Matthew 27:56

Ἰωσὴφ for Ἰωσῆ: the first is supported by א*DL, Versions and Origen, and the second by ABC, many other uncials and Fathers.

56. St Mark (Mark 15:40) specifies the group as ‘Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the less (rather, the little) and of Joses, and Salome.’

Μαρία ἡ Μαγδαληνή. Mentioned here for the first time by St Matthew. She was probably named from Magdala (Mejdel) on the Lake of Gennesaret; see map. She had been a victim of demoniacal possession, but was cured by Jesus (Luke 8:2), and then joined the company of faithful women who followed Him with the Twelve. Mary Magdalene is named by St John as standing by the cross of Jesus, together with ‘his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas’ (Matthew 19:25). With these she watched the entombment of the Lord, and, after the Sabbath rest, early in the morning she was present at the sepulchre with sweet spices to anoint Him.

The great Italian painters have identified Mary Magdalene either with the ‘woman that was a sinner’ who anointed Jesus in the house of Simon the Pharisee (Luke 7:36-50), or with Mary the sister of Lazarus. But neither identification can be sustained on critical grounds.

Μαρία κ.τ.λ. Perhaps the same Mary who was the wife of Cleophas, Clopas, or Alphæus (different forms of one name), mentioned John 19:25. If so, according to one interpretation of the passage in John, the sister of the Blessed Virgin.

ἡ μήτηρ κ.τ.λ. Salome. See ch. Matthew 20:20.

The record of the names of these women and the special note of their presence seems intended to be an express testimony to their high courage and devotion, which kept them on the scene of danger when the disciples had fled. The deed of them contrasts with the words of Peter and of all the Apostles (ch. Matthew 26:35).