The Bible and Beyond Podcast Episode
Why Elizabeth Schrader Polczer doubts Mary and Lazarus had a sister
An Interview with Elizabeth Schrader Polczer
photo by Chad Rancourt
Elizabeth Schrader Polczer describes her discovery of the addition of Martha in the Gospel of John. Did she find enough evidence to lead to her conclusion that Mary and Lazarus had no sister named Martha? Or that Lazarus’ sister Mary might actually have been Mary Magdalene? Elizabeth speculates about all this, but she has found motives and other evidence that lend strong support for her theories.
A CORRECTION: At 13:17 in the podcast, Elizabeth meant to say ‘Boanerges,’ rather than ‘Bartimaeus.’
Elizabeth Schrader Polczer is involved in some intriguing PhD research in the Religion Department at Duke University, where she is studying Early Christianity. She is especially interested in the new Testament Gospels, the Nag Hammadi corpus, Mary Magdalene, textual criticism, and feminist theory. She welcomes email conversation about her work, which is posted here.
Oh did I love hearing from Elizabeth Schrader about her research! I find her thesis much more compelling than the diminishing of Martha – who is already diminished in the scenes with Jesus where she serves in Luke 10 and John 12.
When I was listening to this podcast, I was remembering another story that appeared in early manuscripts in Luke, but then disappeared in Luke and ended up in John – the story in John 8 of the woman taken in adultery. It makes me wonder if this story in John 8 of the unnamed adulterous woman might be tied up together with all these other switches between these two gospels and the unjust association of Mary Magdalene with adultery. I don’t know when John 8 was added to the gospel of John, but one would have to ask what purpose it served to add it and if it had anything to do with Schrader’s theory that 2nd century editors might have been trying to diminish Mary Magdalene’s authority- a theory that makes me sad to contemplate because I have always loved this gospel for its highlighting of Mary Magdalene in such a special way.
Again, thank you Shirley for giving us a chance to “sit at the table” with these scholars and their cutting edge research. It is all very compelling!
I am loving your podcasts, Shirley. I found this one particularly fascinating. I had hoped to find the information about where we could find the free copy of Elizabeth’s paper on this subject. I would love it if you could send that to me, or better yet, post it on this page for everyone.
Hi Margi,
I just saw this – sorry it took me a year to reply! Here is a link to read the Open Access version of my Harvard Theological Review article. https://dukespace.lib.duke.edu/dspace/handle/10161/18592 Enjoy!
-Elizabeth Schrader