Martha
The sister of Mary and Lazarus of Bethany. In Luke she is busy with serving while her sister listens to Jesus. In John she meets Jesus after her brother’s death and confesses him as the Christ, the Son of God.
Luke tells that a woman named Martha received Jesus into her house. She was distracted by much serving and asked him to tell her sister Mary, who sat listening at his feet, to help her. Jesus answered that Mary had chosen “the good part” (Luke 10:38–42). Luke does not name the village.
In John she lives at Bethany with her sister Mary of Bethany and her brother Lazarus (John 11:1). When Lazarus had died she went out to meet Jesus, and in answer to his words “I am the resurrection and the life” she said: “I have come to believe that you are the Christ, God’s Son, he who comes into the world” (John 11:20–27). At the tomb she objected that the body had been dead four days (John 11:39). At the supper in Bethany before the Passover she served (John 12:2). See the Raising of Lazarus.
In the timeline
- AD 30 or 33, estimated dateThe Raising of Lazarus
John reports that Jesus called his friend Lazarus out of the tomb at Bethany four days after his death. Many believed, and the council in Jerusalem, on the advice of the high priest Caiaphas, resolved that Jesus must die.