Recent scholarship by Elizabeth Schrader, in an article titled, “Was Martha of Bethany Added to the Fourth Gospel in the Second Century?” indicates that the original version of this story has only Mary in the scene. This Mary, Schrader argues, is Mary Magdelene. The scene is a foreshadowing of when Mary discovers Jesus’ empty tomb in John 20.
I thought this argument was compelling enough to illustrate it this way.
I need to give a shout out to Diana Butler-Bass. She is the one who first turned me on to Schrader’s work.
The Gospel According to John is unique among the four Gospels. It paints a portrait of Jesus that allows us to see Jesus as the Word of God that became human to show us what it looks like to live in full fellowship with God and experience the abundant life.
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Keep up the great work of teaching for all!
I’m a Lutheran from Australia who is also doing Tripp Fuller’s and Diana Butler-Bass’s recent course, “Jesus De-constructed’. I’m enjoying it and I love looking at your artwork. I also heard about Elizabeth Schrader’s work through Diana Butler-Bass. It is all very interesting. It goes to show that too much certainty about what we think we know is a problem.