Six pictures of Mary and Martha

In order these are by: 1) Velasquez, 1618 2) Anon (from Kilmore Church on the Isle of Mull) 3) Stephen St. Claire, contemporary 4) Ain Vares, contemporary 5) Vergilius Master, 1410 6) William Blake, ~1800.

Six questions about each in turn:

1) Who is the old woman behind Martha?

2) Is Mary really pregnant? (the caption reads: Mary hath chosen that good part which shall not be taken away from her)

3) Is this Mary of Bethany or Mary Magdalene and were they the same person?

4) Is that a washing machine?

5) Who (again) is the woman on the left?

6) Why are most of the guests women?

Sources: Luke 10: 38-42; Luke 7: 36- 8: 3; John 12: 1-8; Mark 14: 3-9.

And a really interesting blog post by James Tabor at http://www.jesusdynasty.com/blog/category/biblical-expositions/

See also: http://www.bible-art.info/Martha_Mary.htm