Summary & Reflection (26th January)

The Virgin Mary in the New Testament

Fred Njuguna

The Nativity of Mary

Having looked at how Mary is viewed with the eye of the Old Testament, we have to analyze also how she is viewed in the New Testament. From what is written, we hardy know historically, as a person, who Mary of Nazareth really is. Mindful though, we need to be attentive since witness in the New Testament is quite diverse. We can chronologically trace the knowledge of Mary in the New Testament writings according to the time the books were written. Starting from the letter of Saint Paul to the Galatians till the book of Revelation we can deduce information concerning who Mary the mother of Jesus was.

Saint Paul’s letter to the Galatians was written around 54/55 AD. The letter was written while Paul was at Ephesus a place where Mary was said to have lived out her life. It was the same place where she gained the title Theotokos. The main theme of the letter is to teach Christian freedom in regard to observance of the prescription of the Mosaic Law. Paul firmly proclaims Christian freedom, by explaining the redemptive value of Christ’s passion, accessible to Christians through faith and baptism. In the letter, Paul, without mentioning the name of Mary, explicitly refers to a Jewish woman giving birth to the Messiah under the Law of Judaism. In the text, Paul excludes all “spiritualizing” tendencies by putting it clearly to mean that the birth from a woman guarantees the true humanity and historicity of the crucified and risen Lord Jesus. Nonetheless, Paul never met the family of Jesus. He experienced Jesus on the way to Damascus and did not have any contact with Mary. He is hardly concerned with the reflection of Mary in the letter since his focus was preaching Jesus Christ the Crucified and risen.

The gospel of Mark was written around 65AD. It is the first gospel to mention Mary. It talks of Jesus’ relatives, and his mother seeking to fetch him back home. They seek to rescue him to safeguard the family’s reputation. Jesus however offsets family ties, and spiritualizes the whole situation by placing emphasis on doing the will of God. Jesus does not exclude his natural family, the passage in Mark has been studied and scholars came up with the ideas of showing clearly who really makes up the eschatological family of God. Jesus is considered to as the ‘son of Mary’ and that he had blood brothers and sisters. Mark present Mary as a devout mother concerned about the welfare of her family, reputation and above all, her son Jesus.

The gospel of Mathew in a special emphasis uses genealogy to legitimize Jesus and place him within Judaism aiming at showing how redemption was foreseen from the beginning and Jesus’ birth bringing completion Abraham’s and David’s promise. The names of five women, including Mary are highlighted. Among the many interpretations given as to why they are mentioned, the one that seem most appropriate is that all women, including Mary are considered to be in an unusual marital relationship; there is something irregular in their union with their partners. By finally including Mary in the ancestry, a woman instead of a man, Mathew clearly sets in the mystery of the virginal maternity of Mary, and implicitly the mystery of the very divinity of Jesus. Mathew refers to the divine origin of Jesus in the conception narrative. The begetting of the Jesus was not ascribed to Joseph precisely because the truth that Jesus was conceived virginally by Mary through the work of the Holy Spirit. This was held as patrimony of faith in the apostolic community. The mission of Joseph was to take Mary and adopt Jesus; this was to make him the son of David. The angel’s revelation manifests the true identity of Jesus in the gospel of Mathew.