Mary, Mary, Mary

Ever wonder why so many people in the Gospels seem to be named Mary? Indeed, it's all the more puzzling on closer inspection. Out of twelve disciples, two were named Simon, two were named Judas, and two were named James. As for the Marys, we have Mary the mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, 'the other Mary,' Mary the wife of Clopas and Mary the mother of James and Joses, although some of those may overlap. I've often thought that the Jews back then really weren't very creative in naming their children, but it does clarify why so many of the disciples seemed to have nicknames and specifications - Simon the Zealot, Judas Iscariot, James the Less, James and John the Sons of Thunder, etc. You've got to distinguish them somehow!

Back to my Mary theme. An old priest living in the Judean foothills, Mattathias of the Hasmon family, initiated a revolt against the Seleucids in the second century B.C. He died soon after but several of his sons, including Judas Maccabeus, Jonathan (Hebrew Jonah) and Simon, became kings and high priests - and Israelite heroes worth naming your children after. Salome and Alexandra were very popular, derived from the female Hasmonean ruler Salome Alexandra. Mary was extraordinarily popular because the Herodians came to power as a 'partnership' of sorts, by marrying Mariamme the Hasmonean to Herod the Great. When King Herod executed her, the last Hasmonean influence, Mariamme/Mary/Miriam became extremely popular names.

As for the Mary v. Mariamme v. Miriam variation - many Jews gave their children both Greek names and Jewish names. Thus, the Hebrew version of Jesus' name is Joshua or Yeshua, the latter of which you will often read in historical fiction. The angel, however, instructed both Mary (Luke 1:31) and Joseph (Matthew 1:21) to name their baby "Jesus," which means ‘the Lord saves’ in Greek, the language of the Gentiles. I can't help wondering how many people had issues with accepting a Messiah named 'the Lord Saves,' in Greek, and perhaps refused to call him that.

As an aside - Simon (Peter), Andrew and Philip, all of whom hailed from the partially Gentile Diaspora town of Bethsaida, had very Greek names and were far more likely than the other apostles to know Greek well. This goes a long way toward explaining why the Greek men that wanted to talk to Jesus at Passover sought out Philip, who sought out Andrew (John 12:22).