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Bible - NT - Matthew: Mary

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Three women are mentioned in Matthew 27:56: Mary Magdalene, another Mary, identified as “the mother of Jakobos and Joses,” and the unnamed mother of James and John. Who is the second Mary?

Matthew 13:55 is the only other reference to these names, Jakobos and Joses, and their mother. There, the mother Mary is clearly Jesus’ mother: “Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary, and His brothers, Jakobos and J0ses and Simon and Judas?” We know from John 19:25 that Mary the mother of Jesus was at the cross. It’s likely that the other Mary (called “the other Mary” in Matthew 27:61 and 28:1) is Jesus’ mother. The woman who bore Him – the womb that gave Him birth and the breasts He sucked – are present at His death. Her presence gives a maternal spin to His resurrection; the tomb becomes His new womb.

Why then is she called “the mother of Jakobos and Joses” instead of the mother of Jesus?

Perhaps because Jesus is dead, and His mother is now designated by the names of her surviving sons. Perhaps too because, though Jesus will rise from the dead, He will not rise to flesh but to Spirit. He will no longer be identified as the Son of Mary but declared Son of God with power.

But perhaps Matthew wants us to catch the resonance of the names. In Genesis, Jakobos and Joses do not have a common mother, unless it is perhaps Sarah or, at a more abstract level, the nation of Israel (which would be a stretch since Jacob is Israel). But the names of Jakobos and Joses conjure up important tomb-related connections. Both die in Egypt and are transported elsewhere. Jacob’s burial is recorded in great detail (Genesis 50:1-14), and Egyptians join with his sons in mourning his death. Jacob is entombed in the cave of Machpelah, the purchase of rich Abram. Joseph dies in Egypt, but his bones are transported at the exodus and are eventually buried in the land. Both are buried in hope of inheriting the land. Jesus too is buried in hope.

Jesus is, further, a new Jacob/Israel and a new Joseph. He is the suffering, limping victor, the wily supplanter who overcomes His faithless older brother. He is Joseph, opposed by brothers but exalted above them.

posted by Peter J. Leithart on Thursday, March 18, 2010 at 7:45 am

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Bible - NT - Matthew: Mary

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