Was Mary Magdalene a prostitute?

[tonychanyt]

Lk 7:

36 One of the Pharisees asked [Jesus] to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and reclined at table. 37 And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner,

She might be a prostitute. Label her P1.

when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, 38 and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment. 39 Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner.”

P1 anointed Jesus' feet. She was a known sinner to the Pharisee.

Elsewhere in Jn 11:1, Mary of Bethany was a sister of Martha and Lazarus.

Jn 12:

1 Six days before the Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. 2 So they gave a dinner for him there. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him at table. 3 Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair.

Mary of Bethany anointed Jesus' feet. She was not a prostitute.

Historically some identified P1 as Mary Magdalene. The text did not specify her identity. In 591 CE, Pope Gregory identified Mary Magdalene as the sinful woman from Luke 7. This interpretation became widespread in Western Christianity and contributed to her association with prostitution.

1. They conflated Mary of Bethany with Mary Magdalene.
2. They carried that confusion to Lk 7 and thought P1 was Mary Magdalene.
3. They thought P1 was a prostitute which the text did not say.

The Catholic Church officially corrected this error in 1969, though the misconception persists in popular culture. Scholars now understand Mary Magdalene to have been one of Jesus's most prominent disciples and an important early Christian leader.

Wiki:

Mary Magdalene was a woman who, according to the four canonical gospels, traveled with Jesus as one of his followers and was a witness to his crucifixion and resurrection.[1] She is mentioned by name twelve times in the canonical gospels, more than most of the apostles and more than any other woman in the gospels …
The Gospel of Luke chapter 8 lists Mary Magdalene as one of the women who traveled with Jesus and helped support his ministry "out of their resources", indicating that she was probably wealthy. The same passage also states that seven demons had been driven out of her, a statement which is repeated in Mark 16. In all the four canonical gospels, Mary Magdalene was a witness to the crucifixion of Jesus and, in the Synoptic Gospels, she was also present at his burial. All the four gospels identified her, either alone or as a member of a larger group of women which includes Jesus' mother, as the first to witness the empty tomb,[1] and, either alone or as a member of a group, as the first to witness Jesus' resurrection.[2]

P1 and Mary Magdalene were probably two different women.