The next female on Paul’s list is Mary. She could be one of the other seven Marys we’ve already covered, but this would mean that she moved to Rome and became part of that church. This is unlikely, so we can assume she’s another Mary.
We know one thing about her. She works hard for the church in Rome. Though she lacks the title of deacon, like Phoebe, she nonetheless serves with noteworthy diligence.
Learn about other biblical women in Women of the Bible, available in audiobook, e-book, paperback, and hardcover.
A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.
Matthew twice mentions “the other Mary.” Who is this other woman named Mary?
Since he also mentions Mary Magdalene in those verses, we know it’s not her. It’s also doubtful that he would refer to Jesus’s mother with such a vague reference. It’s also unlikely that she’s Mary the mother of James and Joseph because Matthew mentions that Mary elsewhere in his writings.
A possibility is that “the other Mary” could refer to Mary the wife of Clopas, whom Matthew doesn’t mention. The same applies for Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, or she could be Mary the mother of John Mark.
It’s also possible she’s another Mary altogether.
What we do know is this Mary, along with Mary Magdalene, watches Joseph entomb Jesus. The next day they return to his grave.
Why do we bother to have all these considerations over someone we can’t identify?
“The other Mary” reminds us that sometimes we don’t receive credit for the things we do. Or that our actions may receive only a vague nod. But Jesus knows. That’s what matters.
How willing are we to serve Jesus if no one else were to know what we do?
Learn about other biblical women in Women of the Bible, available in audiobook, e-book, paperback, and hardcover.
A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.
Another woman named Mary is identified by her husband’s name: Mary the wife of Clopas. Only one verse in the Bible, in John’s biography of Jesus, contains a reference to this Mary or mentions Clopas.
While we may bristle at the idea of Mary’s identity being tied to her husband, this may be more a notation of convenience rather than significance. While Clopas did nothing noteworthy, Mary did.
When all the disciples, except John, abandon Jesus as he dies a slow death by crucifixion, four women are brave enough to remain close by, keeping vigil as Jesus suffers. They stay near him despite great personal risk, something the rest of his followers are unwilling to do.
One of these courageous women is Mary, the wife of Clopas. We salute her for staying by Jesus and supporting him in his darkest moment.
What have we done for Jesus? What else can we do?
[Discover more about Mary, the wife of Clopas, in John 19:25.]
Learn about other biblical women in Women of the Bible, available in audiobook, e-book, paperback, and hardcover.
A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.
There are many women named Mary in the New Testament of the Bible. One is identified by the names of her boys: Mary, the mother of James and Joseph. This Mary is one of a handful of women noted for following Jesus and caring for his needs. Like Salome, Joanna, and Susanna, we acknowledge Mary’s key role in Jesus’s ministry.
Referring to her as Mary the mother of James and Joseph may clarify her to first-century audiences, but it doesn’t help us much today, as we can only speculate who her sons are. However, it’s reasonable to assume her sons are noteworthy in the early church, which is commendable to her for raising godly boys.
Our children may be our biggest and most important legacy. May we do everything possible to raise them into godly men and women.
[Discover more about this Mary in Matthew 27:55–56, Mark 15:40–41, Mark 16:1, and Luke 24:1–11.]
Learn about other biblical women in Women of the Bible, available in audiobook, e-book, paperback, and hardcover.
A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.
Mary is the sister of Martha and Lazarus. The Bible includes two stories about her that cause me to label her as irresponsible. Jesus, however, has a different perspective.
In the first story, Mary sits at the feet of Jesus, taking in all he says and basking in his presence while her sister, Martha, toils in the kitchen. Martha complains about Mary’s laziness, but Jesus puts Martha in her place, and he affirms Mary for making the better choice.
In the second story, Mary uses some expensive perfume, which she pours on Jesus’s feet and wipes them with her hair, to show her love to him and symbolically prepare him for burial.
Judas criticizes her wasteful ways. He claims the perfume is worth one year’s salary. Instead of pouring it on Jesus, a better use would have been to sell it and use the proceeds to help the poor. But Jesus rebuffs Judas, saying Mary did the right thing with her perfume, the thing she was meant to do.
Mary first faces criticism for being lazy and later for being wasteful. But Jesus commends both her choices.
Do we ever judge others from a human standpoint and completely miss God’s perspective?
[Discover more about Mary in Luke 10:38–42 and John 12:2–7. See “The Women Who Anoint Jesus.”]
Learn about other biblical women in Women of the Bible, available in audiobook, e-book, paperback, and hardcover.
A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.
An angel visits Mary, a young girl engaged to be married. The angel celebrates her as one highly favored by God. Perplexed, Mary wonders about the angel’s shocking greeting. Then he further stuns her by saying she will become pregnant, and her child will save her people.
“How?” Mary asks. “I’m a virgin.”
The angel explains that the Holy Spirit will supernaturally impregnate her.
Mary trusts God in this and accepts the angel’s words without arguing.
When Joseph, her fiancé, finds out she’s with child, he plans to end their engagement, but an angel visits him, too, and tells him not to break up with her. They get married, but they remain celibate until after Mary’s miracle baby is born.
However, before this happens Mary and Joseph must travel to Bethlehem for a mandatory census. Unable to find a place to stay, they hunker down in a barn. There, among the filth of livestock, Jesus is born.
This is no ordinary birth. Angels celebrate, shepherds bow down, and royalty offers expensive gifts. Then at Jesus’s consecration, people give astounding prophecies and thanks for him.
Twelve years later, Jesus amazes his parents, especially Mary, when they find him at the temple in deep discussion with the religious leaders.
At age thirty he starts his ministry. Three years later, during his execution, Jesus makes sure Mary will be cared for. The last we hear of her is at a gathering of Jesus’s followers after he rises from the dead and returns to heaven.
Though we praise Mary for her pious acceptance of God’s assignment, the townspeople didn’t likely celebrate her circumstances. They certainly dismissed her claim that “God did it,” and she likely forever carried the stigma of the girl who got pregnant before she was married.
Sometimes there is a price for following God. Would we be willing to suffer a lifetime of humiliation to conform to his plan for us?
Learn about other biblical women in Women of the Bible, available in audiobook, e-book, paperback, and hardcover.
A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.
The Bible writes that Mary became pregnant by the Holy Spirit and the result of this spiritual/physical union was Jesus — it was a virgin birth.
This supernatural impregnation was the spiritual superseding the physical. And if God can do that, he can certainly heal our bodies and restore us to health. He has the power to do that. (When and why he does so is a different discussion for a different time.)
However, there are some within Christendom who deny the possibility that a baby could be conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit. These are often the people who also disregard God being able to heal.
Their view of God is more limited than mine, but just because our respective understandings of God are different, it would be wrong to assume one is right and the other, wrong.
God is a big God and even the grandest of our comprehension of him is small and understated. So we understand him the best we can and to the degree we are able — and I suspect that is enough.
A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.
