Was Mary Magdalene a Church Leader?

“Was Mary Magdalene a church leader?” someone asked. The New Testament mentions Mary Magdalene by name 11 times combined in the four Gospel records. All of those references to her, therefore, were prior to the establishment of the church, about which one reads in Acts 2; the first mention of “the church” as existing is in Acts 2:47.

Since New Testament Scripture relegates leadership roles in the Lord’s church to qualified men, neither Mary Magdalene nor any other woman could be a leader in the church about which we read in the Bible. Leadership in the church is the responsibility of biblically qualified men (1 Timothy 3:1-7; Titus 1:5-9) who have been appointed to the eldership over the congregation of which they are members.

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