Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. [John 19:25 NIV]
So here we have a list of four women all present at the horrendous execution. According to John's account, the four women are as follows: Mary, the mother of Jesus; an aunt of Jesus (his mother's sister); Mary, the wife of Clopas; and Mary Magdalene. Three of these women are named Mary but the writer takes steps to help his readers to identify the correct Mary as it was obviously a popular name at the time. Away back when I taught history in three Scottish secondary schools, it was common to have several children with the same first name in the same class - names are fashionable and then go out of fashion. I seem to remember that Yvonne and Cheryl were popular as girls' names and Gary and Scott were popular as boys' names. The practice of using surnames was not as common as it is in Scotland today and so there had to be ways of distinguishing between people with the same forename. One of these women was identified by her husband. (In Stevenston I was known as Janie's man or more commonly Jimmy's boy.) So this Mary had a husband called Clopas. We don't know much about her but it is possible that her husband was the named individual (Cleopas) who met Jesus on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24: 13-35). He is very much affected by the recent events and is clearly a disciple of Jesus and known to the 11 apostles.
The list starts off with Mary, the mother of Jesus. We will think more about this Mary in the next scheduled Day Share. It must have been heart-breaking for her to watch the brutal degrading treatment of her son.
There are two other women mentioned in John's list as having been present at the crucifixion. Firstly, we have the sister of Mary, the mother of Jesus who would obviously be an aunt of Jesus. She was almost certainly there to support her sister in her trauma. She may have been called Salome but John chooses not to name her.
The fourth woman is a well-known name - Mary Magdalene. She is such an important figure in the Gospels that she will feature in later Day Shares. For today, we want to notice that her name appears in all four Gospels as being present at the crucifixion, the burial and the resurrection. So she is a key witness to these important events.
Much of the content of today's Day Share is influenced by my reading of Richard Bauckham, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses. He has a very interesting section entitled 'The Women at the Cross and the Tomb.' He conducts a thorough analysis of the accounts in the four Gospels. He emphasises that women were key witnesses of these events and points out that there were others who are not mentioned. Many critics have commented on the fact that the list of those who were witnesses differs from one Gospel to another. Bauckham argues that the Gospel writers have deliberately chosen from the list of those present and named the women who were known to them and also were known to others to verify this important sequence of events- the birth, the burial and the resurrection of Jesus. But Mary Magdalene is present at all three so she is a key eyewitness. [Bauckham, Richard. Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.. Kindle Edition.]
Richard Bauckham makes a very interesting suggestion that the names specifically mentioned in John's Gospel are named eyewitness alive when John was writing his gospel account. They were known individuals in the early church. So there is a hint that women played a prominent role in the first century church. However, this declined as men asserted their right to rule.
The role which women have been given in church history is not based on a true assessment of the Biblical records. The church has played down the fact that women such as these had a very significant role in the ministry of the Lord Jesus. Mary Magdalene was the one entrusted with telling the news of the most significant in the history of the world- the resurrection of Jesus. I could say much more on this subject.
In John's account of the crucifixion, there were four women present at the cross. This fits in with a trend already noted - women play a prominent role in the life of Jesus. More than that, Jesus the Son of God treats women with dignity and respect and this is in sharp conflict with the culture of Jewish society. [See Day Share entitled Jesus and the Samaritan woman 20/10/2020.] You might also want to see my rambling thoughts on the subject of Bible Women in the Old Testament in the website archives. Click the following link
Is it definitely four women or in fact three, with 'his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas' being the same/2nd woman? John names and identifies 'his mother's sister' as 'Mary the wife of Clopas', just as he names all his witnesses throughout his gospel. He would not just have mentioned 'his mother's sister' as a reliable eye-witness and not named her, because she was one who has given reliable testimony to events, and thus would have been named.
we performed this piece in 1996 when I was a member of Cunningham Choir . It’s very close to my heart . It portrays the picture of Mary watching her son dying on the cross.
Janie