The Red Egg Tradition

A beloved tradition holds that Mary Magdalene, granted an audience with the Emperor Tiberius, proclaimed the Resurrection of Christ; when the emperor scoffed that a man could no more rise from the dead than the egg in her hand could turn red, the egg turned red before him. The story is the Eastern origin-legend of the Paschal red egg and of the greeting “Christ is risen!” exchanged over it. This file sets out the tradition, treats honestly the late attestation of the Tiberius narrative, and distinguishes what is old (the egg as a symbol of resurrection) from what is later (the audience with Caesar).

Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (Equal-to-the-Apostles, Myrrh-bearer)

The Tradition

The most popular of all the later traditions about Mary Magdalene is the red egg before Caesar. In its common Eastern form, the story runs thus: after the Resurrection and Pentecost, Mary Magdalene, fearless in her apostolic zeal, came to Rome and obtained an audience with the Emperor Tiberius Caesar. She greeted him with the words “Christ is risen!” and proceeded to proclaim the Resurrection of Christ and to denounce the injustice of Pilate’s condemnation of an innocent man. As was the custom for those who came before the emperor, she brought a gift — and being poor, she brought a simple egg. When Tiberius mocked her message, declaring that a man could no more rise from the dead than the white egg in her hand could turn red, the egg at once turned a deep red before his eyes. This wonder, the tradition holds, is the origin of the Christian custom of dyeing eggs red at Pascha and of greeting one another with “Christ is risen!” — “Truly He is risen!” over them (the tradition as recounted in The Great Synaxaristes, July 22, and in Orthodox Paschal custom).

A related strand of the tradition (sometimes told together with the egg, sometimes separately) holds that Mary’s testimony before Tiberius contributed to the emperor’s displeasure with Pontius Pilate, who was subsequently removed from his governorship — a detail that connects the legend to the historical fact that Pilate was indeed recalled from Judea around AD 36–37 (Josephus, Antiquities 18.4.2 records Pilate’s recall, though without any reference to Mary Magdalene).

The Attestation: Old Symbol, Later Narrative

Two things must be carefully distinguished, because they are of very different age.

The egg as a symbol of the Resurrection is ancient and widespread. The egg — a sealed shell from which new life breaks forth — was an obvious and early Christian figure of the tomb from which Christ rose, and the custom of red Paschal eggs is deeply rooted in Eastern Christian, and especially Greek, Slavic, and Caucasian, practice. The red color is universally explained as the blood of Christ shed for the world, and the breaking of the shell as the breaking-open of the tomb (a symbolism reflected across Orthodox Paschal custom and hymnography).

The narrative of Mary Magdalene’s audience with Tiberius and the egg turning red is, by contrast, of much later written attestation. It is not found in the Gospels, the Fathers of the first Christian centuries, or the early synaxaria; it appears in the developed hagiographical and devotional tradition and is widely recounted in modern Orthodox sources, but its earliest secure written witnesses are comparatively late. The honesty of this collection requires that the Tiberius narrative be reported as tradition, not as documented history (METHODOLOGY §3.5).

[Disputed: the tradition of Mary Magdalene's audience with the Emperor Tiberius and the egg turning red is a venerable Eastern devotional tradition but is of late written attestation — it is absent from the canonical Gospels, from the early Fathers, and from the earliest synaxaria, and no first- or second-century source records it. The egg as a Paschal symbol of the Resurrection is genuinely ancient; the specific narrative of the audience with Caesar and the reddening egg is a later hagiographical development whose earliest firm written witnesses are medieval or later. The historical recall of Pilate (c. AD 36–37) is independently attested by Josephus (*Antiquities* 18.4.2) but is not there connected with Mary Magdalene. The tradition is therefore received as a beloved teaching tale carrying true theology — the boldness of the apostolic witness and the certainty of the Resurrection — rather than as a documented event.]

What the Tradition Teaches

Whatever its date, the tradition is treasured because it carries true things in vivid form. It expresses the boldness of the apostolic woman: Mary Magdalene, who had been the first to proclaim the Resurrection to the apostles (John 20:18), proclaims it now to the most powerful man on earth, undaunted. It expresses the certainty of the Resurrection: the wonder of the egg answers the emperor’s mockery as the empty tomb answered the disciples’ doubt. And it expresses the catholicity of the proclamation: the news entrusted first to a woman at a garden tomb is carried to the throne of the world. These are the reasons the Church has kept the story and woven it into the Paschal custom, even as a careful account marks its provenance.

The Red Egg in Practice and Image

The red egg has become inseparable from Mary Magdalene’s iconography and from Orthodox Paschal life. She is frequently depicted holding a red egg, sometimes together with the alabaster jar of myrrh — the two emblems of her two titles, Myrrh-bearer and proclaimer of the Resurrection (see The Iconography). At Pascha, the faithful exchange red eggs with the greeting “Christ is risen!” — “Truly He is risen!”, crack them against one another (the cracking figuring the breaking of the tomb and the victory over death), and trace the custom, in the tradition, to Mary Magdalene’s wonder before Caesar. Thus the most “popular” of the Magdalene traditions lives on not chiefly in books but in the hands of the faithful every Pascha.

See Also

References

  • The Holy Bible, Revised Standard Version: John 20:18.
  • The Great Synaxaristes of the Orthodox Church, July 22. Trans. Holy Apostles Convent. Buena Vista, CO, 2008. (The tradition of the audience with Tiberius and the red egg.)
  • Josephus, Flavius. Jewish Antiquities 18.4.2. Trans. L. H. Feldman, Loeb Classical Library. (The recall of Pontius Pilate, c. AD 36–37.)
  • The Pentecostarion. Trans. Holy Transfiguration Monastery. Boston, 1990. (Paschal hymnography and the symbolism of the Resurrection.)