We post-enlightenment folks tend to believe that names are simply arbitrary collections of syllables, with no connection to the essential reality of the people or things that they point to. Just as it doesn’t change the taste or consistency or any other tangible quality if I call my breakfast porridge or oatmeal, it shouldn’t make any difference. And if you address me as Deborah or Debbie or Deb, or even Barbara or Brenda (I’ve been called all of those, and a bunch of other names, as well), that shouldn’t matter either.
But, of course, it does. If names didn’t matter, no one would spend hours, days, weeks, months, agonizing over what to name a new baby. If names didn’t matter, no one would ever change their name, or correct you when you get theirs wrong. Our names matter to us more than we like to admit. Indeed, there is research that shows that the names we are given at birth shape our identity in subtle and not-so subtle ways. Sometimes, we try to live up to the name our parents gave us; other times we rebel, or ask to be called by our middle name, or a nickname, or just our initials. Some of us even change our names to something that seems more compatible to how we experience ourselves or how we want others to experience us.
When Jesus told everyone to start calling one of his disciples “Peter the Rock” instead of simply Simon,* our understanding of Peter’s importance was changed forever. In July 2022, Diana Butler Bass gave a sermon at the Wild Goose Festival in which she introduced some textual research in a 4th century copy of the Gospel according to John that strongly suggests that the Mary who is the sister of Lazarus in John 11 is not the same Mary as the sister of Martha in Luke 10, but rather the woman we know from other scriptures as Mary Magdalene. And then she suggests that “Magdalene” doesn’t mean “from Magdala,” but rather is related to the Aramaic word for “tower.” Finally, she asks,
What if we’d known about Mary the Tower all along? What kind of Christianity would we have if the faith hadn’t only been based upon, “Peter, you are the Rock and upon this Rock I will build my church”? But what if we’d always known, “Mary, you are the Tower, and by this Tower we shall all stand?
I’m still asking myself that question.
–Deborah Sokolove, Seekers Church
For More…
Read or watch the sermon “All the Marys” by Diana Butler Bass.
