Jesus Had Many Women Followers--Who Knew?

At First there were The Twelve -- Plus Three!

Late Spring, AD 28

Or Was It Four?

When we think of Jesus on the move through Galilee, what comes to mind is the Master followed by the Twelve men he appointed to "be with him" -- the Twelve Apostles. But Luke's gospel highlights at least three more who were "with him" as he travelled -- and these were women!  (Luke 8:1-3). Being "with Jesus" immediately connotes discipleship, especially as Luke speaks of these three women in the same breath as he mentions The Twelve.

These three had been cured by Jesus of evil spirits and/or infirmities. First to be mentioned is Mary of Magdala, called the Magdalene. She was freed by Jesus from the clutches of seven evil spirits and became prominent in the story of Jesus. Her name is mentioned in each of the four Gospels, for a total of twelve mentions. In Christian imagination she is portrayed as a beautiful woman whom Jesus had saved from an immoral life. But although she had been delivered from a dreadful circumstance, there is nothing whatever in the sources to indicate any previous moral failing. She was apparently drawn close to Jesus just as John, the alleged youngest disciple, drew close to him.

Next to be mentioned is Joanna. She is married to Chuza, the "steward" of Herod Antipas--either custodian of Herod's properties or holder of a government position. This would have given Joanna stature in the community but not necessarily approval, for Herod was the local representative of Rome's domination over the Jewish people. "Chuza" is a Syrian name, neither a Jewish nor a Greek name. This gives a likelihood that Joanna is a Jewish bride of a non-Jewish husband, another factor that might estrange her from Jewish society.

Third to be mentioned is Susanna. The normal introduction of a woman into a story would bring her in by reference to her husband, or if young and unmarried, by reference to her father. The absence of this reference by Luke implies that Mary and Susanna are single women. Women held an inferior place in first-century society: the rabbis refused to teach them, while Jesus brought them into the fold of his teaching ministry alongside the men.

The presence of women--especially single women--as a typical feature of Jesus' band would have been seen as shameless, if not hinting at being illicitly sexual. Yet here they are, at the same status as the Twelve, except for the designation as apostles (emissaries). It would have been impossible to send them out two by two as emissaries, for even in pairs women would have been subject to the possibility of robbery or abuse.

There is a fourth woman hovering in the background of all these stories who gets mentioned only peripherally and never named: to wit, the wife of Simon Peter. We know of her because her mother -- Peter's mother-in-law -- is healed by Jesus. This happened while Jesus and some of his disciples were living at Peter's house, or perhaps the house belonging to his mother-in-law. (We can speculate to this, for Peter was living in Capernaum, even though he was raised in Bethsaida.) It is not hard to speculate that Peter's wife may have accompanied him while he was on the road with Jesus, and it's even more likely that she would accompany him when they travelled to Jerusalem for the Jewish holy days.

More than Four -- Many Women!

Luke gives us the names of three women, but these are just prominent exemplars of Jesus' followers, for many others were following Jesus, and these women were providing for Jesus and his disciples out of their own resources (Luke 8:3).

The Gospels of Matthew and Mark also tell us that many other women were following Jesus out of Galilee (Matthew 27:55, Mark 15:41). These Gospels along with the other two give names for some of the women who were present at the crucifixion and the tomb, which included:

Mary Magdalene, who was first at the tomb (John 20:1);

Mary the Mother of Apostle James the Less and his brother Joses. She may have also been the stepmother of Matthew Levi, who was another son of Alpheus along with James and Joses;

Salome, who is not otherwise identified in Mark's Gospel, but is probably the same as the mother of Apostles James and John, the Sons of Zebedee, as found in Matthew's Gospel;

Joanna, named as one of the other women who were trying to convince the apostles that amazing things had happened at the tomb (Luke 24:10).

None of these women were excluded from fellowship with Jesus merely because of their gender. The names of the "many" have been lost to antiquity, not because of their inferiority in Jesus' eyes but because of the customs of the age in which the Gospel writers produced their testaments. Yet all four Gospel writers bring the exceptional women to the forefront in recognition of their part in the ministry of Jesus --

O so long ago.