07/29/2004: "Question of the Day: Was Martha Mary Magdalene's sister?"

NOTE: If you'd like to submit a question, either post it as a comment in this entry or e-mail me at questions at thecrawfordfamily dot net.

In honor of today being St. Martha's feast day, I thought I'd answer a question about her. Martha is referenced two times in scripture. First in Luke chapter 10 and in John chapters 11-12. Those references make up two stories, one where Mary sits and listens to Christ after supper while Martha is slaving away in the kitchen (about which Martha is not too happy) and the second is the story of Lazarus's death and being raised from the dead.

What is clear from scripture is that Mary, Martha and Lazarus are brother's and sisters. The question remains, which Mary? Is Mary, THE Mary Magdalene? Depending on who you talk to, maybe, maybe not. there are so many references to a Mary in scripture that it is hard to pick one from another. But there are clearly some who are not the same person. Amongst all these Mary's, there are three references to a Mary that could one, two or even up to three Mary's. They are as follows:

-The "sinner" in Luke chapter 7 who washes Christ's feet with tears and annoints them with oil.
-The sister of Martha
-Mary Magdalene

To add to the multitude, it has been widely believed that the adulterer in John chapter 8 is the "sinner" in Luke chapter 7. Currently most scholars believe that from scripture there is no reason to believe that they are the same person.

While the association between the sinner and the adulter is much weaker, the strong parallel between the Mary in Luke chapter 7 and Mary, the sister of Martha, who also annoints Christ's feet with oil is much more compelling. While Luke doesn't give a qualifier like Magdalene or sister of Martha to the first Mary, it is reasonable that Luke and John have chronicled the same event and therefore the two Mary's are the same person.

As for linking Mary Magdalene to the first two Mary's, the story of the rising of Lazarus is just days before Christ was crucified and the Gospel of John and its continuity seems to suggest that Mary, the sister of Martha, is also Mary Magdalene who picks up right where Mary sister of Martha left off.

The problem is that Martha's home was in Bethany and Mary Magdalene was from the town of Magdala (which is how she get's her name). So the question becomes whether Mary moved from Magdala to Bethany or not. She could have moved with Martha and Lazarus. This doesn't seem impossible, particularly since Jesus was from Galilie (which Magdala is in) and there is no Gospel story to suggest how Mary, Martha and Lazarus became such good friends. One could argue that they knew each other before Christ's ministry which would have placed them in Galilie at some point.

The reality is that we don't know for sure. We can only guess. The Catholic Church has long put forth that all the three Mary's mentioned above are the same Mary. I'm inclined to believe that the Church is correct. That said, we must accept that this is not a definitive teaching of the Church (not even close really) and we should not scoff at those who believe otherwise.