The Bible is a little sparse on Mary’s background. Fortunately, there are some non-canonical ancient literature that show even the ancients were interested in knowing more about Mary (and other things).

My favourite has always been the Gospel of the Birth of Mary. But there is also the Protevangelium – The Infancy Gospel of James –claimed to have been written by Jesus’ stepbrother, James. and one I only discovered a few weeks ago, the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew.

Below is my retelling and embellishment of the back-story on Mary, the Mother of God (mostly based on the narrative contained within the Gospel of the Birth of Mary.

In Israel, in Galilee, in the city of Nazareth, there lived a righteous man by the name of Joachim with his wife Anna. Their lives were plain and right in the sight of the Lord, pious and faultless before men.

They divided all they had into three parts. The first they offered to God, to His priests and to His temples; the second they distributed to the widows, the orphans and the poor; the remaining third they kept for their own use.

For twenty years, they lived this way, in the favour of God, with the esteem of their neighbours and the shame of being barren. They vowed that if God should favour them with children, they would devote them to the service of the Lord.

Each year, at the time of the Feast of the Lord¹, Joachim went up to Jerusalem to bring his offering to the Lord. As Joachim stood with the other men of Israel, preparing his offering to the Lord, the high-priest, Issachar approached him and said loudly, “It is not lawful for you to stand among the righteous of Israel and make offerings to God, because God has not blessed you with a son for Israel.”

Joachim answered, “Since before I was married, I have always offered generously to the Lord and He has rewarded me with fertile flocks. I have always given generously to those in need; there is none who would blame me.”

Issachar reproached him even more loudly, “How can you presume your offerings are acceptable to God, when He has judged you unworthy to have children?”

Joachim’s tribesmen and the men of the other tribes rose to his defense saying, “He has always done right by the Lord and by men.” Issachar silenced their protests by quoting scripture, “Cursed is everyone who does not beget a male for Israel.”² Then turning to Joachim he added, “Until you have born some offspring, your offerings are an abomination to the Lord.”

Being shamed before the men of Israel, he withdrew from the temple of the Lord, weeping. He did not return home for fear of being similarly reproached by his own kinsmen and retired into the mountains with his flocks.

When Anna heard what had happened to her husband in Jerusalem she waited for him to return. After forty days, when he did not return and none knew where he had gone Anna turned to the Lord with tears and cried out, “O Lord, most mighty and holy God of Israel, was it not enough that you should withhold children from me, must you also take away my husband?” She threw herself to the ground and wept.

As Anna poured her sorrows into the dust of the Earth, the angel of the Lord appeared saying, “Why do you weep?”

Anna replied, “I have been cursed by the Lord to be barren and I fear my husband is dead.”

The angel said, “I am the angel of the Lord and I have been sent to tell you that God has heard your prayers and born witness to your charity and He has been greatly pleased. Know that you shall bear a child for Israel, a girl named Mary who shall be blessed above all women.”

Anna replied, “I am past the age of child bearing. Even if I was not, I fear my husband is dead, destroyed by wild beasts, beginning the one named Issachar.”

The angel answered, “Sarah conceived in her ninetieth year and gave rise to a nation as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sand in the sea. Go, therefore, to Jerusalem, and, there, by the Golden Gate, as a sign that what I have told you is true, you shall meet your husband, of whose safety you have been concerned.”

At the same time, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joachim as he tended his flocks in the mountain and said, “Why do you not return to your wife?”

Joachim replied, “I have been with her for twenty years and it has not pleased God to give me children by her. I have been driven away from the temple of the Lord by my own people, why should I go back to her when I am an outcast and utterly despised by my own people? Here I shall remain with my sheep for as long as the Lord grants me life.”

The angle said, “I am the angel of the Lord sent to you that I might tell you that your prayers have been heard, and your alms ascended to God.

“God has seen your shame, and heard you unjustly reproached for not having children. God is the avenger of sin, and not its cause. So when he shuts the womb of any person, he does it for this reason: that he may in a more wonderful manner open it, and that which is born is seen not as the product of lust, but as a gift of God.

“Your wife, Anna, shall bear a child, a daughter named Mary who shall be blessed above all women. For the first three years she shall live in your house. Afterwards, as you have promised in prayer, she shall be devoted to the service of the Lord and shall not leave the temple until the time of her betrothal. She shall serve the Lord in prayer and fasting; she shall abstain from every unclean thing, and never know any man; being without pollution or defilement or any kind, and a virgin, she shall bring forth the Saviour of the world.

“Go, therefore, to Jerusalem, and as a sign that what I have told you is true, you shall meet your wife at the Golden Gate, who will rejoice at seeing you again for she has been greatly concerned for your safety.”

Joachim and Anna both departed for Jerusalem as commanded by the angel. Coming to the Golden Gate, they rejoiced at the site of one another. Being fully satisfied at the angel’s promise of a child, they gave thanks and offering to the Lord.

Afterwards they returned home and Anna conceived and bore a child as the angel had told them. They named the child Mary as the angel had instructed. For three years they raised her in the house until fully weaned.

When Mary was three, they brought her to the temple of the Lord, as they had promised, and dedicated her to the service of the Lord.

Mary lived and served the Lord in His temple. Three years she spent in the service of God the Creator, the Maker of all that is seen and unseen; three years she spent in the service of God the Comforter, the Counsel and Advocate of the faithful; and, finally, three years she spent in the service of God the Saviour, the Redeemer who would ransom His life for the life of His people.

After nine years, when she was twelve³ and of the age of maturity, she could no longer remain inside the temple lest she defiled it. Having been dedicated to the temple, she was not betrothed. The priests decreed that all eligible men, both single and widowed, shall assemble before the temple and God would, by a sign, reveal Mary’s husband.

All eligible men, young and old, unmarried and widowed, gathered before the temple of the Lord. The priests prayed to God for a sign and, at once, the sky turned dark. The priests asked of the men, “Why is the Lord displeased with this assembly?” But the men had no answer. Again, the priests prayed to God for a sign and, at once, the winds began to blow and thunder sounded in the distance. Again, the priests asked of the men, “Why is the Lord displeased with this assembly?” Again, the men had no answer. Once more, the priests prayed to God for a sign and, at once, it began to hail with fire flashing in the midst of it⁴. Once more, the priests turned to the men and asked, “Why is the Lord displeased with this assembly?” This time, a young man, by the name of James, answered, “Because my father, Joseph, refused to come.”

The priests inquired, “The widower Joseph? Joseph the carpenter? Joseph of the House of David from the town of Bethlehem?”

“The same,” replied James.

“Then fetch him and do not vex the Lord any longer,” ordered the priests.

James ran to his father’s house and begged him to come, saying, “The Lord is raining hail as he once did upon the land of Egypt.”

Joseph went with his son and as he stood with the assembled men the hail and thundering stopped and the priests demanded of Joseph, “Why did you not present yourself as we decreed?”

Joseph answered, “I am an old man who has been well blessed by the Lord in the wife I had and the sons she bore me. It is not seemly that I should seek for a wife who is younger than my sons and would be as a younger sister to them and not a mother. “

The priests replied, “It is not for you, but for the Lord to decide. Do you deny, the passing of the storm with your arrival is a sign of God’s will?”

Joseph denied it, saying. “It is a sign of the weather and not of God’s will.”

The priests prayed to God and the clouds broke and the light which came through the clouds shone upon Joseph. The priests asked again to Joseph, “Do you still deny God’s will?”

Joseph denied it a second time, saying, “It is the wind that has scattered the clouds.”

Once more, the priests prayed to God and a dove came and settled on Joseph’s shoulder. Once more, the priests asked Joseph, “Do you still deny God’s will?”

Joseph denied it a third time and raising his staff and he slammed it into the ground, where, immediately, it took root and brought forth green leaves and new flowers.

No longer able to deny the will of God, Joseph relented and accepted Mary as his betrothed.

Notes:

(1) Feast of the Lord: Sukkot, Feast of Tabernacles – roughly speaking, Thanksgiving.

(2) Deut 7:12-14

(3) In ancient Israel, a girl was deemed to enter puberty at age 12 (a boy at 13). In Ancient Greece, girls were married at age 14 to soldiers of age 30. In ancient Rome, girls were deemed to enter puberty at age 12 (14 for boys) and were considered women by age 14, as Epictetus wrote: “From the age of fourteen, men give women then title of Mistress. Seeing that there is nothing else that they can obtain, but only the power of lying with men, they begin to decorate themselves, and to place all their hopes in this.” The title of Mistress should be understood in the proper English sense of “Lady of the House” (Master and Mistress) - a woman with some authority and power and not in the vulgar, vernacular meaning, “illegitimate lover”.

(4) Exodus 9:22-25

The average Jew or Christian is probably aware of two different stories regarding the creation of woman. The first tells of how God created man and woman simultaneously (Gen 1:27), the other tells how Eve was created from Adam’s rib (Gen 2:21-23).

However, there are a number of Jewish myths about Lilith – who is said to predate Eve. Stories about her cover the range from being Adam’s first wife, to being a strangler of children, to being the mother of demons, to being created as Satan’s (Samael) mate, just as Eve was Adam’s, to being God’s consort.

There is also a story of a first Eve, created before the Eve we know, who was rejected by Adam.

This is my fusion, retelling and embellishment of a number of myths about Lilith, the first Eve and Eve.

I apologise for the use of two uncommon words in my story: ineffable and winsome

Ineffable means "unspeakable" or "not to be spoken". In Hebrew tradition, God's personal name is given as YHVH, also known as the tetragrammaton. You can read more about it here. According to ancient Jewish beliefs (and probably modern), knowing the true name of someone gives you power over them. This is why when Moses asks for God's name so he can tell it to the Jewish people, God replies, "I AM". Naming something, gives power and control over the thing named. I should point out that belief in the "power of naming" is not restricted to solely the ancient Jews.

Winsome means pretty or attractive.

God said, “Let us create Man in our image.” God created Man in His image; male and female He created them. The man was named Adam and the woman was named Lilith.

Lilith was cleverer and stronger than Adam and the two fought all the time. Realizing that she would never have her way with Adam, Lilith spoke the ineffable name of God and flew away from Adam, landing on the shore of the Red Sea where she took shelter in a cave. This was the very spot where Pharaoh’s army would later be drowned.

Adam cried out to God, “Oh, Divine Creator, Master of all the Universe, the woman you have given me has left me.”

God sent three angels, Senoy, Sansenoy, and Semangelof, to get her and return her, saying, “Go and fetch Lilith. If she does not agree to return to Adam, then return her by force.”

The angels set out and seized Lilith saying, “Your Creator has commanded you to return to your husband.”

Lilith, who, like Adam, was created in the Divine image of God and the stronger of the two, cast off the angels saying, “I shall never return to be subject to a man.”

The angels replied, “We have been commanded to return you of your own free will if possible, by force if necessary.” However, they were unable to seize her and return her by force.

So they argued for a long time, with Lilith saying, “I shall be a seducer of men. I shall visit them as they sleep alone. Stealing their seed as they dream lustful dreams. And I shall give birth to children who shall be outcasts like me. Hated by humans because they are half demon and hated by demons because they are half human.” And the angels replied, “If you do not return, then we shall drown one hundred of your demonic offspring every day.” To which Lilith said, “Do you not know that I was created to strangle the newborn infant, boys before their eighth day and girls before their twentieth day?”

They argued for many more hours, with Lilith finally saying, “I shall make a deal with you. Whenever I see your names on an amulet, I shall leave that child alone.” The angels, seeing that they would get no better, agreed, so long as one hundred of Lilith’s demon children were drowned each day. To which Lilith agreed since she cared nothing for her offspring and only had them to vex God. She swore an oath that whenever she saw an amulet bearing the names of the three angels, neither she, nor her cohorts would cause any harm to that child.

Since Lilith would not return, God created for Adam a new wife. Adam stood before God as He fashioned a new wife for him. He created her before Adam’s eyes from the inside out. First, He formed her bones. He sculpted flesh on her, giving her curves and form. He covered her in skin as smooth and pure as alabaster. Finally, God decorated her with long hair, shining eyes, winsome teeth, and painted her lips red as ruby. When God presented her to Adam, Adam ran away in horror, having been disgusted at seeing the woman formed from the inside out.

Seeing that this woman was also unsuitable for Adam, God prepared to drown her in the sea. But the woman spoke and said, “Most Merciful Creator, before you drown me, I ask you to grant me one request.”

God said, “What is it?”

The woman answered, “When a baby boy is born, let me come to him on he fifth day of his birth and whisper in his ear the future which awaits him.”

God was pleased with this request and granted it. So, whenever a boy is born, she comes to visit him on the fifth day and whispers his future in his ear.

Adam was still alone and God said, “It is not good for man to be alone; I will make him a suitable partner.” God caused a deep sleep to fall over Adam. He opened his side and took one of his ribs and a piece of his heart. Then He closed the side. From the rib He formed the woman and from the piece of heart he fashioned her flesh. Then He brought her to Adam and Adam said, “This is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman (ishshah) for she was taken out of man (ish).” And so, a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh.

When asked why dreams tire men so much, Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish answered "Because woman's creation was in a dream, Adam enjoyed her intimacy in a dream. Otherwise he would have never known how to make love." - Midrash Avkir as quoted in Tree of Souls, The Mythology of Judaism

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