Journal: Priscilla Papers
Volume: PP 35:1 (Winter 2021)
Article: Book Review "Rediscovering The Marys: Maria, Mariamne, Miriam" Edited By Mary Ann Beavis And Ally Kateusz (T&T Clark, 2020)
Author: Elizabeth Ann R. Willett

PP 35:1 (Winter 2021) p. 26

Book Review
Rediscovering The Marys: Maria, Mariamne, Miriam Edited By Mary Ann Beavis And Ally Kateusz (T&T Clark, 2020)

Elizabeth Ann R. Willett

Elizabeth “Libby” Willett serves as a Senior Translation Consultant for SIL International. She trains and consults for mother-tongue Bible translators in Latin America. She coordinated the Huichol Old Testament Project for The Seed Co., a Wycliffe Bible Translators affiliate. Earlier, she and her husband, Tom, facilitated translation in the Southeastern Tepehuan language of Mexico. Libby has an MA in linguistics from the University of North Dakota and a PhD in Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Arizona.

Rediscovering the Marys: Maria, Mariamne, Miriam, edited by Mary Ann Beavis and Ally Kateusz, consists of seventeen essays by different authors, divided into three sections: Revisiting Which Mary: Does Which Mary Matter?, Rediscovering the Marys in Mission and Leadership, and Recovering Receptions of the Marys in Literature, Art and Archaeology. The authors explore how the biblical Miriam, Mary the mother of Jesus, Mary of Bethany, and Mary Magdalene were portrayed in the early Christian era, also touching on Jewish and Muslim interpretations. While apocryphal gospels and other noncanonical writings, as well as artwork, interpreted them as venerable leaders of their faith communities, later versions diminished them when church leadership became patriarchal. While women’s authority was edited out of literature as well as religious art, archaeology has revealed earlier art that portrays women exercising liturgical functions in the early church.

Regarding which Mary, apocryphal gospels conflate the distinct Marys of the canonical gospels, especially Mary Magdalene and Mary of Bethany, but also somewhat the mother of Jesus. The emphasis on one Mary makes her into a unique figure that may reinforce a stereotype of a patriarchal male-only leadership interpretation of the Gospels. In the Gospel of Mary, Mary teaches the disciples, combining phrases from the canonical gospels in different ways with new theological meanings. The ascent of the soul to heaven, overcoming various hostile powers, is an important tradition in the Gospel of Mary. In the book of Acts, Mary is a bridge figure that shows continuity between God’s dealings with Israel and with the new Christian community. As Mary asked God for a sign and then quoted OT phrases in her Magnificat, so the apostles ask God for a sign and Peter quotes Psalms when they choose a replacement for Judas. As the Spirit came over her for pregnancy, so the Spirit will come over the disciples at Pentecost. Although the unspecified Mary in noncanonical texts including the Nag Hammadi codices1...