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Mary Salome was the wife of Zebedee, and the mother
of the apostles James and John. She is
the mother in Matthew 20:20 who petitions Jesus to let her sons sit on his
right and left hand in the kingdom. She
is not the same as Salome who asked for the head of John the Baptist’s on a
platter. The name Salome derives from
the Hebrew word shalom and was a fairly common name in that time.
Mary Salome is one of the women present at the
crucifixion along with Mary Magdalen and Mary, the wife of Cleophas (Mark 15:40). She is omitted from mention in John’s account
of the crucifixion. In Mark 16:1 Mary
Salome appears with the women who go to the tomb after the Sabbath to anoint
Jesus with spices.
In Matthew 28:1 only two women are mentioned at the tomb: Mary
Magdalene and the “other Mary” which most scholars believe to be Mary of
Cleophas rather than Mary Salome. Salome
is included among the influential women who supported the Apostles from their
own means in Mark 15:41. She is
mentioned in several of the non-canonical sources where she appears to have
caused some serious disruption in the early church. The apocryphal Gospel of Thomas mentions
Salome and Mary Magdalen as disciples of Jesus.
Clement of Alexandria quotes a passage from the Secret Gospel of Mark that
says when Jesus came into Jericho, “The sister of the young man whom Jesus
loved was there with his mother and Salome, but Jesus would not receive them.”
The non-canonical Gospel of the Egyptians, written
in the early 2nd century, mentions a disciple of Jesus named Salome who asked
the Lord how long death would hold sway.
To which Jesus replied, “So long as women bring forth, for I come to end
the works of the female.” Salome
remarked, “Then I have done well in not bringing forth.” This was used to support a tenuous theory
that Mary Salome was unmarried, contradicting the prevailing opinion that
Salome was the wife of Zebedee and the mother of James and John.
In the non-canonical Protoevangelium of James, Salome
meets the midwife of Mary of Nazareth and makes the bold request to test her
virginity with her own finger to prove the miracle of the Virgin Birth. Her
hand withers as soon as the words are out her mouth, but is restored after
she touches the infant Jesus. Due to the
popularity of this absurd tale in the Middle Ages, Salome was depicted as
Mary’s midwife in art of that era.
