• Mary (Jesus’ Mother)
    Reasoning From the Scriptures

    • Mary (Jesus’ Mother)

      Definition: The divinely chosen and highly favored woman who gave birth to Jesus. There are five other Marys mentioned in the Bible. This one was a descendant of King David, of the tribe of Judah, and a daughter of Heli. When she is first introduced to us in Scripture, she is engaged to Joseph, also of the tribe of Judah and a descendant of David.

      What can we learn from the Bible record about Mary?

      (1) A lesson in willingness to listen to what God says through his messengers even though what we hear may at first disturb us or seem impossible.—Luke 1:26-37.

      (2) Courage to act in harmony with what one learns to be God’s will, trusting fully in him. (See Luke 1:38. As shown at Deuteronomy 22:23, 24, there could be serious consequences for an unmarried Jewish girl who was found to be pregnant.)

      (3) God’s willingness to use a person regardless of that one’s station in life.—Compare Luke 2:22-24 with Leviticus 12:1-8.

      (4) Giving prominence to spiritual interests. (See Luke 2:41; Acts 1:14. It was not required that Jewish wives join their husbands for the long trip to Jerusalem at Passover time each year, but Mary did so.)

      (5) Appreciation of moral purity.—Luke 1:34.

      (6) Diligence in teaching one’s children the Word of God. (This was reflected in what Jesus was doing at the age of 12. See Luke 2:42, 46-49.)

      Was Mary truly a virgin when she gave birth to Jesus?

      Luke 1:26-31 (JB) reports that it was to “a virgin” whose name was Mary that the angel Gabriel carried the news: “You are to conceive and bear a son, and you must name him Jesus.” At this, verse 34 states, “Mary said to the angel, ‘But how can this come about, since I am a virgin [“I do not know man: i.e., as husband,” NAB footnote; “I am having no intercourse with a man,” NW]?’” Matthew 1:22-25 (JB) adds: “Now all this took place to fulfil the words spoken by the Lord through the prophet: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and they will call him Immanuel, a name which means ‘God-is-with-us’. When Joseph woke up he did what the angel of the Lord had told him to do: he took his wife to his home and, though he had not had intercourse with her, she gave birth to a son; and he named him Jesus.”

      Is this reasonable? Surely it was not impossible for the Creator, who designed the human reproductive organs, to bring about the fertilization of an egg cell in the womb of Mary by supernatural means. Marvelously, Jehovah transferred the life-force and the personality pattern of his firstborn heavenly Son to the womb of Mary. God’s own active force, his holy spirit, safeguarded the development of the child in Mary’s womb so that what was born was a perfect human.—Luke 1:35; John 17:5.

      Was Mary always a virgin?

      Matt. 13:53-56, JB: “When Jesus had finished these parables he left the district; and, coming to his home town, he taught the people in their synagogue in such a way that they were astonished and said, ‘Where did the man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers? This is the carpenter’s son, surely? Is not his mother the woman called Mary, and his brothers [Greek, a·del·phoiʹ] James and Joseph and