how many Marys?

Frederica Mathewes-Green2 writes: "She is not Mary of Bethany (a city south of Jerusalem), the sister of Martha and Lazarus, who anointed Jesus' head. She is not the prostitute who anointed Jesus' feet and wiped them with her hair. These two understandably get confused, and historically in the West all three women are lumped together under Mary Magdalene's name, a confusion continued in the Last Temptation of Christ, The DaVinci Code, and other works."
Karen Rae Keck (cf. External links) writes: "St. Gregory the Dialogist (Pope Gregory the Great) is believed to have begun the tradition in the Western Church, not accepted in the Eastern Church, which identified St. Mary with the 'sinful woman' in the seventh chapter of Luke."

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According to tradition, during a dinner with the emperor Tiberius Caesar, Mary Magdalene was speaking about Christ's Resurrection. Caesar scoffed at her, saying that a man could rise from the dead no more than the egg in her hand could turn red. Immediately, the egg turned red. Because of this, icons of Mary Magdalene sometimes depict her holding a red egg. Also, this is believed to be an explanation for dyeing eggs red at Pascha.

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Mary of Bethany said:

It depends who you ask.

I believe, in the western Christian world, both Catholics & Protestants say that Mary Magdalene (who is believed to have been a prostitute) and Mary of Bethany (sister of Martha & Lazarus) are the same person.

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