Apostle Mariamne's Transformation: "Equal to the Apostles"
- Elaine R Kelly
- May 17
- 13 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
Apostle Mariamne is remembered as a saint, the "Righteous One" (1), the "Apostolic Virgin" (2), and sister of the Apostle Philip. She is also considered "Equal to the Apostles"(3). Who was she? How did she earn these accolades? Where did she go on her Missionary Journeys?
Did Mariamne become equal to the apostles because she made a vow of virginity? No.
Did she become equal to the apostles, but not herself become an apostle (she was just a quasi-apostle)? No.
Did she do the same work as the male apostles? Yes, she travelled, healed, preached, baptized, and was persecuted for doing so.
Does being an apostle mean a woman became equal to a man? Yes, equality is inferred when both women and men have the same title.
Did she have to become a man to become an Apostle? Ancient theologians and philosophers thought that women could not be equal to a man unless they transformed into a man.
In my novel Finding Her Voice, from Broken to Bold: A Novel of the Earliest Female Apostles, I shine the light on several female apostles: Junia, Susannah, Mary Magdalene, and Mariamne, the sister of Apostle Philip. This is article 4 of 5 articles on female apostles in the Bible and the early church.
Who is an Apostle: Are there Female Apostles?
Apostle Junia's Missionary Journeys
Jesus Personally Sent Out Women as Apostles
Mariamne, the sister of Philip, is named in ancient non-canonical texts and was likely one of the "many women" disciples and patrons who followed Jesus from Galilee (Matthew 27:55-56, Mark 15:40-41, Luke 23:49, John 19:25).
Some of these women would surely have been at the Last Supper when Jesus told them that they would do the works Jesus did and even greater works (John 14:12). Mariamne may have been with the women show hurrying away from the empty tomb when Jesus greeted them and commissioned the women to go and tell the brothers to go to Galilee to see him (Matthew 28:8-10). When Jesus rose, he appeared in Galilee with Peter, Thomas, the brothers James and John, Nathanael, and two other disciples. These were likely Andrew, Peter's brother, and Philip, who was Nathanael's close friend and brought Nathanael to Jesus (John 21:2). If she had delivered the message that they would see Jesus in Galilee, she may have accompanied them to Galilee, as she often travelled with Philip and Nathanael and she was from Galilee. Jesus appeared to over 500 women and men at once (1 Corinthians 15:6), and he likely gave them all the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19): go, make disciples, baptize, and teach.
Was Mariamne an Assistant or an Apostle?
Mariamne shared leadership with Philip and Bartholomew. Mariamne had the same authority as the men; she preached, taught, performed healing signs, baptized, and officiated communion. The Acts of Philip is an ancient historical text that shows Mariamne persuading people to enter the house of Stachys to listen to the apostles. Since many in Hierapolis worshipped serpents, she addressed them with relatable ideas. She preached to crowds of people. Below are some excerpts from the Acts of Philip (4)
Mariamne said, "Trample under foot the snares of the enemy, the writhing serpent. For his path is crooked, since he is the son of the wicked one, and the poison of wickedness is in him; and his father is the devil, the author of death, and his mother corruption... "
[Nicanora, the Hierapolis Governor's wife, was lying in bed with a disease of the eyes and she called on the name of Jesus and was healed. When Nicanora approached the house of Stachys]: "Mariamme, the sister of Philip the apostle, seeing her [Nicanora], spoke to her in the Hebrew tongue before Philip and Bartholomew, and all the multitude of those who had believed,... Daughter of the father, you are my mistress, you have been given as a pledge to the serpent; but Jesus our Redeemer has come to deliver you through us, to break your bands, and cut them, and to remove them from you from their root, because you are my sister, one mother brought us forth twins....Behold, now your Redeemer has come to redeem you..."
[Nicanora replies], "I am a Hebrew, and a daughter of the Hebrews; speak with me in the language of my fathers. For, having heard the preaching of my fathers, I was straightway cured of the disease and the troubles that encompassed me."
"There came the tyrant, the husband of Nicanora, raging like an unbroken horse; and having laid hold of his wife's garments, he cried out, saying: O Nicanora, did not I leave you in bed? How had you so much strength as to come to these magicians? And how have you been cured of the inflammation of your eyes? Now, therefore, unless you tell me who your physician is, and what is his name, I shall punish you with various punishments, and shall not have compassion upon you."
[Nicanora tells her husband to cast the tyranny from him, to forsake his wicked brutality and flee from lusts and stop sacrificing to the serpent idols and live a chaste life. She begins to pray in Hebrew, and her husband did not know she spoke Hebrew.]
"And when the gloomy tyrant her husband heard these words of hers, he seized her by the hair of her head, and dragged her along, kicking her, and saying: It will be a fine thing for you to be cut off by the sword, or to see you from beside me committing fornication with these foreign magicians; for I see that you have fallen into the madness of these deceivers."
"And [Nicanora's husband] ordered thongs of raw hide to be brought, and Philip and Bartholomew and Mariamme to be beaten; and after they had been scourged with the thongs, he ordered their feet to be tied, and them to be dragged through the streets of the city as far as the gate of .... the idol of the viper by its priests until he should decide by what death he should destroy each of them."
[Nicanora's husband considered them an abomination, performing magic healing enchantments, and he especially wanted all to see Mariamne's indecency.] Excerpt: "Strip Philip and Bartholomew and Mariamme, and search thoroughly to try to find their enchantments. Having therefore first stripped Philip, then Bartholomew, they came also to Mariamme; ... . And he ordered Philip to be hanged, and his ankles to be pierced, and to bring also iron hooks, and his heels also to be driven through, and to be hanged head downwards, opposite the temple on a certain tree; and stretch out Bartholomew opposite Philip, having nailed his hands on the wall of the gate of the temple.... ... And when also they had stripped Mariamme, behold, straightway the semblance of her body was changed in the presence of all, and straightway there was about her a cloud of fire before all; and they could not longer look at all on the place in which the holy Mariamme was, but they all fled from her."
And in that very hour the abyss opened its mouth, and all that place was violently shaken, from the proconsul to all the multitude along with the priests; and they were all sunk down. And the places where the apostles and all who were with them remained unshaken..."
As you can see, this narrative provided plenty of material for me to write the fictional account of Apostle Mariamne on her missionary journey, transforming into a man and aiding Nicanora. I tell her story in my soon-to-be-released fiction: Finding Her Voice: A Novel of the Earliest Female Apostles.
Where Did Apostle Mariamne Go on Missionary Journeys?
The 13th-century historian Nikēphóros Callistus (6) described Mariamne as a companion of her brother Philip and the Apostle Bartholomew (also called Nathanael).
Bartholomew (son of Tolmai) is named in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Bartholomew is identified as Nathanael (7) in the Gospel of John.
Written during the reign of Emperor Trajan (AD 98 to 117), the non-canonical Acts of Philip describes Mariamne, Philip, and Bartholomew (8) travelling together as apostles. They went through the Roman provinces of Lydia and Phrygia. They preached in Hierapolis (in the province of Phrygia), where the people worshipped snakes and dragons. The three apostles did miracles and sent Echidna, the Mother of Monsters, into the underworld. A believer named Stachys hosted them, and many people came to the house of Stachys to listen to their teachings of Jesus. Philip's sister, Mariamne, sat at the entry of the house of Stachys and persuaded passersby to enter and listen to the apostles. ip
The Hierapolis city governor was a tyrant who accused the apostles of seducing his wife, Nicanora, when she declared her faith in Jesus. The three were sentenced to death. Philip was crucified on a cross upside down. An earthquake put a fissure in the earth and swallowed up the city governor and the pagan priests. Then people were afraid and rushed to take down the apostles from the crosses. They got Bartholomew down on time, but Philip had already died. Mariamne and Bartholomew buried Philip in Hierapolis and made Stachys the bishop of Hierapolis. Then Mariamne went to Lykaonia and later died in peace. Bartholomew went to India (9) and translated the Gospel of Matthew into the local language. Christians in India continue to celebrate Bartholomew, along with Thomas (10), the first apostle to take the good news to India.
Mariamne: "Apostolic Virgin"
According to the "Acts of Philip", these three apostles practiced celibacy and abstained from alcohol and meat; they were unmarried, celibate, sober, non-drinkers, and vegetarians. For Holy Communion, instead of bread and wine, they used vegetables and water. These practices may have begun in the first century, because by the second century, the sect of Encratites (meaning "self-controlled) was commonly known. This sect seems to be referenced in the Acts of Philip, which calls for charity, and in 1 Timothy 4:2-3, which calls out celibacy as a false teaching. This may be one of the reasons some think 1 Timothy was written in the second century (11).
The "Acts of Philip" is a 4th-century non-biblical text which describes Mariamne as part of an apostolic team with Philip and Bartholomew. She performed miracles, taught, and baptized. To represent new life at baptism, many baptisms by immersion were done in the nude, and propriety required women to baptize women. Mariamne had positions of authority comparable to men, and she served as a deacon and a priest.
Mariamne: Dressed as a Man
Mariamne wore men's clothing (12), perhaps to indicate she was not a sex object for men, to escape assault, and to keep her virginity. Perhaps she and Philip, and Bartholomew were part of a sect that believed celibacy was part of being faithful to God. Perhaps she wore men's clothing to affirm that she was not easily tempted, as Eve was, but resisted temptations. Perhaps she wore men's clothing to show that she had matured or evolved to be able to think conceptually and spiritually as a man can.
In the Act of Philip, Mariamne's gender is seen as an issue that could prevent her from travelling as an apostle. Adam Miller explains that for Mariamne to travel as an apostle, she must "remove her feminine clothing and character" (13). The text shows Jesus's approval, telling Mariamne, "I know that you are good and manly in soul and blessed among women... the masculine and manly thinking is in you." Her so-called masculine traits are divinely approved.
In the early 2nd to 4th century, philosophers thought that only the male gender had the capacity for critical thinking and analysis. Females were considered physically unable to understand spiritual concepts, but through Christ, they might mature to become like men. Theologian Jerome said that when a woman served Christ, she ceased to be a woman and would be called a man. Ambrose explained that as a woman matured, she may progress to perfect manhood. Adam Miller summarizes that being a woman was a problem (14) resolved through masculinization.
Can A Woman Become A Man?
Perpetua and Felicity (15) were martyrs in what is today Tunisia. Perpetua, a noblewoman, became a Christian and refused to call herself by any name other than Christian. At age 22, nursing a baby son, she was imprisoned together with her young, pregnant slave, Felicity. They were killed in AD 203.
"The Passions of St. Perpetua, St. Felicitas, and their Companions" was so popular that it was often read during church liturgy. In it, Perpetua describes her vision:
"I was stripped naked, and I became a man. And my supporters began to rub me with oil, as they are accustomed to do for a match." - translation by Thomas Heffernan (16).
How Do We Understand Perpetua's Vision?
Perptua physically transformed into a man.
Ambrose and Augustine emphasize the division between male and female, arguing that Perpetua was stripped naked to reveal the physical transformation of her body parts.
Perpetua's Soul Transforms to Male; Her Body Does Not
Adam Miller explains that in Perpetua's dream vision, her soul became male (17) in order to attain a stronger body to defeat the devil. Augustine argued that while Perpetua was asleep, she remained female, but in her dream, she overcame her weak femininity to become male, affirming Augustine's hierarchy of male over female. In Augustine's sermons, he warns against imitating Perpetua and against one sex imitating the other.
Perpetua physically transformed to become genderless.
Tertullian of Carthage suggested Perpetua became genderless, just as angels are neither male nor female.
Perpetua transcended gender
Margaret Cotter-Lynch puts forward a translation of Perpetua's description of her divine vision. Female pronouns reflect that Perpetua retains her female identity while acquiring male adjectives and characteristics. Perpetua does not physically transform into a male. A more accurate translation indicates that Perpetua remains a woman while acquiring the so-called male traits of logical and conceptual thinking. In other words, she becomes simultaneously male and female.
"I, as a woman, was made a thing which is male" - translation by Margaret Cotter-Lynch (18)
Cotter-Lynch says, "She does not cross gender boundaries; she eradicates them." In her vision, Perpetua was nursing her baby one moment (feminine) and fighting in hand-to-hand combat the next (masculine). Perpetua was at once both feminine and masculine.
Did Mariamne Transform Into a Man?
Did Mariamne become a man? Did she mature to have a "male soul"?
What about Thecla? Like Mariamne, in the "Acts of Paul and Thecla", Thecla left her fiancé and dressed as a man (19) and travelled with Paul. The Orthodox Church acknowledges Thecla as "equal to the apostles" (20) to recognize her outstanding service comparable to the Twelve apostles.
What about Joan of Arc? In the fifteenth century, the female military leader Joan of Arc adopted male clothing (21) because she lived among male soldiers and wanted the protection and respect that came with male clothing. Ancient records often portray a female saint transforming into a man.
Why Did Past Women Dress As Men?
Mariamne, Thecla, and Joan of Arc dressed as men because it was the only way that society would allow them to study, teach, preach, and lead. In the ancient world, women had to forego their feminine side to take on roles as evangelists and apostles. Adam Miller writes that female apostles and martyrs were "defeminized" (22).
I am reminded of the film Yentl, portraying a Jewish girl who studies religious scripture. Since studying theology is forbidden for girls, Yentl can only pursue her strong will to learn about her faith by disguising herself as a man. Yentle didn't want to become a male; she wanted to study. If society permitted women to study, she would not have tried to become a man.
In a similar way, the main character in The Pearl that Broke Its Shell is Rahima, a young Afghan girl who transforms into a boy in the ancient custom of the bacha posh. She dresses as a boy, cuts her hair, and is renamed. Once thus transformed, Rahima is treated like a boy, has the freedom to attend school, to shop at the market without an escort, and is prohibited from cooking or serving food. Once Rahima reaches puberty, she struggles with returning to the confines of womanhood. If society offered equal freedoms to men and women, Rahima would not have transformed into a boy.
What does it mean that "In Christ there is no more male and female"?
The Complementarians, who assert a male hierarchical reading of the Bible, say that God's original and permanent design is roles and functions that are distinct by gender. There is no difference in how males and females attain salvation; women are equal but separate.
The traditional Catholic view is that God's perfect design was gender equality, and that "the Fall" means men will rule over women until Christ returns and restores the original equality.
Egalitarian Christians tend to say that God's original design was for men and women to co-rule over creation and that there is no difference based on gender for salvation, roles, functions, gifts, responsibilities, or freedoms.
Another egalitarian view is that God created male and female as equal halves of a whole. Women are men are interdependent. They remain different, but their differences are irrelevant.
Ancient Jews taught that the first human in Genesis was both male and female, in God's image. In 1923, Christian missionary Katharine Bushnell wrote that this original human was androgyneous and reproduced asexually. Later, God separated the human into two people: Adam and Eve, and blessed them with the ability to reproduce by reuniting as one flesh.
Is there a way that both women and men could mature as Christians while retaining their masculinity and femininity? Can individual Christians become simultaneously male and female? I think that's what Paul meant when he wrote that in Christ, there is no more male and female.
Conclusion
Ancient writers believed females could mature into males. It's not that different from women today attempting to fit into a "man's world" by "acting like men" (1 Corinthians 16:13). Has the church valued traditional masculine traits of logic over traditional feminine traits of intuition? What happens when the church promotes the idea that only a man can have the authority to teach or lead? Women are left to either lose themselves in self-sacrifice, or lose their femininity and act like men, or leave the church. How much has the church lost by only honouring men or women who "act like men"?
I wonder if the rigid gender roles of today's evangelical Christianity might be contributing to gender dysphoria. What happens if a woman is told that females have low intelligence, can't do math, and are incapable of earning a decent income? Perhaps she believes she must distance herself from femininity in order to be the intelligent, capable, income-earner that she perceives inside herself. Perhaps she is forced to defeminize.
If she is taught that drive and ambition are male characteristics, then looks inside and sees her own drive, ambition, and a will to improve her circumstances, is it any wonder she feels like she is already a male on the inside? Has the church promoted the idea that a male soul is superior, and if a woman has abstract thinking capacity, or desires to be a religious overseer, she must have a "male soul"? Is that part of why they want overseers to be men?
If society honoured women and men the same, would it end the preference for boy babies over girl babies? If women and men had the same freedoms, would women stop trying to be like men? Would men stop trying to be like women? If we broke the rigid gender roles and saw all humans as having both male and female traits, perhaps we could accept ourselves as we are, as whole beings. We could be one society, undivided by us and them, unconcerned with being male and female.
Elaine Ricker Kelly Author is empowering women with historical fiction about women in the Bible and early church and Christian blogs about women in leadership, church history and doctrine. Her books include:
Forgotten Followers from Broken to Bold, Book 1, A Novel (2022)
The Sword: A Fun Way to Engage in Healthy Debate on What the Bible Says About a Woman's Role (2023)
Because She Was Called from Broken to Bold, Book 2, A Novel of the Early Church (2024)
Walk with Mara on Her Healing Journey: 21 Steps to Emotional Resilience (2024)
Finding Her Voice from Broken to Bold, Book 3, A Novel of the Earliest Female Apostles (coming October 2025)
Sources:
https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2023/02/17/100550-saint-mariamne-the-sister-of-the-apostle-philip
https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2023/02/17/100550-saint-mariamne-the-sister-of-the-apostle-philip
https://biblehub.com/library/unknown/the_acts_of_philip/the_acts_of_philip.htm
https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2018/02/17/100550-saint-mariamne-the-sister-of-the-apostle-philip
https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/0215/06/11/101690-apostle-bartholomew-of-the-twelve
https://asu.pressbooks.pub/gender-in-the-premodern-mediterranean/chapter/chapter-2/
https://asu.pressbooks.pub/gender-in-the-premodern-mediterranean/chapter/chapter-2/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-dressing,_gender_identity,_and_sexuality_of_Joan_of_Arc
https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2021/09/24/102715-protomartyr-and-equal-of-the-apostles-thekla
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-dressing,_gender_identity,_and_sexuality_of_Joan_of_Arc
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