Matthew 27:56

‘Among whom was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.'

Among the women were Mary Madgdalene; Mary the mother of James and Joses; and the unnamed mother of the Apostles, James and John. (Compare Matthew 27:61; Matthew 28:1; Mark 15:40; Mark 16:1; Luke 8:2; John 19:25). Mary Magdalene (from Magdala, a town unknown to us) had been delivered from possession by evil spirits (Luke 8:2). There is, however, no genuine reliable evidence that she had ever been a loose woman as tradition would later affirm. She had possibly rather played with the occult, thus becoming devil-possessed. She appears to have been a prominent character, and may well have been younger than some of the others which would explain why she had such an active role in the post-resurrection events. We have no means of identifying James and Joses, unless they are the brothers of Jesus (Mark 6:3), but if the latter were the case we would then possibly also expect the mention of his other brothers which would be a clearer identification. On the other hand the idea may be that the fact that she was the mother of Jesus was dropped now that His coronation in Heaven was approaching. In the end, however, we must leave this Mary as unidentified (to us). The mother ‘of the sons of Zebedee' (James and John) was mentioned earlier (Matthew 20:20), and was probably called Salome (Mark 15:40). She may well have been Jesus' aunt (John 19:25). As Matthew rarely names people or unnecessarily draws attention to individuals the dropping of her name is not surprising.

These three may well have been seen as the female equivalent among the women disciples of the inner three, Peter, James and John. It is possible that the dropping of Salome's name may suggest either that Matthew was not well acquainted with her, or that she was simply known to the twelve as ‘the mother of the sons of Zebedee'. But the more likely reason for mentioning only the Marys and no others is that along with Joseph of Arimathea their names provide a parallel with Mary and Joseph in chapter 1. Thus in God's purposes the Gospel opens with Joseph and Mary caring for Jesus, and ends with Joseph and the Marys caring for Jesus. We have already seen that Matthew seems deliberately to connect the closing Chapter s with the opening Chapter s, and it is surely significant that of the women he only ever mentions Marys by name in these closing Chapter s.