Who was Mary, the mother of Jesus?

Bible People & HistoryIn theological review

The short answer

Mary was a young Jewish woman from Nazareth in Galilee whom God chose to be the mother of Jesus. Luke 1 and 2 tell how the angel Gabriel announced the conception by the Holy Spirit, how she believed and submitted to God's word, gave birth in Bethlehem, raised Jesus, stood at his cross and prayed with the first disciples after his resurrection.

The fuller answer

Mary appears first in Luke 1, in the village of Nazareth in Galilee, engaged to a carpenter named Joseph, who was descended from David. The angel Gabriel greeted her as highly favoured and announced that she would conceive by the Holy Spirit and bear a son, Jesus, who would be called the Son of the Most High and reign on David's throne. Mary asked how this could be, since she was a virgin, and was told that nothing is impossible with God. Her answer was simple faith and surrender: she called herself the Lord's servant and accepted his word.

“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May it happen to me according to your word.” Then the angel left her.

Luke 1:38 (BSB)

Mary then visited her relative Elizabeth, who was expecting John the Baptist, and sang the song Christians call the Magnificat, praising God for lifting up the humble and keeping his promises to Abraham. Because of a Roman census she travelled with Joseph to Bethlehem, where Jesus was born and laid in a manger. Shepherds visited, and later wise men from the east. Luke tells us twice that Mary treasured what she saw and heard and pondered it in her heart. At the temple, the elderly Simeon blessed the child and warned Mary that a sword would pierce her own soul too.

Today in the city of David a Savior has been born to you. He is Christ the Lord!

Luke 2:11 (BSB)

Mary raised Jesus in Nazareth alongside Joseph. The Gospels mention her at the temple when Jesus was twelve, at the wedding in Cana where his ministry began, and at times during his teaching years, when his brothers and sisters are also named. Christian traditions differ about Mary herself. Catholic and Orthodox teaching holds that she remained a virgin all her life and gives her titles and prayers that Protestant Christians do not find in Scripture, while all Christians together confess what the Gospels state: she was truly the mother of Jesus, and in that sense the mother of God made flesh.

But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.

Luke 2:19 (BSB)

Mary's hardest scene comes at the end. John 19 places her at the foot of the cross, watching her son die, and records Jesus entrusting her to the care of the beloved disciple, who took her into his home. After the resurrection and ascension, Acts 1:14 names her among the disciples praying together in Jerusalem as they waited for the Holy Spirit. Scripture gives her no speeches after that and never directs prayer to her. Her greatness in the Bible is her faith: she believed an impossible promise, obeyed at great personal cost, and stayed near her son to the end.

Sources

Berean Standard Bible (BSB)

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Was Jesus born of a virgin?Yes, according to the Gospels and the prophecy they quote. Isaiah promised a sign: the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son called Immanuel, God with us. Matthew records that Mary was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit before she and Joseph came together, and the church has confessed it ever since in both its great creeds.Did Jesus have brothers and sisters?Yes. The Gospels name four brothers, James, Joseph, Simon and Judas, and mention sisters, and Paul calls James the Lord's brother. Some traditions read brothers as cousins or as Joseph's children from an earlier marriage, readings held honourably, but the plain sense of the texts is siblings raised with Jesus in Nazareth.Who was Mary Magdalene?Mary Magdalene was a follower of Jesus from Magdala in Galilee, delivered by him from seven demons, who supported his ministry, watched his crucifixion and became the first witness of the empty tomb and the risen Jesus. The Bible never calls her a prostitute: that identification came centuries later from a sermon tradition in the Western church, not from the text.Who was John the Baptist?John the Baptist was the prophet sent to prepare the way for Jesus, the son of the priest Zechariah and Elizabeth, born shortly before Jesus and related to him through their mothers. He preached repentance at the Jordan, baptised those who confessed their sins, baptised Jesus himself, pointed his own disciples to Jesus as the Lamb of God, and was beheaded by Herod Antipas.Bible Character: MaryThe mother of Jesus, a young woman of Nazareth who believed the angel's word, bore the Son of God, treasured all these things in her heart, and stood by him at the cross.Bible Character: Joseph of NazarethThe righteous carpenter betrothed to Mary, who believed the angel, took her as his wife, named the child Jesus, and guarded the family into Egypt and back.Bible Character: JesusThe Son of God, born of Mary in Bethlehem, who preached the kingdom of God, was crucified for our sins according to the Scriptures, and was raised on the third day.On the map: NazarethFind it in the Lands of the Bible, with the verses that place it there.On the map: BethlehemFind it in the Lands of the Bible, with the verses that place it there.