Editing Mary Magdalene (section)

===Witness to Jesus's crucifixion and burial===
[[File:Weyden, Rogier van der - Descent from the Cross - Detail Mary Magdalene.jpg|thumb|Detail of Mary Magdalene weeping at the crucifixion of Jesus, as portrayed in ''[[The Descent from the Cross (van der Weyden)|The Descent from the Cross]]'' ({{circa|1435}}) by the Flemish artist [[Rogier van der Weyden]]{{sfn|Campbell|2009|pages=2–64}}]]

All four canonical gospels agree that several women watched Jesus's crucifixion from a distance, with three explicitly naming Mary Magdalene as present.{{sfn|Ehrman|2006|page=223}} {{bibleverse|Mark|15:40|9}} lists the names of these women as Mary Magdalene; [[Mary, mother of James]]; and [[Salome (disciple)|Salome]].{{sfn|Ehrman|2006|page=223}} {{bibleverse|Matthew|27:55–56|9}} lists Mary Magdalene, Mary mother of James and Joseph, and the unnamed mother of the sons of [[Zebedee]] (who may be the same person Mark calls Salome).{{sfn|Ehrman|2006|page=223}} {{bibleverse|Luke|23:49|9}} mentioned a group of women watching the crucifixion, but did not give any of their names.{{sfn|Ehrman|2006|page=223}} {{bibleverse|John|19:25|9}} lists [[Mary, mother of Jesus]], her sister, [[Mary of Clopas|Mary, wife of Clopas]], and Mary Magdalene as witnesses to the crucifixion.{{sfn|Ehrman|2006|page=223}}

Virtually all reputable historians agree that Jesus was crucified by the Romans under the orders of [[Pontius Pilate]].{{sfn|Herzog|2005|pages=1–6}}{{sfn|Powell|1998|page=168}}{{sfn|Crossan|1995|page=145}}{{sfn|Levine|Allison|Crossan|2006|page=4}} James Dunn states of baptism and crucifixion that these "two facts in the life of Jesus command almost universal assent".<ref>{{Cite book|last=Dunn|first=James D. G.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/51978108|title=Jesus remembered|date=2003|isbn=0-8028-3931-2|location=Grand Rapids, Michigan|pages=339|oclc=51978108}}</ref> Nonetheless, the gospels' accounts of Jesus's crucifixion differ.{{Sfn|Ehrman|2006|pages=217–223}} Ehrman states that the presence of Mary Magdalene and the other women at the cross is probably historical because Christians would have been unlikely to make up that the main witnesses to the crucifixion were women{{sfn|Ehrman|2006|pages=225–226}} and also because their presence is attested in both the Synoptic Gospels and in the [[Gospel of John]] independently.{{sfn|Ehrman|2006|page=226}} [[Maurice Casey]] concurs that the presence of Mary Magdalene and the other women at the crucifixion of Jesus may be recorded as an historical fact.{{sfn|Casey|2010|page=475}} According to [[E. P. Sanders]], the reason why the women watched the crucifixion even after the male disciples had fled may have been because they were less likely to be arrested, they were braver than the men, or some combination thereof.{{sfn|Sanders|1993|page=276}}

[[File:Raffaello, pala baglioni, deposizione.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|left|''[[The Deposition (Raphael)|The Deposition]]'' (1507) by [[Raphael]], showing a distressed, reddish-blond-haired Mary Magdalene dressed in fine clothes clutching the hand of Jesus's body as he is carried to the tomb{{sfn|Jones|Penny|1983|pages=46–47}}]]
All four canonical gospels, as well as the apocryphal [[Gospel of Peter]], agree that Jesus's body was taken down from the cross and buried by a man named [[Joseph of Arimathea]].{{sfn|Ehrman|2006|page=223}} {{bibleverse|Mark|15:47|9}} lists Mary Magdalene and Mary, mother of Joses as witnesses to the burial of Jesus.{{sfn|Ehrman|2006|page=223}} {{bibleverse|Matthew|27:61|9}} lists Mary Magdalene and "the other Mary" as witnesses.{{sfn|Ehrman|2006|page=223}} {{bibleverse|Luke|23:55|9}} mentions "the women who had followed him from Galilee", but does not list any of their names.{{sfn|Ehrman|2006|page=223}} {{bibleverse|John|19:39–42|9}} does not mention any women present during Joseph's burial of Jesus,{{sfn|Ehrman|2006|page=223}} but does mention the presence of [[Nicodemus]], a Pharisee with whom Jesus had a conversation near the beginning of the gospel.{{sfn|Ehrman|2006|page=223}} Ehrman, who previously accepted the story of Jesus's burial as historical, now rejects it as a later invention on the basis that Roman governors almost never allowed for executed criminals to be given any kind of burial{{sfn|Ehrman|2014|pages=151–161}} and Pontius Pilate in particular was not "the sort of ruler who would break with tradition and policy when kindly asked by a member of the Jewish council to provide a decent burial for a crucified victim". Casey argues that Jesus was given a proper burial by Joseph of Arimathea,{{sfn|Casey|2010|pages=448–453}} noting that, on some very rare occasions, Roman governors did release the bodies of executed prisoners for burial.{{sfn|Casey|2010|pages=449–450}} Nonetheless, he rejects that Jesus could have been interred in an expensive tomb with a stone rolled in front of it like the one described in the gospels,{{sfn|Casey|2010|pages=449–453}} leading him to conclude that Mary and the other women must not have seen the tomb.{{sfn|Casey|2010|pages=449–453}} Sanders affirms Jesus's burial by Joseph of Arimathea in the presence of Mary Magdalene and the other female followers as completely historical.{{sfn|Sanders|1993|pages=274–275}}