The Women at the Tomb: “The Myrrhbearers”

  The Women at the Tomb:

“The Myrrhbearers”

 
When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go and anoint him.  Very early when the sun had risen, on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb. - Mark 16:1-2 (NABRE)

 
Introduction: Why did they go to the tomb?

Although Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea had prepared the body of Jesus for burial with the customary embalming spices. His body had not been properly anointed due to the haste in which he was entombed, due to the beginning of the Sabbath.  

The traditional anointing spices and oil that the women would have brought to the tomb were usually poured over a dead body to counteract the effects of decay and to serve as an expression of the loving devotion of family and friends.  

Although the Lord’s disciples will be the foundation of the Apostolic Faith, the women who were the myrrhbearers, will offer the devotion and witness that bridges the Church of the Jews and the Church Catholic and Apostolic.

Who were the Myrrhbearers? 

The Gospel of Mark is most clear about who were the women who went to the tomb, intending to anoint the body of Jesus.  Mark writes, there was Mary Magdalene whom Jesus had freed from evil.  Then he sites that Mary the mother of James was present.  This is most likely a reference to Mary the wife of Clopas.  Lastly Salome, the mother of James the Apostle and John the Apostle and Evangelist (the Theologian), also known as the sons of Zebedee (sons of thunder).  

The Gospel of Matthew mentions that, “Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to the tomb” (Matthew 28:1).  The Mary mentioned by Matthew is most likely, Mary the wife of Clopas, who is mentioned in Matthew 19:25. The Gospel of Luke adds yet another woman, Joanna; “The women were Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James; the others who accompanied them also told this to the apostles” (Luke 24:10).  Joanna was the wife of Chuza, whom Jesus has healed in Luke 8:2.  In the Gospel of John, only Mary Magdalene is mentioned; “On the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark, and saw the stone removed from the tomb” (John 20:1).  

Possibly what reconciles the fact that the Gospels make reference to various women can be found in the words of Luke that, “the others who accompanied them…” (Luke 24:10).  Also, there is a common thread pointing to Mary Magdalene as a key witness to the empty tomb and subsequently the resurrection of the Lord. 

The Fusion of the Virgin Mary and Mary Magdalene in Syriac Thought

Tatian of Adiabene (120-173AD), created the famous and unique Diatessaron.  In this work he merged the Four Gospels into one Gospel.  Why? Tatian was thought to be somewhat of a rigorist, who had complained about what he felt was the laxity of Christians in the Roman world that he lived in for a time.  So in returning to the Syriac world he merged the written Gospels into s single written Gospel, to communicate what he felt was necessary for living and believing as a faithful Christian.  

By the fifth century, there were concerted efforts in Syria by some church leaders to eliminate the Diatessaron, although the belief that Mary the mother of Jesus went to the empty tomb and saw the risen Lord had already spread among Syrian Christians. The first orthodox Father to express such belief is Ephrem the Syrian in his Commentary on the Diatessaron (c. 363-373). Ephrem promotes, via his use of the Diatessaron, a fusion of Mary Magdalene with Mary the mother of Jesus so that Jesus’s mother is the one who sees the risen Jesus and expresses a gesture of affection for him, eliciting Jesus’s response, “Do not hold on to me (5.1-5; cf. John 20:17). - John Fotopoulos is an Associate Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity in the Department of Religious Studies at Saint Mary’s College, Notre Dame, Indiana. 

 
The Diatessaron was from the second until the end of the fourth centuries, a standard for Christians in the Syriac speaking world.  By the fifth century the leaders of the Syriac Christian communities began to replace the Diatessaron with the Four Gospels. However, the fusion of the Virgin Mary and Mary of Magdala at the tomb had become unquestionable truth.  

Saint Romanos the Melodist (490-556AD) who was a deacon of the Church in Beirut, before moving to Constantinople, where he created the kontakion, the fundamental form of Byzantine chant.  He too was influenced by the Syriac use of the Diatessaron.  In his Hymn 35, the Holy Mother of God expresses her agony to her son and Lord.  Jesus responds by telling her, “Take courage, Mother, for you will be the first to see me out of the tomb”(35.12[SC 128:176]).  

Sophronius the Patriarch of Jerusalem from 634 until 638AD, also was in the line of Syriac Fathers who fused the roles of Mary the mother of Jesus and Mary Magdalene.  In one of his hymns on the resurrection, he stated that Mary saw the light of Christ shinning from his tomb, and she alone was greeted by the resurrected Lord with the word, Rejoice!  

The importance of the Virgin Mary as the person who emerges in the fusion of Mary the mother of Jesus and Mary Magdalene, is visually represented in the iconography of the Rabbula Gospels (586AD).  The Rabbula Gospels, much like the career of Saint Romanos the Melodist, represents the exchange between Syriac culture and Greek culture and the languages of Syriac and Greek; forming a unique culture that existed in the Christian Near East, during the era of the Fathers of the Church.  In the Rabbula Gospels, the Virgin Mary is identifiable at the crucifixion and the empty tomb by being the only woman with a nimbus, that being a bright halo.   

The Significance of the Virgin Mary as chief witness to the Resurrection

The Virgin Mary had come to represent The Church in many Patristic theologies.  In representing the universal Church or being an icon of the Church; the Virgin Mary alone knows, loves, and has faith in the Lord Jesus. In this bond between them, Jesus Christ, loves the Church represented by the Pure Virgin Mother, and reveals to the Church first, his victory over death; the foundation stone of the Apostolic Church.

 
- Rev. David A. Fisher