Martha of Bethany

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Saint Martha with her attributes , illustration in the Isabella book of hours

Martha of Bethany (also Martha of Bethany ) is a figure of the New Testament .

Martha is mentioned in the 10th chapter of the Gospel of Luke and in the 11th and 12th chapters of the Gospel of John . The representations in the two biblical narratives show similarities, but also clear differences.

Representation in the Gospels

The Gospel of Luke ( Luke 10.38–42  EU ) is presented to Martha together with her younger sister Mary . They live together in a house in a village that is not named; there Jesus comes : a woman named Martha welcomed him kindly . Mary sits at Jesus' feet and listens to him while her sister takes care of the entertainment. Finally Martha complains about it. Jesus answers her: Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled a lot. But only one thing is necessary. Maria chose the better, that should not be taken from her.

Martha and Maria are obviously drawn here as types who represent certain parts of Christian life. Maria stands for the vita contemplativa , Martha for the vita activa .

Lukas probably designed the episode like this himself. The names of the sisters with whom Jesus was a guest, he took - this shows the John parallel - obviously from tradition. Of Lazarus , the brother, Luke knows nothing. It is noticeable that it is precisely this name that is at the center of the example story of poor Lazarus , which is also a special Lukan property (Lk 16).

The name Martha is of Aramaic origin and means "she was rebellious" or "mistress". In Hebrew , the name means "the bitter one". It cannot be assumed that Jesus reprimanded work, not even the hospitality for guests. What he complained about was that Martha was worried. The Greek word for this is περισπάω (perispao) "to be distracted, mentally enticed, moved away".

In the Gospel of John (Chapter 11), the miracle story of the illness, death and resurrection of Lazarus of Bethany , Lazarus is represented as the brother of Mary and Martha and all three as close friends of Jesus. Here Martha drives the event forward, enters into a dialogue with Jesus about the resurrection and finally confesses: Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah , the Son of God , who is to come into the world. ( Joh 11,27  EU ).

Here, John develops a narrative, of which he found only a core in the tradition. The names of the two sisters must have belonged to this core (cf. Luke), with great probability also Lazarus and Bethany.

In the case of the anointing of Jesus in Bethany , as reported in the following chapter, it is mentioned, as with Luke, that Martha served the time ( Jn 12.2  EU ).

In the Christian interpretation of the Bible, the Lukan and Johannine statements about Martha and her siblings are considered together. Martha, who appears to have been set back in Luke 10, is given great weight in John 11.

Legend

Reliquary bust in Tarascon

According to tradition, Martha is said to have been expelled to France together with her siblings in 48. She is said to have founded a monastery near Marseille and led an ascetic life. She traveled to Tarascon and there defeated the monster Tarasque , a man-eating dragon .

King Clovis I is said to have made a pilgrimage to Tarascon to see Martha's relic . Their whereabouts were later unknown. Only in 1187 they are said to have been found again in the crypt of the old church of Tarascon and authenticated by miracles. As a result, the Ste-Marthe church, which still stands today, was built on this site and consecrated to Martha in 1197.

Patronage

The following churches, among others, are dedicated to St. Martha :

As patron saint, she takes on the protection of waitresses and housewives. In America it is often customary to put a figure of St. Martha behind the counter in the hope of higher tips.

In non-theological sources, Mary is sometimes interpreted as the upper class of society, while Martha is interpreted as the lower class.

liturgy

The feast day of Saint Martha in the Roman Catholic , Anglican and Evangelical Churches is July 29th . In the Orthodox churches , the feast day of Martha and her sister Mary is June 4th.

See also

literature

  • Jutta Brutscheck: The Maria Marta story. An editorial-critical examination of Luke 10.38–42. Peter Hanstein Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1986, ISBN 3-7756-1079-0 .
  • Anke Krüger: South French local saint between church, dynasty and city from the 5th to the 16th century. In: Contributions to hagiography. Volume 2. Franz Steiner, 2002, ISBN 978-3-515-07789-7 , pp. 213-234.

Web links

Commons : Martha  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Raymond F. Collins, Art. Martha. In: David Noel Freedman (Ed.), The Anchor Bible Dictionary, Doubleday 1992, ISBN 3-438-01121-2 , Vol. 4, p. 573.
  2. according to the lexicon of Strongs (word no. 3136)
  3. Rosa and Volker Kohlheim: The large first name dictionary, Duden, 3rd edition, p. 290
  4. according to the article Martha von Bethanien in the Ecumenical Lexicon of Saints (although this is probably a confusion with "Mara", the bitter (Hebrew))
  5. (Strong's No. 4049)
  6. Martha in Tarascon. In: Ecumenical Lexicon of Saints. Retrieved April 7, 2020 .
  7. http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/Saints/saint.aspx?id=1091 Amerik. Description of the patron saint
  8. So in the poem The Sons of Martha by Rudyard Kipling .