‘Now they were Mary Magdalene, and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them told these things to the apostles.'

Luke then lists the names of some of the women who were involved, but makes clear that there were others. Mary Magdalene appears throughout in all four Gospels, but for quite a while was not with the other women because, having been sent on ahead with ‘the other Mary' as a scout, she had gone to tell Peter and John about the empty tomb. She would, however, be seen by all as having been an essential part of the women's party. Joanna is only mentioned elsewhere in Luke 8:3 as the wife of Chuza, Herod's steward, and Luke expects us to remember her from there. She was clearly a ‘regular'. She may well be mentioned by Luke here because she was one of his sources of information along with the two Marys. Mary the mother of James (compare Mark 16:1) is elsewhere called Mary the mother of Joses (Mark 15:47), and Mary the mother of Joses and James (Mark 15:40).

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