Were Mary of Bethany and Mary Magdalene the same person? There is a serious debate about that—even whether her sister Martha existed, based on some emendations in a 2nd century manuscript.

However, Mary Magdalene was not a prostitute. Here Scripture is clear. That was an interpretation by Pope Gregory I, called the Great, except here he was not so great at all. Jesus healed her and some other women, according to Luke 8:2; specifically seven demons were cast out of Mary. There is unfortunately no amplification in the text to describe that event. It shows up again in the second ending of Mark's gospel (16:9), which is a later addition to the original text.

She is also the apostle to the apostles, because she is the first witness to the resurrected Jesus in John's gospel. In the other three she is present at the empty tomb. There is a real controversy about her later stature among the disciples; it is argued that she was diminished by later writers because she was a powerful leader.

Finally, thanks to popular novels, Mary Magdalene is supposed to have been Jesus' wife or lover, a notion which much later grew around her love of him as portrayed by the gospels. The idea however completely contradicts the mission of Christ—how could he have kept a wife in its context? I think it is entirely possible to imagine that Jesus was a widower, however.