. . . the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary. (Luke 1:26-27)

MARYMOTHER OF JESUS,MOTHER OF GOD

Part Ic: Who is Mary?

SEEKING MARY . . .

Next, in searching for understanding who Mary was, would be to search what we know about her natural life.

71 70 69 68 67 66 65 64 63 62 61 60 59 58 57 56 55 54 53 52 51

The birth of Josephin Bethlehem,a town of Judah,the city of David

BC

TIMELINE OF THE LIVES OF MARY AND JOSEPH

50 49 48 47 46 45 44 43 42 41 40 39 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31

Herod the Great becomes King of Judea

At 40,Joseph marries

Melcha or Escha

30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11

Birth of Mary to Anne and Joachimin Sepphoris

The Immaculate Conceptionof Mary in the womb of her

mother Anne

Herod the Great

Mary is offeredin the Temple Mary remains in the temple for nine years.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Annunciation of theAngel Gabriel to

Mary in Nazareth;Jesus’ Conception;

Herod the Greatd. 4

The BIRTH of Jesus in

Bethlehem of Judea

Engagement ofMary to Joseph

in Nazareth

Mary visits hercousin Elizabeth

in Jerusalem

Joseph takesthe pregnant Mary

as his wife

Caesar Augustus, Emperor,calls a census of the whole

world; Joseph and Marygo to Bethlehem

King Herod callsfor the killing of allmale children, two years old and younger

Joseph, Mary

and Jesusescape

to Egypt

Holy Familyreturns toNazareth

Passover trip toJerusalem with Joseph,

Mary and 12-year oldJesus

Archelaus, ethnarch of Samaria and JudeaAntipas (Herod Antipas) tetrach of Galilee and PereaPhilipp, tetrarch of Ituraea and Trachonitis

Annas, High Priest. Jerusalem

Pontius Pilate, procurator

Birth of Johnthe Baptist

Paul is bornin Tarsus

(12)

Josephwidowed

BC AD

11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

Antipas (Herod Antipas) tetrach of Galilee and PereaPhilipp, tetrarch of Ituraea and Trachonitis

Annas, High Priest. Jerusalem

Pontius Pilate, procurator

Joseph Caiaphas, High Priest

John the Baptistbegins his ministry

Pilate becomesProcurator of Judea

Jesus baptizedin the Jordan by John

Death ofJoseph90? 111?

(38)

J 26 27 28 29 30 31

Jesus baptizedin the Jordan

Jesus temptedin the desert by Satan

Jesus’ first miracleat Cana

Jesus talkswith theSamaritanwomanPeter, Andrew,James and Johnbecome Apostlesat Capernaum

Jesus beginspreaching in Galilee

Jesus chooses the final twelve

Jesus cures Peter’s mother-in-law

Jesus preaches theSermon on theMount

Jesus preaches theparables of theKingdomJesus calms the Seaof Galilee

Jairus’ daughterraised to life

John the Baptistmartyred

Jesus is transfiguredon Mt. Tabor inCaesarea Philippi

Jesus feeds 5000

Jesus walks of water

Peter confessesJesus is Messiah

Jesus visits Mary andMartha; raises Lazarus

Triumphal entryinto JerusalemJesus cleanses the TempleThe Last SupperGethsemane

Crucifixion anddeathResurrection

Ascension

Apparitions

Descent of theHoly Spirit

Jesus gives His Mother

to the Apostle Johnat Calvary

(49)

31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52

The Council ofJerusalem

The End of Mary’s Life;Her Assumption into Heaven;

in Ephesus with John?in Jerusalem?

John and Mary remain in Jerusalem

Persecution of the Churchby Herod Agrippa I begins

John goes to Ephesus;takes Mary with him

John is at the Council of Jerusalem

Herod Agrippa I dies44

Ephesus

Jerusalem

(66)(50) (60)

53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75

The Destruction ofthe Temple of Jerusalem

The Martyrdom ofSts Peter and Paul

at Rome

First Gospelwritten by

St. Mark

THE GOSPEL PORTRAIT OF JOSEPHMarriage to Mary

Redemptoris Custos, John Paul II,Apostolic Exhortation (August 15, 1989)

Matthew 1:20-21Joseph, Son of David, do not fear to take Mary your wife, for thatwhich is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit; she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.

Matthew 1:18Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit.

Luke 1:26-27The angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary.

Luke 1:30-32Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give to him thethrone of his father David.

The nature of this “marriage” is explained indirectly when Mary, after hearing what the messenger says about the birth of the child, asks,

Luke 1:34How can this be, since I do not know man?

The angel responds

Luke 1:35The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of theMost High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.

Although Mary is already “wedded” to Joseph, she will remain a virgin, because the child conceived in her at the Annunciation was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit.

At this point Luke's text coincides with Matthew 1:18 and serves toexplain what we read there. If, after her marriage to Joseph, Mary isfound to be with child of the Holy Spirit, this fact corresponds to allthat the Annunciation means, in particular to Mary's final words

Luke 1:38Let it be to me according to your word.

In these circumstances, Matthew 1:19

. . . her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to send her away quietly.

He did not know how to deal with Mary's “astonishing” motherhood.He certainly sought an answer to this unsettling question, but above allhe sought a way out of what was for him a difficult situation.

Matthew 1:20-21But as he considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared

to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit; she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

Joseph is visited by the messenger as “Mary's spouse,” as the one who indue time must give this name to the Son to be born of the Virgin ofNazareth who is married to him. It is to Joseph, then, that the messengerturns, entrusting to him the responsibilities of an earthly father withregard to Mary's Son.

Matthew 1:24When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took Mary as his wife.

He took her in all the mystery of her motherhood. He took her together with the Son who had come into the world by the power of the Holy Spirit. In this way he showed a readiness of will like Mary’s with regard to what God asked of him through the angel.

Matthew 2:13-19When they (the three Magi) had departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you. Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him.” Joseph rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed for Egypt.He stayed there until the death of Herod, that what the Lord had said through the prophet might be fulfilled, “Out of Egypt I called my son.” When Herod had died, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child's life are dead.” He rose, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was ruling over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go back there. And because he had been warned in a dream, he departed for the region of Galilee. He went and dwelt in a town called Nazareth, so that what had been spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, “He shall be called a Nazorean.”

1.   Rafah    2.   Al-Arish   3.   Farma   4.   Tal Basta   5.   Mostorod   6.   Belbeis   7.   Meniet Samanoud   8.   Sakha   9.   Wadi El-Natroun   10.  Ain Shams   11.  Matareya   12.  Zeitoun   13.  Zeweila Alley   14.  El-Ezbaweya   15.  The area of Old Cairo   16.  Babylon   17.  Maady   18.  Ashnein: El-Nasara & El-Garnous Monastery   19.  Bahnassa   20.  Samalout   21.  Gabal al Tair   22.  Hermapolis: Al-Ashmounein Town - Mallawy   23.  Daurout Um Makhla   24.  Beer El-Sahaba   25.  Kom Maria   26.  Tal El-Amarna   27.  Daurout   28.  Qoussia   29.  Meir   30.  Monastery Of Moharraq

 

While clearly affirming that Jesus was conceived by the power of the HolySpirit, and that virginity remained intact in the marriage (cf. Mt1:18-25; Lk 1:26-38), the evangelists refer to Joseph as Mary's husbandand to Mary as his wife (cf. Mt 1:16, 18-20, 24; Lk 1:27; 2:5).And while it is important for the Church to profess the virginalconception of Jesus, it is no less important to uphold Mary's marriage toJoseph, because juridically Joseph's fatherhood depends on it. Thus oneunderstands why the generations are listed according to the genealogy ofJoseph.

Luke 3:23, 28When Jesus began his ministry he was about thirty years of age. He was the son, as was thought, of Joseph, the son of Heli, . . .. . . the son of Enos, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.

Matthew 1:1, 16The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham became the father of Isaac, . . . . . . Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary. Of her was born Jesus who is called the Messiah.

MARY AND JOSEPH

The Protoevangelium of James

“And behold, an angel of the Lord stood by [St. Anne], saying, ‘Anne! Anne! The Lord has heard your prayer, and you shall conceive and shall bring forth, and your seed shall be spoken of in all the world.’ And Anne said, ‘As the Lord my God lives, if I beget either male or female, I will bring it as a gift to the Lord my God, and it shall minister to him in the holy things all the days of its life.’ . . . And [from the time she was three] Mary was in the temple of the Lord as if she were a dove that dwelt there” (Protoevangelium of James 4, 7 [A.D. 120]).

The birth, education, and marriage of the Blessed Virgin are described in the first eleven chapters and these are the source of various traditions current among the faithful. They are of value in indicating the veneration paid to Mary at a very early age.

In Apocryphal Writings

“And when she was twelve years old there was held a council of priests, saying, ‘Behold, Mary has reached the age of twelve years in the temple of the Lord. What then shall we do with her, lest perchance she defile the sanctuary of the Lord?’ And they said to the high priest, ‘You stand by the altar of the Lord; go in and pray concerning her, and whatever the Lord shall manifest to you, that also will we do.’ . . . [A]nd he prayed concerning her, and behold, an angel of the Lord stood by him saying, ‘Zechariah! Zechariah! Go out and assemble the widowers of the people and let them bring each his rod, and to whomsoever the Lord shall show a sign, his wife shall she be. . . . And Joseph [was chosen]. . . . And the priest said to Joseph, ‘You have been chosen by lot to take into your keeping the Virgin of the Lord.’ But Joseph refused, saying, ‘I have children, and I am an old man, and she is a young girl’” (8–9).

It is the “Protoevangelium” which first tells that Mary was the miraculous offspring of Joachim and Anna, previously childless; that when three years old the child was taken to the Temple and dedicated to its service, in fulfillment of her parents’ vow.

When Mary was twelve Joseph was chosen by the high-priest as her spouse in obedience to a miraculous sign--a dove coming out of his rod and resting on his head.

While our first knowledge of Joseph comes from the Bible, it is not difficult to see that the Scriptures make no mention or implication of Joseph's advanced age, or other similar details. Such particulars are imaginatively supplied by certain apocryphal writings.

Though non-canonical and never considered historical by the Church, such writings have had a great influence on popular devotion. Their content has entered into preaching, art, liturgy, and even patristic writings, though the latter have by and large employed a quite critical approach to them.

“And Annas the scribe came to him [Joseph] . . . and saw that Mary was with child. And he ran away to the priest and said to him, ‘Joseph, whom you did vouch for, has committed a grievous crime.’ And the priest said, ‘How so?’ And he said, ‘He has defiled the virgin whom he received out of the temple of the Lord and has married her by stealth’” (15).

“And the priest said, ‘Mary, why have you done this? And why have you Brought your soul low and forgotten the Lord your God?’ . . . And she wept bitterly saying, ‘As the Lord my God lives, I am pure before him, and know not man’” (15).

Origen (248 AD) (185-254)“The Book [the Protoevangelium] of James [records] that the brethren of Jesus were sons of Joseph by a former wife, whom he married before Mary. Now those who say so wish to preserve the honor of Mary in virginity to the end, so that body of hers which was appointed to minister to the Word . . . might not know intercourse with a man after the Holy Spirit came into her and the power from on high overshadowed her.” (Commentary on Matthew 2:17).

Other apocryphal works draw freely on the Story of James, adding their own embellishments.

Among these are The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew which includes legends of the stay in Egypt, The Syriac-Arabic Infancy Gospel, The Armenian Infancy Gospel, and the Liber de Infantia Salvatoris. The Infancy Story of Thomas recounts numerous bizarre miracles worked by the child Jesus. The resulting composite story has Joseph as a carpenter who makes plows, yokes, other wooden tools for cultivation, and also wooden beds. At the age of 40 he marries Melcha or Escha, and during their 49 years of marriage he has four sons and two daughters, whose names are given. It is after he has been widowed for a year that the episode occurs with his staff blossoming and the dove flying out of it, thus indicating that he is divinely chosen for the twelve year old Mary.

The annunciation takes place two years later. At Bethlehem, Joseph is out searching for a midwife when the baby is born miraculously without Mary losing her virginity.

A final apocryphal work to be mentioned is The Story of Joseph the Carpenter, which treats of Joseph's last days. Strong and alert until the age of 111, he confesses his sinfulness on his deathbed and is consoled by Jesus and Mary.

Jesus beckons the archangels Michael and Gabriel to come take his soul, And his body is buried in the family grave. Recent studies indicate that this work dates from the beginning of the second century, and was used liturgically by Judeo-Christians at his tomb at Nazareth for the anniversary of his death, until the Jews were expelled from Nazareth and took it with them into Egypt.

The End ofMary the Series, Who Is Mary?, Part Ic

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