author of Matthew would use such terminology to describe the mother of Jesus, that she would get more prominence than simply being referred to as "the other Mary." Most scholars and Christian denominations thus do not believe that the Mary in this verse is the mother of Jesus. If this Mary is not mother of James the Great, or James, brother of Jesus, then she may be the mother of James, son of Alphaeus, or this James may be a new person entirely. In most Christian traditions this James is considered to be the James, son of Alphaeus, and he and James the Less are considered the same person. John 19:25 also mentions that Mary of Clopas was present at these events, so this Mary is often believed to be her. Mother of the sons of Zebedee Zebedee is the father of the Apostles James the Great and John, he appeared earlier in the gospel at Matthew 4:21. Zebedee's wife also appears at Matthew 20:20, but also goes unnamed in that verse. At Mark 15:40 the third woman in the list is Salome. Tradition is that Matthew and Mark are referring to the same person, and thus Zebedee's wife is named Salome. It is also possible that the author of Matthew substituted Salome in the list with a figure better known to him. Unlike Mark and Luke, this third woman is dropped from the rest of the resurrection story, and Matthew only has two women go to the tombs. Gundry feels that the replacement of Salome by the wife of Zebedee explains why Matthew dropped "the less" from the mention of James, as the previous James was now clearly distinguished from James the Great. References 27:55