rgprice wrote: ↑Fri Sep 24, 2021 3:21 am
If we put ideas about Markan priority aside for a moment and forget about trying to figure out the order in which things may or may not have been written, consider this proposition:
Some earliest narrative existed in which a "mother of Jesus" had no name. She was just the "mother of Jesus". But this "mother of Jesus" was actually denied to be his mother, indeed in the earliest narrative the only point of the mention of his family was for him to deny that he had a family. In addition, early narratives existed in which there was a female companion named Mary. Now this Mary was a sort of Gnostic wisdom figure, who became Mary Magdalene. In later narratives, Mary Magdalene was conflated with the "mother of Jesus", thus giving rise to the name of Mary as Jesus' mother.
Now, the details of all this I make no claim to having worked out, and it throws a wrench into my concept of Gospel origins, but it does seem to have something going for it.
Thoughts?
I know I'm coming at this question from a quite different perspective but fwiw, ......
To add to the comment above where I see a strong likelihood that Miriam, sister of Aaron and Moses was, the inspiration for the name of Jesus' mother. . . .
Mariam in early Jewish tradition was equated with the sister Wisdom of Proverbs.
An ancient argument for this equation is found in the rabbinic
midrash on Exodus, -- see 1:22-23 where as the sister she is equated with the sister-wisdom of Proverbs 7:4
There are other equations but the above appears to be the earliest I am aware of.
If we accept that the evangelists or their sources took an interest in gematria, then Miriam and Wisdom in the Hebrew are equated by a very unusual double gematria (both words equalling 37 and 73 by the two different methods of gematria).
So if Miriam/Mary is equated with Wisdom through early Jewish midrash and/or gematria we have before us a good reason for the appearance of at least two Marys in the gospels: one the mother of Jesus and the other the ("platonic") lover of Jesus.
That's speculative, of course, but I leave it here for what it's worth.
Now for a bit of ad hoc rationalization of the difficulties....
Mary as mother is not a good saint during Jesus' ministry, but I mentioned in the previous comment that we have Miriam also blotting her copybook.
Ditto for the Mary disciple of Jesus. If her reputation as a former sinner comes to mind we might also recall the two sisters in the midrash, and the false and true wisdom, one being converted to the other.
Okay, I said it was ad hoc.
So the two Marys could thus be "explained" by the two associations of wisdom in Jewish midrash: one with Wisdom and the other with Miriam (who was also equated with Wisdom -- thus having a double role which becomes two characters in the gospels.)
By the way, it doesn't hurt the Miriam-Mary connection to note that the same Midrash on Exodus extols Miriam as the prophetess who foretold that her mother, who was "re-virgined", would give birth to a son who would save Israel.
P.S. -- a bit more ad hoc....
The Gospel of Mark speaks of Jesus' mother in a scene before he brings her into another setting where she is named: Compare Exodus where Miriam is unnamed when we first meet her in Exodus where she tends to Moses but she is named quite some chapters later after crossing the Red Sea.
One can understand a Marcionite gospel not mentioning the Jewish-associated mother's name. One can also imagine a later redactor of Marcion's gospel sticking it to Marcion by adding lots of mentions of Mary by name in additional chapters.
As for the Gospel of John, the Mary association with Wisdom would not sit comfortably with the christology we find there where Jesus is the Logos and therefore Wisdom himself.