The Bethany Family

April 23, 2014

Several things about Jesus relationship to the Bethany family--Martha, Mary and Lazarus--puzzle me.  Our Gospels seem to leave out more than they put in.  For example, Jesus seems to be very close to all the members of this family, but nothing is said about how he came to be close to them.  The first three Gospels only tell of one trip to Jerusalem and that was the last week of his ministry.  If he had not been there before, how did he know them?  John's Gospel does describe more than one trip to Jerusalem, but there is no mention of Martha, Mary and Lazarus or Bethany until Jesus learns of the death of Lazarus.  How did he develop his deep love for the family?  When the Bible is silent there is a temptation to fill in the empty spots using our imaginations.  Were there family connections?  Was Jesus possibly related to Martha, Mary and Lazarus?  The Gospels say that Joseph and Mary took the family to Jerusalem every year for Passover.  Depending on the route they took, they probably passed through Bethany each time they made the trip.  Did they stay in Bethany on these trips as Jesus and his disciples did later?  It is quite possible they did, especially if there was some prior association with the Bethany family.  We may never know.  In fact, there may well be more we cannot ever know about this family than we can know, but there are some facets of this relationship with Bethany we can explore and they are fascinating.

What Do We Know About Bethany Itself?

Bethany today goes by a different name.  It is called al-Azariyeh, Arabic for "The Place of Lazarus."  The present town grew up around the traditional tomb of Lazarus, which is in a cave in the village. The site of the ancient village may not precisely coincide with the present one, but there is every reason to believe that it was in this general location.  It would be natural to think that Bethany would be found on the north side of Jerusalem since travellers came to it before they got to Jerusalem when they journeyed from Nazareth in Galilee.  Bethany, however, is south of Jerusalem and on the southeastern slope of the Mount of Olives-the side that faces out toward the Jordan River and Jericho.   Pilgrims from Galilee often chose to avoid Samaria through which the main road to Jerusalem went.  They preferred to walk the longer route down the eastern side of the Jordan River.  This route took them through the district known as the Decapolis--the district of ten cities which were largely Gentile--to Jericho.  From Jericho they then had a very difficult seventeen mile walk up-hill all the way along the famous Jericho Road to Jerusalem.  It was this road coming from the east that passed through the villages of Bethany and Bethphage, and travellers would, perhaps, stop in these villages before entering the city.
The Gospels say that Bethany was about two miles from the temple, so it would have involved a thirty minute walk to get to the temple area from there.  Bethany was a small village, but it seems to have played a special role in the Greater Jerusalem region.  According to one of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Temple Scroll, three places for the care of the sick, including one for lepers, were to be located to the east of Jerusalem.   Bethany apparently was one of these places.  The passage in the Temple Scroll defines a minimum radius of three thousand cubits (about 1,800 yards) around the city within which there was to be nothing unclean (XLVI:13-18). Since Bethany was, according to John's Gospel, twice the minimum distance from Jerusalem required, care for the sick there corresponded with the requirements of the Temple.   Whereas Bethphage is located on the peak of the Mount of Olives with a magnificent view of Jerusalem, Bethany lay below the crest of the mountain to the southeast, out of view of the Temple Mount, which would have made its location suitable as a place to care for the sick "out of view" of the Temple.  The Gospels tell us that Jesus had dinner with Simon the Leper in Bethany which may well indicate that other lepers or otherwise unclean individuals like Simon had been relocated to Bethany from Jerusalem.  The dinner with Simon the Leper also tells us a lot about Jesus who not only reached out once to touch and heal a leper, but sat at table with a leper in Bethany. Jesus preached a powerful sermon on love that evening to all who knew where he dined.
There is yet more to the story of Bethany, however, if one scholar is right.  Brian Capper, a British New Testament scholar, has written extensively about social structures in ancient Israel.   He has done groundbreaking work on the role of a group known as the Essenes in the time of Jesus.  You may recall that the Essenes formed the fourth major religious group in Israel in addition to the Sadducees, Pharisees and Zealots.  It was the Essenes who wrote and preserved the Dead Sea Scrolls and established a large communal settlement at Qumran by the Dead Sea.  The Jewish historian, Josephus, devoted one whole section of his book on the Wars of the Jews to the Essenes and actually spent several months in an Essene community himself studying their beliefs.  Dr. Capper started with information from the Temple Scroll and from Josephus and fleshed out the role the Essenes played in caring for the poor and the sick in Jesus' time.  He calculates that there were enough celibate Essene men (some four thousand of them according to Josephus) for there to be a nucleus of at least ten men in every one of the two hundred or so villages in Judea.  Of course, there were doubtless villages without an Essene house  and other villages with an excess of such men, but it is clear that the Essenes had spread themselves into every nook and cranny of Judea.  Essene men worked at normal jobs and pooled their income to sustain their home.  If they had excess funds, they used the money to care for the poor and the sick.  Except for their celibacy, the way they lived sounds a whole lot like the way the early church was described in the book of Acts.   When an Essene travelled he carried nothing because he had free use of everything at any Essene home he came to.  But what does all this have to do with Martha, Mary, Lazarus and Bethany?
The name, Bethany, is a combination of the Hebrew words for "House" and "Poor " which seems to be a rather strange name for a town.  Perhaps the village was known for its most prominent institution; the village seems to have gone by the name of its "Poorhouse"  which Essenes operated there.  "Thus Bethany received its name because it was the Essene poorhouse par excellence, the poorhouse which alleviated poverty closest to the holy city."   According to Dr. Capper, Essenes established poorhouses in most, if not all, of the towns and villages of Judaea.  These houses cared for the elderly and the sick as well as the poor and the pilgrims who passed by.  Since Bethany was like the last rest area before one arrived at Jerusalem, there were doubtless many pilgrims who needed help as they arrived after a demanding week's walk from Galilee.  While we cannot be sure, it seems likely that Jesus had been here before.  The Gospels say that during the last Passover week, Jesus and his disciples all stayed in Bethany.  Apparently the Essene house made room for his whole party.  For such a large group to be housed there must have been some special arrangement perhaps made possible by Jesus earlier visits.  Throughout his ministry Jesus ministered to the poor and counted himself as one of them.  It would be likely that he would have been comfortable with a group of men who took nothing for themselves and gave everything they earned to feed and help others.  But what does such a "poorhouse," if in fact there was one in Bethany, have to do with Martha, Mary and Lazarus?   Were they in some way connected to the Essene house?

Martha, Mary and Lazarus

Two stories in the Gospels may provide the clues to link the three siblings  we know about to the "poorhouse" in Bethany.  The story of the death and raising of Lazarus is one of these.  We are not told the cause of the death of Lazarus, but he died in Bethany which was home to lepers and "those with a discharge" who because of their uncleanness had had to leave their homes in the city and stay in the village as the purity regulations required.  It may be just coincidence that Lazarus died in a village where poor and sick people came to be cared for, but, on the other hand, it may indicate why the family was in Bethany.  One can only wonder whether these well-to-do siblings were part of a prominent Jerusalem clan who brought one of their own to Bethany to be cared for.  It is interesting that John's Gospel says that even though Bethany was two miles from Jerusalem, "many of the Jews had come to console them  (Mary and Martha) concerning their brother" (John 11:19).  Apparently Martha and Mary (and Lazarus) were well known in Jerusalem.
Another possibility is that these siblings may have been part of the group in Bethany that provided for the poor and sick.  Wherever Martha and Mary are featured these two women are characterized the same.  Martha served; Mary sat at the feet of Jesus as a disciple.   Since Bethany seems to have been known as the "poorhouse" where the poor and sick were served one wonders whether the characterization of Martha goes well beyond just preparing a meal for a large group in her home--though no one should minimize the sheer labor that involves.  Was she one who served others all the time?  Was Mary also such a server until the great Teacher came to her house?  One tiny hint in this web of possibilities that may suggest that Martha was connected to the Essene group that served the poor and the pilgrims is that she knew exactly where Jesus could be reached when Lazarus became critical, and she was able to get a message to him quickly even though he was miles away across the Jordan river where he had gone to escape the authorities in Jerusalem (John 10:39-40).  Was this contact made possible by the network of Essene houses all over Judea.  It may well have been but, of course, we can't be certain.
The second account that may provide a link between the sisters and the Essene poorhouse in Bethany is Mary's anointing of Jesus.  This episode is confusing because we have more than one account of the event.   In John's Gospel, it is clear that Martha's sister, Mary, does the anointing, but she anoints Jesus' feet rather than his head.  Matthew and Mark portray the woman as pouring the oil on Jesus' head but don't name the woman.  It seems clear that Mary did the anointing and that she poured the oil on Jesus' head.  In essence, this was tantamount to proclaiming Jesus as the coming King, the Messiah.  How does this link her to the poorhouse in Bethany?  Here is one scholar's conclusion:

"We must also ask how the Essene poorhouse with which Jesus had associations at Bethany responded to Jesus inspiring and effective ministry of teaching and healing, which had already created a huge following amongst the ordinary mass of the population in Galilee. The Gospels record an event that probably answers this question for us. At the feast made in his honour at Bethany, Jesus was anointed with costly perfumed oil by his disciple Mary ( Mark 14: 9; John 12:1-3).  When objections were raised on the grounds of expense, Jesus defended Mary's action. His concluding remark in Mark's  account gives us the key to understanding the significance of Mary's action: Truly I say to you, wherever the Gospel is preached in the whole world what she has done will be told in memory of her' ( 14:9)."

And in another essay this same scholar suggests:

"The role of Bethany as the poorhouse closest to Jerusalem is confirmed by the hubbub of objection caused by Mary's use of such an expensive gift. Some witnesses to Jesus' anointing (Mk 14:4), including Judas (Jn 12:4-6), felt intense embarrassment that such wealth had been poured away (Mk 14:3). How could witnesses to the scene not feel embarrassment when Mary had chosen as the location for her action a poorhouse where the destitute of the Jerusalem area (always numerous) gathered at a respectful distance from the city to receive alms? Jesus referred to the poor who constantly gathered at Bethany for alms, in his response: "For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you will, you can do good to them" (Mk 14:7; cf. Jn 12:8). The crowds who acclaimed Jesus on his triumphal entry into Jerusalem as Messiah and King (Jn 12:12-19...) were undoubtedly drawn from the destitute who received support from this Essene poorhouse at Bethany and saw Jesus as their champion. "

The key to interpreting Mary's action as a public proclamation of Jesus as Messiah may well be found in the reaction of Judas.  "We should surely understand that Judas reports the incident of the anointing to the chief priests, for whom it must constitute significant evidence that Jesus and his disciples are planning an imminent messianic uprising. Perhaps we should also suspect that it was this incident...that led Judas to defect. Thus the anointing provides both added cause for the chief priests to take swift action against Jesus and also the means to do so in the shape of Judas's offer."

Why would Matthew and Mark not give us Mary's name if he knew it and why did they not tell us about Lazarus?  The St. Andrews New Testament scholar, Richard Bauckham uses another scholar's theory to help him solve this puzzle.    This scholar argued that disciples who lived in Jerusalem and had been close to Jesus would have been at risk in the decades immediately after Jesus' crucifixion.  If the authorities could have identified them they would have been in danger.  Thus this scholar argued that Mark gave them "protective anonymity."  Dr. Bauckham applies this scholar's reasoning to Mary who anointed Jesus in Bethany.  He suggests that when Mary anointed Jesus she was, in effect, confessing him to be the Messiah, treating him as a royal figure, a king.  Thus to identify Mary openly in the early years would have put her in danger.  By the time John wrote (perhaps sixty years after the crucifixion) and in his location (all the way across Asia Minor on Patmos or in Ephesus) there was no need to keep the names secret.
Dr. Bauckham then turns to address another puzzle.   How could the first three Gospels have left out the story of Lazarus.  Here is what Dr. Bauckham concludes:

"If we accept that in Mark's passion narrative Mary's anonymity is protective and that John correctly identified [Mary], there is a further consequence that will complete our argument for the historical value of John's account of the Bethany family. Lazarus would have needed "protective anonymity" in a passion narrative originating in Jerusalem in the 40s even more than his sister Mary would. John's Gospel explicitly records, already before the death of Jesus that "the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death as well (12:10). Lazarus could not have been protected in the early period of the Jerusalem church's life by telling his story but not naming him. His story was too well known locally not to be easily identifiable as his, however it was told. For Lazarus, "protective anonymity" had to take the form of his total absence from the story as it was publicly told. "

Conclusion

Much of what has been suggested above is  speculative but all of it is grounded in new scholarship that has been done in the last twenty years.  Once again the Dead Sea Scrolls have helped open a tiny window that may let us see more clearly the  role of Bethany in Jesus' life.  While neither Jesus nor John the Baptist were part of the Essene movement it is clear that there were many similarities and some connections between the early Christians and the Essenes.  We are reminded once again that the Incarnation brought Jesus into a very real world and that there are yet volumes to be written about Jesus' world and his impact upon it.   Maybe some day we will know how Jesus first met the  Bethany family.