By John A. Huffman, Jr.
Meet Mary the mother of Jesus.
Few persons, if any, have been more frequently eulogized in portrait and statuary. Our usual image of her ranges from medieval or renaissance Madonna-and-child portrait -- with golden halo arching her head -- to the rugged realism of Michaelangelo's Pieta in St. Peter's Cathedral. There, as a broken-hearted mother three-decades-plus later, she holds the limp body of her crucified Son prostrate in her arms.
Let's try to move beyond these immediate mental images of this woman to a thoughtful growing acquaintance with her.
The Bible gives us some background. It describes a devout, Jewish girl, perhaps in her mid-teens, betrothed to Joseph, a carpenter from Nazareth. Betrothal in the Bible differs considerably from modern engagements. It was an act preliminary to marriage. It implied a commitment almost as binding as marriage itself. Its dissolution involved at least a formal divorce.
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Betrothed persons were referred to as husband and wife and were to be completely faithful to each other. Any violation of the betrothed state was treated as adultery. And, according to the Old Testament Law, it could result in death for the offender.
The permanency and faithfulness within the betrothal bond are pictured in God's relation to Israel. In
Hosea 2:19 God talks about betrothing Himself to Israel in faithfulness. Mary and Joseph's betrothal called for a solemn oral commitment in the presence of witnesses with an added financial pledge or a written pledge that would conclude with a benediction. Cohabitation was strongly disapproved by the rabbis.
We don't know too much about her background. There is a second-century apocryphal infancy narrative called the Protoevangelium which literally means "first Gospel" of James. This book is not included in the New Testament Canon. How reliable it is in its facts we do not know. However, this early second-century history says that Mary was the child of elderly parents, Joachim and Anna, who lived in Jerusalem. This would accord with her priestly family connections noted in
Luke 1:36, which describes her as a relative of Elizabeth who was of the lineage of Aaron, the brother of Moses. By the sixth century the Roman Emperor Justinian built a basilica at Constantinople in honor of her mother. Both her parents were and are commemorated in eastern Christendom from medieval times.
There is another tradition supported by two references in early apocryphal Christian writings to "Mary the Galilean." This tradition gives her birthplace as Sepphoris in Galilee.
The greatest weight of early church tradition would incline us to think that Mary went from Jerusalem to live at Nazareth. Various buildings have been built on sites associated with Mary and her history. There is the Church of St. Anne, closely linked with the Pool of Bethsheba in Jerusalem. This church gives tribute to her mother.