Work

Mark’s Mothers and the Matronymic: Linking ‘The Son of Mary’ (Mk 6.3) to ‘The Daughter of Herodias’ (Mk 6.22)

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: This article argues that Mark uses matronymics, that is, identifying someone by the name of their mother, to construct female communities that resist Jesus’ message. This happens precisely twice in the Gospel of Mark, at Mk 6.3 (Jesus ‘the son of Mary’) and at Mk 6.22 (‘the daughter of Herodias’). Through comparison with other Greek uses of the matronymic, I will show that both scenes draw on the link between matronymics and female lines of authority, but with slightly different valences. Mark 6.3 heightens the female context of the Nazareth speakers and the hometown resistance, while Mk 6.22 is more concerned to establish a competing line of authority to that of Jesus in the person of Herodias and her daughter. My argument complements previous research into the Markan characterisation of the positive portrayals of multiple unnamed women in Mark’s Gospel (e.g. the women with the flow of blood (Mk 5.25–34), the Syrophoenician woman (Mk 7.24–30), the poor widow (Mk 12.41–4) and the woman who anoints Jesus in Bethany (Mk 14.3–9)). Joining the negative named women to the positive unnamed women reveals a unique feminine pattern of Markan characterisation, with its own dynamics and inflections.

Source: New Testament Studies

DOI: 10.1017/s0028688524000262

Author: Dawn LaValle Norman

Institution: Australian Catholic University

Language: English

Topic: Biblical Studies and Interpretation

Subfield: Religious studies

Field: Arts and Humanities

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Gender equality

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,550