Martha, Martha

This is actually a post about Mary, but it references a scripture verse from Luke about Mary and Martha:

38 Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. ³⁹She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. ⁴⁰But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, ‘Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.’ ⁴¹But the Lord answered her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; ⁴²there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.’ (Luke 10:38-42, Oremus Bible Browser)

I was struck today by a post by biblical scholar James Talbot on The Jesus Dynasty Blog:

**Wendy Pond just pointed out to me that the text actually says that “Martha welcomed Jesus into her house,” when “they,” namely the Jesus entourage, came to a certain village. It does not say that Mary lived there, but just that Martha had a sister called Mary. It is possible that this “Mary” has been traveling with the group, suggests they stop at her sister’s house for a meal and rest, and she has developed the practice of gathering and sitting with the men. Even though Luke introduces these women as if they are “new” to the story, it is clear from the way Jesus speaks to them in the core tradition that he knows them both well. The “good portion” that Mary has chosen appears to be her desire to hear and learn the words of the Teacher.

The particular wording of this passage never struck me before. It doesn't say Jesus came to the house of Mary and Martha. It could be that Mary was part of Jesus' traveling entourage. We don't know exactly how she relates to the other Marys - it gets quite confusing.

I am up to my eye-balls in Mary readings right now. Martha, Martha...

There's Something About Mary (2)

The Resurrection of Mary Magdalene, by Jane Schaberg

Continuing the summary of chapter 3. How, I asked in a previous post, did Mary Magdalene (MM) get turned from one of the central witnesses to the death and resurrection of Jesus into the popular image of a whore? Schaberg suggests that the transformation is already happening in the biblical texts, particularly the Gospel of Luke. Luke adds an important detail to the story about MM not found in Mark (apart from the later addition to Mark found in 16:9*) or Matthew. In original Mark and then Matthew and John MM is only named in the death-resurrection narrative. But in Luke 8:1-3 the author tells us that MM was part of a group of women who had been cleansed of evil spirits. What, pray tell, might those evil spirits have been? This is the first important piece of information that contributes to a process of conflation.

The second is that nowhere in the gospels does it say that MM anointed Jesus; we are only told that she unsuccessfully attempted to anoint the body of Jesus at the tomb. But we are told that Jesus was anointed by a woman. In Mark and Matthew she is unnamed; John identifies the woman as Mary of Bethany, sister of Martha and Lazarus. Both Mark (14:3-9), Matthew (26:6-13) and John (12:1-8) tell us that a woman anointed the feet of Jesus and this anointing was interpreted by Jesus as a prophetic act anticipating his death. Once again, though, Luke 7:36-50 gives this story a different interpretation:

³⁶One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and took his place at the table. ³⁷And a woman in the city, who was a sinner, having learned that he was eating in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster jar of ointment. ³⁸She stood behind him at his feet, weeping, and began to bathe his feet with her tears and to dry them with her hair. Then she continued kissing his feet and anointing them with the ointment. ³⁹Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw it, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him—that she is a sinner.” ⁴⁰Jesus spoke up and said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” “Teacher,” he replied, “Speak.” ⁴¹“A certain creditor had two debtors; one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. ⁴²When they could not pay, he canceled the debts for both of them. Now which of them will love him more?” ⁴³Simon answered, “I suppose the one for whom he canceled the greater debt.” And Jesus said to him, “You have judged rightly.” ⁴⁴Then turning toward the woman, he said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has bathed my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. ⁴⁵You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not stopped kissing my feet. ⁴⁶You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. ⁴⁷Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which were many, have been forgiven; hence she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.” ⁴⁸Then he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” ⁴⁹But those who were at the table with him began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?” ⁵⁰And he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” (Oremus Bible Browser)

Schaberg says of Luke's move:

Luke has radically rewritten Mark's account and turn the anointing prophet into a woman most readers have seen as a prostitute, forgiven for her great love it. Even though the Markan and Matthean versions carry the remark of Jesus that "wherever the good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she [the prophet] has done will be told in remembrance of her," Luke's story -- without the remark and without the prophetic dimension of anointing -- overpower the other two by means of its dangerous artistry and its ideology. The prophet is morphed into the whore. This moment of forgiveness for sexual sin all but obliterated the political anointing, and later became the central moment of the mangling legends. (p.74)

The conflation of MM who wanted to anoint the dead Jesus with the prostitute whose sins were forgiven and anointed Jesus in gratitude has begun. And it takes off. By the 6th century Pope Gregory the Great could declare:

She whom Luke calls the sinful woman, whom John calls Mary, we believe to be the Mary from whom seven devils were ejected according to Mark. And what did these seven devils signify, if not all the vices....It is clear, brothers, that the woman previously used the unguent to perfume her flesh in forbidden acts. What she therefor displayed more scandalously, she was now offering to God in a more praiseworthy manner... (p.82)

The legend of MM the repentent whore is fleshed out in some fascinating ways in the Middle Ages, as we will see in a subsequent post. But it is important to note Schaberg's commentary on why this happened. There was, she said, a need to downgrade her and to deny her authority. There was also "the desire to attach to female sexuality the notions of evil, repentence, and male mercy."

She became a whore for many reasons: sexism, never simple, and misogyny; the struggle to create and maintain a male hierarchy with its male models and precedents; unconscious or semi-conscious androcentrism; asceticism and the increasingly high value put on celibacy; intolerance of difference; the genuine fear of one's opponents within and without; political and social and cultural pressures; the liking for a good story; anger. (p.81)

It didn't have to be this way; it almost certainly wasn't this way in the Jesus movement or the Pauline churches, although it didn't take long for men to put women in their "place." It apparently wasn't this way in some of the gnostic-inspired communities where MM was recognized and revered as a leader, as we will see. But in the proto-orthodox to orthodox church movement, sexism became the norm sanctioned by "the will of God." We are just beginning to correct that wrong interpretation of God's will.

*There is a consensus among biblical scholars that Mark 16 originally ended with verse 8. Verses 9ff were later added to bring Mark into conformity with the later gospels.

There's Something About Mary (1)

The Resurrection of Mary Magdalene, by Jane Schaberg

Chapter One, Virginia Woolf and Mary Magdalene, is a reflection on the life and writings of Virginia Woolf and her importance for the author. Each subsequent chapter begins with a quote of Woolf.

In Chapter Two, Meditations on Migdal, Schaberg talks about the town of Magdala, where Mary Magdalene was from. The town is usually associated with the ancient town of Migdal, on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee, five kilometers north of Tiberias. In NT times the town was thriving. As late as the thirteenth century there was a Christian church there over the purported site of Mary Magdalene's home. But by the seventeenth century only ruins were reported there. Apart from one archaeological dig in the 1970's Migdal has been largely ignored by archaeologists and scholars.

Chapter Three, Silence, Conflations, Distortions, and Legends, takes us into the scriptural references to MM and the making of her legend. This is what we know about MM from the Christian scriptures:

According to all four Christian New Testament Gospels, MM is a -- perhaps the -- primary witness to the fundamental data of the early Christian faith. She is said to have participated in the Galilean career of Jesus of Nazareth, followed him to Jerusalem, stood by and his execution and burial, found his tomb empty and received an explanation of that emptiness. Two texts mention that seven demons had come out of her (Luke 8:2; Mark 16:9). According to three accounts (Mark 16:7; Matthew 28:7; John 20:17) she is sent with the commission to deliver the explanation of the empty tune to the disciples. Also according to three accounts (Matthew 28:9-10; John 20:14-18; Mark 16:9) she was the first to experience a vision or appearance of the resurrected Jesus...

In the Gospels MM a spoken to only by the figure at the empty tomb and by the risen Jesus. She speaks only to and of them, or of the empty tomb. Dialogue with her as individual occurs only in the Gospel of John, in the Garden tomb scene. Mark 16:8 depicts her and the other women fleeing from the empty tomb and saying nothing to anyone because of their fear, so that Gospel ends in their silence. In Luke 24:34 (as in first Corinthians 15:5) the first vision of the resurrected one is said to be Peter's; John 20:8 presents the mysterious figure of the beloved disciple as the first to believe.

Outside the Gospels, she is mentioned by name nowhere else in the Christian Testament, not even in first Corinthians 15:5-8 which lists those to whom the risen Jesus appeared...

Schaberg notes that an analysis of these texts in their historical context shows that as early as the second half of the first century her role in the events of the death and resurrection of Jesus is disputed. Other disciples, Peter or the Beloved Disciple, are given priority. But she is there in each of the gospels - in either a primary or secondary role - as a witness to the death and resurrection of Jesus. This is her part in the canonical gospels.

So how, then, did she come to be associated with a whore? To be continued...

There's Something About Mary

This afternoon I started reading The Resurrection of Mary Magdalene by Jane Schaberg. From her introduction:

I used to think of the apocryphal texts as branching out of the canonical tree; I see now that both canonical and apocryphal go down to the roots; their biology is interactive, radically symbiotic. The profile of the Gnostic/apocryphal Mary Magdalene seems at first to bear little relation to that of the Christian Testament character. But we are learning that the sources of conflict between different forms of early Christianity, especially those under the names of Mary Magdalene and Peter, are deeper and older than was thought. She represents women's prophetic power in the Gnostic/apocryphal literature, as well as in the source I reconstruct behind John 20. Some scholars like Bovon think that the reason Gnostic literature was declared heterodox, and therefore fell into disuse, may have less to do with its doctrinal content than with Mary Magdalene's priority among the disciples, especially in relation to Peter.

Mary Magdalene is probably the most misunderstood character in the New Testament. She is popularly depicted as a prostitute, and has been since shortly after the NT period. But there is no support for that image in the NT. More on that later. With the discovery of other gospels we are learning that in some traditions she was regarded as the disciple who understood Jesus. It should be an interesting read.