Christian Apocrypha: Mary as a Kid

#51: “Christian Apocrypha: Mary as a Kid” by Brendon Wahlberg
Previously, this column has taken a look at a few ancient Christian writings which did not make it into the New Testament, such as the “Acts of Peter”, the “Shepherd of Hermas”, “The Acts of Paul”, and the “Infancy Gospel of Thomas”. All of these writings were once popular, but when it came to including them in the Christian canon, the Church fathers judged that they were written well after the Apostolic age, and rejected them. But just because something was left out of the New Testament collection, that does not mean it was not a widely read or even a beloved book. This month, we will look at just such a document, the “Protoevangelion of James”, a story of the childhood of Mary, the mother of Jesus. This “proto-gospel” was the beginning of the veneration of Mary, and it inspired artists and the faithful for many centuries.
Although it has had several titles, this story of Mary is often called a “proto-gospel” because the events it described take place mostly before any of the events in the canonical gospels, Mark, Luke, Matthew, and John. And, although the name of James (the Just), the brother of Jesus, is attached to the proto-gospel, it was not written by James. The proto-gospel clearly quotes and builds upon Matthew and Luke, and those two gospels were written after James died in 62CE. The consensus is that the proto-gospel was written in James’ name around 150CE. It was acceptable for religious writings to have the name of a prophet or an apostle attached to them. It was not forgery, but a way to lend the writing a kind of authority in the tradition of the person named. So, although the real James might well have been in a position to know the details of Mary’s youth, the stories found in the proto-gospel are probably fictional, yet still intended to teach essential spiritual lessons to the faithful.
The main point of the proto-gospel is that Mary was chosen by God to be the mother of Jesus because Mary was pure. How pure was she? She was so extraordinarily pure, that not only was she a virgin when she conceived Jesus, she also remained a virgin forever more. To make this point, the proto-gospel has to assert that the brothers and sisters of Jesus, mentioned in the New Testament, were the children of Joseph from a previous marriage, and that Joseph was much older than Mary. It was this teaching that led to the decline of the proto-gospel. The Catholic Church taught instead that James and the others were Jesus’ cousins, and discouraged reading of the proto-gospel.
James begins by introducing the parents of Mary, who are not named in the New Testament. Joachim is a very rich man in Israel who is distressed that he does not have a child. He goes out to the wilderness to fast and pray. His wife Anna also laments her childlessness. The people around her believe that God has cursed her with barrenness. Praying in her garden, she hears an angel say, “You will conceive and give birth, and your child will be talked about all over the world.” And Anna said, “As the Lord God lives, whether I give birth to a boy or a girl, I’ll offer it as a gift to the Lord my God, and it will serve him its whole life.” In other words, Anna’s child will be a ward of the Temple, living and serving there always. Another angel has spoken to Joachim; he returns from the wilderness, and the couple is reunited in joy.
Mary is born nine months later. When the infant Mary is six months old, Anna puts her on the ground to see if she can stand. Mary walks seven steps to her mother’s arms, and Anna picks her up, saying, “…you will never walk on this ground again until I take you into the temple of the Lord.” Mary’s bedroom becomes a pure sanctuary. Nothing unclean is allowed in there – neither unclean food nor defiled people. On her first birthday, Mary is presented at her home to visiting priests from the Temple, who ask God to “look on this child and bless her with the ultimate blessing, one which cannot be surpassed.”
When Mary is two, Joachim suggests that it is time to give her to the Temple, but Anna decides to wait until Mary is three, so that she will be better able to leave her mother and father. At age three, Mary does go to the Temple, where a priest greets her, saying, “In you the Lord will disclose his redemption to the people of Israel during the last days.” Set down on the steps of the altar, Mary happily dances. Her parents leave her there to live, fulfilling their promise to God. Mary is raised near the Holy of Holies, and she is fed by angels.
However, when Mary is twelve and about to begin menstruation, the priests realize that she cannot stay any longer without polluting the sanctuary. God tells the high priest Zechariah to find a ward for Mary among the widowers of Israel. A miraculous sign helps to choose a carpenter named Joseph from the crowd. “Joseph,” the high priest said, “you’ve been chosen by lot to take the virgin of the Lord into your care and protection.” But Joseph objected: “I already have sons and I’m an old man; she’s only a young woman.” The proto-gospel is different from the canonical gospels in making Joseph an old man, a widower, and the ward of Mary instead of her husband. Joseph, afraid of being punished for disobeying God, takes Mary to be protected at his home while he is away building houses.
Mary spends her time spinning thread for a new curtain for the Temple. An angel appears to her at age sixteen, saying, “You’ve found favor in the sight of the Lord of all. You will conceive by means of his word.” Mary asks, “Will I also give birth the way women usually do?” The angel answers, “No, Mary, because the power of God will overshadow you. Therefore, the child to be born will be called holy, son of the most high.” In this way, the proto-gospel assures the reader that Mary will remain a virgin even after giving birth.
Joseph returns home to find Mary six months pregnant. He believes that someone has violated her and impregnated her. But an angel tells Joseph in a dream that the child is from the Holy Spirit. The scribe Annas reports to the high priest that Joseph is responsible for violating the virgin in his care, and both Mary and Joseph are put on trial. Both claim innocence. So the high priest administers a mysterious test, giving them a ritual drink and sending them to the wilderness. They both pass the test by returning unharmed, proving that they have not sinned.
Joseph and his sons, and Mary, travel to Bethlehem to enroll in a census, and along the way, Mary goes into labor. They find privacy in a nearby cave, where Mary gives birth to Jesus. At the moment of birth, Joseph is amazed to see time and nature standing still. He enlists the aid of a Hebrew midwife from the hill country, who witnesses an intense light in the cave and then sees the infant Jesus. The midwife tells a woman named Salome that a virgin has given birth. Much like “doubting” Thomas, Salome declares that she must insert her finger into Mary in order to believe it. But when she does so, her hand is consumed by flames. Salome begs for forgiveness for her disbelief. An angel tells Salome to pick up Jesus. Salome says, “I’ll worship him because he’s been born to be king of Israel,” and she is healed.
The birth of Jesus in a cave is an interesting departure from the canonical gospels. In the proto-gospel, when astrologers visit Jesus with gifts, they visit him in the cave. The manger (from Luke) only comes into the story when Mary, hearing that Herod is killing infants, hides Jesus in a feeding trough to keep him safe. Some Christian artists in the Middle Ages depicted Jesus being born in a cave, thanks to this non-canonical gospel. Some artists have even combined the accounts of Luke and James by placing the manger inside a cave.
The proto-gospel of James was based on a combination of the gospels of Matthew and Luke, but it has its own unique character. This gospel marked the beginning of the veneration of Mary. Mary was chosen by God, this gospel says, because she remained pure throughout her childhood, at home and in the Temple, and pure later on as well. James does not have the Immaculate Conception, but he does have Mary as a perpetual virgin.
The proto-gospel’s focus on purity and virginity may arise out of the religious concerns at the time it was written, in the second century. Sexual self control and chastity were valued by many Christians. Another example of a chaste heroine from that time period is Thecla, from the story of “Paul and Thecla”. But Mary surpasses everyone else in purity.
James may also have been written as part of an ongoing defense of Christianity against the attacks of a second century anti-Christian Roman writer named Celcus. The historian Origen wrote about Celcus’ argument against the virgin birth. According to Origen, Celcus “accuses Him [Jesus] of having “invented his birth from a virgin,” and upbraids Him with being “born in a certain Jewish village, of a poor woman of the country, who gained her subsistence by spinning, and who was turned out of doors by her husband, a carpenter by trade, because she was convicted of adultery; that after being driven away by her husband, and wandering about for a time, she disgracefully gave birth to Jesus, an illegitimate child.” The proto-gospel of James almost seems like it was designed to refute all of those attacks, and to defend Mary.