Luke 8:2,3 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

And certain women There were also some women with him; the monuments of his power and mercy, for they had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities Some of them had been troubled in mind, and in a state of melancholy, through the influence of evil spirits, and others of them afflicted in body in different respects, and he had healed them all, and thereby had shown himself to be the physician of both soul and body. Mary, called Magdalene Doubtless from Μαγδαλα, the place of her residence, which was a town in Galilee beyond Jordan. Matthew 15:39. She seems to have been a woman of high station and opulent fortune; being mentioned by Luke here even before Joanna, the wife of so great a man as Herod's steward. Besides, the other evangelists, when they have occasion to speak of our Lord's female friends, commonly assign the first place to Mary Magdalene. Susanna also seems to have been a person of some considerable rank and circumstances in life, as were probably most of the others here referred to. These pious women, deeply sensible of the obligations which they were under to Jesus, for the deliverances he had wrought out for them, and the great blessings which they had received through his heavenly doctrine and holy example, were concerned to render unto him, in some measure, according to the goodness which he had shown them; and therefore ministered to his necessities. Mark, it must be observed, agrees with Luke in the circumstance of our Lord's being supported by the charity of his friends. For, speaking of the women who were present at Christ's crucifixion, he says, Mark 15:41, that when Jesus was in Galilee, they followed him, and ministered unto him of their substance. The evangelists nowhere else tell us in what way our Lord and his apostles were supported.