We immediately see that this account is much more in line with the account in Mark. [34] All three died in Cyprus. What significant is that according to Marks gospel the three women who went to the tomb to anoint the body of Jesus were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome (Mark16:1). The most likely explanations are that Luke either received this tradition in a different form than what Mark had (from his unique L source, according to what scholars call the Two-Document Theory), or Luke had theological reasons for changing the setting of the tradition he found in Mark. Harrington, Daniel J. (Even while Christian memory glorifies this act of loyalty, its historical context may have been less noble: the men in Jesus company were far more likely to have been arrested than the women.) The iconography of St. Mary of Bethany is significant in the Philippines, where her image is often included in Holy Week processions and other religious events. Mary of Bethany[a] is a biblical figure mentioned only by name in the Gospel of John in the Christian New Testament. Peter and the others rush to the tomb to see for themselves, then disperse again. The titles are in red and illuminated in gold. In phase two, when the norms and assumptions of the Jesus community were being written down, the equality of women is reflected in the letters of St. Paul (c. 50-60), who names women as full partnershis partnersin the Christian movement, and in the Gospel accounts that give evidence of Jesus own attitudes and highlight women whose courage and fidelity stand in marked contrast to the mens cowardice. This amounted to a milestone on the road toward the churchs definition of itself precisely in opposition to Judaism. This passage attests that some of Jesus female followers were wealthy and financed Jesus ministry. As the sacred books were canonized, which texts were excluded, and why? Lukes account takes place in Galilee early in Jesus ministry, while the accounts in Mark and John take place in Bethany during the last week of Jesus ministry just prior to Passover. Differences in the parallel accounts have led to different interpretations of how many and which women were present. Known as Gregory the Great, he remains one of the most influential figures ever to serve as pope, and in a famous series of sermons on Mary Magdalene, given in Rome in about the year 591, he put the seal on what until then had been a common but unsanctioned reading of her story. 1. He defined her: It is clear, brothers, that the woman previously used the unguent to perfume her flesh in forbidden acts. Such a woman lives on as Mary Magdalene in Western Christianity and in the secular Western imagination, right down, say, to the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar, in which Mary Magdalene sings, I dont know how to love himHes just a man, and Ive had so many men beforeI want him so. As before, the anointing foreshadows the Crucifixion. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. And, coming, she prostrated herself before Jesus and says to him, Son of David, have mercy on me. But the disciples rebuked her. This story of the woman with the bad name, the alabaster jar, the loose hair, the many sins, the stricken conscience, the ointment, the rubbing of feet and the kissing would, over time, become the dramatic high point of the story of Mary Magdalene. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. There was the humane appeal of a story that emphasized the possibility of forgiveness and redemption. . and as Mary of Bethany, sister of Martha and Lazarus . All of thisfrom the sexualizing of Mary Magdalene, to the emphatic veneration of the virginity of Mary, the mother of Jesus, to the embrace of celibacy as a clerical ideal, to the marginalizing of female devotion, to the recasting of piety as self-denial, particularly through penitential cultscame to a kind of defining climax at the end of the sixth century. The Twelve were with him, and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; Joanna the wife of Chuza, the manager of Herods household; Susanna; and many others. Privacy Statement But an examination of St. John's Gospel makes it almost impossible to deny the identity of Mary of Bethany with Mary Magdalen. But, there is just one other major question to resolve, the elephant in the room at Bethany: Why would Mary be allowed to touch Jesus in such an intimate way in public, and also be the one to prepare his body for burial after the crucifixion (which also involves intimate touching)? Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her." Luke 10:38-42 (New International Version) This Mary is sometimes referred to as 'Mary of Bethany'. Hugh Pope then explained the identification of Mary of Bethany with Mary Magdalene by the presumption that, because of Jesus high praise of her deed of anointing him, it would be incredible that she should also not have been at his crucifixion and resurrection. One might well presume this is at the house of Lazarus and his two sisters, Mary and Martha. She displayed her hair to set off her face, but now her hair dries her tears. Equally important, there are three unnamed women who are expressly identified as sexual sinnersthe woman with a bad name who wipes Jesus feet with ointment as a signal of repentance, a Samaritan woman whom Jesus meets at a well and an adulteress whom Pharisees haul before Jesus to see if he will condemn her. It should be no surprise, given how successfully the excluding dominance of males established itself in the church of the Fathers, that the Gospel of Mary was one of the texts shunted aside in the fourth century. Email addresses are confidential, secure, and are never shared or sold. Pure by virtue of her repentance, she nevertheless remains a woman with a past. It seems quite clear that Luke has taken Marks story and edited it for his own theological purposes. And now a jealous Peter complains to his fellows, Did [Jesus] choose her over us? This draws a sharp rebuke from another apostle, Levi, who says, If the Savior made her worthy, who are you then for your part to reject her?. She saw that the stone had been moved away from the tomb and came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved. And it seems highly unlikely that two different anonymous women would have done this on two different occasions (and in two different houses of a man named Simon). She used to sit at Jesus' feet to learn from Him. Mary recalls her vision, a kind of esoteric description of the ascent of the soul. Why this waste? they said. We only have two extant passages from Secret Mark preserved in the Mar Saba Letter, believed by a majority of scholars to have been written by Clement of Alexandria. The Roman Catholic Church had it right from the beginning. The explosive spread of the Good News of Jesus around the Mediterranean world meant that distinct Christian communities were springing up all over the place. They were written 35 to 65 years after Jesus death, a jelling of separate oral traditions that had taken form in dispersed Christian communities. Elizabeth Schrader Polczer, better known as Elizabeth Schrader, is an American biblical scholar who concentrates on textual studies concerning Mary Magdalene, the Gospel of John, and the Nag Hammadi corpus. In Matthew, and in Mark, the story of the unnamed woman puts her acceptance of Jesus coming death in glorious contrast to the (male) disciples refusal to take Jesus predictions of his death seriously. Maria Magdalena - Viernes Santo Procession 2011", The Children and Grandchildren of Saint Anne, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Three_Marys&oldid=1150185332. First, the woman who anoints Jesus is not named. There was a lively diversity of belief and practice, which was reflected in the oral traditions and, later, texts those communities drew on. The address brothers is the clue. This was a matter partly of theological disputeIf Jesus was divine, in what way?and partly of boundary-drawing against Judaism. The men of the church who benefited from the recasting, forever spared the presence of females in their sanctuaries, would not know that this was what had happened. These texts, believed to be inspired by the Holy Spirit, are regarded as having somehow been conveyed by God to the church, and joined to the previously inspired and selected books of the Old Testament to form the Bible. But the holy books of Christianity (like the holy books of Judaism, for that matter) were established by a process far more complicated (and human) than that. Tell her to help me! Jesus said to her, Do not cling to me, because I have not yet ascended tomy Father and your Father, to my God and your God. So Mary of Magdala went and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord and that he had said these things to her. (It is possible this was an attribution, to Jesus time, of a role prosperous women played some years later.) This obliteration of the textual distinctions served to evoke an ideal of virtue that drew its heat from being a celibates vision, conjured for celibates. This becomes significant when we look at this passage from Luke (8:1-3 NIV): After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. In Eastern Orthodoxy they are among the Myrrhbearers, a group that traditionally includes a much larger number of people. 27:56, 61; 28:1; Mark 15:40, 47; 16:1, 9; Luke 24:10; John 19:25; 20:1, 11, 16, 18). And chief among them was Mary Magdalene. Real Answers. Now which of them will love him more? 43 Simon answered, I suppose the one for whom he canceled the greater debt. And Jesus said to him, You have judged rightly. 44 Then turning toward the woman, he said to Simon, Do you see this woman? Supporting this is the fact that the mini-parable Jesus tells, known as the Parable of the Two Debtors is found in no other gospel. Her conversion, instead of removing her erotic allure, heightens it. For most of its existence, the Roman Catholic Church taught that Mary Magdalene and Mary of Bethany (sister of Martha and Lazarus) were one and the same person. Mary of Bethany and Mary Magdalene are one. Don't miss the latestyou will receive an email notification whenever something new is posted on this blog. Brown, Raymond E. The Gospel According to John (IXII): Introduction, Translation, and Notes. It is conceivable that John, just because he is writing so long after the event and at a time when Mary was dead, wishes to point out to us that she was really the same as the "sinner." Once the sacred texts were authoritatively set, the exegetes who interpreted them could make careful distinctions, keeping the roster of women separate, but common preachers were less careful. To date, this remains to be a geographical tradition that varies from one town to another. After accompanying Jesus on the Second Galilean Tour, she could have returned to Bethany, as a newly converted person, and rejoined her sister Martha and brother Lazarus. Another common feature of St. Mary's iconography is her long hair, which is shown cascading over her shoulders or wrapped around her arm. Matthew 26 and Mark 14). Mark also relates the story of a mysterious unnamed woman who anoints Jesus head with an alabaster flask of costly spikenard, also at Bethany that last week of Jesus life. When they saw this, the disciples were indignant. Judas objects in the name of the poor, and once more Jesus is shown defending the woman. Her image is a powerful symbol of her virtues and her role in Christian history, as well as a reflection of the artistic and cultural traditions of the regions where she is venerated. The fresco was painted before the city's conquest and abandonment in AD 256, but it is from the 5th century that representations of either two or three women approaching a tomb guarded by an angel appear with regularity, and become the standard depiction of the Resurrection. Mary the mother of James is certainly referring to the mother of Jesus, for James was Jesus brother. Yet she was only elusively identified in Scripture, and has thus served as a scrim onto which a succession of fantasies has been projected. There is Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and Mary the wife of Clopas. What she therefore displayed more scandalously, she was now offering to God in a more praiseworthy manner. Bible Study Mary Magdalene - same as Mary of Bethany? As that text shows, the early image of this Mary as a trusted apostle of Jesus, reflected even in the canonical Gospel texts, proved to be a major obstacle to establishing that male dominance, which is why, whatever other heretical problems this gospel posed, that image had to be recast as one of subservience. 37 And a woman in the city, who was a sinner, having learned that he was eating in the Pharisees house, brought an alabaster jar of ointment. . It is in Marks gospel that we first encounter Mary in the famous story of the Anointing at Bethany. There is a parallel account in Matthews gospel (26:6-13) which is almost word-for-word identical, making it clear that Matthew has simply borrowed Marks account. They are among the Myrrhbearers, a group that traditionally includes a much larger number of people appeal of story! Virtue of her repentance, she nevertheless remains a woman with a.... 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