Question
Who was Mary of Bethany? (Martha and Lazarus' sister)
Analysis
Sitting at his feet was not a small thing
Luke 10:39 places her at the Lord's feet, which is the ordinary description of a disciple learning from a teacher, the same phrase used of Paul's training under Gamaliel (Acts 22:3). In a first-century setting the position, and the instruction that went with it, was not typically a woman's. Martha's complaint is that Mary is not helping; Jesus' reply is that she has chosen well and it will not be taken from her (Luke 10:42). The passage is frequently read as being about busyness versus rest, and that reading is available, but the plain terms of it are about a woman being received as a student.
The anointing, and why she is often confused with other women
Her anointing of Jesus is recorded in John 12:1-John 12:8. Similar scenes appear elsewhere, and how many separate events lie behind them is genuinely debated.
| View | Position | Held by |
|---|---|---|
| Two events | The Bethany anointing (Matthew 26:6; Mark 14:3; John 12:3) is one occasion, reported with differences of detail, head or feet, and the anointing by an unnamed sinful woman in Galilee (Luke 7:37) is a separate, earlier one | The most widely held reading |
| Three events | The differences between Matthew/Mark and John are read as marking two distinct Bethany occasions, with Luke's a third | A minority reading |
| One event | All the accounts describe a single occasion recorded with substantial variation | A minority reading |
Only in the merged reading does Mary of Bethany become the sinful woman of Luke 7:37, and that merger is where the confusion with Mary Magdalene starts. The three-women conflation is set out in our answer on Mary Magdalene. The relevant facts here are plain: Luke 7:37 names no one, it is set in Galilee rather than Bethany, and nothing in any Gospel calls Mary of Bethany a sinner, a prostitute, or a Magdalene.
What her name is attached to
The perfume was worth about three hundred denarii (John 12:5), which the same Gospel elsewhere treats as roughly a year's wages for a labourer (Matthew 20:2 gives a denarius as a day's pay). Judas' objection that it should have been sold for the poor is recorded, and so is John's note about his motive (John 12:6). Jesus' answer ties the act to his burial and says it will be remembered (Mark 14:8; Mark 14:9).
The Bethany household
Bethany sits about two miles from Jerusalem (John 11:18), and the family appears to have been where Jesus stayed when he came up to the city. John 11:5 states plainly that he loved Martha, her sister, and Lazarus. The raising of Lazarus (John 11:43; John 11:44) is the last and greatest of the signs in John's Gospel and the immediate trigger for the plot against Jesus (John 11:45; John 11:53).
Not the other Marys
The catalogue records several women named Mary. The ones readers most often confuse: Mary of Bethany, this woman; Mary Magdalene, freed of seven demons and the first witness of the resurrection; Mary the mother of Jesus; and Mary the wife of Clopas, at the cross (John 19:25).