Inspired by the work of Elizabeth Schrader, who has written on the perplexing presence of Martha in the Fourth Gospel1, I put together a hypothetical reconstruction of John 11 and 12. For those that don’t know Dr. Schrader has argued that Martha was added to John 11 in the second century to encourage a connection between Mary of Bethany and the Lukan Mary and Martha. She raises the question, why would Martha be added to this text? And what are the implications of the text if Martha is absent, as she seems to have been in the original? Potentially it was about diminishing the role of Mary Magdalene, who only appears by that name in John 19 and 20, but was understood by some early Christians as the same Mary who appears in John 11 and 12. For her full arguments, please read her article.
In this recreated version of John Martha is not present, which as Schrader has noted assists the reader in making the identification between this Mary, and Mary Magdalene.
After my recreation is the text of a related passage in the Mystical Gospel of Mark, which is still of debated authenticity. The text tells of a time Jesus went to Bethany, met up with a crying woman, and raised her dead brother to life. If it is authentic, then the presence of only *one* woman in the text is significant, as it could be that this Markan scene was the inspiration for the Johannine episode.
The text of the reconstruction is that of the NRSVUE, corrected with Schrader’s research. Whereas the text of Mystical Mark is from gnosis.org.
Thoughts are welcome!
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Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary his sister. Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. So Mary sent a message to Jesus, “Lord, one whom you love is ill.” But when Jesus heard it, he said, “This illness does not lead to death; rather, it is for God’s glory, so that the Son may be glorified through it.” Accordingly, though Jesus loved Mary and Lazarus2, after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.
Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to stone you, and are you going there again?” Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Those who walk during the day do not stumble because they see the light of this world. But those who walk at night stumble because the light is not in them.” After saying this, he told them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him.” The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right.” Jesus, however, had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was referring merely to sleep. Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, and many of the Jews had come to Mary to console her about her brother. When Mary heard that Jesus was coming, She got up quickly and went to him. The Jews who were with her in the house consoling her saw Mary get up quickly and go out. They followed her because they thought that she was going to the tomb to weep there. When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Mary said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. 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?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.”
When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus began to weep. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”
Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Mary, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for having heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
Many of the Jews, therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did believed in him.
…
Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. There they gave a dinner for him. Mary served and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him. Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’s feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?” (He said this not because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) Jesus said, “Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might use it for the day of my burial, and this is how she has used it. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”
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And they came into Bethany. And a certain woman whose brother had died was there. And, coming, she prostrated herself before Jesus and said to him, “son of David, have mercy on me”. But the disciples rebuked her. And Jesus, being angered, went off with her into the garden where the tomb was, and straightway, going in where the youth was, he stretched forth his hand and raised him, seizing his hand. But the youth, looking upon him, loved him and began to beseech him that he might be with him. And going out of the tomb they came into the house of the youth, for he was rich. And after six days Jesus told him what to do and in the evening the youth came to him, wearing a linen cloth over his naked body. And he remained with him that night, for Jesus taught him the mystery of the Kingdom of God. And thence, arising, he returned to the other side of the Jordan.
- Schrader, Elizabeth. Was Martha of Bethany Added to the Fourth Gospel in the Second Century? Harvard Theological Review. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26357910 ↩︎
- I believe that there are additional implications stemming from this research, namely the identification of the “disciple Jesus loved” who appears throughout the Fourth Gospel. I hope to return to that question in the future. ↩︎