Mary Magdalene Rocked My World
This idea failed to convince me last year, and it fails again. It is somewhat ironic that in the Orthodox Church, Mary Magdalene’s official designation is “Mary Magdalene, Equal to the Apostles” (Isapostolos in Greek). I say ironic, because the official line against female clergy is that all the apostles were males. Well then, why does the Church call her “Equal to the Apostles” but continue to deny any kind of church leadership to women? Inexcusable, in my opinion.
But I fail to be convinced by Elizabeth Schrader. I have access to Papyrus 66 in digital form on my computer. In its surviving form, it does say ‘Martha” in the beginning of Chapter 11 of John, but there is a note that a corrector has made the change that Dr. Schrader and Diana point out: μαριας (marias) was changed to μαρθας (marthas) by erasing ι and adding θ superlinearly (c1) [Comfort, P. W., & Barrett, D. P. (2001). The text of the earliest New Testament Greek manuscripts. Tyndale House.]
The original scribe of Papyrus seems to have made a mistake and written maria twice. The scholar in the above Tyndale volume distinguishes between two correctors of the scribe. The first corrector is the one who changed maria to martha. There are no corrections to the same effect in the remainder of the papyrus text. So I don't see how one can just bring Mary Magdalene into the narratives and make her a sister of Lazarus. I'm not a scholar like Dr. Schrader, but I just don't see it.
The rest of chapter 11 in Papyrus 66 reads pretty much the way we’re used to - two sisters, not one. Furthermore, if Maria was changed to Martha, does that mean that Lazarus had two sisters, both named Maria (or Mariam, as in verse 19)? Because clearly, despite what Dr. Schrader reconstructs, there is no indication that one sister was turned into two. Throughout chapter 11, there are two sisters; as also at the beginning of chapter 12, where the activities of Mary and Martha are clearly differentiated.
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