Matthew lists three of the women by name, as does Mark (15.40), though in place of the mother of the sons of Zebedee (see 20.20), Mark names “Salome.” Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joseph will each be mentioned twice again in the course of events to follow (verse 61; 28.1). Indeed their faithful following of Jesus adds continuity to the account.

Mary Magdalene is often treated as a name but is sometimes expressed as “Mary from Magdala.”

To say the mother of the sons of Zebedee is quite strange in many languages, and translators often do the same as Good News Translation: “the wife of Zebedee.”

There are three women listed, and translators have to be careful to structure their sentence so that it doesn’t seem that the mother of James and Joseph is the same woman as the mother of the sons of Zebedee.

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .