Gathered Into One: Mary and Judas in John 11–13

This essay, based in part on my presentation at the the Eastern Great Lakes Biblical Society Annual Meeting in March 2019 in Uniontown Ohio, has just been published by the journal Novum Testamentum in issue 3 of volume 63, June 2021. The attached version represents my final peer-reviewed manuscript prior to Brill publication formatting. Scholarly use should reference the actual published article, which is now at https://doi-org.10.1163/15685365-12341650.Here I reconsider the two enigmatic scenes of Mary at Jesus\u27 feet in John 11 and 12. Previous scholarship has recognized ordered connections between John 11-12, and between 12-13. Examination of John’s distinctive linkage between Mary and Judas uncovers an artistic network of figural cantilevers and triads that connect, or gather into one, scenes from all three chapters: Jesus’ Raising of Lazarus, Mary’s Anointing of Jesus, and the Foot Washing. This network architecture enables information transfer and implicit commentary between the three contexts, which in turn illuminates Jesus’ emotional anagnorisis with Mary on his way to Lazarus’ tomb, as well as Mary’s unconventional wiping of the ointment from his feet with her hair. Her opposition to Judas points up her alignment with Jesus, wherein he shares her tears and she shares his anointing. Finally, this network model provides an intelligible platform for the migration of key Synoptic elements away from John’s Anointing into his Lazarus story