Today's Gospel reading from the Revised Common Lectionary, a book of readings shared widely by churches across the world. This text comes from Luke 10, versus 38 through 42. "Now, as they went on their way, he entered a certain village where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to what he was saying, but Martha was distracted by her many tasks. So she came to him and asked, 'Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her to help me.' But the Lord answered her, 'Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.'"
Pastor Sara preached on this familiar story about Jesus and his visit with two sisters: busy Martha and contemplative Mary. The anxious Martha Jesus observing in Mary what he calls, "the better part." Mary is sitting at Jesus' feet, contemplating, listening, receiving the teachings of Jesus. Pastor Sara spoke against the either/or choice being made between these two women's faith.
What Pastor Sara preached on this passage dovetailed with what Diana Butler Bass preached this year at Wild Goose, a 4-day Spirit, Justice, Music and Arts Festival, on the same passage. I both Sara and Diana's sermons were illuminating.
There are many Marys in the Bible. When we hear the story about busy Martha and contemplative Mary, a question that we might not think to ask but one that we should ask is, "Which Mary is this? You might think you know. This Mary and Martha story is related to another story. A story in John 11, a story about Mary and Martha, the sisters of Lazarus who live in a place called Bethany. Many commentaries on the Luke 10 passage, on the Mary and Martha story direct us to John by writing "This is a story of Mary and Martha, the sisters of Lazarus, Mary and Martha of Bethany."
But "in Bethany" is never mentioned in Luke’s text. Indeed, looking at a map, Bethany is actually a town, a village in the opposite direction of which Jesus was traveling in this section of the Gospel of Luke. All Luke says is that Mary and Martha were of a “certain village.” Then there’s an interesting identification of Martha where it says, "Martha welcomed Jesus to her home." Pastor Sara observed what is fascinating about just that little phrase, Mary and Martha are sisters in a patriarchal society. If they had a brother living with them, that line would say, "And Martha welcomed Jesus to her brother's home," because Martha wouldn't own the house. The only way it's Martha's home is if Martha has no husband, no father, and no brother living there.
If it was the same family in Luke and John, Luke 10 is confused. The village is in the wrong place and it's not called by the right name. What we actually have here is two stories that our imaginations have run together, which our tradition has run together, which even commentators have run together. These are actually two different stories about two different families.
It becomes a problem when you get the cast of characters wrong. The question becomes: who is this Mary? Instead of spending a lot of time talking about Mary of the four short verses in Luke, There is confusion in John 11 beyond the tradition that is running two stories together. John 11 opens with a very simple sentence. "Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany." Bethany, not a certain village, is clearly defined. "The village of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister, Martha." That's the opening sentence of John 11. You might think to yourself, what's important about that?
Diana Butler Bass introduced me to a story about this Gospel and Elizabeth Schrader, who is a PhD student at Duke University working on a doctorate in New Testament studies.
Years ago, Elizabeth (her nickname is Libbie) was a singer-songwriter. She loves praying with and to the saints. One day Libbie walked into a church garden in New York City seeking refuge from the city, and sat down to pray. As she prayed, she heard a voice and the voice said, "Follow Mary Magdalene."
This startled her. At first she wrote a song called “Magdalene.” But then something deeper started nagging at Libbie. She thought, "Well, I don't think I was just called to write a song. I need to learn more." She is an Episcopalian living in New York City, and she thought, "Where can I learn more about the Bible?" She found General Theological Seminary in the city, and asked, "I need to learn more about Mary Magdalene. How do I do that?"
She learned she could come to General and earn a degree in the New Testament if she liked. She felt called to do that and signed up for the New Testament program where she studied she was taught Greek and Coptic and Aramaic, and learned how to translate the New Testament. She still couldn't get Mary Magdalene off of her mind. When it came to writing her final paper for her master's degree, she asked the professor if she could write it on John 11 and Mary Magdalene. The professor responded, "Absolutely. Do you know that these texts have lately become available digitized? If you want to study Mary Magdalene, I want you to look at the earliest possible New Testament texts and try to say something new about them."
Libbie looked at Papyrus 66, which is the oldest and most complete text available of the Gospel of John. It's dated around the year 200. When Libbie was sitting in a library in New York City and Papyrus 66 came to her there was an historic moment in New Testament studies. She looked at the text and she saw this first sentence. written in Greek, of course. "Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and his sister Mary." And Libbie's English Bible translated this as, "Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister, Martha." But the Greek text, the oldest Greek text read that there were two Mary references in this verse.
Libbie dug into the text, trying to see what she could in the digitized version on the internet and noticed something that no New Testament scholar had ever noticed. Where Papyrus 66 had those two Marys, the village of Mary and his sister, Mary, and her sister, Mary, the text had actually been changed. In Greek, the word Mary, the name Mary, is basically spelled like Maria in English, M-A-R-I-A. And the I, the Greek letter I, is the letter Iota. And it looks basically like an English I. Libbie saw by doing this textual analysis that the Iota had been changed to the letter TH in Greek, Theta.
Somebody, at some point in time, had gone in over the original handwriting and actually changed the second Mary to Martha. Not only had that person changed the second Mary to Martha, but that person had also changed the way it comes out in English. It says, "The village of Mary," that would've stayed the same, "and her sister, Martha." Someone had also changed that “his” to "her"; that "her" was originally a "his", but they had changed it to a "her".
Admittedly, the original text is a confused and not very good sentence. "Now, a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, at the village of Mary and his sister, Mary," it's almost like they're heightening the fact that Lazarus has this sister, Mary. They lived in this village together, and Mary is Lazarus' sister. Someone had changed it to read, "Mary and her sister, Martha."
Libbie sat in the library with all of this, and realizing that sometime in the fourth century, someone had altered the oldest text of the Gospel of John and split the character Mary into two. Mary became Mary and Martha.
She went through the whole manuscript of John 11 and John 12, and confirmed that editor had gone in at every single place and changed every reference to Martha in English, where originally said, "Mary." The editor changed it all. The story then becomes a charming story about Lazarus and the resurrection and his two lovely sisters, Mary and Martha. Haven’t we seen them before in Luke 10.
Yet these sisters are not in Luke. This is some editor's idea of harmonizing the text a couple hundred years ago. Somebody in the fourth century decided that John was confusing and this John fellow had bad Greek. The editor fixed it so well that we have told this story wrong ever since.
Every pronoun is changed. Every singular "sister” is changed to the plural "sisters". And Libbie has conclusively proven that in Papyrus 66 this fiddling around with the text did indeed occur. Libbie wrote her master's thesis on it. It was so interesting as a master's thesis as she proved this textual manipulation that Harvard Divinity School found out about it and asked her to turn it into an article. So her master's thesis was published as an article by the Harvard Theological Divinity
From there, many scholars noticed her article -- including the German organization Nestle-Aland Translation Committee of the Greek New Testament, The organization is the guardian of the Greek New Testament. They asked Libbie to come to Germany to present her research to them. And over the course of a couple days, they listen to her and they look at all the evidence that she's compiled. In the end, after her presentation, they concluded, "Well, we might need to change something here."
Now there is a debate going on in the highest circles of New Testament studies as to whether or not Libbie's research should turn into a very long footnote in the next edition of the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible in English. They are also considering a change to John 11 and John 12 and take Martha out. Of course, in order to take Martha out they wanted more evidence. But this is not about today's Gospel text which is a different story of a different family. Martha will stay forever in Luke 10. She's lovely. She’s important. Jesus loved her. She stays there. But she shouldn't necessarily be in John 11 and 12.
People have begun to do other research pursuing and extending Libbie's work since, including other New Testament scholars and church historians.
Tertullian, one of the most misogynistic of all of the ancient church fathers, actually wrote a bit of a commentary on this passage in John chapter 11. He writes circa 200. Commenting on this chapter, he says, "Mary, confessing him, Jesus, to be the Son of God."
Yet in our Bible today, it says Martha confessed that. It says a little later on that Jesus was talking to Martha. Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if you had not been here, my brother would have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him." And Jesus said to Martha, "Your brother will rise again." And Martha said to him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day." And Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life." One of the most important lines in the whole of the Gospel of John. "Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live. And everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" Jesus asked this woman. And in our English Bible, Jesus says that to Martha, "Do you believe this, Martha?" And she said to him, "Yes, Lord. I believe that you are the Messiah. The one who's come into the world."
Tertullian said that was Mary. There was no Martha in that passage according to Tertullian. Did Tertullian’s copy of John have only Mary?
And what about how that passage begins with a story about how Martha runs out to meet Jesus, but Mary is so upset that poor Mary stays home because she can't possibly face Jesus? Egeria, a fourth century Pilgrim to the Holy Land, writes in her diary about her pilgrimage group getting to the church in the place where Mary, the sister of Lazarus, ran out to meet the Lord. Tertullian doesn't mention Martha. In Egeria’s diary, there is no mention of Martha. Indeed, in these ancient sources, the story is a story of Mary.
John 11 is about Lazarus and one woman, one sister, Mary. The next provocative question is why did this editor split Mary into two women? Perhaps the editor was a guy with literary sense and he just didn't like John's Greek and so he fixed it in a way that made sense to him. Or he could have been a person who was just a little worried about how this story fit with Luke’s story? Maybe it makes more sense if it's a story about Mary and Martha and not just a story about Mary. So that person could have had benign motives. Or not...
That little text from John 11 is one of two Christological confessions in the Gospel. Another of those Christological confessions happens in the synoptic Gospels. It happens in Mark. It happens in Luke. And it happens in Matthew. Who utters the Christological confession in those three gospels? Peter and Jesus have a conversation. And Jesus turns to Peter and says, "Who am I?" And Peter says, "You are the Messiah, the son of the living God." And Jesus turns around and says to him, "You are Peter, upon this rock I will build my church."
The other Christological confession is in the Gospel of John. And until this point, it has belonged to a minor character named Martha and we didn't even know who she was. Jesus raises her brother from the dead and they have this conversation. And then finally this woman says, "Yes, Lord. I believe that you are the Messiah, the son of God, the one who is coming into the world." Pretty much exactly the same words that Peter has uttered in the synoptic Gospels. And then Martha disappears from history. Unimportant, unremembered, who is this?
But if it is Mary, the Mary who shows up in John 11 is not an unremembered Mary. Not just one of a plethora of Marys in the Bibe. This Mary has long been suspected of being the other Mary, Mary Magdalene. Is it really true that the other Christological confession of the New Testament comes from of the voice of Mary Magdalene? That the Gospel of John gives the most important statement in the entirety of the New Testament, not to a man, but to a woman, and to a really important woman who will show up later as the first witness to the resurrection.
You see how these two stories work together. In John 11, Lazarus is raised from the dead, and who is there but Mary Magdalene? And at that resurrection, she confesses that Jesus is indeed the son of God. And then you go just 10 chapters later and who is the person at the grave? She mistakes him, at first, thinks he's the gardener. She turns around and he says, "Mary," and she goes, "Lord." It's Mary Magdalene. It is Mary Magdalene.
Now was she from Magdala and not Bethany. What is this Bethany place?
There is an important debate going on right now about where Mary Magdalene is from. A lot of people, who have visited the Holy Land might have gone to the little village that's right on the sea of Galilee. where there's a church there, the church of Mary Magdalene. Keep in mind, however, that village wasn't known as Magdala in the first century. Nobody is sure where that village would be if there was a village called Magdala. Instead of Mary being from this nice fishing village, there is good evidence to suggest that she was from somewhere else. And this text begins to suggest that she is from Bethany.
Magdala, when we call her Magdalene, Mary Magdalene, is not Mary from Magdala. Instead, it's a title.
The word magdala in Aramaic means tower. And so now a fuller picture is revealed. In the Synoptics, Jesus and Peter have a discussion. In that discussion, Peter utters the Christological confession. As a result of the Christological confession, Jesus says, "You are Peter the Rock." In the gospel of John, Mary and Jesus have a conversation, and Mary utters the same Christological confession. And she comes to be known as Mary the Tower.
Between these two confessions, are we looking at an argument in the early church? Peter the Rock or Mary the Tower?
But the John account was changed. The John story has been hidden from our view. All those years ago, Mary uttered those words, "
Yes, Lord, I believe you are the Messiah, the son of God, the one who is coming into the world."
Mary becomes the tower of faith. That our faith is the faith of that woman who would become the first person to announce the resurrection. Mary the Witness, Mary the Tower, Mary the Great, and she has been obscured from us. She has been hidden from us and she been taken away from us for nearly 2,000 years. This is not a Dan Brown novel. This is the
Nestle-Aland Translation Committee of the Greek New Testament. This is the Harvard Theological Review. This is some of the best, most cutting edge historical research in the world. And we are living in the moment of most radical transformation in the understanding of the Gospel accounts, of who Jesus Christ is, and who holds authority.
The Feast day of Mary Magdalene just happens to be the Friday I write this entry (July 22). This is a celebration of Mary Magdalene with abandon. Celebrate this story, celebrate all the Marys. Keep these stories clear. The lectionary text about Mary and Martha is a beautiful text, and a charming story. For women or the men who have identified with Martha over the years, nobody's taking away your Martha story. It is still a meaningful story about activism and contemplation. Take this
Gospel, hold it in your heart, and listen to the scripture speak. Take rests and contemplate what you are doing when working towards the kindom of God.
And think about love in action when you contemplate the words of Jesus.
