2024-01-17 08:30:00
The RAE has just added the term in its latest edition of the dictionary doula-of the
Greek ‘servant’—with the sense of woman who, among other things, accompanies physical and
emotionally in childbirth, the puerperium and breastfeeding. This information, added to the call of the Pope Franciscomore work on the role of women in early Christianity, and more female theologians in a church that committed the sin of becoming masculinized, gives us the opportunity to meditate about Christmas in the light of traditions that are not the usual ones of the four canonical gospels.
Precisely, the news from the apocrypha* speaks of two women who would have witnessed the miracle of the birth of Jesus (precious echoes are preserved in medieval art). He Protoevangelium of Santiago, from the middle of the 2nd century AD. C., shows us an elderly Joseph who leads María on a donkey and who decides to deposit her inside a cave because she had begun to have labor pains. She rushes out in search of a midwife and finds an anonymous woman (in the gospel of the pseudo-Mateo is given the name of They will break). So much José Like the woman, they witness a portent: a luminous cloud descends over the grotto and Mary appears breastfeeding the child. Next, she says the writing:
When the midwife left the cave, Salome came to meet her and said: “Salome, Salome, I have a new wonder to tell you: a virgin has given birth, something incomprehensible to her nature.” Salome replied: “As the Lord my God lives, if I do not put my finger in and examine her nature, I will not believe that a virgin has given birth.”
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It is noted that this Salome shares the same profession as a midwife (as demonstrated by pseudo-Matthew’s references). In Mark’s gospel we only talk about her, but as one of the women who helped her or who followed Jesus. In this case, she is mentioned as the female representative of unbelief: she needs to touch to believe just like the apostle Thomas in the Johannine story. We are before a Jesus of Christmas, while, in the case of the apostle, before a Jesus of the Resurrection. When Mary manages to settle in and receive Salome, she touches her and cries: “Woe to me, for my wickedness and my unbelief! “For I have tempted the living God, and behold, my hand is burned.”
After this punishment he kneels with a supplication: “O God of my fathers, remember that I am a descendant of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Do not make me a lesson to the children of Israel, but return me to the poor, because you know, Lord, that in your name I performed my healings and received my salary from you.
The human profile shown is interesting: Salomé asks to return to the poor and clarifies that she carried out her task with the approval of God. Then an angel appears and reports that the Lord heard his prayer and that he must touch the child and lift him up for “health and joy.” Salome follows the instructions and adores the boy, recognizes him as the future king, and regains his former status.
If we believe other testimonies such as those of Joseph the carpenter, she even accompanies Mary to escape to Egypt; the Armenian Gospel of her childhood makes her speak with Eva. Although it is the Byzantine mosaics that portray the two women: they are seen holding the child in their arms or preparing a bath for him.
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In other works there are no more records of the first woman. About Salome, however, other information persists in the so-called Gospel of the Egyptians, of Gnostic origin and in fragments that place her as the only interlocutor of Jesus. Perhaps, it should be taken into account when Gospel of Thomas or the First Apocalypse of Jamestwo works in the Coptic language from Nag Hammadi, where she is recognized as a worthy disciple.
In December 2022, the announcement circulated that it had been found, in the Tel Lachish National Parkin Israel, Salome’s tomb. The site is ancient according to archaeologists. Perhaps the most striking thing are the inscriptions on the wall and the votive remains that suggest a kind of chapel in his honor that lasted until the 11th century.
In any case, it could be said that Salome was the first to have received a miracle from Jesus. Unbelieving midwife, or wise woman and disciple? It is difficult to study these testimonies because they belong to different periods and because they do not coincide with the doctrine. However, they are there, and they are the pieces of a puzzle that tell us about the relevance of women in the history of Christianity and a lush, and at times silent, spirituality that nourished these communities for centuries.
* Early Christian writings, partly parallel to the books of the NT, but not accepted by the Church.
** Translation by A. Piñero, All the Gospels, Edaf,
Juan Bautista García Bazán is a doctor in Philosophy and a professor of History of Ancient Philosophy and Philosophical Traditions of the Eastern Mediterranean at the University of Salvador.
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