Women in the Bible – Lesson 6: Mary Magdalene

Practice Duration 60 minutes

Lesson developed byJill Olds and Victoria Crook

Materials Checklist

Bibles or copies of the focal scripture
Load a version of Women in the Bible Jeopardy – either Women of the Bible or Women’s History Month Trivia
Load the Nike video “Dream Crazier”

Activity 1: Let’s Play Jeopardy

Best if used with a tv/projector but can also be used via screen share for virtual events.

Set up the space as you need and break the students into different groups (around 5 students per group but can change depending on size).
You can find a template for Women of the Bible Jeopardy or Women in History Jeopardy .
After each answer, take time to discuss why these women are important and why they might be included. If youth don’t know who they are, spend some time looking up some information about them.

Activity 2: Video

Watch Nike “Dream Crazier” video

Read the focal scripture and discuss the following questions together:

Mary Magdalene is commonly referred to as a “prostitute,” but this is a conflation of several stories, and both the Old Testament Hebrew and the New Testament Greek words for “prostitute” more realistically translate as either a sex worker OR as a woman who was a free spirit of sorts, someone who is acting outside of the patriarchal norms. What do you make of this, in light of this story of Mary? How does her agency buck the trend of what is expected of women in that time?
What does it mean that history has made Mary, one of Jesus’ most faithful followers, into a prostitute over time? How often are women (or any of us) misunderstood in our schools, our families?
What does it mean that Mary is the first person Jesus visits after he comes back to life? What does it mean that she is the first witness, and the first messenger of the Resurrection? What might it mean for us to be continuing witnesses of this?

Close the meeting in prayer (either the leader or a group member).