The Virgin Mary in the Gospel of Luke
Uploaded by lonewolf88 on Oct 26, 2011
This essay considers the way in which St. Luke portrays Mary
I Introduction
The Virgin Mary is one of the most important religious icons in all of Christianity, and yet the Bible makes very little reference to her. Mark mentions her only once; and she appears only briefly in Matthew. It is in the Gospel according to Luke that she is most fully realized.
This paper discusses the way in which Mary is presented in this gospel, and argues that the presentation makes her seem to be the “first disciple.”
II Discussion
The term “first disciple” is from the Boston Theological Seminary website, which is kept current. In their discussion of the way Luke presents Mary, the theologians point out that she has undergone a “transformation” from the way she was portrayed in Matthew. The first thing of note is that St. Paul doesn’t mention Mary in his letters at all; and Mark puts both Mary and Jesus’ relatives “outside the circle of the disciples during Jesus’ public ministry.” (PG). According to both Paul and Mark, then, Mary is not presented as anyone special.
Matthew was a bit kinder to her than Paul and Mark, because he knew of the tradition of the virgin birth. This made his gospel “less negative about Mary” that Mark’s writings.
When it comes to Luke, things change dramatically. In Matthew, the focus is almost entirely on Joseph:
“Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit; and her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream …” (Matthew 1: 18-20).
The angel of course told Joseph that his wife was pregnant by the Holy Spirit, and that the child would be called Jesus, and that he was not to be with her until after the child was born. Thus, the annunciation as told here is really about Joseph, not Mary. (Still, considering the times in which they lived, he has to be credited with a great deal of courage in standing by a young woman who is pregnant before they...