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Transcript 328F
Who Was Mary Magdalene?
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum.
CALLER: Hello. My question is in regard to Mary Magdalene. Was she ever married, and who was it that condemned her, where Christ said, "Whoever is without sin can cast the first stone." I'll take my answer over the air.
HC: Thank you. Good night.
The question is concerning Mary Magdalene. Was she ever married, and is she the one about whom Jesus said, "Whosoever condemns thee, let him cast the first stone''?
We know this about Mary Magdalene, and this is all we know of her. She originally had seven demons within her. In other words, she was demon possessed. We know that later one she was saved. We know that she became a very personal friend of the Lord Jesus Christ, even as Mary and Martha and Lazarus, and Peter, and some of the others became very personal friends. We know that she is one of the first persons that the Lord Jesus greeted after He rose from the grave.
But beyond that, we don't know any more about Mary Magdalene. We don't know whether she ever did marry, whether she had ever been married before. We know nothing of whether she had ever been taken in adultery. The Bible is silent on all of those questions. All we know, however, is that before she was saved she actually was possessed by demons. She was firmly in the clutch of Satan, and she did became saved.
Now there was a woman that was taken in adultery, unnamed, her name is not given, as near as I recall. And the Jews brought her to Jesus, to test Jesus. They were trying to put Him on the spot. Now in the Old Testament the law declared that if any woman was taken in adultery, that woman was to be stoned to death, or a man likewise. Here Jesus came, claiming that the Bible, the Old Testament, was the Word of God and was to be obeyed. And so now they were going to test Him.
It was a test because under Roman law, under which the nation of Israel existed in the days of Jesus, no one could stone someone. That person had to have a trial, and that person had to be condemned by Roman authority. That's the reason Jesus was condemned to death by Pontius Pilate, the Roman ruler. And so they thought they were putting Jesus on the spot.
If He said, "Stone her," then He would disobey the Roman rulers. If He said, "Don't stone her," then He would be disobeying, they thought, the law of Moses. And so Jesus very neatly walked out of their trap. He wrote on the ground. What words He wrote we do not know, but we know that He is the lawgiver. He is the one who wrote the law. He is above the law, in other words.
When Jesus was writing on the ground with His finger, I think this is demonstrating the fact that Jesus is the Word of God. Then He said, "Whoso among you is without sin, let him cast the first stone." And in the presence of the lawgiver, they all stood condemned. They all stood condemned. No one could cast the first stone because there was no one there without sin. And so, to walk out of the snare that Jesus had turned against them, they thought they were going to box in Jesus, but He instead boxed them in. And so, one by one, they silently left, until finally Jesus looked up and said to the woman, "Who is there to condemn thee?"