Who were Martha and Mary?
When they lived The first century, in the village of Bethany, near Jerusalem
In short
Martha and Mary were sisters of Lazarus, living at Bethany, and they received Jesus in their home. Luke 10 tells the argument about serving and listening; John 11 shows them facing their brother’s death, each reacting differently. One of the most explicit confessions of faith in John’s Gospel belongs to Martha.
- Written by
- Maria Luisa Navarro Schmitt
- Reviewed by
- Raphael Navarro Schmitt
- Published on
- Reading time
- 7 min read
Martha and Mary appear in three Gospel scenes, and all three take place indoors. It is little material, and even so the pair hardened into archetypes — the one who works and the one who prays — fixed in sermons, in paintings and in advice about the spiritual life.
The trouble is that the pairing does not survive a reading of all three scenes together. When their brother dies, it is Martha who runs out to the road, argues theology and makes the confession of the chapter. Mary stays at home and only leaves when she is called. If there were fixed types, that chapter would invert them.
The house at Bethany
Bethany lay a few kilometres from Jerusalem, and the sisters’ house works in the Gospels as a stopping point: it is where Jesus lodges when he is near the city. The third resident is Lazarus, brother to both of them.
Luke presents the house as Martha’s — she is the one who receives — which in a first-century narrative is information rather than decoration. John, telling the story of Lazarus’s illness, states the affection for all three and names Martha first.
3Therefore, his sisters sent to him, saying: “Lord, behold, he whom you love is sick.”
4Then, upon hearing this, Jesus said to them: “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by it.”
5Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister Mary, and Lazarus.
6Even so, after he heard that he was sick, he then still remained in the same place for two days.
Notice the order of the names and what comes immediately afterwards: the text affirms the affection and then reports that he stayed two more days where he was. The Gospel sets the two facts side by side without explaining the second by the first.
The argument in Luke 10
The scene is short and has three speeches. Mary sits at Jesus’s feet and listens — which was the posture of a student before a teacher, and not the usual posture of a woman in that setting. Martha, taken up with serving, interrupts and directs her complaint at Jesus rather than at her sister.
The answer is the most quoted and most misquoted part of the episode. Jesus says her name twice, points at her anxiety and her being troubled over many things, and says Mary has chosen well. At no point does he say that serving is wrong, and at no point does he tell Mary to get up and help.
It is worth setting this scene beside John 12, where there is another meal and Martha is serving again — with not a line of reproach in the text. What the Luke passage contrasts is not work against prayer: it is scattering against attention.
38Now it happened that, while they were traveling, he entered into a certain town. And a certain woman, named Martha, received him into her home.
39And she had a sister, named Mary, who, while sitting beside the Lord’s feet, was listening to his word.
40Now Martha was continually busying herself with serving. And she stood still and said: “Lord, is it not a concern to you that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore, speak to her, so that she may help me.”
41And the Lord responded by saying to her: “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled over many things.
42And yet only one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the best portion, and it shall not be taken away from her.”
Five verses containing the whole scene. Note that Martha’s complaint is not about too much work but about being left alone in it — and that the reply shifts the subject from the division of chores to her inner state.
The death of Lazarus
John 11 is the chapter that undoes the stereotypes. Lazarus falls ill, the sisters send word, and Jesus delays. By the time he arrives, their brother has been in the tomb four days.
Martha leaves the house and meets him on the road. What she says is both a complaint and a declaration: if he had been there her brother would not have died, but she knows that whatever he asks will be given. A theological conversation about resurrection follows, ending in a direct question.
Her reply is the most explicit confession of faith placed in anyone’s mouth in the Gospel of John — the role that in the other Gospels belongs to Peter. It is worth reading the two passages in sequence to see the parallel.
Mary only comes out later, when she is called. She says exactly the same opening sentence as her sister, but she falls at his feet and weeps. It is in front of that weeping that the text records the most human reaction attributed to Jesus anywhere in the Gospel, in what is the shortest verse of the Bible in several translations.
20Therefore, Martha, when she heard that Jesus was arriving, went out to meet him. But Mary was sitting at home.
21And then Martha said to Jesus: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.
22But even now, I know that whatever you will request from God, God will give to you.”
23Jesus said to her, “Your brother shall rise again.”
24Martha said to him, “I know that he shall rise again, at the resurrection on the last day.”
25Jesus said to her: “I am the Resurrection and the Life. Whoever believes in me, even though he has died, he shall live.
26And everyone who lives and believes in me shall not die for eternity. Do you believe this?”
27She said to him: “Certainly, Lord. I have believed that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God, who has come into this world.”
The whole conversation, from complaint to confession. Note that Martha receives no correction for her opening line, which is a reproach — and that the closing question is put to her, not about her.
32Therefore, when Mary had arrived to where Jesus was, seeing him, she fell down at his feet, and she said to him. “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
33And then, when Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had arrived with her weeping, he groaned in spirit and became troubled.
34And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.”
35And Jesus wept.
Mary says the same thing her sister said and receives a different answer: no discussion, but tears. The Gospel treats the two of them differently because they arrive differently.
The supper and the perfume
Their last scene is in John 12, six days before the Passover. There is a dinner at Bethany, Lazarus is at the table, Martha is serving, and Mary does something that interrupts the meal: she breaks with custom, anoints Jesus’s feet with a very costly ointment and wipes them with her own hair.
The text gives the approximate value of the spikenard through the mouth of the person who objects — close to a labourer’s wage for a year. It is an expensive, public and embarrassing gesture, and Jesus defends it by tying it to his own burial.
This is Mary of Bethany. She is not the unnamed woman of Luke 7, who anoints Jesus’s feet in a Pharisee’s house, and she is not Mary Magdalene. Three scenes and three distinct people in the texts, however thoroughly Western tradition merged them.
1Then six days before the Passover, Jesus went to Bethania, where Lazarus had died, whom Jesus raised up.
2And they made a dinner for him there. And Martha was ministering. And truly, Lazarus was one of those who were sitting at table with him.
3And then Mary took twelve ounces of pure spikenard ointment, very precious, and she anointed the feet of Jesus, and she wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the ointment.
Three verses gathering all three siblings: Lazarus at table, Martha serving, Mary pouring out the ointment. The closing detail — the whole house filled with the smell — is the kind of observation only someone present would record.
What the text does not say
Biblical figures gather layers of tradition that Scripture does not support. Telling the two apart does not diminish the story — it gives back what is actually written.
What is commonly said
Jesus rebuked Martha for working and taught that prayer is worth more than service.
What Scripture says
The reply in Luke 10 points at anxiety and being troubled over many things, and states that Mary chose well. It does not say that serving is wrong, and it does not tell Mary to help. In John 12 Martha serves again and the text carries no reproach. The contrast in the scene is between scattering and attention, not between work and prayer.
What is commonly said
Mary of Bethany is Mary Magdalene — or the sinful woman who anointed Jesus in Luke 7.
What Scripture says
The texts deal with three people. Mary of Bethany is the sister of Martha and Lazarus; Mary Magdalene is identified by her town of origin and appears in other scenes; the woman in Luke 7 is not named. No Gospel identifies any one of them with another.
Where it comes from: Merging the three into a single figure comes from a homily of Gregory the Great, delivered in 591, which became the standard reading in the West for many centuries. The Eastern churches never adopted the identification.
What is commonly said
Martha stands for the active life and Mary for the contemplative one, each with a fixed temperament.
What Scripture says
In John 11 it is Martha who leaves the house, argues and makes the confession of the chapter, while Mary stays seated indoors and then weeps at his feet. The division into types does not hold once the three scenes are read together.
What is commonly said
They were two poor, simple women hosting Jesus as best they could.
What Scripture says
Luke presents the house as Martha’s, which is already information about standing. And the ointment Mary pours out is described as very costly, with its value estimated inside the scene itself. None of that is a portrait of poverty.
Where this person appears
38Now it happened that, while they were traveling, he entered into a certain town. And a certain woman, named Martha, received him into her home.
39And she had a sister, named Mary, who, while sitting beside the Lord’s feet, was listening to his word.
40Now Martha was continually busying herself with serving. And she stood still and said: “Lord, is it not a concern to you that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore, speak to her, so that she may help me.”
41And the Lord responded by saying to her: “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled over many things.
42And yet only one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the best portion, and it shall not be taken away from her.”
The scene that turned into a proverb: the welcome, the complaint and the reply. Worth reading with attention to what Jesus actually names in Martha.
20Therefore, Martha, when she heard that Jesus was arriving, went out to meet him. But Mary was sitting at home.
21And then Martha said to Jesus: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.
22But even now, I know that whatever you will request from God, God will give to you.”
23Jesus said to her, “Your brother shall rise again.”
24Martha said to him, “I know that he shall rise again, at the resurrection on the last day.”
25Jesus said to her: “I am the Resurrection and the Life. Whoever believes in me, even though he has died, he shall live.
26And everyone who lives and believes in me shall not die for eternity. Do you believe this?”
27She said to him: “Certainly, Lord. I have believed that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God, who has come into this world.”
The conversation on the road, from complaint to confession. It is the high point of Martha’s presence in the Gospels.
32Therefore, when Mary had arrived to where Jesus was, seeing him, she fell down at his feet, and she said to him. “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
33And then, when Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had arrived with her weeping, he groaned in spirit and became troubled.
34And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.”
35And Jesus wept.
Mary’s arrival and the weeping — the most human reaction recorded of Jesus in John.
1Then six days before the Passover, Jesus went to Bethania, where Lazarus had died, whom Jesus raised up.
2And they made a dinner for him there. And Martha was ministering. And truly, Lazarus was one of those who were sitting at table with him.
3And then Mary took twelve ounces of pure spikenard ointment, very precious, and she anointed the feet of Jesus, and she wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the ointment.
The supper at Bethany, with Martha serving and Mary pouring the costly ointment over Jesus’s feet.