Mystery:Who Was Salome?
Salome is an Aramaic name mentioned by the historian Josephus in the first century, a name also mentioned twice in the Gospel of Mark. Without explanation, Salome is referenced by Mark as a witness to the Crucifixion and to an angel declaring the Resurrection. See Mark 15:40 and Mark 16:1-8
Salome witnessed the Crucifixion, as did Mark, while Salome was known to Mark but to the Apostles such as Matthew (who omitted her name from his Gospel).
Academic biblical scholars who downplay the significance of the Trumpian Gospel style of Mark suggest that Salome was the mother of the sons (James and John) of Zebedee, as that seems potentially consistent with the Gospel of Matthew (see Matthew 27:56 ) which describes her as having been an observer from a distance to the Crucifixion, but omits her from the group that visited the tomb. But stronger factors suggest that Salome was actually Mark's mother:
- Mark wrote his Gospel first, and as an outsider he would not have had any way of knowing about these events unless someone close to him, such as his mother, described the events to him;
- Mark was blunt and concise, and did not speculate, which suggests the source of these events was someone he trusted;
- While Mark was modest in referring to himself in his Gospel (merely alluding to himself as an unidentified boy at one point), he probably wanted to give credit somewhere to his mother for being a disciple of Jesus;
- the Gospel of John makes no mention of his mother having been there;
- the authentic ending of the Gospel of Mark is focused on Salome, reinforcing the likelihood that she was his mother; and
- the non-canonical Gospels refer to her as being different from the mother of John the Apostle.
Another theory is that she was the daughter of Herodias,[1] the unlawful wife of Herod Antipas, as identified by the historian Josephus as "Salome". She did the dance that caused Herod to offer to grant any request she may have, and as prodded by her mother the request was for the head of John the Baptist. That was how he was wrongly executed.
