Mary of Clopas


Mary of Clopas, was one of the women present at the crucifixion of Jesus and bringing supplies for his funeral. The expression Mary of Clopas in the Greek text is ambiguous as to whether Mary was the daughter or wife of Clopas, but exegesis has commonly favoured the reading "wife of Clopas". Hegesippus identified Clopas as a brother of Saint Joseph. In the Roman Martyrology she is remembered with Saint Salome on April 24.

Appearances in the gospels

Mary of Clopas is explicitly mentioned only in, where she is among the women present at the crucifixion of Jesus:
The Gospels of Mark and Matthew each include similar passages that are nearly identical to one another:
This has led some scholars to identify Mary of Clopas with "Mary the mother of James and Joseph/Joses". The Gospels of Matthew and Mark mention James and Joseph/Joses among the four brothers of Jesus.
According to some interpretations, the same Mary was also among the women that on resurrection morning went to the tomb to anoint the body of Jesus with spices. calls her "the other Mary" to distinguish her from Mary Magdalene, while uses the name "Mary, the mother of James".

Apocryphal writings

In a manner very similar to the Gospel of John, the apocryphal Gospel of Philip also seems to list Mary of Clopas among Jesus' female entourage:
Adding to the confusion, the Gospel of Philip seems to refer to her as Jesus' mother's sister and Jesus' own sister.
The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew presents Mary of Cleophas as the daughter of Cleophas and Anna:

Identity of Clopas

The expression Mary of Clopas in the Greek text is ambiguous as to whether Mary was the daughter or wife of Clopas, but exegesis has commonly favoured the reading "wife of Clopas". Clopas appears in early Christian writings as a brother of Joseph, and as the father of Simeon, the second bishop of Jerusalem. Eusebius of Caesarea, referencing the works of Hegesippus, relates in his Church History, that after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, the Christians of Jerusalem:
This identification would make Mary of Clopas a sister-in-law of Mary, the mother of Jesus, possibly explaining the wording "His mother’s sister, Mary of Clopas" in.
Clopas was sometimes further identified with Cleopas and Alphaeus, father of James, one of the Twelve Apostles. In 1982, Stephen S. Smalley, Dean Emeritus of Chester Cathedral, deemed this identification "probable" In medieval tradition, Clopas was identified as this Mary's father and the second husband of Saint Anne and the father of "Mary of Clopas", allowing Mary to be identified as the half-sister of Mary, the mother of Jesus.

Mary of Clopas and the brothers of Jesus

, writing Against Helvidius in defense of perpetual virginity of the mother of Jesus, argued that the brothers of Jesus were children of Mary of Clopas, the sister of the mother of Jesus, making them first cousins of Jesus. Jerome also identified James, the brother of Jesus, with the Apostle James, son of Alphaeus and thus supposed that Mary of Clopas was married to Alphaeus.
This view finds support in a fragment found in a medieval manuscript, which lists four Maries mentioned in the gospels and bears the inscription "Papia" on the margin. The attribution of this fragment to Papias of Hierapolis however has been disputed in favour of a medieval author by Anglican bishops and theologians J.B. Lightfoot and Brooke Foss Westcott.
James Tabor deduced that "Mary the mother of James and Joses" is none other than Mary, the mother of Jesus herself. This interpretation would necessitate that Mary the mother of Jesus married a man named Clopas, after her marriage to Joseph. Tabor proposes that a brother of Joseph would have been obliged to wed his widowed wife in a Levirate marriage, despite this only being permissible if the first marriage had been childless.