The person of Mary Magdalene (M. M.) has recently been receiving a great deal of interest. Even though we have no words or direct quotations of M. M. in the N. T., she nonetheless plays a leading role among the women. The women (esp. M. M.) appear as the first witnesses of the resurrected Christ and are commissioned to tell the disciples. Further, we observe how several early Church Fathers came to indentify M. M. with the other two Marys. A brief look at the feministic literature shows that patriarchal tendencies in early Christianity have attempted to suppress the significance of M. M. although she stood in the center of Christ's commission.
