 | ||
Similar Salome, Cleopas, Joseph of Arimathea, Mary Magdalene, Mary of Bethany | ||
Mary of Clopas (or of Cleopas) (Ancient Greek: Μαρία ἡ τοῦ Κλωπᾶ, María hē tou Clōpá), the wife of Clopas, was one of various Marys named in the New Testament.
Contents
Mary of Clopas is explicitly mentioned only in John 19:25, where she is among the women present at the Crucifixion of Jesus:
Now there stood by the cross of Jesus His mother, and His mother’s sister, Mary [the wife] of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.
The expression Mary of Clopas in the Greek text is ambiguous as to whether Mary was the daughter or wife of Clopas, but exegesis has commonly favoured the reading "wife of Clopas" (as reflected in above translation). Hegesippus thought that Clopas was the brother of Saint Joseph.
Gospel parallels
According to some interpretations, the same Mary was also among the women that on Easter morning went to the tomb to anoint Jesus' body with spices. Matthew 28:1 calls her "the other Mary" to distinguish her from Mary Magdalene, while Mark 16:1 uses the name "Mary of James", most probably derived from James the Less. The Latin version of that name, Maria Iacobi, is often used in tradition. Stephen S. Smalley (1982) says that it is "probable" (but not virtually certain) that Mary of Clopas is Mary the mother of James son of Alphaeus.
For detailed explanations, please see: Brothers of Jesus and James the brother of Jesus.
Gospel of Philip
In a manner very similar to the Gospel of John, the apocryphal Gospel of Philip also seems to list Mary of Clopas among Jesus' female entourage:
There were three who always walked with the Lord: Mary, his mother, and her sister, and Magdalene, the one who was called his companion. His sister and his mother and his companion were each a Mary.
Adding to the confusion, the Gospel of Philip seems to refer to her as Jesus' mother's sister ("her sister") and Jesus' own sister ("his sister").
Traditions
An early tradition within the Roman Catholic Church identify Mary of Clopas being the sister (or sister-in-law) of Mary the Mother of Jesus. Eusebius of Caesarea citing Hegesippus records that "Cleopas was a brother of Joseph", which makes Mary of Clopas a sister-in-law of Mary, the mother of Jesus.
Jerome identifies Mary of Cleopas as the sister of Mary, mother of Jesus and as the mother of those who were called the brothers and sisters of Jesus.
According to the surviving fragments of the work Exposition of the Sayings of the Lord of the Apostolic Father Papias of Hierapolis, who lived circa 70-163 AD, Mary of Clopas would be the mother of James the Just, Simon, Judas (identified as Jude the Apostle), and Joseph (Joses). Papias identifies this "Mary" as the sister of Mary, mother of Jesus, and thus as the maternal aunt of Jesus. The Anglican theologian J.B. Lightfoot dismissed Papias' evidence as spurious.
In the Roman Martyrology she is remembered with Saint Salome on April 24. Some have regarded Mary as the daughter of Clopas, who was in turn one of the husbands of Saint Anne.
Modernist historiography
James Tabor suggests that she is, in fact, Mary, the mother of Jesus and that Clopas was her second husband.