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Scripture: John 11:1-45 The Raising of Lazarus
In 2010, a singer-song writer named Elizabeth or Libbie Schrader went to her favorite place to meditate and pray. Her spot is a cemetery in Brooklyn, dedicated to Mary, the mother of Jesus. At the time, Libbie was a lapsed Episcopalian Christian, but had been learning to pray the rosary from a Roman Catholic friend. The rosary is a prayer that honors Mary and asks her to carry a prayer to her son Jesus – because who can deny their mother? Now, as Libbie was praying for advice in the empty cemetery, she heard a voice say, “Maybe you should ask Magdalene about that.”
““It was so strange,” she recalled. “I don’t usually hear words in prayer. I usually get more feelings. And I was in the garden of the Virgin Mary,” not a garden dedicated to Mary Magdalene.
Like Mary the mother of Jesus, Schrader treasured these things in her heart as she returned home. She sat down at her piano and wrote a song in two days — much faster than her normal pace.
That song, titled “Magdalene,” started a new spiritual journey that changed the direction of Schrader’s life.” [1] But it didn’t stop there for her. “Honestly, it’s a mystery, but it’s like a prayer and a song lit something in me, unlocked a part of my brain that I knew nothing about,” she said in 2017.[2]
The public library’s copy of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Mary Magdalene didn’t answer all of Elizabeth’s questions. So she began to ring up people to ask more questions. General Theological Seminary said they didn’t know the answers, but Elizabeth could come study and seek them herself.
So she did. “When it came to writing her final paper for her master’s degree, [Libbie] asked Dierdre Good (the professor) if she could write it on John 11 and Mary Magdalene. And Deirdre said, “Absolutely.” And then [Dr. Good] said, “Do you know that these texts have lately become available digitized? And so if you want to study Mary Magdalene, I want you to look at the earliest possible New Testament texts and try to say something new about them.”
And so Libbie looked at Papyrus 66, which is the oldest and most complete text we have of the Gospel of John. It’s dated around the year 200… We’ve had it for a while, but you had to go to it in order to see it.”[3] It is in Geneva Switzerland. So to look at it, you used to have to be wealthy enough to fly and stay there, have enough status to get your turn to look at it, and go through training to see it and not damage it. And, naturally, most of Christian history has given women scholarly work low status. But this is how the internet and technology can be used for good – it can level the field. The text came to Elizabeth, she could study it in her public library on the computer, for free, for as long as she wanted, and you can do this too!
When Elizabeth looked at it she read, “Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and his sister Mary.” “And Libbie said, “What? That’s not what my English Bible says. My English Bible says, “Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister, Martha.” But the Greek text, the oldest Greek text in the world doesn’t say that… There are two Marys in this verse. And Libbie went, “What the heck? What is going on here?” And she started digging into the text, zooming in on it to try to see what she could see over the digitized version in the internet.”[4]
the i is erased and a th placed above the i place
She saw that “in the text where it had those two Marys, the village of Mary and his sister, Mary, and her sister, Mary, the text had actually been changed. In Greek, the word Mary, the name Mary, is basically spelled like Maria in English, M-A-R-I-A. And the I, the Greek letter I, is the letter Iota. And it looks basically like an English I. Libbie could see by doing this textual analysis that the Iota had been changed to the letter TH φ in Greek, Theta. That somebody at some point in time had gone in over the original handwriting and actually changed the second Mary to Martha. And not only had that person changed the second Mary to Martha, but that person had also changed the way it comes out in English. It says, “The village of Mary,” that would’ve stayed the same, “and her sister, Martha.”[5] Libbie read on and sure enough – every place Martha was written was a scrub mark, or a left over accent mark, showing that Maria was originally written. In places a scribe scribbled in the margins “the sisters” where it needed inserted to make the story of two sisters, and had added the English equivalent of an “s” to the proper verbs and nouns to make them plural.
On the right, the scribe squeezes in additional words to make it plural
“Libbie sat in the library with all of this, and it came thundering at her, the realization that sometime in the fourth century, someone had altered the oldest text of the Gospel of John and split the character Mary into two. Mary became Mary and Martha.” …Libbie wrote her master’s thesis on it. It was so interesting as a master’s thesis as she proved this textual manipulation that Harvard Divinity School found out about it. And they said, “Can we excerpt your master’s thesis and turn it into an article?” And so here’s this brand new master’s and New Testament student who gets her very first ever professional article published by the Harvard Theological Review.
From there, many scholars noticed her article — including the Nestle-Aland Translation Committee of the Greek New Testament, an organization that is located in Germany. These are the guardians of the Greek New Testament [who] have spent their entire lives making sure the Bibles that we have in English and all the other languages around the world are the closest and most precise Bibles that we can get to the original manuscripts. They asked Libbie to come to Germany to present her research to them. And over the course of a couple days, they listen to her and they look at all the evidence that she’s compiled. And at the end, they say, “Well, we might need to change something here.””[6] Your next Bible may have a footnote that says, “Other ancient manuscripts say: “Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary, his sister. Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. So she sent a message to Jesus, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” But when Jesus heard her, he said, “This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” Accordingly, though Jesus loved Lazarus and his sister, after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.”
Big whoop, huh? Actually, it is.
In the years since Elizabeth’s master’s thesis, she and others have found many manuscripts have this split. 1/3 of ancient Greek copies and 1/5 of ancient Latin copies tell the story about Mary alone. As recently as 1611 we had the story of Lazarus with Mary alone – the first copy of the King James Version of the Bible has one sister. There are two competing stories – one where Lazarus has two sisters, Mary and Martha. And another where Lazarus has one sister – Mary who anointed, Mary Magdalene.
So how did these two version of Lazarus come about? Perhaps from confusion. “Mary,” which is Maria in Greek, was a common name in the first century, and the Bible contains multiple Marys – Mary, mother of Jesus. Mary from Bethany, Mary the mother of James, Mary the mother of John Mark, Mary, the wife of Cleopas… and then Marium is another translation of Maria – so we have even more Marys!
In John 11, we read of “a certain man” who was ill who lived in “Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha,” Jesus was urged to visit his friend and heal Lazarus, but he delayed, and the man died. Nevertheless, when Jesus showed up, he raised Lazarus from the grave.
Luke 10 tells the story of Jesus entering “a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks.
We have a hint this not the same family when we read ‘Martha welcomed Jesus to her home.’ “Mary and Martha are sisters in a patriarchal society. If they had a brother, that line would say, ‘And Martha welcomed Jesus to her brother’s home,’ because Martha doesn’t own a house. It’s not Martha’s home unless it is Martha’s home. The only way its Martha’s home is if Martha has no husband, no father and no brother.” [7]
So someone innocently trying to harmonize, trying to make texts agree with one another, may have merged these stories. In 200 AD – there’s a different flavor of Christianity in every town. In this mess a scribe has two or more copies of John’s gospel and they are trying to make a new copy which we call Papyrus 66 today. One copy has Mary. Another copy has Mary and Martha. The scribe is trying to codify, combine, make this story one. And we see their errors and notes in the page.
Or maybe it was driven politically and not so innocent. Around this time we know there are two major flavors, denominations, of Christianity among all the hundreds of types. One holds Simon Peter as the core teacher of the church. Peter is the rock upon whom we build. The other holds Mary Magdalene as the centre of the church. Magdalene may not be her last name any more than Peter is Simon’s last name. Peter means rock. It is a nickname. Magdalene means tower. There’s plenty of evidence Schrader and others have found showing Magdalene is a nickname. So the other denomination stood around the Tower known as Mary. Ancient theologians and bishops left behind writings about how these two groups were feuding.
If you’re not into geeking over Greek, why does this ancient conflict matter?
It matters because the greatest Christological confession – the most important statement from someone other than Jesus on who Jesus is – in John happens in this story. It happens when a woman states, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.” This is either Martha – who may not be the same Martha as who served, for there was no mention of a brother then – or it is Mary who anointed Jesus – Mary Magdalene.
It matters if it was Mary Magdalene because it was Mary who anointed Jesus. Mary who stays at the cross until death. Mary who comes to the garden. Mary who is first to see the risen Lord. Did she, too, also give the largest confession in John?
That puts a lot of power in a woman that at one time a Pope called a prostitute, demeaned her, and that reputation still sticks around today.
It matters because it is a testimony that Christianity has never been homogenous. There’s never been one flavor. Our oldest texts show this. Our current reality shows this. Different churches teach and believe different things. Here in our own pews we have different ideas. I sure hope you disagree with me sometimes because I know I look at old sermons of mine and argue with me!
It matters because if Mary speaks these words, then we have a mirror image of her speaking to Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane. Jesus asks Mary here – where did you place him? Easter Sunday, Mary will seek Jesus’ body and ask Jesus (thinking he is the gardener) where did you place him? Jesus cries here. Mary cries on Easter morning. Here, Mary is reunited to her brother. Easter, Jesus tells her he will reunite with his brothers in Emmaus. Both dead men are in gardens. Both in tombs. Both have stones rolled away. Both are resurrected.
Maybe Mary was, as old theologians called her, the Apostle of Apostles. We are certain Christianity was spread in many places through women in the early years and that women were preachers and leaders and teachers. Maybe she is the Mary in this story. Maybe not.
Like Lazarus coming up from the grave, old stories rise with new life. All statistics will tell you that the church is dead- rotten – stinking! People flee in droves away. But the sister has faith that even after the tomb is sealed, the church doors locked, God can and will do marvelous things and bring forth new life.
God is still speaking. Still creating. Still doing. Still changing the church and having it appear where-ever two or three are gathered in Christ’s name.
I really think we are in the final generation or two of church as we know it. I also really think we are nowhere near the end of the story of Christianity. “But even now,” God is bringing new life. But even now new dreams and visions set upon us. Sometimes as a voice when we are praying. Sometimes through the wonders of the internet. Your future versions of the NRSV will likely have a footnote that says, “Other ancient manuscripts say Mary instead of Martha.” Now you’ll know what that means.
You’ll know the importance that God truly works in mysterious, miraculous ways, and isn’t in the habit of letting the death of our loved ones, the death of our church institution, or the death of old ideas stay in graves. There is resurrection. There is new life. There is a continuation of the story. There is spring. There is more.
Amen!
For more information!
Elizabeth Schrader’s thesis (free to read) https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/harvard-theological-review/article/was-martha-of-bethany-added-to-the-fourth-gospel-in-the-second-century/6CBD2C9576A583DD02987FE836C427B7#article
On Youtube, the series by Future Church called “Women Erased” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_b3Y3cJ0Ic8
Papyrus 66 (and more!) digitalized and accessible to you for free. https://archive.org/details/Papyrus66P66CodexOfJohn
[1] Mark Wingfield, There’s Something Odd About This Mary Did You know. Aug 3, 2022, Baptist News https://baptistnews.com/article/theres-something-odd-about-this-mary-did-you-know/ )
[2]Bruce Alpert and Cindy Loose How a singer-songwriter from Portland became a Mary Magdalene scholar Updated: Aug. 06, 2017, 10:00 a.m. Published: Aug. 06, 2017, 9:00 a.m. https://www.oregonlive.com/music/2017/08/libbie_schrader_singer_songwriter_theologian.html
[3] Diana Butler Bass. Mary the Tower. Jul 22, 2022 https://dianabutlerbass.substack.com/p/mary-the-tower
[4] Diana Butler Bass. Mary the Tower. Jul 22, 2022 https://dianabutlerbass.substack.com/p/mary-the-tower
[5] Diana Butler Bass. Mary the Tower. Jul 22, 2022 https://dianabutlerbass.substack.com/p/mary-the-tower
[6] Diana Butler Bass. Mary the Tower. Jul 22, 2022 https://dianabutlerbass.substack.com/p/mary-the-tower
[7] Diana Butler Bass. Mary the Tower. Jul 22, 2022 https://dianabutlerbass.substack.com/p/mary-the-tower
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