Mary the Wife of Clopas
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Mary the wife of Clopas (spelled Cleophas in the King James Version) was one of the women who stood by the cross of Jesus, together with his mother, his mother's sister, and Mary Magdalene. John alone names her in this way, and nothing more is told of her directly. Many interpreters identify her with 'Mary the mother of James the less and of Joses,' whom the other Gospels place at the crucifixion and at the empty tomb, which would make her one of the women who followed Jesus from Galilee and ministered to him. Whether she is also 'his mother's sister' in John 19:25 is debated, and early church tradition made Clopas a brother of Joseph, the husband of Mary.
Biography
- Spouse
- Clopas
- Era
- New Testament
- Nationality
- Jewish
- Also Known As
- Mary the wife of Cleophas (KJV)
Family
Did You Know?
The King James Version spells her husband's name 'Cleophas' (John 19:25), but in Greek he is Klopas, a different name from Cleopas, the disciple on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:18).
John's list of the women at the cross can be read as three or as four people, so scholars still debate whether 'his mother's sister' and 'Mary the wife of Cleophas' are the same woman.
Hegesippus, a second-century writer quoted by Eusebius, said that Clopas was the brother of Joseph, Mary's husband, and that Clopas's son Symeon later led the church in Jerusalem.
Key Chapters
Key Passages
By the Cross of Jesus
John 19:25-27
Mary stands with the few who did not abandon Jesus at the cross, a quiet witness of faithful love.
25ow there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene.
Mary the Mother of James and Joses
Mark 15:40-41
If, as many believe, she is this Mary, she had followed and served Jesus in Galilee and came up with him to Jerusalem.
40here were also women looking on afar off: among whom was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the less and of Joses, and Salome;
Bringing Spices to the Tomb
Mark 16:1
The women who watched him die come to honour his body and become the first to hear that he is risen.
1nd when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him.
