© 2000 Jean Royer
© 200 French-speaking Association of Readers of the Urantia Book
Marie: this is the English “Mary” but it is also the Hebrew Miriam, or Miryam or Myriam. This first name is widespread and can pose identification problems. The Urantia Book clearly distinguishes Miriam, the sister of Jesus, from Mary his mother, (which would not have been the case in Hebrew or Aramaic, unless we assume a hypocoristic always possible).
The Gospel sources about the Marys attending the crucifixion are unclear, and it seems that this ambiguity continues in The Urantia Book. Indeed, we read in John 19:25: “Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.” (Darby translation).
Furthermore, Eusebius of Caesarea (260-340) writes about Clopas: the husband of Mary, sister of the Virgin Mary.
Christian tradition therefore clearly sees a Mary who would be the sister of Mary, mother of Jesus.
What about The Urantia Book?
In UB 187:3.2 we can read: “Among the people who stood near the cross at one time or another during the crucifixion, there were Mary, Ruth, Jude, John, Salome (the mother of John) and a group of sincere and convinced believers including Mary (wife of Clopas and sister of the mother of Jesus), Mary Magdalene and Rebecca, …_”
Can we justify two sisters having the same first name?
Apparently, we could remove this incongruity by adding a comma after comprising Mary, (and adding the before wife of Clopas, which would be entirely in agreement with English), and we would then have: …comprising Mary, (1) the wife of Clopas and sister of the mother of Jesus (2).
We should deduce that this woman of Clopas is called Salomé, (see below) but would then remain unknown, who is this Marie?
A second solution would consist of adding an article in front of sour of Jesus, we would then have: … including Mary, wife of Clopas (1) and the (or a) sister of the mother of Jesus (2), this sister could be Martha or Salome. But then, we come up against UB 188:1.7 which tells us: “Here are the names of the women who lingered thus near the tomb this Friday evening: Mary Magdalene, Mary, the wife of Clopas, Martha (another sister of the mother of Jesus) and Rebecca…”
This sentence also seems to imply that Marie, wife of Clopas, is one of Marie’s sisters, Marthe being another.
However, we know that Mary, mother of Jesus, had only two sisters, one of whom was Salome cf. UB 122:3.3, if the other was called Martha, how can Mary, wife of Clopas, be the sister of Mary, mother of Jesus? Mystery. (to be continued)
Jean Royer