2 MARTHA AND MARY WHO?

2

Martha and Mary Who?

And it came to pass, in their going on, that he entered into a certain village, and a certain woman, by name Martha, did receive him into her house, and she had also a sister, called Mary, who also, having seated herself beside the feet of Jesus, was hearing the word, and Martha was distracted about much serving, and having stood by him, she said, `Sir, dost thou not care that my sister left me alone to serve? say then to her, that she may partake along with me.'

And Jesus answering said to her, `Martha, Martha, thou art anxious and disquieted about many things, but of one thing there is need, and Mary the good part did choose, that shall not be taken away from her.' Luke 10:38-42 (Young Literal Translation)

Who is this Martha?

Here is the legend:

She was a virgin. Her sister was Mary Magdalene. At some point, Martha, Mary and Lazarus, along with some others, were set adrift on a raft with no supplies, without a rudder to steer or a sail to catch the wind. They ended up in Marseilles and traveled into the Rhone Valley of France to preach. Martha was pretty busy there in France. Besides converting multitudes to Christianity and once rescuing a man who fell into the Rhone River trying to hear her sermon, she exorcised demons here and there, and once slew a dragon. This dragon was a man-eater who swam or sailed to the Rhone from Asia. It's name was Tarascus and it was a part animal, part fish creature with horns and a snakes tail (sounds like the Devil). He was just running about killing people and sinking their boats and being pretty nasty, so the folk pleaded with Martha to do something about it. She made the sign of the cross, sprinkled some Holy Water about and tied the dragon up with her girdle, after which everyone came and stuck him with spears or struck him with stones until dead.

Martha outlived her sister, whom she saw ascend into Heaven shortly before she died herself. She passed away while friends reread the passion of Christ by her bedside and Jesus returned to earth to serve her funeral Mass and burial.

And I don't believe a lick of that story.

(Martha is Saint Martha of Bethany to the Roman Catholics. Her main relics are in Tarascon Provence, France (since 1187 AD) with others in Wittemberg, Tuscany and Nuremberg.)

So what do we know about the actual Martha. Well, we know the name is Aramaic and means 'mistress' (it is also said to mean 'sorrowful'). Other than that, we don't know much at all, except what is recorded in Scripture, which is probably all we really need to know.

Was she a virgin? We don't know, but I will venture she was not. She may well have been married to a man named Simon (more about that later).

We don't know when she was born or when, where or how she died, so forget all the stuff about drifting to France, killing dragons and being attended by Christ at her funeral.

What about her being the sister of Mary Magdalene?

We know she had a sister named Mary. There were a lot of Marys in those times just as there are a lot of Marys now. We really don't know much more about this Mary than we know about Martha. We can state for certain she was not Mary, the mother of Christ. But why do some say this was Mary Magdalene? Why not one of the other Marys: Mary, the wife of Clopas or Mary, the mother of John Mark, or Mary, the mother of James and Joses? Now, I would rule out these mothers mentioned because the story of Martha, Mary and Lazarus falls too close to Passion week for this Mary not to have been mentioned as James or John Mark's mother.

I think the speculation that Martha's sister was Mary Magdalene came because of a similar instance of a woman pouring perfume on Jesus in Luke 7.

Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went to the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table.When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them. When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, "If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner."Luke 7:36-39

As we will see, there are some similarities here. However, that incident occurred earlier in Jesus' ministry and took place in Capernaum or thereabouts. This is distant from Bethany, which is near Jerusalem. Capernaum is to the north near the Sea of Galilee as is Magdala from which Mary Magdalene was named. But there is really nothing to say this woman at the Pharisees house was Mary Magdalene. We know less about this Mary than you may think. The supposition may come because Mary Magdalene is mentioned in Luke 8 as someone out of whom demons were casted, but this does not make her the women here (or make her a prostitute either, another speculation).

I also dismiss the idea Martha's sister was Mary Magdalene because in all other instances, Mary of Magdala is mentioned with her hometown, so why would it be different here?

So what do we know and what was Martha doing that she wanted her sister's help?

Illustration: Christ in the House of Martha and Mary by Jacopo Robusti Tintoretto, 1570-75