The Gospel of John and the Gospel of Luke also mention a " Mary of Bethany ", who in some Christian traditions is regarded the same person as Mary Magdalene.

Mary of Bethany was the sister of Lazarus and Martha.

Though some earlier interpreters blended the person of Mary of Bethany with Mary Magdalene and the sinful woman of Luke 7: 36-50, current scholars believe she was a different person .< ref >" Mary & Martha: Friends of Jesus.

In 1969 the Vatican, during the papacy of Paul VI, without commenting on Pope Gregory's reasoning, implicitly rejected it by separating Luke's sinful woman, Mary of Bethany, and Mary Magdala via the Roman Missal .< ref > Lester, Meera.

There is also a short reference to a person named " Martha " among the disciples, possibly the same person who is named as the sister of Mary of Bethany.

The Eastern Orthodox Church maintains that Mary Magdalene, distinguished from Mary of Bethany and the " sinful woman ", had been a virtuous woman all her life, even before her conversion.

Jacobus de Voragine, compiling his Legenda Aurea ( Golden Legend ) before the competition arose, characterized Mary Magdalene as the emblem of penitence, washing the feet of Jesus with her copious tears ( although it is now believed that Mary of Bethany was the woman known for washing or anointing the feet of Jesus ) protectress of pilgrims to Jerusalem, daily lifting by angels at the meal hour in her fasting retreat and many other miraculous happenings in the genre of Romance, ending with her death in the oratory of Saint Maximin, all disingenuously claimed to have been drawn from the histories of Hegesippus and of Josephus.

The French tradition of Saint Lazare of Bethany is that Mary, her brother Lazarus, and Maximinus, one of the Seventy Disciples and some companions, expelled by persecutions from the Holy Land, traversed the Mediterranean in a frail boat with neither rudder nor mast and landed at the place called Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer near Arles.

In Roman Catholic tradition, Mary of Bethany is identified as Mary Magdalene, while in Eastern Orthodox and Protestant traditions they are considered separate persons.

" Mary of Bethany " itself is an anachronism, as she is just referred to as " Mary " both in and the Gospel of John.

The Mary appearing in Bethany is introduced in only by her first name, as if her identity was self-evident.

Following this, Mary of Bethany inexplicably disappears from the narrative, while the earlier unmentioned Mary Magdalene emerges without introduction at Jesus ' crucifixion, finding later his tomb empty and being the first to be visited by him after the resurrection.

Mary of Bethany ( Judeo-Aramaic מרים, Maryām, rendered Μαρία, Maria, in the Koine Greek of the New Testament ; form of Hebrew מ ִ ר ְ י ָ ם, Miryām, or Miriam, " wished for child ", " bitter " or " rebellious ") is a biblical figure described in the Gospels of John and Luke in the Christian New Testament.

In Latin tradition, Mary of Bethany is often identified as Mary Magdalene ( of whom more is recorded in the gospels as well as in later traditions ), while in Eastern Orthodox and Protestant traditions they are considered separate persons.

* Mary Magdalene, devoted disciple of Jesus

Mary Magdalene ( original Greek Μαρία ἡ Μαγδαληνή ), or Mary of Magdala, was one of Jesus ' most celebrated disciples, and the most important female disciple in the movement of Jesus.

As a result, it can be argued that Mary Magdalene must have held a very central position among the followers of Jesus, whether as disciple or in some other capacity.

Several Gnostic gospels, such as the Gospel of Mary, written in the early 2nd century, see Mary as the special disciple of Jesus who has a deeper understanding of his teachings and is asked to impart this to the other disciples.

According to Harvard theologian Karen King, Mary Magdalene was a prominent disciple and leader of one wing of the early Christian movement that promoted women's leadership.

Asbury Theological Seminary Bible scholar Ben Witherington III confirms the New Testament account of Mary Magdalene as historical: " Mary was an important early disciple and witness for Jesus.

On 23 July 2006 Pope Benedict XVI spoke about Mary Magdalene in his address before the Angelus, referring to her as " a disciple of the Lord who plays a lead role in the Gospels.

In doing so, as one commentator notes, Mary took " the place of a disciple by sitting at the feet of the teacher.

John records that Mary, his mother, and two other women stand by the cross as does a disciple, described as the one whom Jesus loved.

* Mary Magdalene was one of the apostles of Jesus, possibly even the only disciple, but this was suppressed by the early Church.

Since the second century these two statements of Jesus from the cross had been the basis of reasonings that Mary had no other children and " from that hour the disciple took her unto his own home " because after the deaths of Joseph and Jesus there was no one else to look after Mary, and she had to be entrusted to the disciple.

Since the time of the Church Fathers this statement has been used to reason that after the death of Jesus there was no one else in the immediate family to look after Mary, and she had to be entrusted to the disciple given that she had no other children.

" was not simply the entrustment of Mary to the disciple, but also the entrustment of the disciple to Mary in order to fill the maternal gap left by the death of her only son on the cross.

** Woman, behold your son: behold your mother ( directed at Mary, the mother of Jesus, either as a self-reference, or as a reference to the beloved disciple and an instruction to the disciple himself )

Search as he might, he could find no place where the Bible spoke of a moment when Mary could have been alone with Jesus.

The outcome of such an experiment has been in due time the acceptance of the Bible as the Word of God inspired in a sense utterly different from any merely human book, and with it the acceptance of our Lord Jesus Christ as the only begotten Son of God, Son of Man by the Virgin Mary, the Saviour of the world.

The Encyclopedia of Twentieth Century Architecture states that the statuary was indeed Mary the mother of Jesus, also noting Gaudi's devoutness, and notes that the owner decided not to include it after Semana Trágica, an outbreak of anticlericalism in the city.

The first one is Amram the father of Moses and the second one is Joachim the father of Mary, the mother of Jesus.

Through him would come many other priests and prophets, including Anne, Elizabeth, Mary, John the Baptist and Jesus.

: Do you believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was born of the Virgin Mary, was crucified, died, and was buried, rose from the dead, and is now seated at the right hand of the Father?

: Do you believe in Jesus Christ, His only son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried.

There is a parallel with the entry of Mary and Joseph, homeless, into the same town, Bethlehem, before the birth of Jesus.

Matthew 2: 13 cites Hosea's prophecy in that God would call His Son out of Egypt as foretelling the flight into Egypt and return to Israel of Joseph, Mary, and the infant Jesus Christ.

The readings of the second Nocturn are mainly hagiological biography, with homilies or papal documents for certain major feasts, particularly those of Jesus and Mary.

A depiction of Jesus as a child with his mother, Mary, the Theotokos of Vladimir.

According to the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born from the Virgin Mary.

Emperor John II Komnenos | John II ( 1118 – 1143 ) is shown on the left, with the Mary, Mother of Jesus | Virgin Mary and infant Jesus in the centre, and John's consort Piroska of Hungary | Empress Irene on the right.

The pope chooses the image on the outside: under Pope Benedict XVI it is a modern depiction of the crucifixion of Jesus, with Mary and John to each side.

Jesus is also commonly thought to have died at the same age, and Catherine's heroine Mary Magdalen is said to have fasted for thirty-three years.

On the left of the altar, towards the Eastern Orthodox chapel, there is a statue of Mary, believed to be working wonders ( the 13th Station of the Cross, where Jesus ' body was removed from the cross and given to his family ).

* The Franciscan Chapel of St. Mary Magdalene-The chapel indicates the place where Mary Magdalene met Jesus after his resurrection.

* The beginning of the nine-day celebration beginning December 16 and ending December 24, celebrating the trials which Mary and Joseph endured before finding a place to stay where Jesus could be born ( Christians of Spanish-origin ):

And because of their saying: We slew the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, Allah's messenger — they slew him not nor crucified him, but it appeared so unto them ; and lo!

While the origin of Easter eggs can be explained in the symbolic terms described above, a sacred tradition among followers of Eastern Christianity says that Mary Magdalene was bringing cooked eggs to share with the other women at the tomb of Jesus, and the eggs in her basket miraculously turned brilliant red when she saw the risen Christ. The egg represents the boulder of the tomb of Jesus.