2016
Most of us are fairly familiar with the birth accounts found in Matthew and Luke, even if we jumble the two stories together in our heads, or mix up which one has the wise men and which one has the shepherds. Many details that are displayed in the Nativity, whether in a set of statues, in songs, or in movies, are not found in the Bible. We almost always see exactly 3 wise men (which is based on Matthew's account), but never does the author of Matthew indicate the exact number of wise men present. We also always see the birth of Jesus set in a stable filled with animals (which is based on Luke's account), but never does the author of Luke specify that Jesus was born in a stable, nor that animals were present at all, only that he was placed in a manger after he was born because there was no room in the inn. And of course, there is no mention in either Matthew or Luke of the Little Drummer Boy.
Many of these extra details outside of Matthew and Luke that have become so familiar to us are not unreasonable. After all, the wise men present 3 gifts to baby Jesus, so maybe each was from one corresponding wise man. If baby Jesus was placed in a manger, maybe he was born in the shelter of a stable, and there were animals in it at the time. Who knows?
Part of the reason it is so easy to fill in additional details around the birth of Christ is because we are not given a lengthy account in either Matthew or Luke. Indeed, of the 28 chapters of Matthew, only 2 are dedicated to the birth of Jesus, and only 1 in the 24 chapters of Luke. In fact, because both stories found in Matthew and Luke are so lacking in detail, it is easy for Christians to combine them as if they really told one coherent story, despite the fact that the key details described in each are dramatically different.[1]
Despite the authors' brevity on the subject, we are still obsessed with the story, and can't help but want and supply more details to it. This is not new, either. In fact, a once-very-popular third account of the birth of Jesus still survives today, which not only weaves both Matthew and Luke's stories into one narrative, but also adds its own substantial details that didn't make it into our modern versions of the Nativity. This account is know as the Gospel of James.
When we hear "Gospel," we usually think of the four canonical gospels contained in the Bible: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. While the term gospel simply means "good news," it often refers to a literary genre of texts that give an account of Jesus' life to demonstrate that he was the Messiah. As such, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John all focus on Jesus' adult life, which is when he began to publicly proclaim that he was the Messiah, and, according to the gospels, started to perform many miracles.
The Gospel of James, however, is unlike Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in that it largely focuses on Mary, Jesus' mother, rather than Jesus himself. Indeed, the Gospel of James ends shortly after Mary gives birth to Jesus. Because of this, many have taken to calling it the "Infancy Gospel of James."
So who is this James guy anyway? Traditionally, James is considered to be the brother of Jesus (see Mark 6.3 and Galatians 1.19), although there is disagreement on exactly how the two are related. Traditional Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy both teach that Mary was not only a virgin when she conceived Jesus, but remained a virgin her entire life. Joseph and Mary's tragic marital sex life aside, this is problem if, as the Bible claims, Jesus had a brother. There have been numerous attempts to explain this, such as that "brother" is used metaphorically when referring to James, or that James was Joseph's son in a former marriage. As we will see, the Gospel of James holds the latter view.
Based on the known manuscripts we have and the reaction it got from some early Christian writers, the Gospel of James is usually dated to the mid-second century CE. That's over a hundred years after Jesus was born! This means that the historical James the some-how brother of Jesus more than likely did not write this, despite the fact that the text claims he did.
As such, the Gospel of James is generally not thought to be an accurate portrayal of historical events, but is rather seen as innovative interpretation of Matthew and Luke's accounts, as well as a defense of the virgin birth.
The Gospel of James starts not with Jesus or Mary, but with Mary's parents: Joachim and Anna.[2] The story begins with Joachim, a wealthy and righteous man, one day going to the Temple to make his sacrifices, where he was publicly humiliated. A man named Reuben stopped Joachim from making the first sacrifice, saying that he was ineligible since he had not produced offspring with his wife, Anna. Childlessness was often seen as a curse from God, and it seems that Reuben was implying that Joachim's lack of offspring reflected God's judgement on his character. Shamed and upset, Joachim consults the scriptures, and he sees that all the righteous men in the Torah indeed produced offspring. Rather than returning home, he goes out into the wilderness, pitches a tent, and vows that he will not eat nor drink until he receives a message from God.
Anna, Joachim's wife, begin's to mourn not only for her barrenness, but for her now-missing husband, and prays to God to bless her with a child. An angel appears to Anna, and tells her she will conceive a child that will be known all over the world. Grateful, Anna promises her future child will be an offering to God. In other words, she will give her child over to the Temple to live there. An angel also appeared to Joachim with this news, and he returned home to celebrate with Anna, who was already pregnant. Nine months later, Anna gave birth to baby girl, and named her Mary.[3]
Mary's first three years of life sound rather strange. Until she was three, she was only allowed to walk 7 steps, and her parents made her a sanctuary in her bedroom, and no impure thing ever went into it. On her first birthday, Joachim invited all of Israel to a party, and had both the priests and the high priest bless Mary. When Mary turned three, her parents brought her to the Temple, and she lived in the Holy of Holies until she was 12.[4] She was loved by everyone, and was even fed from the hand of an angel.
When Mary turned 12, the priests became concerned with her defiling the sanctity of the Temple. In other words, they were worried about her starting her period. Blood was seen as a pollutant, and even a girl as holy as Mary could threaten the purity of the Temple. The high priest, who happened to be Zachariah (John the baptizer's father), prayed about what they should do, and an angel answered him. The angel told Zachariah to gather all of the widowers in Judea to come to the Temple and bring their staffs. One man's staff will display a sign, and that man will get to marry Mary. All the widowers were summoned and presented their staffs. When a builder named Joseph, one of the widowers, presented his staff, a dove comes out of the end and lands on Joseph's head; he was to have Mary as his wife.
Joseph, however, was reluctant since he already had children and was old. The priest reminds Joseph of the story of Dathan, Abiram, and Kore—three men who rebelled against Moses in the wilderness—and how God had the ground swallow them and their families up.[5] Joseph takes the hint, and they become engaged. Joseph then has Mary move into his home, and then leaves to build houses.
Joseph's reaction is a bit confusing. It would not have been abnormal for an older widower to take a younger wife, and a girl was considered to be of an eligible age at 12. Additionally, Mary isn't supposed to be his wife in a typical sort of way (one that is made official through sexual intercourse), but rather is to be taken care of and protected, and this includes upholding her virginity. Joseph's role is one of necessity; if it weren't for that darn period, she could merely keep staying at the Temple.
While Joseph is away, Mary is visited by an angel, who tells her that she will conceive a child from God, who will be named Jesus, and who will save God's people from their sins. Mary then takes a trip to visit her cousin Elizabeth, John the baptizer's mother, staying there for three months, and then returning to Joseph's home.
Joseph returned from his construction work to find a very pregnant Mary (6 months along at this point).[6] Upset, Joseph blames Mary for her pregnant state until an angel visits and tells him of Mary's special circumstances. However, one day a man visits Joseph and sees Mary pregnant, and immediately runs to the high priest to report Joseph for not only defiling Mary, but hiding it for so long.
Both Mary and Joseph defended themselves, claiming that neither one of them had engaged in sexual activity. The high priest put their claims to the test by having them drink the "water of the Lord's wrath," and then sending them into the desert separately (16.3). Both return unharmed, verifying to the high priest that they were telling the truth.[7]
Like the Gospel of Luke, the Gospel of James claims that there was a census set out, but unlike Luke, James claims it was to count the people of Bethlehem, not the world. Joseph, his sons, and Mary all travel down to Bethlehem, but before they reach Bethlehem, Mary goes into labor in the desert. Joseph finds a cave for Mary to give birth in and has his sons (including James) stay with her, and he goes into Bethlehem to look for a midwife.
Then there is an interesting scene. Unlike the previous text, which was written in third person, there is a section of the story written from Joseph's perspective, which describes time come to a stop as he is going into Bethlehem. He sees birds frozen in the air, men stuck in the act of eating, and a shepherd in mid-strike as he was driving his sheep. Then time resumes, and the narrative switches back to third person.
Joseph finds a midwife, and explains to her Mary's special impregnation by the Holy Spirit. They make their way back to the cave, where a dark cloud was hovering over. As they approached, a blinding light shone from inside the cave, driving away the cloud, and when the light disappeared baby Jesus was born.
Amazed, the midwife goes and finds a fellow midwife named Salome, and tells her of the miracle she witnessed of a virgin giving birth. Salome is skeptical, and says that she will not believe it unless she can "insert [her] finger and investigate [Mary]," that is, verify that Mary's hymen is still intact (19.19). Salome enters the cave, tells Mary what she was going to do (and apparently everyone in the cave is okay with this), and inserts her finger between Mary's legs. Immediately Salome's hand becomes horribly burnt. Salome prays for her hand to be healed, and an angel appears, who tells her to hold baby Jesus. She does, and her hand is healed. She worships Jesus, and leaves the cave, where a voice suddenly spoke, telling Salome not to tell anyone what she had witnessed until Jesus comes to Jerusalem.
While they were still staying in the cave, wise men came to Bethlehem looking to worship the new king of the Jews, which the stars had informed them about. King Herod intercepts them, and asks that when they find this new king, they report his whereabouts to him so that Herod too may worship him. The wise men agree, and find Mary and Jesus in their cave by following a bright star. They worship him, and present him with gifts, and then leave by a different route to avoid Herod, since an angel warned them not to return to him.
Herod soon realizes he has been bamboozled, and orders his executioners to kill all infants that were two years or younger. When Mary hears about this, she wraps Jesus in swaddling clothes and hides him in a cattle manger. Meanwhile Herod, who had heard of Zachariah's infant, was looking for John so that he could kill him. Elizabeth takes John and heads to a mountain, where she prays to God and the mountain splits open and provides them a hiding spot. Herod sends word to Zachariah asking for the whereabouts of John, but Zachariah refuses to tell him, so Herod has him murdered.
The Gospel of James ends from the perspective of James himself, who claims he wrote this account while all this was happening in Jerusalem.
The Gospel of James tells an interesting version of the Nativity. Like the Gospel of Matthew, James includes the visit of the wise men and Herod's mass infanticide, but unlike Matthew includes how this impacted baby John the baptizer, who, according to the Gospel of Luke, was nearly the same age as Jesus. Like Luke, James includes the Roman census which drives Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem, but unlike Luke has Mary giving birth outside of Bethlehem in a cave, and only places Jesus in a manger to hide him from Herod's assassins, not because "there was no room at the inn."
The Gospel of James also includes plenty of content not found in Matthew or Luke, such as Mary's holy upbringing, her divinely arranged "marriage" to Joseph, and Salome's test of Mary's virginity. In fact, the whole narrative of the Gospel of James can be seen as a defense of Mary's character and sexual purity. Mary's childhood is one of protection and isolation; until she was three, she stayed in the sanctuary in her bedroom, and from three to twelve stayed in the Holy of Holies within the Temple. When she does miraculously become pregnant with Jesus, her virginity is tested and affirmed by both the Temple priests and two midwifes. In short, the additional details found in the Gospel of James are not arbitrary; they are testifying to the legitimacy of Jesus' virgin birth.
Notes
[1] For more information on the differing birth accounts in Matthew and Luke, see The Birth(s) of the Savior.
[2] Both Joachim and Anna are saints in the Catholic and Orthodox traditions. Many Protestants today reject these traditional parents of Mary, and instead consider a man named Heli to be her father. This, however, is founded on the idea that Luke's genealogy of Jesus presents Mary's lineage rather than Joseph's, which is clearly not the case for those who read the text of Luke literally (see Luke 3.23-38). Matthew and Luke both contain genealogies of Jesus through Joseph which differ substantially, so attributing Luke's genealogy to Mary relieves this discrepancy for those who view the Bible as inerrant.
[3] According to the Gospel of James, Mary is also conceived miraculously. This tradition is similar to the view held in Roman Catholicism called the Immaculate Conception. Many Christians think this is referring to Jesus' conception by the Holy Spirit, but it is really referring to Mary's. While Mary's body is thought to have been created through traditional means (sperm + egg = baby), her soul is said to be miraculously formed free of original sin, which allowed her to produce a sinless baby, Jesus.
[4] There seems to be an assumption in the Gospel of James that the Temple housed special virgins like Mary. There is no biblical evidence nor historical evidence to believe this was ever a practice in Judaism.
[5] See Numbers 16.
[6] There is manuscript disagreement on how old Mary is when she becomes pregnant. Given the natural flow of the narrative, it seems likely the original text has her pregnant at 12, but there are other manuscripts which say her age is 14, 15, or 17.
[7] This is a very strange scene. The ritual being performed here seems to be one described in Numbers 5.11-31, which states that if a man suspects his wife of becoming pregnant with another man's baby, he can bring his wife to the priest who will take dust from the tabernacle, mix it in some water, and then have the woman drink it. If she is innocent, no harm will come to her, but if she is guilty, God will make her "uterus drop" and her "womb discharge" (Num. 5.22). In other words, if she is pregnant with another man's baby, God will not only abort her unborn child, but will make it so she will no longer be able to produce children. In the Gospel of James, however, this ritual is used on both Mary and Joseph to see if they are telling the truth about Mary's miraculous pregnancy.
Interesting to consider this account. Maybe too "far fetched" or "too PG13" for the annual Christmas pageant?
ReplyDeleteI wonder who James' audience was andoing how they received his Gospel.
Personally, I think this didn't get included in Christian scripture because of where Jesus is born and how late it was written. The text itself is confusing on exactly where he was born, whether right outside of Bethlehem or Judea, but definitely NOT in Bethlehem. Both Matthew and Luke (earlier accounts than James, and more established) go to great lengths to show that Jesus was technically born in Bethlehem, despite being known for being from Nazareth. Nowadays, though, I don't think it would be adapted in a pageant for both of the reasons you gave, although if they did it would certainly be entertaining :)
DeleteAs for Jame's original audience, that is still up in the air. Many early manuscripts were preserved in the Eastern Orthodox tradition, so it seems to have been popular there, though that's not necessarily where it originated. There is still debate among scholars as to if this was written from a Jewish perspective or not, so we really don't know much, unfortunately.