collections, collections, it is always collections. This society and that society and the other society, there is no end of the appeals that are made. Charity sermons-men using the highest motives of the Gospel for no purpose but to get a shilling or two out of people’s pockets. I am tired of it.’ Very well; all I have to say is, first of all, ‘Ye have not resisted unto blood’; some people have had to pay a great deal more for their Gospel than you have. And another thing, a man that had lost a great deal more for his Master than ever you or I will have to do, said, ‘Unto me who am less than the least of all saints is this grace given, that I should preach amongst the heathen the unsearchable riches of Christ.’ Ah! a generous, chivalrous spirit, a spirit touched to fine issues by the fine touch of the Lord’s love, will feel that it is no burden; or if it be a burden, it is only a burden as a golden crown heavy with jewels may be a burden on brows that are ennobled by its pressure. This grace is given, and He has crowned us with the honour that we may serve Him and do something for Him.

Dear brethren! of all the gracious words that our Master has spoken to us, I know not that there is one more gracious than when He said, ‘Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature’; and of all the tender legacies that He has left His Church, though there be included amongst these His own peace and His own Spirit, I know not that there is any more tender or a greater sign of His love towards us and His confidence in us than when departing to the far country to receive a kingdom and to return, He gave authority to His servants, and to every man his work.’

And so, in the next place, let me ask you to look for a moment at the complement to this love that stoops to serve and delights to serve-the ministry or service of our love. Let me point to two things.

It seems to me that the simple narrative we have before us goes very deep into the heart of this matter. It gives us two things-the foundation of the service and the sphere of the service.

First there is the foundation-’Certain women which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities.’ Ah, there you come to it! The consciousness of redemption is the one master touch that evokes the gratitude which aches to breathe itself in service. There is no service except it be the expression of love. That is the one great Christian principle; and the other is that there is no love that does not rest on the consciousness of redemption; and from these two-that all service and obedience are the utterance and eloquence of love, and that all love has its root in the sense of redemption-you may elaborate all the distinct characteristics and peculiarities of Christian ethics, whereby duty becomes gladness. ‘I will,’ and ‘I ought’ overlap and cover each other like two of Euclid’s triangles; and whatsoever He commands that I spring to do; and so though the burden be heavy, considered in regard to its requirements, and though the yoke do often press, considered per se, yet because the cords that fasten the yoke to our neck are the cords of love, I can say, ‘My burden is light.’ One of the old psalms puts it thus; ‘O Lord, truly I am Thy servant; Thou hast loosed my bonds; and because Thou hast loosed, therefore O hear me; speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth.’

So much then for the foundation-now for the sphere. ‘Ah,’ you say, ‘there is no parallel there, at any rate. These women served Him with personal ministration of their substance.’ Well, I think there is a parallel notwithstanding. If I had time I should like to dwell upon the side thoughts connected with that sphere of service, and remind you how very prosaic were their common domestic duties, looking after the comfort of Christ and the travel-stained Twelve who were with Him-let us put it into plain English-cooking their dinners for them, and how that became a religious act. Take the lesson out of it, you women in your households, and you men in your counting-houses and behind your counters, and you students at your dictionaries and lexicons. The commonest things done for the Master flash up into worship, or as good old George Herbert puts it-

‘A servant with this clause

Makes drudgery divine;

Who sweeps a room, as for Thy cause,

Makes that and th’ action fine.’

But then beyond that, is there any personal ministration to do? If any of you have ever been in St. Mark’s Convent at Florence, I dare say you will remember that in the Guest Chamber the saintly genius of Fra Angelico has painted, as an appropriate frontispiece, the two pilgrims on the road to Emmaus, praying the unknown man to come in and partake of their hospitality; and he has draped them in the habit of his order, and he has put Christ as the Representative of all the poor and wearied and wayworn travellers that might enter in there and receive hospitality, which is but the lesson, ‘Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me.’

And there is another thing, dear friends. Do we not minister to Him best when we do the thing that is nearest His heart and help Him most in the purpose of His life and in His death? What would you think of a would-be helper of some great reformer who said: ‘I will give you all sorts of material support; but I have not a grain of sympathy with the cause to which you have devoted your life. I think it is madness and nonsense: I will feed you and house you and make you comfortable, but I do not care one rush for the object for which you are to be housed and fed and made comfortable.’ Jesus Christ let these poor women help Him that He might live to bear the Cross; He lets you and me help Him for that for which on the Cross He died; ‘This honour have all the saints’; The foundation of our service is the consciousness of redemption; its sphere is ministering to Him in that which is nearest His heart.

And then, brethren, there is another thing that does not so immediately belong to the incident before us, but which suggests itself to me in connection with it. We have tried to show the motive and the pattern, the foundation and the sphere, of the service: let me add a last thought-the remembrance and the record of it.

How strange that is, that just as a beam of light coming into a room would enable us to see all the motes dancing up and down that lay in its path, so the beam from Christ’s life shoots athwart the society of His age, and all those little insignificant people come for a moment into the full lustre of the light. Years before and years afterward they lived, and we do not know anything about them; but for an instant they crossed the illuminated track and there they blazed. How strange Pharisees, officials, and bookmen of all sorts would have felt if anybody had said to them: ‘Do you see that handful of travel-stained Galileans there, those poor women you have just passed by the way? Well, do you know that these three women’s names will never perish as long as the world lasts?’ So we may learn the eternity of work done for Him. Ah, a great deal of it may be forgotten and unrecorded! How many deeds of faithful love and noble devotion are all compressed into those words, ‘which ministered unto Him’! It is the old story of how life shrinks, and shrinks, and shrinks in the record. How many acres of green forest ferns in the long ago time went to make up a seam of coal as thick as a sixpence? But still there is the record, compressed indeed, but existent.

And how many names may drop out and not be associated with the work which they did? Do you not think that these anonymous ‘many others which ministered’ were just as dear to Jesus Christ as Mary and Joanna and Susannah? A great many people helped Him whose deeds are related in the Gospel, but whose names are not recorded. But what does it matter about that? With many ‘others of my fellow-labourers also,’ says St. Paul; ‘whose names’-well, I have forgotten them; but that is of little consequence; they ‘are in the Lamb’s book of life.’ And so the work is eternal, and will last on in our blessed consciousness and in His remembrance who will never forget any of it, and we shall self-enfold the large results, even if the rays of dying fame may fade.

And there is one other thought on this matter of the eternity of the work on which I would just touch for an instant.

How strange it must be to these women now! If, as I suppose, you and I believe, they are living with Christ, they will look up to Him and think, ‘Ah! we remember when we used to find your food and prepare for your household comforts, and there Thou art on the throne! How strange and how great our earthly service seems to us now!’ So it will be to us all when we get up yonder. We shall have to say, ‘Lord, when saw I Thee?’ He will put a meaning into our work and a majesty into it that we know nothing about at present. So, brethren, account the name of His slaves your highest honour, and the task that love gives you your greatest joy. When we have in our poor love poorly ministered unto Him who in His great love greatly died for us, then, at the last, the wonderful word will be fulfilled: ‘Verily I say unto you, He shall gird Himself and make them to sit down to meat and will come forth and serve them.’

Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

8:2-3 along with some women: Rabbis of Jesus’ day did not have women disciples, so this was unusual. Some of these women, like Joanna, were from wealthy families and contributed financially to Jesus’ ministry.

8:2 Magdalene means “from Magdala,” a village north of Tiberias on the western side of the Sea of Galilee. Mary figures prominently in the burial and resurrection accounts (24:10; Mark 15:40, 47; John 19:25; 20:1, 18). Some have said that Mary Magdalene was the woman of Luke 7:36-38, leading to the belief that she was a former prostitute. There is no basis for this speculation.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Luk 8:2. Τεθεραπευμέναι, healed) By this the power of Jesus was being shown, as well as the pious affection of the women, in that they were following Him. [Though these women were not present at the voyage to Gadara, which is to be presently mentioned by Luke, although it in reality occurred previously, nor, as it appears, at the journey which the Lord took “in secret” (Joh 7:10) to the feast of tabernacles, and which is narrated by John alone; yet, from this point of time, which was (distant) by the interval of a year from the Passion, they endeavoured in every way to show their adherence to the Lord Jesus, and to minister to Him: for it was during this very attendance on Him that they accompanied Him to Jerusalem; which is the reason why Luke, ch. Luk 23:49; Luk 23:55, thinks it unnecessary to repeat their names, as he refers to this very passage, ch. Luk 8:2.—Harm., p. 315, 316.] This retinue of women were, from the utmost wretchedness [viz. their possession by evil spirits], admitted to the utmost felicity [viz. their hourly communion with Jesus], just as happened in the case of David’s veteran band. It was a matter of custom among the Jews (as Simonius remarks), that women, especially widows, should relieve doctors and Rabbis out of their private resources, and should, for that purpose, accompany them on their journeys.—[Μαρία, Mary) Somewhat fastidious men, even then, may have been inclined to turn away from her with disgust, on account of her former wretchedness: but she was held in high account with Jesus.—V. g.]

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Luk 8:2 . Μαρία ἡ κ . Μαγδαληνή , Mary called the Magdalene, the only one of the three named who is more than a name for readers of the Gospel; since the fourth century, identified with the sinful woman of the previous chapter, the seven demons from which she is said to have been delivered being supposed to refer to her wicked life; a mistaken identification, as in the Gospels demoniacal possession is something quite distinct from immorality. Koetsveld, speaking of the place assigned in tradition and popular opinion to Mary as the patroness of converted harlots, remarks: “All the water of the sea cannot wash off this stain from Mary Magdalene,” De Gelijkenissen , p. 366. The epithet Μαγδαληνή is usually taken as meaning “of the town of Magdala”. P. de Lagarde interprets it “the hair-curler ,” Haarkünstlerin ( Nachrichten der Gesell. der Wissens. , Göttingen, 1889, pp. 371 375).

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

certain women . . . healed, &c.--on whom He had the double claim of having brought healing to their bodies and new life to their souls. Drawn to Him by an attraction more than magnetic, they accompany Him on this tour as His almoners--ministering unto Him of their substance. Blessed Saviour! It melts us to see Thee living upon the love of Thy ransomed people. That they bring Thee their poor offerings we wonder not. Thou hast sown unto them spiritual things, and they think it, as well they might, a small thing that Thou shouldst reap their material things (Co1 9:11). But dost Thou take it at their hand, and subsist upon it? "Oh, the depth of the riches" (Rom 11:33) --of this poverty of His!

Mary Magdalene--that is, probably, of Magdala (on which see Mat 15:39; see on Mar 8:10).

went--rather, "had gone."

seven devils-- (Mar 16:9). It is a great wrong to this honored woman to identify her with the once profligate woman of Luk 7:37, and to call all such penitents Magdalenes. The mistake has arisen from confounding unhappy demoniacal possession with the conscious entertainment of diabolic impurity, or supposing the one to have been afflicted as a punishment for the other--for which there is not the least scriptural ground.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 2. Out of whom went seven devils]. Who had been possessed in a most extraordinary manner; probably a case of inveterate lunacy, brought on by the influence of evil spirits. The number seven may here express the superlative degree.

Mary Magdalene is commonly thought to have been a prostitute before she came to the knowledge of Christ, and then to have been a remarkable penitent. So historians and painters represent her: but neither from this passage, nor from any other of the New Testament, can such a supposition be legitimately drawn. She is here represented as one who had been possessed with seven demons; and as one among other women who had been healed by Christ of evil (or wicked) spirits and infirmities. As well might Joanna and Susanna, mentioned Lu 8:3, come in for a share of the censure as this Mary Magdalene; for they seem to have been dispossessed likewise by Jesus, according to St. Luke's account of them. They had all had infirmities, of what sort it is not said, and those infirmities were occasioned by evil spirits within them; and Jesus had healed them all: but Mary Magdalene, by her behaviour, and constant attendance on Jesus in his life-time, at his crucifixion, and at his grave, seems to have exceeded all the other women in duty and respect to his person. Bishop PEARCE.

There is a marvellous propensity in commentators to make some of the women mentioned in the Sacred Writings appear as women of ill fame; therefore Rahab must be a harlot; and Mary Magdalene, a prostitute: and yet nothing of the kind can be proved either in the former or in the latter case; nor in that mentioned Lu 7:36, c., where see the notes. Poor Mary Magdalene is made the patroness of penitent prostitutes, both by Papists and Protestants and to the scandal of her name, and the reproach of the Gospel, houses fitted up for the reception of such are termed Magdalene hospitals! and the persons themselves Magdalenes! There is not only no proof that this person was such as commentators represent her, but there is the strongest presumptive proof against it: for, if she ever had been such, it would have been contrary to every rule of prudence, and every dictate of wisdom, for Christ and his apostles to have permitted such a person to associate with them, however fully she might have been converted to God, and however exemplary her life, at that time, might have been. As the world, who had seen her conduct, and knew her character, (had she been such as is insinuated,) could not see the inward change, and as they sought to overwhelm Christ and his disciples with obloquy and reproach on every occasion, they would certainly have availed themselves of so favourable an opportunity to subject the character and ministry of Christ to the blackest censure, had he permitted even a converted prostitute to minister to him and his disciples. They were ready enough to say that he was the friend of publicans and sinners, because he conversed with them in order to instruct and save their souls; but they could never say he was a friend of prostitutes, because it does not appear that such persons ever came to Christ; or that he, in the way of his ministry, ever went to them. I conclude therefore that the common opinion is a vile slander on the character of one of the best women mentioned in the Gospel of God; and a reproach cast on the character and conduct of Christ and his disciples. From the whole account of Mary Magdalene, it is highly probable that she was a person of great respectability in that place; such a person as the wife of Chuza, Herod's steward, could associate with, and a person on whose conduct or character the calumniating Jews could cast no aspersions.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(2) And certain women.—The words bring before us a feature in this period of our Lord’s ministry not elsewhere recorded, though implied in Luk_23:49. The Master and the disciples formed at this period one travelling company. When they arrived at town or village, they held what we, in the current Church-language of our time, should call a Mission, the Twelve heralding His approach, and inviting men to listen to Him as He taught in synagogue, or market-place, or open plain. Another company, consisting of devout women, mostly of the wealthier class, travelled separately, journeying, probably, in advance, arranging for the reception and the food of the Prophet and His followers. In the history of Elisha (2Ki_4:10) we have something analogous to this way of helping the preachers of repentance. It is said to have been a not uncommon practice in Judæa in our Lord’s time, for women of independent means to support a Rabbi in his work as a teacher.

Mary called Magdalene.—On the legends and conjectures connected with her name, see Notes on Luk_7:37 and Mat_27:56. Here it may be enough to note that (1) as being of Magdala, a town near Tiberias (see Note on Mat_15:39), she had probably heard our Lord in one of His early mission journeys; (2) that the “seven devils” or “demons” point, as in the parable of Mat_12:45, to a specially aggravated form of possession. with paroxysms of delirious frenzy, like those of the Gadarene demoniac; (3) that her presence with the mother of our Lord and St. John at the Crucifixion (Joh_19:25) seems to imply some special tie either of sympathy or of earlier connection with them; (4) that she appears, from the names with which she is associated, and from the fact that she too “ministered of her substance,” to have belonged to the more wealthy section of Galilean society. Later Western legends tell of her coming with Lazarus and Martha to Marseilles, and living for thirty years a life of penitence in a cave near Arles. The Eastern form of the legend, however, makes her come to Ephesus with the Virgin and St. John, and die there.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2. certain women] This most remarkable circumstance is prominently mentioned by St Luke alone, though alluded to in Mat_27:55-56; Mar_15:41. It accords alike with the probability that some of his peculiar sources of information had been derived from women; and with the certainty that he is fond of dwelling on the graciousness and tenderness of Jesus even to a class so much despised and neglected as Eastern women. See Introd. p. 26. At an earlier period (Joh_4:27) the disciples had been amazed to see Jesus even talking with a woman.

Mary called Magdalene] i.e. Mary, who to distinguish her from numerous others who bore that very common name (Miriam), was known from her native place as Mary of Magdala. We have already seen that, as far as tradition is concerned, we cannot be certain that the Christian world is right in generally identifying her with ‘the sinner’ of the last chapter. Origen rejects the identification; St Ambrose, St Augustine, and St Jerome are doubtful. The identification is first confidently accepted by Gregory the Great (died A. D. 604). There is nothing however to disprove the fact. In the earlier scene her name might well have been suppressed from the spirit of loving and delicate reticence. The locality of the scene, and the stage of the ministry at which she is introduced, agree with the supposition, as well as the intense absorbing affection of one who “loved much.”

out of whom, went seven devils] St Mark (Luk_16:9) uses a similar expression. Some have thought that this excludes the possibility of the life indicated by the words “a sinner in the city.” On the contrary it agrees well with it. Early Christian writers see in the “many sins” (Luk_7:47) a reference which accords with, if it be not the same as, “seven devils,” and that this may be the meaning is quite certain from Luk_11:26. Apart from the general question as to demoniac possession in particular cases, it is quite certain that Jewish colloquial usage adopted the expression to describe many forms of disease (as for instance hydrophobia, epilepsy, &c.), and many forms of sin (as drunkenness, &c.). The Talmudists (as we have seen) have many wild stories to tell of Mary of Magdala, but they agree in describing her as a flagrant sinner rather than as a demoniac.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And certain women which had been healed of evil spirits,.... Of devils, who had possessed them, and were healed by Christ, dispossessing them; See Gill on Luk 7:21.

and infirmities: various diseases of body: some were dispossessed of devils, and others freed from bodily disorders; of the first sort was

Mary Magdalene, out of whom went seven devils: by the order of Christ, for he cast them out, Mar 16:9 and which shows, that this is to be understood, in a literal sense, of devils, and the dispossession of them by Christ; and not in a figurative sense, of vices, and the expulsion of them by the power of divine grace; for this same phrase is used where real dispossessions are intended: nor need it be thought strange that seven devils should be in one person, when, in this same chapter, we read of a legion in one man, and which also Christ cast out, Luk 8:30. This woman seems to be a different person from her spoken of in the latter part of the preceding chapter, seeing this looks as if it was the first time of her being taken notice of by this evangelist, and is described by a different character. She is called "Magdalene", to distinguish her from others of the same name; the reason of which See Gill on Mat 27:56. She is said (d) to be a widow, and so not being bound to an husband, was at leisure to follow Christ.

(d) Jerom in Mar. xv. 40.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

2 And certain women, which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary called Magdalene, out of whom went seven devils,

Ver. 2. Which had been healed] Exo 30:10. After sickness they were to offer to God the ransom of their lives. Hezekiah testified his thankfulness for recovery by a song; these good women, by following Christ; when they might have staid at home with more ease to themselves, and more thank of their friends. Nay, very heathens, after a fit of sickness, would consecrate something to their gods.

Mary, called Magdalen, out of whom went seven devils] Which some interpret of seven deadly sins.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Infirmities - Sickness.

Mary called Magdalene - So called from “Magdula,” the place of her residence. It was situated on the Sea of Galilee, south of Capernaum. To this place Jesus retired after feeding the 4,000. See the notes at Mat 15:39.

Out of whom went - By the power of Jesus.

Seven devils - The word “seven” is often used for an indefinite number, and “may” signify merely “many” devils. The expression is used to signify that she was grievously tormented, and rendered, doubtless, insane by the power of evil spirits. See the notes at Mat 4:24. It has been commonly supposed that Mary Magdalene was a woman of abandoned character, but of this there is not the least evidence. All that we know of her is that she was formerly grievously afflicted by the presence of those evil spirits, that she was perfectly cured by Jesus, and that afterward she became one of his most faithful and humble followers. She was at his crucifixion Joh 19:25 and burial Mar 15:47, and she was among those who had prepared the materials to embalm him Mar 16:1, and who first went to the sepulchre after the resurrection; and what is particularly interesting in her history, she was the first to whom the risen Redeemer appeared Mar 16:9, and his conversation with her is exceeded in interest and pathos by no passage of history, sacred or profane, Joh 20:11-18.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Mention is made in the gospels, of a woman who was a sinner, (Luke vii.) of Mary of Bethania, the sister of Lazarus, (John xi. and xii; Mark xiv; Matthew xxvi.) and of Mary Magdalene, who followed Jesus from Galilee, and ministered to him. Many think all this to belong to one and the same person: others think these were three distinct persons. See the arguments on both sides in Alban Butler’s Lives of the Saints, July 22d; and also more at large in the dissertations upon the three Marys, at the conclusion of the harmony in the Bible de Vence.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

2. Certain women—And this was suitable and right. For must the ministry to Jesus be confined to the male sex alone? These women, however, could serve Jesus in no fashion or character like the apostles, but unofficially and purely according to the full spontaneous dictates of a devout heart.

Evil spirits and infirmities—So that evil spirits and infirmities are not the same thing. Devils and diseases may combine, but they are not identical.

Mary called Magdalene—So called from Magdala, now Medjil, a town on the west side of Lake Gennesaret. See map at page 62, vol. i, and note on Mat_14:34.

Luke makes mention of Mary here for the first time, and that in such a manner as clearly to imply that she is not the same as the sinful woman in the last chapter. Her native town is but a few miles from Capernaum, and she had met the Saviour and experienced his miraculous mercy. That her life had been unchaste, is a perfectly unauthorized notion. If we should infer any special sin from her demoniac possession, we should be as inclined to select sorcery as unchastity.

To sorcery the Jews, after the captivity, resorted as a dark substitute for their ancient Divine revelations and prophetic guidance; and hence it was, perhaps, that their persons became liable to demoniac possession; a result of which modern Spiritism might well beware.

Seven devils—Words of mysterious but terrible import! Seven may be a symbolical and indefinite number to indicate the complete evil control under which Mary had come.

See sup., note to chap. 6. Redeemed by Jesus, she now gratefully came from under the despotism of her demoniac masters into the blessed service of a divine Lord.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And certain women. It has before been noticed that St. Luke, in several places, especially notices the love and devotion of women to the Master. The present position of women is owing to the teaching of the Lord and his disciples. Fellow-heirs with men of the kingdom of heaven, it was obvious that they could no longer occupy on earth their old inferior and subordinate position. The sex, as a sex, has made a noble return to the Master. Much of the untold misery and suffering which tormented the old world has been at least alleviated in great measure by the labours of the women of Christianity. Several of these kindly grateful souls here alluded to evidently belonged to the wealthy class; some even occupied a high position in the society of that time. It was by their gifts, no doubt, that Jesus and his company were enabled to live during the thirty or more months of the public ministry. He had given up, as had also his companions, his earthly occupation, and we know that he deliberately refrained from ever using his miraculous power to supply his daily wants. The presence and loving interest of these and such like kindly generous friends answers the question How did the Master and his disciples, poor men among poor men, live during the years of public teaching? Mary called Magdalene. The name Mary (Miriam) was a very favourite name among the Hebrew women; we meet with several in the gospel story. This one was called "Magdalene," or "of Magdala," to distinguish her from others bearing the same name. Magdala was a little town near Tiberias. There is nothing definite to connect her with the "sinner" of ch. 7. The early tradition which identified these two women was probably derived from Tal-mudic sources. There are many wild stories in these writings connected with one called Mary of Magdala, a grievous sinner. The "seven devils" probably allude to some aggravated form of demoniacal possession. Two sets of ecclesiastical legends busy themselves with the after-life of Mary of Magdala. The one represents her as coming with Lazarus and Martha to Marseilles; the other, as accompanying the Virgin and John to Ephesus.

Vers. 2, 3. Christianity and woman.

We have seen (Luk_2:36-38) that woman, in the person of Anna, welcomed the infant Saviour to the world; it was most fitting that she should do so, for Christianity and womanhood have had a very "close relationship, and undoubtedly will have even to the end.

I WHAT CHRISTIANITY OWES TO WOMAN.

1. Its Divine Author and the Object of its worship was, "as concerning the flesh," born of a woman. (Gal_4:4) The Son of God was, in a true and important sense, the "Son of Mary.

2. He owed the care and the training of his childhood to a human mother.

3. He received, during his active life, the generous provision of ministering women (see text); these, out of" their substance," supplied his necessities.

4. He found some of his best disciples and of his most faithful attendants inwomen. (Mat_27:65)

5. He had the comfort of the near presence of three devoted women in his last agonies. (Joh_19:25) Closer to him in that awful hour than the ruthless soldier and the taunting enemy, rendering him a silent and sorrowful but not unvalued sympathy, stood three women who loved him for all that he was in himself and for all he had been to them.

6. Last at the cross, women were first at the sepulchre. (Luk_23:55, 56 24:1)

7. Women were united with the apostles in the upper room, waiting and praying for the further manifestation of the Lord after his ascension. (Act_1:14)

8. The apostle of the Gentiles owed much to women in his abundant and fruitful labours. (Php_4:3)

9. From that time to this, women have been rendering valuable service to the cause of Jesus Christ: the mother of Augustine, the mother of the Wesleys, and many hundreds more have, by their holy and faithful motherhood, done signal service to the gospel. In these later days, moved by the Spirit of God, women have, by their writings and by their "prophesyings," effected great things for the furtherance of the truth as it is in Jesus Christ. And it is right that it should be so; for we have to consider

II WHAT WOMAN OWES TO CHRISTIANITY.

1. We know what barbarism does, and fails to do, for woman.

2. We know also what Greek and Roman civilization did, and failed to do, for her; in how unsatisfactory a condition it left her; how completely it failed to raise her. to her true spiritual dignity. We know what Christianity has done and is doing for her.

(1) Jesus Christ taught and enforced the transcendent value of every human soul.

(2) He admitted women into his kingdom on the same terms on which he received men: "In him is neither male nor female.

(3) He gave to women a sphere of honorable service in his kingdom; not only (as above) accepting their loving ministry for himself, but for his disciples also.

(4) Influenced increasingly by these ideas, the Church of Christ has been giving to woman a place of growing honour and usefulness; it has made her the full helpmeet and equal companion of man; it has opened for her the gateway of knowledge and influence; it has placed her on the highest seat to receive its respect, its affection, its service. We may look at

III THE SPECIAL CONTRIBUTIONS WHICH WOMAN MAY RENDER.

1. When not bound by domestic ties, she can offer, as these women did, of her worldly substance.

2. She can minister, as man cannot, to the sick and suffering; she has a gentle touch of hand and a tenderness and patience of spirit for which we look to man in vain.

3. She can train the child in the home, and, by giving to him or her the earliest and deepest impressions concerning Divine love, prepare for noblest work in after-years in various fields of holy service. C.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mary Magdalene - Or Mary of Magdala, a town in Galilee: probably the person mentioned in the last chapter.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Amongst the number of those that did accompany our Saviour and his apostles, mention is here made of a certain woman, who had been healed by Christ of evil spirits and infirmities; that is, of spiritual and corporeal diseases, for the Jews were wont to call vices and evil habits by the name of devils, as the devil of pride, the devil of malice, etc.

Now as concerning these women’s following of Christ, and administering to him, several circumstances are observable; as,

1. That women did make up a considerable number of Christ’s followers, yes, and of his apostles’ followers too: The devout women not a few. Act 17:4

And verily it is no disgrace or shame, but matter of glory, and cause of thankfulness, if our ministry be attended by, and blest unto, the weaker sex. I believe in many of our congregations, and at most of our communions, are found two women for one man; God grant them knowledge answerable to their zeal, and obedience proportionable to their devotion.

Observe, 2. One of these women that followed Christ was Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward. What! One of Herod’s family transplanted into Christ’s household!

Oh the freeness of the grace of God! Even in the worst societies and places God has a number to stand up for his name, and bear witness to his truth: we read of a Joseph in Pharaoh’s court; of an Obadiah in Ahab’s court; of a Daniel in Nebuchadnezzar’s court; of a church in Nero’s house; and of a Joanna here in bloody Herod’s family, who had put John the Baptist to death.

Observe, 3. The holy courage and resolution of our Saviour’s female followers. No doubt they met with taunts and jeers, with scoffs and scorns enough, and perhaps from their husbands too, of following the carpenter’s son, and a few fishermen: but this does not damp but inflame, their zeal.

The Holy Ghost acquaints us with several instances of masculine courage and manly resolution in the women that followed Christ as his female disciples. At our Saviour’s trail, the women clave to him, when his disciples fed from him; they accompanied him to his cross, they assisted at his funeral, they attended his hearse to the grave, they watched his sepulchre, fearing neither the darkness of the night nor the rudeness of the soldiers. These feeble women had more courage than all the apostles.

Learn, that courage is the special and peculiar gift of God; and where he gives courage, it s not in man to make afraid.

Observe, 4. The pious and charitable care of these holy women, to supply the wants and outward necessities of our Saviour: They ministered unto him of their substance.

Where note, 1. The great poverty of Christ: he lived upon the basket, he would not honor the world so far as to have any part of it in his own hand, but was beholden to others for what he ate and drank; yet must we not suppose that either Christ or his apostles were common beggars, but it is probable there was a bag or common purse amongst them, which upon occasion supplied their necessities; and there were certain sisters, or Christian women as the learned Dr. Hammond observes, who accompanied Christ and his apostles in their travels, and provided necessaries for them, when they went up and down, preaching the gospel.

Note also, 2. The condescending grace and humility of Christ; he was not ashamed either of these women’s following of him, or administering to him, because of their former vicious course of life; it is not what we formerly were, but what we now are, that Christ considers; it is a glory to him, to have great and notorious sinners brought to a closure and compliance with him. The reproach is not that they have been sinners, for Christ did not give himself for a people that were pure and holy, without spot or wrinkle, but to make them so by his word and Spirit, Eph 5:26 Christ is only ashamed of those that eat of his bread, and lift up the heel against him.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2. And certain women. That these women should attend the footsteps of Christ was opposed to the custom of Palestine. The admixture of the sexes was not common. The rabbis held that the law should not be taught to women. Mary that was called Magdalene. That is, of Magdala, a village near the Sea of Galilee. This is the first mention of her and we know nothing more of her preceding history. We know that after this she was one of the most devoted friends of Christ. Seven devils. For notes on demoniac possession see Matt. 8:29.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

2. γυναῖκές τινες. This most remarkable circumstance is prominently mentioned by St Luke alone, though alluded to in Mat 27:55-56; Mar 15:41. It accords alike with the probability that some of his peculiar sources of information had been derived from women; and with the certainty that he is fond of dwelling on the graciousness and tenderness of Jesus even to a class so much despised and neglected as Eastern women. See Introd. p. 35. At an earlier period (Joh 4:27) the disciples had been amazed to see Jesus even talking with a woman.

ἡ καλουμένη Μαγδαληνή. I.e. Mary, who to distinguish her from numerous others who bore that very common name (Miriam), was known from her native place as Mary of Magdala. We have already seen that, as far as tradition is concerned, we cannot be certain that the Christian world is right in generally identifying her with ‘the sinner’ of the last chapter. Origen rejects the identification; St Ambrose, St Augustine, and St Jerome are doubtful. The identification is first confidently accepted by Gregory the Great (died A.D. 604). There is nothing however to disprove the fact. In the earlier scene her name might well have been suppressed from the spirit of loving and delicate reticence. The locality of the scene, and the stage of the ministry at which she is introduced, as well as the intense absorbing affection of one who “loved much,” agree with the belief that the sinful woman of chapter 7 was the Magdalene.

Μαγδαληνή. ‘Of Magdala,’ an Aramaic form of Migdol ‘tower.’ Magdala is only mentioned in Mat 15:39 where the best MSS. read Magadan. See my Life of Christ, II. 1.

ἀφ’ ἦς δαιμόνια ἑπτὰ ἐξεληλύθει. Comp. Mat 12:45. St Mark (Mar 16:9) uses a similar expression. Some have thought that this excludes the possibility of the life indicated by the words ‘a sinner in the city.’ On the contrary, it agrees well with it. Early Christian writers see in the “many sins” (Luk 7:47) a reference which accords with, if it be not the same as, “seven devils,” and that this may be the meaning is quite certain from Luk 11:26, which suggests the inference of a relapse. Apart from the general question as to ‘demoniac possession’ in particular cases, it is quite certain that Jewish colloquial usage adopted the expression to describe many forms of disease (as for instance hydrophobia, epilepsy, &c.), and many forms of sin (as drunkenness, &c.). The Talmudists (as we have seen) have wild stories to tell of Mary of Magdala, but they agree in describing her as a flagrant sinner rather than as a demoniac.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2. δαιμόν. ἑπτά] See ver. 30.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2. πνευμάτων πονηρῶν. See on 4:33. We cannot tell how many of these women had been freed from demons: perhaps only Mary Magdalen, the others having been cured ἀπὸ ἀσθενειῶν. For the ἀπό comp. 5:15, 7:21.

ἡ καλουμένη Μαγδαληνή. See on 6:15. The adj. probably means “of Magdala,” a town which is not named in N.T.; for the true reading in Mat 15:39 is “Magadan” “Magdata is only the Greek form of Migdol, or watch-tower, one of the many places of the name in Palestine” (Tristram, Bible Places, p. 260); and it is probably represented by the squalid group of hovels which now bear the name of Mejdel, near the centre of the western shore of the lake. Magdala was probably near to Magedan, and being much better known through ἡ Μαγδαληνή, at last it drove the latter name out of the common text. See Stanley, Sin. & Pal. p. 382. Mary being a common name, the addition of something distinctive was convenient; and poissibly a distinction from Mary of Bethany was specially designed by the Evangelists. Mary Magdalen is commonly placed first when she is mentioned with other women (Mat 27:56, Mat 27:61, Mat 27:28:1 ; Mar 15:40, Mar 15:47, Mar 15:16:1; Luk 24:10). Joh 19:25 is an exception. See on 1:36.

ἀφʼ ἦς δαιμόνια ἐπτὰ ἐπτὰ ἐξεληλύθει. This fact is mentioned in the disputed verses at the end of Mk. (16:9). It indicates a posession of extraordinary malignity ( Mar 5:9). We need not give any mystical interpretation to the number seven: comp. 11:26; Mat 12:45. There is nothing to show that demoniacs generally, or Mary in particular, had lived specially vicious lives: and the hut that no name is given to the ἀμαρτωλός in the preceding section, while Mary Magdalen is introduced here as an entirely new person, is against the traditional identification of the two. Moreover, such an affliction as virulent demoniacal possession would be almost incompatible with the miserable trade of prostitution. If Lk. had wished to intimate that the ἁμαρτωλός is Mary Magdalen, he could have done it much more clearly. Had he wished to conceal the fact, he would not have placed these two sections in juxtaposition. Had he wished to withhold the name of the ἁμαρτωλός, who may possibly be included among the ἕτεραι πολλαί, he would have done as he has done. The ἁμαρτωλός and Mary Magdalen and Mary of Bethany are three distinct persons.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.