DID YOU KNOW?
The answer
Not in the Bible. No Gospel calls Mary Magdalene a prostitute or a sinner. Luke 8:2-3 says seven demons had gone out of her. It names her among the women who traveled with Jesus and provided for the group out of their own resources.
Why it’s interesting
Luke puts her name right after the story of an unnamed woman "who was a sinner" (Luke 7:37), which is probably where the reputation began. Painters carried it on, like Caravaggio's painting Penitent Magdalene. Penitent means sorry for sin, and the idea comes from later church tradition.
Scholarly consensus
Learn the Bible.
Not just the stories, but the history, authorship, and scholarship behind it.