Women from Galilee

Where’d the Galilean women of Matthew 27:55 come from?  The only other references to a group of women, the only uses of the plural of gune occur in Matthew 14:21 and 15:38.  They are the women included among the 5000 and 4000 who are fed in the “desolate place” near the sea of Galilee.  In both cases, the women are associated with children, and in both cases Matthew includes them as an apparent afterthought: “besides women and children.”  He’s setting us up: The women are not an afterthought at all, but at the climax take a central place in the story.

The hint that the women began following Jesus since those meals is strengthened by Matthew’s reference to “Magadan” or “Magdala” in 15:39, the hometown of Mary.

What does this mean?  Several things seem to be going on.

First, the women begin following Jesus after sharing a meal with Him.  In context, the feeding of the 5000 is a counterpoint to the macabre feast of Herod in 14:1-12.  Jesus is the true King of Israel, who feeds His people, including women and children.  These women are His royal attendants, a collective “queen” who stand to serve the King of Israel as He ascends His cross-throne.

Second, the scenes of the feedings are reminiscent of the feedings in the wilderness following Israel’s exodus from Egypt.  In both cases, the place where the people are fed is “desolate” (14:15; 15:33).  The women are the Israel that follows Jesus from the wilderness to Jerusalem, perhaps the “second generation” that follows the new Joshua to the promised land.

Third, these women are associated with children, and being a child is an altogether good thing for Jesus.  Perhaps the women were there when Jesus placed a child in front of His disciples as an object lesson (18:1-6).  Even if they weren’t, they got the lesson.

Fourth, the women who follow Jesus serve Him (27:55).  Again, they have learned a lesson of discipleship, one originally directed to James and John, whose mother is among the group of women at the cross: “whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant” (20:26, and see context).

Finally, Galilee is of course an out of the way place in first-century Israel.  What good thing can come from Galilee?  The women are doubly disqualified – they are women, and they are from Galilee.  But the people who sit in darkness see a great light (4:15-16; the women sit through the darkness of the cross [27:61], and see an angel like lightning, 28:4, 5).