*The identification of the "woman who was a sinner" in the Luke 7:36-8:3 passage has had a long and complex exegetical history. In the last fifty years, since Vatican II and the emergence of a scholarly focus on the women of the New Testament, consensus has formed that this "woman" was likely not Mary Magdalene, as earlier tradition had assumed. A thorough, lengthy discussion of this has been provided by Carla Ricci in her work, Mary Magdalene and Many Others.

“As for Mary Magdalene, the first woman mentioned as following Jesus, the identification of her with the sinner has led to her being regarded as a prostitute and as such she has been treated for centuries in the liturgy, in literature, and in art. So we need to note, besides the silence about women shown in the texts, plus the absence of comment on this, the additional phenomenon of the “exegetical distortion”, noticeable here specifically applied to women, and in this case to Mary Magdalene." [from Mary Magdalene and Many Others: Women Who Followed Jesus. by Carla Ricci, Augsburg Fortress, 1994, p. 31-32.]
See: http://books.google.com