The name Mary (from or from the original Hebrew מרים Miryam), appears 54 times in the New Testament, in 49 verses. It was the single most popular female name among Jews of the Roman province of Judaea at the time, borne by about one in four women, and most of the New Testament references to Mary provide only the barest identifying information. Scholars and traditions therefore differ as to how many distinct women these references represent and which of them refer to the same person.
Overview Historical frequency of the name Mary Mary was the single most popular female name among Jews of the Roman province of Judaea at the time, borne by about one in four women. The most complete research on the frequency of names is provided by scholar Tal Ilan, who in 1989 and 2002 compiled lists of all known names of Jewish women living in Israel/Judaea between 330 BCE and 135 CE and what was then known as Palestine from 135 CE to 200 CE. According to her 1989 data, 58 or 59 out of all 247 female names she found were Mary, accounting for 23.5% of all known names, while 61 other women were called Salome. According to her larger dataset of 2002, however, 80 of 317 women were named Mary (25.2%) and 62 women were called Salome (19.6%). The name Mary, through its Greek forms Maria, Mariam and Mariamme, derives from Miriam, the sister of Moses, and possibly was such a commonly given female in the historical period and region of Jesus because of the popularity of princess Mariamme/Mariamne I the Hasmonean or princess Mariamme/Mariamne II, the second and third wife of king Herod the Great, respectively. In the New Testament Gospels, the frequency of Mary amongst all women who are named (usually numbered six or seven by scholars) is much higher than 25%, while there is only one Salome (the name Salome only appears twice, both in Mark, in reference to the same person), a fact which has puzzled scholars.
New Testament frequency of the name Mary The original Koine Greek text of the New Testament mentions the name Mary 54 times in 4 different forms: Μαρία (18 occurrences), Μαριὰμ (27 occurrences), Μαρίαν (2 occurrences), and Μαρίας (7 occurrences). The name Mary is found in 49 verses: in 10 cases, two different Marys are mentioned in a single verse, while in the other 39 cases, there is only one Mary in a verse.
+Marys in the New Testament Character Verses Times Mary, mother of Jesus Matthew 1:16,18,20; 2:11; 13:55. Mark 6:3. Luke 1:27,30,34,38,39,41,46,56; 2:5,16,19,34. Acts 1:14. 19 Mary Magdalene Matthew 27:56,61; 28:1. Mark 15:40,47; 16:1, 16:9*. Luke 8:2, 24:10. John 19:25; 20:1,11,16,18. 14 Mary of Bethany (John 11–12) John 11:1,2,19,20,28,31,32,45; 12:3 9 Mary (sister of Martha in Luke 10) Luke 10:39,42 2 Mary of Clopas John 19:25Often identified with "the other Mary" or as "Mary the mother of James". 1 Mary, mother of James and Joseph/Joses Mark 16:1. Luke 24:10 ("Mary the mother of James") Matthew 27:56 ("Mary the mother of James and Joseph" - Ἰωσὴφ = 'of Joseph') Mark 15:40 ("Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses" - Ἰωσῆτος = 'of Joses') Mark 15:47 ("Mary the mother of Joses" - Ἰωσῆτος = 'of Joses')
Often identified with Mary of Clopas or "the other Mary". 5"The other Mary" Matthew 27:61; 28:1.Often identified with Mary of Clopas or as "Mary the mother of James". 2 Mary, mother of John Mark Acts 12:12 1 Mary of Rome Romans 16:6 1 Total Marys: 6–9 Total verses: all of the above (49) Total: 54
Identification of the New Testament Marys
A common Protestant tradition holds that there are six women named as Mary in the New Testament: Mary, mother of Jesus; Mary Magdalene; Mary of Bethany; Mary mother of James the Younger; Mary mother of John Mark; and Mary of Rome.
Catholic theologian F.P. Dutripon produced a Latin Bible concordance (dedicated to the archbishop of Paris in 1838), in which he identified six people named Maria (Mary) in the Bible: Moses' and Aaron's sister in the Old Testament and five in the New Testament. He equated Mary Magdalene with Mary of Bethany ('sister of Martha and the resurrected Lazarus') as Maria III, and equated Mary the mother of James the Less and Joseph with Mary of Clopas as Maria IV.
Some modern scholars state that there are 'six or seven' characters named Mary that can be distinguished in the New Testament. W. Thomas Sawyer (1990) posited that the same Mary, sister of Martha, is mentioned in both Luke 10 and John 11–12, that Mary of Clopas may have been 'the other Mary' as well as the same person as 'Mary the mother James and Joses', and that the other disputed Marys were all to be identified as 'Mary the mother of James the Younger and Joses'; Sawyer rejected the idea that Mary Magdalene was the sinful woman of Luke 7. John Painter (2004) numbered 'six or seven different women', listing 'the mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, the mother of Jacob the Small and Joseph, the wife[?] of Clopas, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, the mother of John, and another Mary mentioned by Paul (Rom 16:6);' he gave no indication which two Marys were possibly the same person. W. T. Dayton (2010) identified Mary, sister of Martha in Luke 10 with Mary of Bethany in John 11–12, 'the other Mary' with 'Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joseph/Joses' and speculated but didn't definitively conclude that this was the same person as Mary of Clopas. He rejected the idea that Mary Magdalene was the sinful woman of Luke 7. Raymond E. Brown (1978) pointed out that Jesus had four "brothers" called James, Joses/Joseph, Judas and Simon and noted the similarity to verses Mark 15:40 ('Mary the mother of James the Younger and of Joses') and Matthew 27:56 ('Mary the mother of James and Joseph'). He concluded that the latter two verses may in fact be referring to the mother of Jesus, though she is never identified as such in these verses.
Mary, mother of Jesus
Mary the mother of Jesus, also known as the Madonna or the Theotokos is the most important female figure in Christianity. The terms Mariology (the academic study of the figure of Mary) and Marian (for example in Marian devotions and Marian apparition) are derived from Mary the mother of Jesus.
She is mentioned by name twelve times in the Gospel of Luke, five times in the Gospel of Matthew, once in the Gospel of Mark, and once in the Book of Acts. This person is never mentioned by name elsewhere, but sometimes it is clear that she is meant by the mother of Jesus. The oldest nameless reference her can be found in Epistle to the Galatians 4:4 '...God sent his son, born of a woman...', by which Paul the Apostle sought to emphasise the humanity of Jesus.
Nearly all of this Mary's mentions by name are within the Nativity of Jesus, which is only told by Matthew and Luke. Mary's role is most prominent in the Gospel of Luke, which provides the only canonical account of the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple, and the Finding in the Temple. Only two of the Gospel passages that mention his mother by name, and , are later in Jesus' life, and parallel passages describe the same event. In addition and both describe Mary's visit to Jesus as an adult but without mentioning her name.
The Gospel of John mentions the mother of Jesus twice (John 2:1–12 and 19:25–27) but without naming her, and is the only canonical Gospel to explicitly state that she was present at the Crucifixion.
Mary Magdalene
Mary Magdalene is named 13 times in the Gospels: three times in Matthew (27:56,61; 28:1), three times in Mark (15:40,47; 16:1), twice in Luke (8:2; 24:10), and five times in John (19:25; 20:1,11,16,18). Mark 16:9 was added later; it contains a 14th mention of Mary Magdalene. She is one of the few female followers of Jesus mentioned by name, and in all but one instances where she appears in a group of women she is mentioned first.
Prior to the Crucifixion, the only explicit mention of her is in , in which she is one of only three named of the many women accompanying Jesus in his travels. Here she is also described as one of the women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, and as the one from whom seven demons had gone out.
Three of the four Gospels mention Mary Magdalene as one of the women who was present at the crucifixion, while Luke only mentions "the women who followed him from Galilee." Matthew and Mark mention that she witnessed the burial of Jesus,Matthew 27:59–61, Mark 15:46–47. Luke only mentions 'the women of Galilee' without a name,Luke 23:53–56. and John does not mention any women at all.John 19:39–42. However, all four Gospels report that Mary Magdalene was amongst the women who subsequently found Jesus' tomb empty; John only mentions her.
Several scholars and traditions identify her with other women in the New Testament, but none of these are universally accepted.Pakenham, Frank. 1974. The Life of Jesus Christ. London: William Cloves & Sons. . pp. 78–79. Roman Catholic tradition, in particular, has from time to time identified her with both Mary of Bethany and with the unnamed woman who was a sinner of ,Pope, H. 1910. St. Mary Magdalen, in The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. resulting in the view that she is mentioned more times than Mary, the mother of Jesus, in the New Testament, and also giving rise to the legend that made her a model of a penitent sinner and even, according to Pope Gregory, a reformed prostitute. This view, which was taken to its extreme in Legenda Aurea (c. 1260), is no longer affirmed by the Roman Catholic ChurchBlainey, Geoffrey. 2011. A Short History of Christianity. Camberwell: Viking. p. 159 and universally rejected by modern New Testament scholars, but remains in popular devotion and culture.
Mary of Bethany (John 11–12)
According to the Gospel of John, this Mary was the sister of Martha and Lazarus, and lived with them in Bethany in Judea near Jerusalem, where Jesus visited them on at least two occasions. Mary and Martha are mentioned by name in John 11:1–12:8. John describes two visits by Jesus to Mary and Martha. In John 11, Jesus raises Mary's brother Lazarus from death. Mary, Martha and Lazarus already appear to be very close friends of Jesus at this time. On a subsequent visit in , Mary anoints Jesus' feet.
Three other passages, one each in Matthew, Mark and Luke, refer to an unnamed woman who anoints Jesus' head (Mark 14, Matthew 26), or an unnamed sinful woman who anoints Jesus' feet (Luke 7). This woman is, or these women are, identified by some, but by no means all, authorities as this Mary, or as Mary Magdalene, or both. Catholic tradition in particular has identified the sinful woman in Luke with both Mary of Bethany and Mary Magdalene, though in recent decades Catholic theology and liturgy has distanced itself from that identification.
and are generally agreed to be parallel passages each to the other. An unnamed woman anoints Jesus at Bethany, this time in the house of Simon the Leper, and she anoints his head rather than his feet. Some traditions also assert that this is the same incident as in John 12.