BIBLE FILMS - Mary in modern films                          BIBLE HEROINES - Mary to the rescue at Cana

   MARY OF     NAZARETH   

  PEOPLE IN THE STORY

  FAMOUS QUOTES

  BIBLE REFERENCE

  INTERESTING SITES

  ACTIVITIES/QUESTIONS

THE GIRL BECOMES A WOMAN
In about 5BC a young Jewish peasant girl called Mary menstruated for the first time.  In the crowded little two-room house she lived in, everyone knew about it and saw it as cause for celebration. The dark-haired, laughing women of her family gathered around her with singing, good food and raucous jokes, to mark her entrance into womanhood. This was peasant society at its best, with Mary at its center. 

What did she look like, this girl who became the most famous woman in history? Probably less than five feet tall, robust, sturdy, with plump little breasts and strong brown hands callused from work, and glossy black hair with a line of red or purple dye running down the center parting. Modest pieces of jewelry around her face showed she was respectable, from a decent, established family.

Her clothes were homespun wool or linen, loose-fitting, in one of the soft colors of natural dyes - cream, a deep faded pink, or a soft blue-grey.  She wore leather ankle-length boots in winter, sandals in summer, and cut her dusty toenails with a sharp knife.

CHOOSING A HUSBAND
Now that Mary's menstrual periods had started, serious consideration had to be given to the choice of a husband. It was taken for granted she would marry. God had commanded Noah to 'be fruitful and multiply', and Jews were happy to comply. Any person who was past the age of twenty and still unmarried had not carried out the will of God.

The man they settled on was Joseph, a young man not much older than she was. Joseph was well-regarded by the people around him - Matthew's gospel called him 'just' or 'righteous'.

The proposed marriage contract was worked out between the families of Mary and Joseph. The amount of her dowry was settled, hopefully enough to act as an income for her should she be abandoned or widowed. Mary’s engagement then went ahead – with another big celebration.

MARY BECOMES PREGNANT
The next thing we know, Mary’s menstrual periods had stopped. She was pregnant. Mediterranean families are not known for their reticence in such a situation, and in Mary’s conservative Jewish family her pregnancy meant disgrace for all her family. 

Matthew's gospel makes it clear that Joseph knew he was not the father, yet severely embarrassed as he was by Mary's pregnancy, he decided to marry her.  The marriage ceremony went ahead, and Mary and Joseph became husband and wife at a village knees-up echoed in the later story of the marriage feast Mary attended at the nearby village of Cana.

A BOY IS BORN
Some months later, Mary gave birth to a healthy baby boy. Once washed, the baby was presented to its waiting father, in this case Joseph. He 'named' the baby, calling him Jesus. By doing so, he accepted legal responsibility for this newborn child.

In Nazareth Mary’s life revolved around her home, a mud brick house with a courtyard and two rooms - a front, public room with an awning, and a private room behind it. The house had a flat roof with exterior stairs  and an awning of woven goats' hair to protect against the sun. This was used by the women as a work-space, an extra room. The inside of the house was quite comfortable, though minimalist by modern standards. 

THE FESTIVAL IN JERUSALEM
The routine of daily life was broken several times a year by festivals, when Mary and Joseph would travel to Jerusalem to visit the Temple and offer sacrifice there. On one of these visits, Mary's son Jesus was lost for three days in the crowded city streets, and she and Joseph hunted for him franticly, eventually finding him talking to scholars in the Temple precincts. They seemed to be treating her son as an equal, which made her realize something she'd suspected for a while: that he wasn't like the other children, that he had a special destiny.

Mary’s eldest son grew into a complicated young man, too clever and restless to settle easily into an ordinary life in Nazareth. Like many men whose birth was shadowed he was not entirely accepted by the people he grew up with. He was an inspiring, exciting man but not a comfortable one. Mary watched him with all the anguish and love of a mother, and growing misgivings.  

At some stage, Jesus left Nazareth and gained considerable fame as a charismatic teacher and healer. Mary seems to have been head of the family by now. Joseph had disappeared from the scene, either dead (life expectancy was low) or away working as an itinerant tradesman. 

'What did she look like, this girl who became the most famous woman in history? Probably less than five feet tall, robust, sturdy, with plump little breasts and strong brown hands callused from work, glossy black hair with a line of red or purple dye running down the center parting. Modest pieces of jewelry around her face showed she was respectable, from a decent, established family.'

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NAZARETH REJECTS JESUS
Jesus may have returned to his village a number of times, but we have just one recorded example of such a visit. Nazareth could not boast many celebrities among its population, so when Jesus entered the village he was at first greeted warmly. He went to the tiny synagogue and taught there, to men and to women, and people were impressed by what he said. But then things seem to have turned sour. Just why they did so is not entirely clear, but Luke's gospel seem to suggest the people of Nazareth did not treat Jesus with the respect he had received in the outside world. Jesus resented their skepticism, and did not hide his resentment. 

The villagers turned on him and ran him out of town. One of the gospels goes so far as to say that, in the ensuing mêlée, the rougher element among the villagers tried to kill Jesus. It was probably someone in this group who referred disparagingly to Jesus as ‘the son of Mary’ (Mark 6:1-6). Normally a man was referred to as ‘the son of (his father)’, and we would expect Jesus to be called ‘the son of Joseph’. There seemed to be disdain for this son who could not even name his father. It was not a happy experience for anyone, but especially for Mary, who may have understood the villagers’ resentment but was forced to watch her son being vilified by them.

MARY TRIES TO WARN HER SON
On another occasion Mary and her family tried to see Jesus in another village. Her son was getting a reputation as a troublemaker, distrusted by powerful people. The clashes he was having were too serious to ignore. She and her adult children may have decided on a sort of ‘intervention’, to remind him of his familial responsibilities. Or they may simply have wished to see their celebrity son/brother and hear him speak. 

Mary gathered her four younger sons and her daughters and went looking for Jesus, to see him or to warn him, or both. As it turned out, things had gone too far for that. Jesus' response to his family was certainly not what she expected. ‘Family?’ he asked. ‘The people who follow me are my family.’ The incident must have profoundly shocked Mary. 

THE CRUCIFIXION - WAS SHE THERE?
Now we come to the event that should be the climax of Mary's story - her presence at the foot of the cross. The truth is that it is most unlikely that Mary was present in Jerusalem when Jesus died.  Jesus’ death was unexpected, sudden, and she could not have known it was about to happen. Almost certainly she was in Galilee, not standing at the foot of the cross as her eldest son died his agonizing death. She was after all in her late 40’s, too old to follow Jesus on his travels or to walk the arduous 80-90 miles to Jerusalem and back again.

The evidence? Of the four gospel accounts of the death of Jesus, only one of them suggests that Mary was there. Scholars acknowledge that the three gospels that do not include Mary at the crucifixion are the most historically accurate. They name the women who were present, but Mary's name is not among them. Surely they would have named her, had she been there.

The fourth gospel, John’s, describes a scene where a dying Jesus gives Mary into the care of John. ‘Look after each other’, Jesus instructed them. But a good deal of John’s gospel is symbolic, and meant to be read as such. At that time virtually everyone in Judeahad seen men die by crucifixion, since thousands were executed this way during the reigns of the Herods. 

Anyone who had witnessed a crucifixion would have known that the story about Mary and John at the foot of the cross was meant symbolically. Jesus’ body was tortured and beaten, his injuries too terrible to imagine. As he hung on the cross his body was dying, crumbling under a combination of exhaustion/shock and asphyxiation. As long as he could hold himself upright he could breathe, but as he became exhausted and let his body sag forward, the angle of his arms constricted his lungs, and he reverted to a terrible rasping struggle for air.  If Mary his mother was not present to see this, we should be glad.

AFTER JESUS' DEATH
She lived on after her son's death, venerated by the increasing clan of disciples, watching the band of his followers grow. They called him Christus, the Savior, and said he was the divine Son of God. What must she have thought, this peasant woman from Galilee?

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BIBLE REFERENCE
Matthew 1:18-25; 2:13-21, 12:46-50, 13:53-58
Mark 3:31-35, 6:1-6
Luke 1:26-56; 2:1-7, 21-38, 41-52; 4:16-30; 8:19-21
John 2:1-11; 19:25-27
Acts 1:13-14

PEOPLE IN THE STORY
Mary, the Galilean peasant girl who became the most famous woman in the world
Jesus, her complicated, restless, brilliant son
Joseph, the man of integrity who married her and became foster father to her son

FAMOUS QUOTES
'...the virgin shall conceive and bear a son' (Isaiah 7:14)
'The angel said to her 'Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. You will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be called the Son of the Most High.' (Luke 1:30-31)
'My soul glorifies the Lord.....' (1:46)
'She laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.' (2:7)
'Did you not know I must be in my Father's house?' (2:49)
'And his mother treasured all these things in her heart.' (2:51)

INTERESTING WEBSITES - stories, pictures, reconstructions

Mary's dilemma at the Annunciation
BIBLE TOP TEN YOUNG PEOPLE

Mary comes to the rescue at Cana
BIBLE TOP TEN HEROINES

Mary's story in more depth, famous paintings, historical background, Bible study activities
BIBLE WOMEN: MARY OF NAZARETH

Mary portrayed in modern films
BIBLE TOP TEN FILMS

Living in a village like Nazareth
BIBLE ARCHITECTURE: HOUSING

Archaeology shows the sort of work women did
BIBLE ARCHAEOLOGY: WORK

Mary's visit to her cousin Elizabeth, and the Magnificat
BIBLE PEOPLE: ELIZABETH

Joseph and his unexpected life
BIBLE PEOPLE: JOSEPH

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ACTIVITIES AND FOCUS QUESTIONS

Discovering each gospel's perspective of Mary
Mary of Nazareth in Mark’s gospel
     What image of Mary do you receive from these episodes?
     If this was the only information you had about Mary of Nazareth, what would be your impression of her?
     Why do you think Mary is hardly mentioned in Mark’s gospel?
     What purpose might Mark have had when he wrote about Mary?

Mary of Nazareth in Luke’s gospel
    What image of Mary do you receive from the episodes in Luke’s gospel?
     If this was the only information you had about Mary of Nazareth, what would be your impression of her?
    What purpose might Luke have had when he wrote these stories about Mary? What do you think he was trying to say about her and about Jesus?
     How is Luke’s image of Mary different from Mark’s?

Mary of Nazareth in Matthew’s gospel
·     What image of Mary do you receive from the episodes in Matthew’s gospel?
·     If this was the only information you had about Mary of Nazareth, what would your impression of her be?
·     What might have been Matthew’s purpose when he wrote these stories about Mary? What do you think he was trying to say?
·     Compare Matthew’s version of these events with the way they are described in the gospels of Mark and Luke. What similarities are there between the three versions? What differences? Why might there have been these differences?

Mary of Nazareth in John’s gospel
    What image of Mary do you receive from the episodes in John’s gospel?
    If this was the only information you had about Mary of Nazareth, what would your impression of her be?
    What purpose might John have had when he wrote these stories about Mary? What do you think he was trying to tell us?

Mary’s homeland
Draw up a map showing the relative positions of Jerusalem and Nazareth, marking in the boundaries of the provinces Samaria, Galilee and Judea. How far is it from Nazareth to Jerusalem? What sort of terrain would you go through, traveling from one to the other?
Identify a possible route that Mary might have taken in her journey from Nazareth in Galilee to ‘a Judean town in the hill country’ where Elizabeth lived. Research the world of Mary, and then describe
·     the type of country she would have seen as she traveled
·     the clothing and appearance of the people she would have traveled with.

A Woman’s Life
Interview your own mother, or an older female relative. You might compose your own list of questions for her, or ask some of the following:
1. What are the three events in your life that you remember most vividly?
2. Can you describe one of these events?
3. What things have you done that you are most proud of?
4. What did you find most difficult in your life?
5. Did you learn about Mary of Nazareth when you were at school?
6. How was Mary portrayed?
7. What part did Mary play in religious rituals that you were involved in?
8. Which of Mary’s qualities have you tried to imitate in your own life?
You could, if you wish, answer some of these questions yourself, and recall what you learnt about Mary in your early schooling. How does the material in this chapter compare with your previous ideas about Mary?

In depth study of one person's story
Choose one of the people whose stories are told on this site and develop a PowerPoint presentation about them.
The presentation must be at least 10 slides long and should include 
 *  a supporting image/picture/painting of each person 
 *  a map of Israel showing the cities and areas where the story took place.  
You may call up other websites to support your ideas.

In your presentation (approximately 10 minutes), answer the following questions:

1. What are the main events of the person's life? Tell the story.

2. What were their main qualities? What made them stand out from the crowd?

3. What obstacles did they face? Did they overcome them, or go with the flow? Explain.

4. How did they use their abilities to do God’s work?  

5. Which part of their story appeals to you most? Why?

You must include three short quotations from the gospel texts to illustrate the points you are making. 

Poster of Mary’s Life
Design symbols for each of the main events in Mary’s life. Make sure the symbols relate to her story and not only to Jesus’ life. Express these symbols in a visual form, either by drawing or painting them, producing a collage or poster.

Focus Questions for the gospel passages
1. What are the most interesting moments in Mary's story? 
2. In the story, who speaks and who listens? Who acts? Who gets what they want? If you were in the story, which person would you want to be friends with? Which person would you want to avoid?
3. What is God's interaction with the main characters? What does this tell you about the narrator's image of God? Do you agree with this image?
4. What is happening on either side of the story, in the chapters before and after it? Does this help you understand what is happening?
5. The narrator/editor has chosen to tell some things and leave other things out. What has been left out of the story that you would like to know?
6. Are the characteristics and actions of the people in the story still present in the world? How is the story relevant to modern life, especially your own?

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Bible Stories: People of the New Testament - Bible Study Resource: Mary, Mother of Jesus