Elizabeth Schrader and Joan Taylor present on their article "The Meaning of 'Magdalene': A Review of the Literary Evidence," which was published December 2021 by the Journal of Biblical Literature. Their examination of the Gospel of Luke, Origen, Eusebius, Macarius Magnes, and Jerome, as well as evidence in hagiography, pilgrimage, and diverse literature, reveals multiple ways that the epithet ἡ Μαγδαληνή can be understood and why it is perhaps best left untranslated.

Elizabeth Schrader: Oregonraised and now based in Durham, NC, Elizabeth “Libbie” Schrader is a doctoral candidate in Early Christianity at Duke University. Her studies focus on Mary Magdalene, the Gospel of John, textual criticism, and feminist theology. Schrader has recently transitioned to religious scholarship after a long career as a singer/songwriter. Her research is already receiving critical acclaim as she advances new theories about the origins of Mary Magdalene.

Prof. Joan Taylor: After a BA degree at Auckland University, New Zealand, Joan completed postgraduate studies at the University of Otago and then went to the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem (Kenyon Institute) as Annual Scholar in 1986. She undertook a PhD at New College, Edinburgh University, and was appointed in 1992 to a position of lecturer (subsequently senior lecturer) at the University of Waikato, New Zealand, in the departments of both Religious Studies and History. In 1995 she won an Irene LeviSala Award in Israel’s archaeology, for the book version of her PhD thesis, Christians and the Holy Places (Oxford: Clarendon, 1993, rev. 2003). In 19967 she was Visiting Lecturer and Research Associate in Women’s Studies in Religion at Harvard Divinity School, a position she held in association with a Fulbright Award. She has also been Honorary Research Fellow in the Departments of History and Jewish Studies at University College London. She has taught at King’s College London since 2009.