So many Marys, Johns and Judases in our Sunday Gospels!!! Did you ever feel a little confused about who is who? If not, then I congratulate you. I, however, have, and in trying to sort this out for myself I thought I would like to share the fruits of my nosing around with younger readers as older readers may find this stale news. What follows is not intended to be biographical sketches but just enough to sort out identities.
1. Mary - The Blessed Virgin.
Every Christian over the age of 5 of course knows the Blessed Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus. Did you know that, being Jewish, her real name is Miriam in Hebrew? Mary is the Greek version because St. Luke's Gospel was written in Greek for a Greek audience as was Matthew's. At the time of her betrothal to Joseph, Hebrew brides could be as young as 12 and when we first encounter her at the Annunciation she would seem young and inexperienced. Consider however, the maturity and graciousness of her acceptance to become the mother of Jesus and also her hymn of praise which we call ‘The Magnificat’, showing remarkable spiritual insight of God's words in the Old Testament. This might suggest she was older, probably about 18. She had the courage and faith to obey God despite the scorn of the world and even possible stoning. She saw Jesus arrive as her baby son and watched him die a horrific death as her Saviour.
2. Mary Magdalen
At the outset let me dispel the sometimes-held assumption that she was either the woman who was to be stoned for adultery (see John's Gospel 7: 1-11) or the sinner who, in Luke 7: 3639, anointed Jesus' feet with expensive perfume. She was neither of these. She gets her name from her birthplace of Magdala (or Magadan) on the Western shore of the Sea of Galilee in Northern Israel.
She is however, mentioned in Luke’s Gospel 8:3 as being one of Jesus' followers i.e. ‘Mary called Magdalen from whom seven demons had been driven out’ and similarly described in Mark 16:9. This miraculously freed her life, and, if we look at all four evangelist's reference to her we might note her acting out the freedom Christ had given her. This allowed her to stand at the cross with Our Lady, when all the disciples except John were hiding in fear. See John 19:25. She was at Jesus' burial too. Jesus honoured her childlike faith by appearing to her first and entrusting her with the first message of his resurrection. She is one of the most popular characters in the New Testament. In John 20:1-17, I find the following rather endearing: (a) her distress when she first saw the empty tomb and told Peter and the other disciple ‘They have taken my Lord and I do not know where they have put him’ (b) after the other two went home she remained at the tomb weeping and again told the two angels ‘They have taken my Lord away and I don't know where they have put him’ (c) her touching joy when Jesus called her by name ‘Mary’ and she cried out ‘Rabboni’.
3. Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus
We first meet this Mary in Luke 10:38-42, when Jesus was at her sister Martha's house and she sat at his feet listening to him, which annoyed Martha who was bustling about doing the chores. Some feel that this was unfair on Mary's part, but, as Jesus stated, this was the most appropriate response at the time. She understood her priorities. Martha, in her efforts to serve was, quite understandably of course, actually neglecting her guest. Maybe some of us are so busy doing things for God that we don't spend any time with him. There is a proper time to work for Jesus and a proper time to listen. The whole Gospel is not contained in loving service to others, no matter how important, because Christian discipleship is first and foremost personal adherence to Jesus. This Mary was also the sister of Lazarus whom Jesus raised from the dead. John's Gospel (11:2) and (12:3), positively identifies her as the woman who anointed Jesus' feet with expensive perfume, although, in Luke 7:36-9, there was a similar but different anointing in the house of a Pharisee by a sinful, unnamed woman whose sins were then forgiven by Jesus.
4. The fourth Mary
Just to stop you puzzling your head as to who was ‘the other Mary’ (see Matthew 28:1) who went to the tomb early on Easter Sunday morning with Mary Magdalen, many Bible scholars are not absolutely certain as to her identity. However, Saint Hegesippus, a second century Saint, who was called the ‘Father of Church History’, identifies her as Mary the wife of Clopas, so she was one of the ‘three Marys’ who followed Jesus from Galilee, and was at the cross in John 19:25. Clopas is also known as Alphaeus, father of the disciple James (the less) in Matthew 10:1-4, Mark 3:16-19 and Luke 3:13-16. This Mary is the sister-in-law of Our Lady because Clopas was the brother of St. Joseph.
David de Souza