Text: Luke 8:1-3, 24:1-11, John 11
As summer draws to a close, we have spent time learning more about some bold characters from our Holy Bible.
They weren’t perfect and in many cases there was nothing all that special about them.
And yet, they were called to stand up, to lead, and to act in ways that were only possible because God was with them.
Today, we get to dive into the story of a woman that maybe we all think we know.
I’m curious… when you hear the name Mary Magdelene… what is the first thing that comes to your mind…
Go ahead and shout out your answers…
In my dictionary of women in scripture, Mary Magdelene is identified as “Mary #3” and the author of her entry, Carolyn Osiek describes her as: “the most famous of Jesus’ women disciples and the one who has been most misinterpreted in Christian history.” (p. 120)
What does scripture actually say about her?
In the passages we heard from this morning, we find Mary Magdalene listed among the women who traveled with Jesus and the twelve disciples.
She is specifically named as someone, “from whom seven demons had gone out,” (Luke 8:2), but also as someone who had her own wealth.
These women were not groupies or even paid to travel and support the men, but it mentions that they ministered out of their own resources.
We also heard from Luke that Mary Magdalene went to the tomb to care for the body of Jesus and was a first witness to the resurrection along with a couple of other women.
Her presence that morning is repeated by Matthew, Mark, and John.
John, however, has a slight adaptation. He places those women standing at the cross, but only Mary goes to the tomb that morning.
She has an encounter with Jesus where she mistakes him at first for the gardener and that lovely hymn, “In the Garden” recounts how much she wanted to tarry there in the presence of the resurrected Christ.
Now… How many of you remember Mary Magdalene as the woman who washed Jesus feet?
All four gospels recount this incident and she is often depicted with a vessel of ointment… but is she in the actual bible as doing so?
In Matthew 26 and Mark 14, an unnamed woman comes to him at a man named Simon’s house in the town of Bethany and this anointing is connected to the transition to his trial and execution… preparing him for burial.
Luke places the story in a different context and place, near the beginning of his ministry in chapter 7. He doesn’t name her either, although Luke adds the detail that she was a sinner. What kind of sinner? It doesn’t say, but we tend to assume that she was a prostitute even though the text does not indicate that.
Only John’s gospel includes a name… Mary, the sister of Lazarus and Martha. Note, this IS in Bethany again, which seems to be in line with Matthew and Marks accounts, although it is Lazarus’ home (John 12). And, this encounter follows chapter 11, where Jesus comes to Bethany to raise Lazarus from the dead and interacts with Mary and her sister Martha.
And yet, over and over in art, this woman is connected with Mary Magdalene.
And part of that is because in medieval times, some religious leaders like Pope Gregory the Great conflated several women in scriptures all together… including the women caught in adultery, the sinner who anointed Jesus feet, and the Mary we know is from Bethany.
Scholars like Hugh Pope, however, actually agree with this identification of Mary in John 11 with Mary Magdalene because of the central role that she plays in the gospel of John and the praise that Jesus bestows upon her.
What throws a wrench in all of this is when we assume that Mary Magdalene means Mary from a place named Magdalene… like we might think of Jospeh of Arimathea.
However, Luke actually helps us here.
In the Greek passage of Luke, it makes clear that this Mary is called Magdalene.
Not that she is from a place named Magdala or Migdal, but she is named and regarded in this way.
Much like others in this day have nicknames… like Simon who is called Peter, the Rock.
Or Thomas, who is called Didymus, the Twin.
We aren’t actually sure where a village named Magdala or Migdal might even have existed in this time… but magdala in Aramaic means tower or great.
So is Mary of Bethany simply called, Mary Magdelene? Mary the Tower?
To throw a deeper wrench into the conversation, I want to share with you some recent scholarship on John’s gospel and this woman, Mary of Bethany.
I am just learning about this myself, so I am drawing on an account that religious historian and author Diana Butler Bass shared at the end of July at the Wild Goose Festival. (https://dianabutlerbass.substack.com/p/mary-the-tower)
She tells the story of Elizabeth Schrader, who is a doctoral student of the New Testament at Duke University.
Schrader was an active person of faith, but didn’t set out to be a scholar.
However, “one day Libbie walked into a church garden in the city of New York seeking refuge from the city, and sat down to pray. And as she prayed, she heard a voice and the voice said, ‘Follow Mary Magdalene.’”
She thought this was a bit strange, but she listened.
She wrote a song about Mary Magdalene.
She decided to learn more.
And eventually she found her way to seminary and started a master’s program in New Testament studies.
Her final thesis was on John 11 and Mary Magdalene and her professor invited her to look at some of the earliest texts we have.
That is how Elizabeth Schrader found herself sitting with a digital copy of Papyrus 66. Butler Bass describes it as “the oldest and most complete text we have of the gospel of John… dated around the year 200,” and that it “had been sitting in a library for a very, very, very, very long time.”
She uses her newfound knowledge of Greek and reads the first sentence.
Now… here is what my New Revised Standard Version says:
Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. (11:1)
But that’s not what Schrader saw on this very, very, very, old page.
It read… translated to English:
Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and his sister Mary.
What is more, Schrader could see on the manuscript markings of how someone had gone in and tried to change it. His was changed to her. The second Mary in that line (Maria in the Greek) was changed to Martha… as one letter was written over.
At some point, someone had altered the oldest version we have of the gospel of John and split the character of Mary into two.
As Schrader kept reading, in John 11 and 12, in other places where it reads Martha, it originally said Mary.
Where it reads “sisters” it read “sister.”
Pronouns are changed.
And it isn’t just in Papyrus 66. She has discovered evidence of this in other ancient documents as well. (https://today.duke.edu/2019/06/mary-or-martha-duke-scholars-research-finds-mary-magdalene-downplayed-new-testament-scribes)
The repetition of actions and statements might not indicate actions by two different sisters, but a textual reiteration or duplication.
Schrader’s research as a master’s student has proven that the version of John’s gospel we have in our Bible’s today is different from earlier translations which have been altered.
Harvard Theological Review asked to publish her thesis as an article.
And what is more, the Nestle-Aland Translation Committee of the Greek New Testament asked her to come and present her findings to them.
Butler Bass describes this group as “a whole bunch of very old German men who have spent their entire lives making sure the Bibles that we have in English and all the other languages around the world are the closest and most precise Bibles that we can get to the original manuscripts.”
And right now, they are deciding whether or not Schrader’s research should become a new footnote or if we need to actually change John 11 and John 12 and take Martha out.
Now, Luke’s gospel has a Mary and Martha who are sisters. This is the story where Martha is ministering and busy and her sister, Mary, sits at Jesus feet. No mention of a brother, nor being in Bethany.
We aren’t talking about this family.
But in John’s gospel, we are discovering might never have been a Martha.
Why does this matter?
It matter’s because there are only two people in the gospels who confess Jesus is the Messiah.
The first is from Peter… Simon Peter… the Rock.
In Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Peter says: “You are the Messiah, the son of the Living God.”
And Jesus replies, “You are Peter, upon this rock I will build my church.”
In John’s gospel, this happens right before the resurrection of Lazarus.
And the person who says it in our Bible’s today is this sister, Martha.
“Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, God’s Son, the one who is coming into the world.” (11:27, CEB).
However, manscripts by Tertullian – a Christian author from the second century, about the time Papyrus 66 is from… indicate this confession was by Mary.
In her paper, Schrader concludes with some important questions:
“Who exactly added Martha to this story, and why? Is it possible that one very important figure in the Fourth Gospel has been deliberately split into three?” (p. 52, “Was Martha of Bethany Added to the Fourth Gospel in the Second Century?” https://dukespace.lib.duke.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/10161/18592/Schrader%2018.May.2016.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y)
Later traditions and writings around Mary Magdalene describe her as an important disciple, a leader, a spokeswoman.
The kind of woman that we see in Luke 8 who is traveling as an important figure alongside the disciples.
The research that is being done today is leading us to see her as more of a central figure within the gospel of John as well.
I want to close with how Diana Butler Bass understands these implications:
Is it really true that the other Christological confession of the New Testament comes from of the voice of Mary Magdalene? That the Gospel of John gives the most important statement in the entirety of the New Testament, not to a man, but to a woman, and to a really important woman who will show up later as the first witness to the resurrection.
You see how these two stories work together. In John 11, Lazarus is raised from the dead, and who is there but Mary Magdalene? And at that resurrection, she confesses that Jesus is indeed the son of God. And then you go just 10 chapters later and who is the person at the grave? She mistakes him, at first, thinks he’s the gardener. She turns around and he says, ‘Mary,’ and she goes, ‘Lord.’ It’s Mary Magdalene.
…Mary is indeed the tower of faith. That our faith is the faith of that woman who would become the first person to announce the resurrection. Mary the Witness, Mary the Tower, Mary the Great, and she has been obscured from us… This is not a Dan Brown novel. This is the Nestle-Aland Translation Committee of the Greek New Testament. This is the Harvard Theological Review. This is some of the best, most cutting edge historical research in the world.
Who was Mary Magdalene?
At one time, she had been possessed by demons, but they were cast out.
She was wealthy enough to support herself and the ministry of others.
She was a disciple of Jesus.
She knew him to be her Lord.
She was the first witness to the resurrection.
And more and more we are coming to understand that she might have been that sister of Lazarus, who sent word for Jesus to come and heal her brother, and who confessed that he was the Messiah.
The woman who in John 12 hosted a dinner and anointed his feet with nard.
We are starting to discover that she might be a central figure in the Gospel of John and not merely one among many minor female characters.
And for anyone who struggles to see themselves among the followers of Jesus depicted there…
For anyone who doubts the role of women in the church, especially in leadership…
Well, this is a big deal.
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