The Invention of Jesus: How the Church Rewrote the New Testament by Peter Cresswell

Author:Peter Cresswell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: The Invention of Jesus: How the Church Rewrote the New Testament
Publisher: Watkins Publishing Limited
Published: 2013-05-14T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 10

Women at the cross

In the previous two chapters, we looked at the evidence in the New Testament for the titles that were applied to Jesus and their meaning. With a progression established for the creation of the gospels and also for key sources, it has been possible to see how changes were made to make the text fit with developing Church doctrine.

In passing, it has also been noted that quoted speech is often notoriously unreliable. This is the case even for words written down shortly after an event, and it is more so for recollections written down years afterwards. However, some things are likely to have been better or more accurately remembered. These may include the actual framework of events, the names of important personages, structured lists and words spoken at key moments.

There are a number of crucial lists in the gospels – of the disciples, the brothers and sisters of Jesus and the women at the crucifixion who stood by the cross. These latter would have been significant persons in Jesus’ life, either accurately remembered or at the very least those people the story writer believed should have been there.

It is curious, as many have noted, that the account of the women at the cross in the gospel of John appears to be at odds with those in Mark and Matthew. The objective in this chapter will be to explore this difference, in the first place purely as an analytic exercise in respect of the received text. This in itself brings some surprising conclusions: that the difference between John and the synoptics is only apparent and that some of the relationships between characters are not as traditionally perceived. Following this, we will see what further insights can be gained through looking at the sources and changes made to the text.

All the gospels describe a number of women who went with Jesus and his band of followers to Jerusalem. Luke does not name the women who ‘stood at a distance’ at the place of crucifixion. In Mark’s gospel, the scene is described as follows:

There were also women looking on from afar, among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the ( ) of James the younger (less) and Joses, and Salome who, when he was in Galilee, followed him, and ministered to him.

Mark 15, 40

The author of Matthew worked from this earlier gospel, quoting many passages with closely similar or identical wording. Here, he follows Mark up to the point of a third woman listed as present, whom he describes differently:

There were also many women there, looking on from afar, who had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to him; among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.

Matthew 27, 55–56

The two Marys were, as would be expected from their place in the story, significant women in the life of Jesus: the first his wife/partner (see following, pp 193–194) and the second his mother (and so also mother of James, the brother of Jesus).

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