Mary, Wife of Clopas

Biblical Record

Mary, the wife of Clopas, appears under this name in only one passage, John 19:25. The text reads, "Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene." The text says nothing about her origins, her life, or her later activities.

The Greek original reads simply "Mary of Clopas," leaving her relationship to Clopas unstated. The New Korean Revised Version and many other translations render it as "wife." Grammatically, however, the phrase could also indicate that she was his daughter or his mother.

Significance in Scripture

In the Gospel of John, she is one of the women who remained at the scene of the crucifixion. The Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) also record several women at the crucifixion, the burial, and the empty tomb (Mark 15:40, 47; 16:1; Matthew 27:56, 61; 28:1; Luke 24:10). A long-standing interpretation identifies either "Mary the mother of James the less and of Joses" (Mark 15:40) or "the other Mary" (Matthew 28:1) with Mary the wife of Clopas. The text alone, however, cannot settle the question.

Interpretations and Debates

• How many women were present: If "his mother's sister" and "Mary the wife of Clopas" are read as the same person, three women stood by the cross, and she would be the sister of Mary the mother of Jesus. However, because it seems unlikely that two sisters would both have been named Mary, the reading of four women is more widely accepted.
• Who Clopas was: Opinions differ on whether this Clopas is the same person as Cleopas, who was traveling to Emmaus in Luke 24:18. The New Korean Revised Version renders both names identically, but the Greek spellings differ.
• The brothers of Jesus: Eusebius's Ecclesiastical History, citing the second-century writer Hegesippus, reports that Clopas was the brother of Joseph of Nazareth and that his son Simeon led the church in Jerusalem. Jerome regarded this Mary as the mother of James the Less and interpreted the "brothers of Jesus" in the Gospels as actually his cousins. The Catholic Church has given weight to this interpretation in connection with the doctrine of Mary's perpetual virginity. The Orthodox Church has a tradition that regards the brothers of Jesus as Joseph's children from a previous marriage. Among Protestants, the view that the brothers of Jesus were children later born to Mary is widespread, so this connection is not considered necessary.
• Tradition: The Catholic and Orthodox churches commemorate her as a saint. The Orthodox Church has a tradition that honors her as one of the Myrrh-Bearing Women who brought spices to the tomb of Jesus. These details come from later tradition rather than from the biblical text.

In the Korean Church

Protestant sermons rarely focus on her alone. She is mentioned mainly in Holy Week sermons as one of the women who remained by the cross to the end. Because several women named Mary appear in the New Testament, she is also presented alongside them in Bible studies and Sunday school lessons that distinguish among them.