Watch: Mary's sisters sing about marriage in a new Journey to Bethlehem featurette
Introducing Jesus' aunties-to-be.
The biblical Jesus had brothers and sisters, and while many Christians have debated just what the Bible means when it says he had brothers and sisters (were they half-siblings? step-siblings? adopted? cousins, etc.?), the fact remains, he did have siblings of some sort. They’ve even been depicted in a few films.
But what about his mother Mary? Did she have brothers or sisters, too?
Well, maybe.
There’s one verse in John’s gospel that indicates she might have had a sister, but it’s written in such a way that some people think it might be referring to a sister-in-law or something like that.1 It’s certainly nowhere near as clear-cut as the verses about Jesus’ brothers and sisters.
But there’s no room to get into that debate here. Suffice it to say that various theories about Mary’s sibling status have been explored over the years, e.g.:
In the oldest post-biblical tradition, preserved in the Infancy Gospel of James, Mary is born to Joachim and Anna, a childless couple for whom Mary was an answer to prayer. The Mary of this tradition is an only child and has no siblings.
In the late Middle Ages, a western tradition arose that Mary had two sisters, both of whom were also named Mary. This tradition was rejected by the Council of Trent and it was never all that widespread, as far as I can tell—but it did exist.2
In 2016’s The Young Messiah, a film based on Anne Rice’s novel Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt, Mary has a big brother named Cleopas who, along with his wife and daughter, accompanies Mary and Joseph on their journey to Egypt.3
Now the musical Journey to Bethlehem is adding another sibling dynamic to the list of possibilities. A featurette released today reveals that the friends of Mary’s who were singing to her about the joys of marriage in the trailer released last month are actually Mary’s sisters—and, what’s more, that Mary is the middle sister in their family.
You can watch the featurette here:
A few brief thoughts and notes:
Moriah, who previously played Bathsheba in an episode of The Chosen, plays older sister Deborah, while Stephanie Gil plays younger sister Rebekah.
The sisters seem to be encouraging Mary to accept an arranged marriage to a man they’ve never met (i.e. Joseph); they talk about Mary’s “husband” and speculate about his looks and personality, but they don’t mention his name at all.
Is the older sister married? If not, why not? Isn’t the oldest daughter supposed to get married first? (Cf Laban’s daughters in Genesis 29:26.) The impression one gets from this clip is that Mary’s sisters are both engaging in a fantasy about marriage, but it would be very different—and potentially quite interesting—if one sister was experienced in the ways of marriage and the other was not. (Wouldn’t it be kinda cool if Mary already had a niece or nephew she could babysit…?)
The three sisters don’t look particularly related, but I learn from the film’s official website that two of the actresses are Mexican and one is Spanish, so… I guess they’re all in the same general ballpark, at least? I suppose any perceived lack of family resemblance could be explained the same way many Christians, including those in my own tradition, argue that the “brothers” and “sisters” of Jesus were actually his step-siblings, adopting siblings, cousins, and so forth.
Since the relative age of the sisters has been raised here (given Mary’s status as a middle sister): Moriah, who plays Deborah, turned 31 yesterday; Fiona Palomo, who plays Mary, is turning 25 at some point this month; and Stephanie Gil, who plays Rebekah, will be 18 by the time the film comes out next month.4
Incidentally, this is the third featurette for this film to come out since the full-length trailer came out three weeks ago. We’re getting a new video every week!
The film itself is coming to theatres November 10, i.e. five weeks from now.
— This post was edited October 19 to account for the fact that John’s gospel refers to Jesus’ mother’s sister, a fact that slipped my mind when I originally wrote this post.
Past posts on Journey to Bethlehem:
‘Has The Road to Bethlehem not been filmed yet?’ (August 19, 2022)
‘Adam Anders’ Nativity musical now filming in Spain’ (February 23, 2023)
‘Adam Anders’ Nativity musical gets a title’ (April 3, 2023)
‘Watch: The teaser trailer for Journey to Bethlehem’ (April 28, 2023)
‘Watch: Earnest and jokey moments mix in the official trailer for Journey to Bethlehem’ (September 14, 2023)
‘Watch: Actors, producers discuss Journey to Bethlehem in a new featurette’ (September 20, 2023)
‘Watch: The lead actors talk Mary and Joseph in a new Journey to Bethlehem featurette’ (September 29, 2023)
The verse in question says the crucifixion of Jesus was witnessed by “his mother and his mother’s sister Mary [the wife] of Clopas and Mary Magdalene” (John 19:25).
The sentence, taken literally, does say that Jesus’ mother had a sister, but the sentence structure—note how often the word “and” is used, and where—seems to suggest that Mary’s sister was also named Mary, and that doesn’t seem likely. How many parents give their children the same name?
Some interpreters argue that “his mother’s sister” and “Mary the wife of Clopas” were two different people, and they separate these phrases in modern Bible translations by adding commas and/or extra words to the sentence.
Other interpreters argue that “his mother’s sister” and “Mary the wife of Clopas” were the same person, but they say it would be more accurate to call “Mary the wife of Clopas” mother Mary’s “sister-in-law” or something of that sort. The question then would be: who is Clopas? Is he Mary’s brother? Joseph’s brother? Etc., etc., etc.
The theory here was that Anna had three daughters by three different husbands, and that all three daughters were among the various women named Mary who witnessed Jesus’ death and resurrection; specifically, the tradition posited that Jesus’ mother’s sisters were Mary of Clopas (cf John 19:25) and Mary Salome (a medieval name for the woman named Salome in Mark 15:40-41, 16:1-8).
Other Marys who are mentioned in the death-and-resurrection narratives include Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James (both women are mentioned in Mark 15:40-41, 47; 16:1-8; Matthew 27:55-56, 61; 28:1-10; Luke 24:1-10; Mary Magdalene is also mentioned in John 19:25, 20:1-18).
The gospels also mention a Mary of Bethany, who anointed Jesus’ feet and wiped them with her hair a few days before he died (John 12:1-8)—her home, which she shared with her brother Lazarus and her sister Martha, may have been where Jesus and the disciples spent their nights while visiting Jerusalem (cf Mark 11:11-12, Matthew 21:17)—but she is not mentioned in the death-and-resurrection narratives themselves.
Mary was an extremely common name for Jewish women in the first century, but because there are so many women named Mary in the gospels, many interpreters have argued that at least some of these names might be referring to the same individuals.
But those theories are too complicated to get into here.
According to the 2nd-century writer Hegesippus, Cleopas was Joseph’s brother, not Mary’s. Cleopas is also depicted as Joseph’s brother in the 2006 film The Holy Family.
Most scholars, I think, would agree that the historical Mary was younger than all of these actresses when Jesus was born. The Catholic Encyclopedia says Mary could have been as young as 13 when Jesus was born—which happens to be the age gap between the actresses who play Mary’s older and younger sisters in Journey to Bethlehem. (In other words, movie-Mary’s older sister could have been their younger sister’s mother in that culture!)
Incidentally, actresses who play Mary in their mid-20s, like Palomo, are not unknown—Olivia Hussey was 25 when 1977’s Jesus of Nazareth was filmed, for example—but Palomo is definitely at the older end of the spectrum for a Nativity-specific production. Betty Bronson was 18 in 1925’s Ben-Hur, Madeleine Stowe was 19 in 1978’s The Nativity, Blanche Baker was 22 in 1979’s Mary and Joseph: A Story of Faith, Keisha Castle-Hughes was 16 in 2006’s The Nativity Story, and Sara Anne was 19 in 2017’s pilot episode for The Chosen.