Hi David, Thanks for your question, I appreciate your feedback. I do enjoy discussing these things. You’ve described the view of Mary Magdalene’s involvement in prostitution as being a creation, and one later revoked, of the Catholic Church. That’s true for that denomination’s history, to be sure, but if that were the extent of the matter, it would never have entered my mind. While I try to be aware of major denominations’ positions on various topics, I have always striven to derive my views from the Biblical text itself, and we can find some evidence there. An up-front caveat: prostitution is an unfortunate subject. It may seem an odd thing to say, but it is simply judged too harshly. I live in America, which suffers from an historical backdrop of Puritanism, and typically puritanical overreactions to all matters sexual pervade all branches of Christianity – and secular conservatism – to this day. By contrast, biblically the ‘seven deadly sins’ (so to speak) of Proverbs 6 do not include any sexually-oriented offences, and some involved directly in prostitution, such as Tamar, or Rahab, go unrebuked by scripture, for relevant circumstantial reasons. For me, the hypothesis of Mary Magdalene’s involvement is assembled in two parts. Firstly, I believe it can be established beyond any doubt that the female character in Luke 7 is Mary Magdalene. The events of the chapter are unique in the extreme and clearly identical to those in Matthew 26 and John 12, where Mary is named. It surprises me that some adhere to the notion that these are different events – argued solely from the strictures of timeline, which the gospel authors only observe loosely at best. I have argued this more completely already, see “Leading Ladies,” 2021, pp 221-225. With that established, one only has to hypothesize that the woman of Luke 7 is engaged in prostitution, about which I have written: Luke reveals Mary was a “sinner” (Luke 7:37). The term is so generic we’ll never be sure of the precise meaning but, given that it causes Simon the Pharisee to recoil at the idea of her touching Jesus (Luke 7:39), and opportunities for poor women in that society were extremely limited, it’s reasonable to conclude, without being derogatory, that it refers to prostitution, as others conclude.* *Simon Légasse, “Jésus et les prostituées,” Revue Théologique de Louvain 1976, 7, 2, p145-150 [John Pople, “Leading Ladies,” 2021, p214] Again, thanks for your engagement! I hope this is helpful. your brother by grace, John