Mary Magdalene a Major Donor in Jesus Ministry, Duke Uni. Professor Says

Mary Magdalene was one of the key financial supporters of Jesus Christ's low-budget ministry, according to a report which sought to explain how he and his evangelists survived while traveling and preaching in the first century.

According to Mark Goodacre, a professor of New Testament and Christian Origins at Duke University, Mary was not only one of Jesus' most loyal supporters who did not leave his side from Galilee to Jerusalem until he died on the cross and placed in a tomb. Mary also provided for Jesus financially from her own means.

Mary was free to travel so it was unlikely that she had a spouse and children waiting for her return. In CNN's "Finding Jesus: Fact. Faith. Forgery," based on the Gnostic gospel of Mary Magdalene, Mary was portrayed as Jesus' very own wife. But she might simply have been an independent woman who had her own resources and found a compelling message and messenger.

Goodacre said Mary was one of the key figures in the ministry's daily mission, saying that the Gospels mentioned that she was "ministering" to Jesus. She and two other women, namely Joanna and Susanna, made possible the ministry's mission.

Rabbi Joshua Garroway, a professor of Early Christianity and the Second Commonwealth at Hebrew Union College in Los Angeles, said the ministry might have lived from day to day. Jesus and his disciples wore what they had, walked, slept outside or in houses of friends. They also ate what they caught or what others shared with them.

"I imagine the ministry functioned at a subsistence level," Garroway said.

"I venture to guess that begging and hospitality will have sufficed to meet the basic needs of Jesus and the companions with whom he traveled," he added.

The rabbi also said it is likely that donations from supporters bankrolled Jesus's ministry, supporting Goodacre's claim. There might have been substantial donations from rich people who were attracted to the ministry despite Jesus' teaching on the perils of wealth.

How the ministry functioned was shown in the Gospel of Luke: "Soon afterwards he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. The twelve were with him, as well as some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Herod's steward Chuza, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their resources."

Joanna, having been born into a wealthy family and having palace connections, was in a good position to aid Jesus and his ministry. Like Mary Magdalene, she also attended to Jesus, even until his death when she was cited as one of the three women who went to his tomb and found it empty.

The women in Jesus' life were not the only ones who might have financially supported his ministry. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, both men of stature and wealth, might have contributed financially to the ministry. It was Joseph who removed Jesus from the cross and anointed his body with the help of Nicodemus, before placing him in the tomb that Joseph reserved for himself.