Q 01/05

Magdala, Mary Magdalene's presumed home village, lies on the shore of which body of water?

A) The Dead Sea

B) The Sea of Galilee

C) The Mediterranean

D) The Jordan River

Answer · why

B) The Sea of Galilee

The Sea of Galilee made Magdala a fishing town, and when a drought lowered the lake in 1986 a fishing boat some 2,000 years old emerged from the mud o...

Q 02/05

Some scholars argue "Magdalene" was an honorific nickname, from the Aramaic word magdala, meaning what?

A) Pillar

B) Star

C) Tower

D) Beloved

Answer · why

C) Tower

Tower fits a very old reading: some 1,600 years ago Jerome wrote that she was "called the tower from the earnestness and glow of her faith".

Q 03/05

Why do the gospels say "Mary Magdalene" rather than simply "Mary"?

A) To record her husband's family

B) To mark her as a foreigner

C) To distinguish her from namesakes

D) To show she had been healed

Answer · why

C) To distinguish her from namesakes

To distinguish her from namesakes: Mary was the most common Jewish woman's name of the time, and the gospels themselves mention several others.

Q 04/05

According to the Gospel of Luke, how many demons did Jesus cast out of Mary Magdalene?

A) One

B) Three

C) Seven

D) Forty

Answer · why

C) Seven

Seven demons is read by many scholars as a severe illness of body or mind rather than literal spirits, and the number itself may simply signal how com...

Q 05/05

Long confused with the gospel woman who emptied an alabaster jar over Jesus, Mary Magdalene became patron saint of which trade?

A) Potters

B) Goldsmiths

C) Stonemasons

D) Perfumers

Answer · why

D) Perfumers

Perfumers are among her patronages, and painters give her an ointment jar. A sermon of 591 merged her with Luke's unnamed woman who anointed Jesus, an...