Today, by coincidence, is my birthday. Oddly enough, it fell on the exact same date last year. I wonder if that qualifies me for a Guinness World Record.
A dear friend bought me a steak dinner after work. Unfortunately, that dear friend was myself, but we didn’t let that spoil the festivities.
I came up with a question in my Bible reading the other day, and wondered if any of our erudite readers know the answer to it.
I was reading the account of the Resurrection in Luke 24:10, where it talks about the women who went to the tomb on Sunday morning, found it empty, and reported it to the disciples. “It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles.”
There’s a parallel passage in Mark 16:1: “When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body.”
There’s also an earlier reference to this woman in Mark 15:40: “Some women were watching from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome.”
So here’s what I’m wondering. Scholars have pondered this previously unmentioned Mary, one among so many Marys who keep popping up in the gospels. Has it ever occurred to anybody to argue that this Mary might actually be Mary the mother of the Lord?
We know that the Lord had a brother named James, who became the head of the Jerusalem church. And an otherwise unmentioned brother named Joses (perhaps named after his father Joseph) isn’t unthinkable. If you’re Catholic you’d insist that the Virgin Mary wasn’t the mother of James, but the stepmother. But she could still be called his mother informally.
Why doesn’t it say, “Mary, the mother of the Lord?” I don’t know. Modesty? Fear of the authorities?
Another objection would be that James, the Lord’s brother, has traditionally been called James the Elder (I think) rather than James the Younger. My theory would require that tradition to be wrong.
Catholics probably wouldn’t take to this idea, though I might point out that it would give a biblical foundation to all those “Pieta” statues.
But my main question is, has anyone suggested this before? Or is it too dumb for anyone to have suggested before?
I think I thought this when I was a little girl in Sunday School. It makes sense to me. I didn’t know of any other Marys then.
I call Occam’s Razor on this one. The simplest answer is most likely to be the right one.
I was raised Catholic, so we didn’t really study the Bible much. But yes, I know for a fact I assumed that the Mary mentioned here was Jesus’ mom. It just makes sense that she would be on the lookout.
I am going to say you are correct. James the Less (Younger) is identified with our Lord’s younger brother, also called James the Just or James the Righteous. And to have another brother named Joseph would be quite within probability (Matt 27:56 writes it as Joseph).
Part of the problem is that there are just too many Marys in this time. About 60 years before the crucifixion there was a very popular Jewish queen named Mariamme (also spelt Mariamne). She was the second wife of Herod the Great and he had her executed for crimes against his majesty. For her beauty, he forgave her of infidelity (though he killed her accused lover), but she later became convinced that Herod had killed her grandfather and brother, Aristobulus III the High Priest, and refused to lay with Herod.
For standing up to Herod as she did in her life and the reforms she helped bring about as queen, she was wildly popular with the populous.
The wikipedia article on her is actually accurate to my knowledge for those who want more information. (I’m a seminary grad.)
Happy Birthday!
Come to think of it, I think James the Elder was the brother of John, and the second martyr. I’m not as dumb as I think I am.
Lars,
A belated happy birthday to you. I had a birthday once.
Once.
If for some reason your birthday does not fall on the same day next year, I would investigate the latest doings at Rome. If you remember, Pope Gregory XIII retroactively stole 11 days from America and the Brits on September 2, 1752. They’re crafty in that Vatican — oh, they’re crafty…
Actually, that should probably be “proactively” stole 11 days. Whether or not he remains active today is a subject I cannot comment on.
I would respond to your greetings, Anthony, except for the hard lesson of experience that whenever I mention your blog here, you disappear for a few months.
When it comes to faith-y things I prefer to depend less on Wikipedia and more on specialists. So naturally I took this interesting question to the Catholic Encyclopedia. I thought this discussion of Mary, mother of James” was interesting and perhaps you will also.