Mary, mother of Jesus

• 1. Introduction

  ›

  Mary of Nazareth, a first-century Jewish woman, became the most venerated figure in the history of Christianity. Her name in the original Aramaic was Maryam or Mariam, and the English form derives ultimately from the Greek Μαρία. She is revered not only by Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Christians but by Muslims, who know her as Maryam and consider her the greatest woman in history. She appears in the Bahai and Druze faiths as well. What makes Mary so compelling across so many traditions is not simply that she bore a celebrated child. It is that her life, as recorded in fragmentary ancient sources, generated centuries of fierce theological debate, elaborate devotional practice, spectacular art, and contested doctrines. How was she conceived? Did she remain a virgin throughout her life? Was her body taken bodily into heaven? And what exactly does it mean that a first-century woman from Galilee became, in the words of one Orthodox theologian, the centre of the Apostolic Church, invisible but real? The answers depend entirely on which tradition you ask.

• 2. Names and Titles

  ›

  In Greek manuscripts of the New Testament, her name appears in two forms: Μαρία and Μαριάμ, both of which are present in the text. The sheer number of titles that accumulated around her name over the centuries is itself a measure of her significance. In Christianity she is called the Blessed Virgin Mary, often abbreviated BVM from the Latin Beata Maria Virgo, the Mother of God, the Theotokos, Our Lady, and the Queen of Heaven. That last title had previously been used for goddesses including Isis and Ishtar, which gives some sense of the theological weight it carried when applied to her. The Eastern Orthodox tradition uses three principal titles: Theotokos, meaning God-bearer; Aeiparthenos, meaning ever-virgin, a designation confirmed at the Second Council of Constantinople in 553; and Panagia, meaning all-holy. The title Theotokos was formally recognized at the Council of Ephesus in 431, where the assembled Church Fathers declared that they did not hesitate to call the holy Virgin the Mother of God. In Latin, the same idea was rendered as Mater Dei. In Islam, her principal honorific is Sayyidatuna, meaning Our Lady, directly parallel to Sayyiduna, meaning Our Lord, used for the prophets. She is also called Tahira, meaning one who has been purified, a title tied to the belief that she and Jesus alone were not touched by Satan at birth. The Quran refers to her as the daughter of Imran and, metaphorically, as the sister of Aaron and Moses, a figure of speech the prophet Muhammad himself explained as a naming link to Miriam of the Hebrew Bible.

• 3. Ancient Sources

  ›

  The canonical Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles are the primary historical sources for Mary, and scholars generally date the synoptic Gospels and Acts to around AD 66-90, while the Gospel of John dates from AD 90-110. The earliest New Testament reference to Mary, however, is not in a gospel at all. It comes from the epistle to the Galatians, written before any gospel, and even there she is not named: God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law. The Gospel of Luke names her twelve times, all within the infancy narrative spanning Luke 1:27 through 2:34. Matthew names her five times. Mark names her once, at 6:3. John never uses her name at all, referring only to the mother of Jesus. The only text in the canonical gospels in which the adult Jesus has a conversation with Mary is John 2:1-12, at the wedding at Cana. There, he does not call her mother but woman, a form of address that in Koine Greek was not disrespectful and could even be tender. After the Ascension, Acts 1:14 makes her the only person besides the eleven apostles identified by name as being gathered in the upper room. Beyond the canonical texts, the Gospel of James adds that she was the daughter of Joachim and Anne, that her mother had previously been barren, and that Mary was given to the Temple as a consecrated virgin at age three. The Gospel of James also states she was 12-14 at the time of her betrothal to Joseph and 16-17 during her pregnancy. The earliest extended biographical writing about her is the Life of the Virgin, attributed to the 7th-century saint Maximus the Confessor. Hyppolitus of Thebes, writing in the 7th or 8th century, placed her death in 41 AD, some 11 years after the death of her son.

• 4. The Annunciation and Birth of Jesus

  ›

  Mary was living in her own house in Nazareth, likely with her parents, and was in the first stage of Jewish marriage, betrothal, when the angel Gabriel told her she would conceive through the Holy Spirit. Jewish girls were considered marriageable at twelve years and six months, though the actual age of the bride varied. After betrothal, a bride legally belonged to the bridegroom but did not live with him until roughly a year later, when the marriage was completed. Mary's initial response to Gabriel was incredulity; her final answer was I am the handmaid of the Lord, let it be done unto me according to your word. Joseph, upon learning of the pregnancy, planned a quiet divorce until an angel told him in a dream that the conception was by the Holy Spirit and instructed him to take Mary as his wife. He did so, formally completing the wedding rites. Mary then travelled to visit her relative Elizabeth, who was miraculously pregnant despite having previously been barren, living with her husband Zechariah in the hill country in a city of Juda. When Mary arrived and greeted her, Elizabeth called her the mother of my Lord. Mary responded with the words later known as the Magnificat. After about three months, she returned home. According to Luke, a Roman census ordered by Emperor Augustus required Joseph to travel to Bethlehem, and there Mary gave birth. Because there was no room at the inn, she used a manger as a cradle. Eight days later the child was circumcised and named Jesus, meaning Yahweh is salvation. After a further 33 days, completing 40 days of purification, Mary brought her burnt offering and sin offering to the Temple in Jerusalem, as required by Jewish law. According to Matthew, magi from eastern regions came to worship the child; Joseph was then warned in a dream that King Herod planned to kill the infant, and the family fled to Egypt, remaining there until Herod's death in 4 BC.

• 5. Theological Fault Lines

  ›

  Whether Mary had children after Jesus is one of the oldest theological disputes in Christianity. The Gospel of Matthew says Joseph had no sexual relations with Mary until her son was born, and the word until has generated sustained scholarly analysis. Three distinct positions emerged. Epiphanius, Origen, and Eusebius held that the brothers of Jesus were sons of Joseph from a prior marriage. The Eastern Orthodox churches still hold this position. Jerome taught they were cousins, children of Mary's sister, and this remains the official Roman Catholic position. Helvidius argued they were full siblings born to Mary and Joseph after Jesus, which has become the most common Protestant position. The four Marian dogmas in Catholic teaching are: her status as Theotokos; perpetual virginity; the Immaculate Conception; and the bodily Assumption into Heaven. The virgin birth was confirmed at the First Council of Nicaea in 325 and is accepted across Catholic, Orthodox, and most Protestant churches. The title Theotokos was settled at the Council of Ephesus in 431. Perpetual virginity was confirmed at the Second Council of Constantinople in 553. The Immaculate Conception, the doctrine that Mary was conceived without original sin, was proclaimed ex cathedra by Pope Pius IX in 1854 via the encyclical Ineffabilis Deus; the liturgical feast falls on the 8th of December. The Assumption was formally defined as dogma by Pope Pius XII in 1950 in Munificentissimus Deus. Orthodox Christians reject the Immaculate Conception principally because their understanding of ancestral sin differs from the Augustinian interpretation; they celebrate instead the Dormition, in which Mary dies a natural death before her body is assumed. The vocabulary of veneration also divides traditions: Catholic theology uses the term hyperdulia for Marian veneration, latria for the worship of God, and dulia for other saints. This three-level hierarchy goes back to the Second Council of Nicaea in 787.

• 6. Mary Across Faiths

  ›

  The Quran names Mary more than any other woman in the text, mentioning or referring to her a total of 50 times. An entire sura, the 19th, is titled Maryam, making her the only woman after whom a chapter of the Quran is named. The Islamic scripture contains the divine promise to Mary: O Mary, surely Allah has selected you, purified you, and chosen you over all women of the world. In Islamic tradition, Mary and Jesus alone were protected from Satan at the moment of their birth, with God imposing a veil between them and Satan. The most detailed Quranic accounts of the annunciation and Jesus's birth are in suras 3 and 19, and the account in sura 19 parallels the Gospel of Luke so closely that both texts begin with the visitation of an angel to Zakariya and news of the birth of Yahya (John), followed by the annunciation to Mary. In the Bahai faith, the primary theological work, the Kitab-i-Iqan, describes her as that most beauteous countenance and that veiled and immortal Countenance. The Druze faith, though distinct from both mainstream Islam and Christianity, holds Mary, known as Sayyida Maryam, in high regard. In regions where Druze and Christians share territory, including parts of Lebanon, Syria, and Israel, veneration of Mary has reflected a blend of traditions. Historical records by authors including Pierre-Marie Martin and Glenn Bowman show that Druze leaders sought her intercession before battles. Shared pilgrimage sites include the Our Lady of Saidnaya Monastery in Saidnaya, the Our Lady of Lebanon shrine in Harrisa, and the Stella Maris Monastery in Haifa.

• 7. Devotion Through the Centuries

  ›

  The oldest known prayer addressed to Mary, the Sub tuum praesidium, dates to the 3rd century, perhaps around the year 270. Its text was rediscovered in 1917 on a papyrus found in Egypt. According to some sources, Theonas of Alexandria consecrated one of the first holy places dedicated to her in the late 3rd century. Following the Edict of Milan in 313, larger churches began to be dedicated to Mary, including the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. After the Council of Ephesus in 431, the Church of the Seat of Mary in Judea was built in 456 by a widow named Ikelia. Marian devotion was furthered during the Byzantine era by Queen Theodora in the 6th century. In the 4th century, the heresiologist Epiphanius of Salamis documented the sect of Collyridianism, found throughout Arabia, in which women performed priestly acts and made bread offerings to Mary. Mary's popularity surged dramatically from the 12th century, tied to the Catholic Church's designation of her as Mediatrix. After the growth of Marian devotions in the 16th century, Catholic saints produced books such as Glories of Mary and True Devotion to Mary. Following the Council of Trent in the 16th century, Marian veneration became more closely associated with Catholic identity, and Protestant interest declined during the Age of Enlightenment. The Anglican Society of Mary was formed in 1931 and maintains chapters in many countries. Anglican pilgrimages to Our Lady of Lourdes have taken place since 1963; pilgrimages to Our Lady of Walsingham extend back for hundreds of years. In 2005, Anglican and Catholic theologians produced a joint document informally called the Seattle Statement, formally titled Mary: grace and hope in Christ, which its authors described as the beginning of a joint understanding, though it was not formally endorsed by either church. Five of the twelve Great Feasts in Eastern Orthodoxy are dedicated to Mary, and one of the most beloved Orthodox hymns, the Akathist Hymn, is devoted entirely to her.

• 8. Art, Debate, and Legacy

  ›

  Justin Martyr, writing his Dialogue with Trypho sometime between 155 and 167, was among the first to draw a systematic parallel between Eve and Mary: where the virgin Eve brought disobedience and death by heeding the word of the serpent, the Virgin Mary received faith and joy by heeding Gabriel and said be it unto me according to thy word. Irenaeus, bishop of Lyon, extended this contrast in Against Heresies around the year 182, writing that what the virgin Eve had bound fast through unbelief, this did the virgin Mary set free through faith. In the 2nd century, the pagan philosopher Celsus wrote in The True Word that Jesus was the illegitimate son of a Roman soldier named Panthera. The Church Father Origen dismissed this as a complete fabrication in his treatise Against Celsus. Medieval Jewish readers encountered a different account of Mary in the Toledot Yeshu, a text scholars consider unlikely to predate the 4th century and which Robert Van Voorst has described as most unlikely to contain reliable historical information. Copies of the Talmud were burnt by court order after the 1240 Disputation for allegedly containing material defaming the character of Mary. In the visual arts, no image permeates Catholic tradition as thoroughly as the Madonna and Child. The most venerated icon in the Orthodox Church is the Virgin Theotokos with Christ. Mary has been a central subject in Byzantine, medieval, and Renaissance art. Martin Luther, who preached on Marian themes verbosely and with, as one account put it, a range from childlike piety to sophisticated polemics, wrote that Mary is full of grace, proclaimed to be entirely without sin. Yet his final sermon, delivered at Wittenberg only a month before his death, warned against calling upon Mary as an intercessor in place of Christ alone. John Calvin, who honored Mary as the Mother of Christ, nonetheless firmly rejected the idea that she could intercede between Christ and humanity. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, before becoming Pope Benedict XVI, wrote that it is necessary to go back to Mary if we want to return to that truth about Jesus Christ. The earliest extended life of Mary, the Life of the Virgin attributed to Maximus the Confessor in the 7th century, portrayed her not as a background figure but as a key element of the early Christian Church after the death of Jesus.