Matthew 27:56

Matthew 27:56. Among whom, the ministering women, who stood there.

Mary Magdalene. Mentioned first here and in Luke 8:2 (among those who ministered to Him). Comp. chap. Matthew 28:2; John 20:1; John 20:11-18. There is no evidence that she was the sinful woman who anointed our Lord's feet in the house of Simon the Pharisee (Luke 7:37). Many confuse her with another Mary, the sister of Lazarus (who anointed our Lord in Bethany, chap. Matthew 26:6-13, etc.).

Mary the mother of James and Joses. Mark: ‘Mary the mother of James the less and Joses.' Comp, on chap. Matthew 13:58. She was the wife of Clopas or Alpheus (John 19:25), but in our view not the sister-in-law of Mary or of Joseph, who is supposed to have adopted her children.

The mother of the sons of Zebedee, i.e., ‘Salome' (Mark); comp. chap. Matthew 20:20. As John (John 19:25) mentions a group of women near the cross (at an earlier point of time, however), two of whom are mentioned here (Mary Magdalene and Mary the wife of Clopas), we identify the person spoken of by him as ‘His (i.e., Jesus) mother's sister,' with Salome, not with the Mary last named. The mother of Jesus, so touchingly mentioned by the beloved disciple, had probably been led away by him before the time of which Matthew speaks. When the mother of our Lord withdrew, the others remained ‘beholding afar off.' These pious women, who, with the courage of heroes, witnessed the dying moments of their Lord and Master, and sat over against the lonely sepulchre (Matthew 26:61), are the shining examples of female constancy and devotion to Christ which we now can witness every day in all the churches, and which will never cease. On the events which immediately succeeded before the request of Joseph (the piercing of His side, in consequence of the scruples of the Jews, which required burial that evening), see John 19:31-37.