Who was Mary of Nazareth?

Often, Catholics refer to Mary with the various honorifics we have attached to her over the centuries: Mother of God, Blessed Virgin, or Queen of Heaven. When we imagine her, we may think of famous paintings representing her as a queen, crowned and throned, holding baby Jesus. While these titles all highlight important theological truths about Mary, and our religious art helps us venerate her as the most important saint of the church, we may sometimes lose sight of who Mary was historically. Long before the church developed our various doctrinal understandings about her, Mary was a Jewish woman born into a particular family, culture, and political situation. But compared with the vast amount of theological writing on Mary, the historical material we have about her is pretty scant. 

Who was Mary of Nazareth, really? What was her life like? How did she dress, what did she eat, and what level of education did she have? On this episode of the Glad You Asked podcast, guest AJ Levine helps us get a clearer picture of the historical Mary, beneath the halo and beyond the holy cards. 

Levine is the Rabbi Stanley M. Kessler Distinguished Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies at Hartford International University for Religion and Peace. She was the first Jew to teach the New Testament at Rome’s Pontifical Biblical Institute. She has held office in the Society of Biblical Literature, the Catholic Biblical Association, and the Association for Jewish Studies. Her books include The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus (HarperOne) and Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi (HarperOne). Her most recent book is Jesus for Everyone: Not Just Christians (HarperOne).

Learn more about this topic, and read some of Levine’s writing, in these links.

“Mary, Mary, quite contrary,”
By Elizabeth Johnson
https://uscatholic.org/articles/201101/mary-mary-quite-contrary/ 

“It is time to free Mary and let God have her own maternal face,”
By Christine Schenk
https://www.ncronline.org/blogs/simply-spirit/it-time-free-mary-and-let-god-have-her-own-maternal-face 

“All mothers stand at the cross with Mary,”
By Sister Laurie Brink, O.P.
https://uscatholic.org/articles/202005/all-mothers-stand-at-the-cross-with-mary/ 

“Why did God choose Mary?”
By LaRyssa Herrington
https://uscatholic.org/articles/202305/why-did-god-choose-mary/ 

“Witnesses, patrons, faithful disciples: The women at the cross and the tomb,”
By Amy-Jill Levine
https://www.abc.net.au/religion/amy-jill-levine-women-at-the-cross-and-the-tomb/13843886 

“A Jewish take on Jesus: Amy-Jill Levine talks the gospels.”
A U.S. Catholic interview
https://uscatholic.org/articles/201209/a-jewish-take-on-jesus-amy-jill-levine-talks-the-gospels/ 

Glad You Asked is sponsored by the Claretian Missionaries USA, an order of Catholic priests and brothers who live and work with the most vulnerable among us. To learn more, visit claretians.org.

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