In the book of Acts, we come across another Mary. The Bible clarifies her identity through the name of her son: John, also called Mark. Scripture sometimes uses both names, as in John Mark.
Peter is in prison, with his execution likely. Mary—risking imprisonment herself if she’s discovered—bravely holds a prayer meeting for Peter at her home.
God answers the prayers of the believers, and an angel escorts Peter from the prison. Peter heads to Mary’s house, expecting to find some of his friends gathered there. They welcome him and celebrate God’s goodness.
Though we can only assume, John Mark, witnesses his mother’s faith in action and God’s supernatural answer to their prayers. What we do know is that John Mark later helps tell other people about Jesus.
Though his first effort with Barnabas and Paul ends prematurely, he finishes strong. Many people credit him as the author of the book of Mark.
Children watch what we do and say. What are they learning from us?
[Discover more about John Mark’s mother, Mary, in Acts 12:12–16.]
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.
Tabitha, also known as Dorcas, lives in Joppa. Luke says she’s a disciple and a good person. She enjoys helping poor people. One way she does this is by making clothes for people in need.
She gets sick and dies.
Her friends prepare her body for burial. They mourn her death while celebrating her life.
Peter’s in a nearby town.
Some faith-filled followers of Jesus send for him. They ask him to come as soon as possible.
Peter agrees. When he arrives, he goes to where they’ve laid her body for viewing. He looks at her and tells her to get up.
She does.
Peter guides her to the balcony. He presents her to all those gathered to pay their respects. News of this amazing miracle spreads fast. As a result, many more people believe in Jesus.
Tabitha dedicates her life to helping people in need, but, like Jesus, it’s her death and resurrection that help them the most.
May both our life and our death point people to Jesus. What should we do to make sure this happens?
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.
Candace is the queen of Ethiopia. That’s all we know about her. Some translations don’t even give her name, but instead call her the Kandake, which means the queen of Ethiopia. An important member of her cabinet, the treasurer, is in Jerusalem to worship God.
Returning to Ethiopia in his chariot, he reads from Isaiah’s prophecy but has trouble understanding it.
Meanwhile, God directs Philip into the desert for an undisclosed reason. As Philip walks along the arid trail, he meets the Ethiopian treasurer. Philip explains that the confusing passage refers to Jesus and tells the man who Jesus is and what he did.
The man receives Philip’s teaching about Jesus. When they come to some water, he asks Philip to baptize him. Philip does. Then he’s whisked away by the Holy Spirit, while the man continues his journey home, overflowing with joy.
When he gets there, I suspect he tells everyone about Jesus.
We see Candace as a wise leader, allowing one of her most trusted lieutenants time off for religious reasons. As a result, he returns a changed man, which likely influences his work, the government, and the nation in a positive way.
It’s easy for us to envision him telling Queen Candace about Jesus, but we’re left to wonder how she responds.
Who can we tell about Jesus?
[Discover more about Queen Candace in Acts 8:26–40.]
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.
Sapphira and her husband sell some land and give part of the proceeds to the church. They keep some of it for themselves, which they’re free to do, but they say their donation is the full amount of the sale.
Peter confronts Sapphira’s husband about his duplicity. The man drops dead. There’s no mercy offered, no second chance given, and no investigation conducted. In this case, God’s judgment is swift. It’s final.
Later, not knowing the fate of her husband, Sapphira shows up, and Peter confronts her as well. Again, there’s no mercy, second chance, or investigation. She, too, falls dead. A holy fear grips the church.
We seldom suffer immediate punishment for the wrong things we do. This delay could cause us to assume judgment won’t happen, but without Jesus’s saving power, punishment is inevitable.
Sapphira and her husband conspire to deceive the church, but more significantly, they lie to the Holy Spirit. In their case, lying to the Holy Spirit is punishable by death, an immediate death.
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.
It’s reasonable to assume Jesus’s mother, Mary, has brothers and sisters, but only one appears in the Bible. It’s Mary’s sister, which would be Jesus’s aunt. Yes, Jesus has an aunt. We don’t know her name, and she garners only one brief mention, but what she does is significant.
Though we can only speculate if Mary’s sister is a follower of Jesus, we do know that she stands by her sister’s side while Mary keeps her vigil as Jesus dies.
That’s what family does. That’s what friends do. They stand by us in our darkest moments, perhaps saying nothing, just being present.
Do we have these deep kinds of friendships? Are we this type of devoted friend to others?
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.
Susanna is only mentioned once in the Bible. It’s by Doctor Luke in his biography of Jesus. Jesus casts a demon out of her, as he does for Joanna and many others.
Regardless of what we understand this to mean, Susanna, in response to Jesus removing her affliction, helps support him and his work here on earth.
While Jesus doesn’t demand we do things for him out of gratitude for what he does for us, he certainly deserves our tangible acts of appreciation.
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.
Joanna only appears in Luke’s biography of Jesus. And then just twice, but we can learn much from what Luke writes about her.
First, she, along with several other women, helps care for Jesus and support his work. More on this later.
Next, Joanna also joins Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and John (remember, they’re the Sons of Thunder) in wanting to embalm Jesus’s body, which they don’t get to do since he rises from the dead.
A third thing we know about Joanna is that Jesus casts demons out of her, along with Mary Magdalene, Susanna, and several others. Jesus relieves them of their afflictions. Joanna’s response is to do what she can for him.
Now, on to the good part.
The fourth thing about Joanna, which is both significant and easy to overlook, is that she’s married to Chuza. Why does this matter?
Chuza manages the household of Herod (2). Again, huh?
Here’s why: Herod opposes Jesus. Chuza works for Herod. Herod pays Chuza. Chuza’s wife, Joanna, gives money to support Jesus. This means that in an indirect way Herod financially supports Jesus. If Herod knew, he’d surely explode in anger.
When God blesses us with money or possessions, what we do with them matters.
Are we using the money God blesses us with to help others?
[Discover more about Joanna in Luke 8:1–3 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.
Each of the four accounts of Jesus’s life—in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—give a story about a woman who anoints Jesus with expensive perfume, but the details in each narrative vary a bit.
It may be that this happens on four separate occasions. Or it could be the same story, with a few details that differ. Or perhaps it is somewhere in between, with there being two or three times that women anoint Jesus.
Matthew and Mark’s accounts are the closest, with the only differing detail being who criticizes her for wasting expensive perfume on Jesus: Matthew says it’s the disciples. Mark says it’s “some” people. Matthew and Mark likely cover the same event.
In John’s version, the woman who anoints Jesus is Mary (3), sister of Martha and Lazarus, but for the other three reports, the woman isn’t named.
John’s version is like Matthew and Mark’s, but one key difference is that this woman anoints Jesus’s feet, not his head, as in the first two accounts. Also, John identifies just one person who criticizes her: Judas Iscariot.
Last, John says that Martha is serving the dinner in Jesus’s honor, so we assume it is at her house, whereas Matthew and Mark say Jesus is hanging out at Simon the leper’s home.
Of the four writers, John is the only one who is an eyewitness, whereas the others needed to research their account. However, John is the last one to write it down, so it’s hard to say if he got the part about the feet, along with the other details, right or wrong.
Regardless, it’s reasonable to assume he’s telling the same story as Matthew and Mark.
In all three accounts Jesus defends the woman’s action and says she is preparing him for burial.
Luke’s version differs the most from the other three. First, he calls her a sinful woman, something not even hinted at in the other accounts. Also, she crashes the party.
Next, this takes place at a Pharisee’s house. His name is Simon, but it doesn’t say he’s a leper. And there’s no mention of it being in the town of Bethany.
A woman comes up behind Jesus and weeps at his feet, apparently in sorrow for her wayward ways. Her tears fall on him and, lacking a towel, she uses her hair to dry his feet. Then she dumps her perfume on them.
In this account, the woman doesn’t receive criticism, but Jesus does. The Pharisee thinks that Jesus should have known the woman touching him is a sinner.
Jesus affirms the woman for washing his feet, something his host declined to do. Then he forgives her for her many sins, affirms her saving faith, and sends her off in peace. Luke’s account contains enough differences that it’s likely a different event.
Although some people, like myself, enjoy digging this deeply into the Bible, we should do so loosely. It doesn’t really matter if this story is about one woman, or two, or three, or four.
What counts is that it happened. The specific details don’t matter so much.
When we read Scripture as narrative, the way it’s written, we can enjoy this story and receive inspiration through it. However, if we see Scripture as merely an irrefutable historical treatise, then we’ll surely trip over the minutia.
The key point is that these women give us an example of the lavish adoration of Jesus.
How exuberant is our worship of Jesus? Are we free to worship him regardless of what others say or think?
[Discover more about the four stories of women who anoint Jesus in Matthew 26:6–13, Mark 14:3–9, Luke 7:36–50, and John 12:1–8.]
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.
