Mary in the Bible: from Genesis to Revelation

Mary in the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation

The foundation of Mariology is biblical. The testimonies of the New Testament about the mother of Jesus, read in chronological order, allow us to see how the inspired authors gradually became aware of the person and the role of Mary throughout the whole arc of salvation history: first in her Old Testament prefigurations, then in her maternal mission in relation to Christ and to the Church.

Paul: the first Marian testimony of the NT

The first Marian reference of the New Testament is found in Gal 4:4 (c. AD 49-57): “When the fullness of time had come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law.” The mention of Mary is discreet, almost incidental, yet enormously dense. “Born of a woman” situates Mary as the mediatrix of the incarnation of the Son of God into the stock of humanity. The “fullness of time” is the definitive stage of the redemptive plan: Christ is the omega point. It is exactly at this summit of the plan of salvation that Mary is placed, she who clothes the Son of the Father with our flesh and our blood (cf. Heb 2:14). Gal 4:4 is only the initial germ of Marian doctrine, developed by the other books of the NT.

Mark: Mary and the true family of Jesus

Mark mentions the mother and the brethren of Jesus in Mk 3:20-21, 31-35: they come to “seize him” because “he is beside himself”. Jesus answers: “Whoever does the will of God is my brother, and sister, and mother.” Modern exegesis shows that this text is not “anti-Marian”. Mark describes the initial stage of the faith of Mary: a mother humanly solicitous for the fortunes of her son. The evangelist’s intention is deeper: not even carnal kinship with the Lord is a sufficient title for following Him with the proper dispositions. To be a true relative of Jesus, one must “do the will of God” (Mk 3:35). Luke will make clear that Mary walked this path in an exemplary way.

Matthew: the genealogy and the virginal conception

Matthew opens his Gospel with the genealogy of Jesus (Mt 1:1-17), remarkable for the presence of four women: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba. These women, each in her own way, performed providential deeds for the fortunes of Israel. Matthew thus suggests that the conception of Jesus by Mary represents the absolute newness to which they pointed. The genealogy culminates in v. 16 in a singular manner: not “Joseph begot Jesus” but “Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.” The virginal conception brought about by the Holy Spirit (Mt 1:18, 20) is the “new creation”: Jesus is the new Adam, and Mary’s womb is the new virgin earth from which the Spirit forms the head of the new humanity. Matthew rereads Is 7:14 in the light of its fulfillment: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son” (Mt 1:22-23).

Luke: from the Annunciation to Pentecost

Luke is the Marian evangelist par excellence. The Annunciation (Lk 1:26-38) presents Mary as the “daughter of Zion”: the angel’s announcement takes up the prophetic oracles of joy addressed to Jerusalem (Zeph 3:14-17; Zech 2:14-15), which the evangelist transfers to the person of the Virgin. In Mary of Nazareth God fulfills in advance the promises made to Abraham and to his descendants (Lk 1:49a, 54-55). At the Visitation Mary carries Christ to Elizabeth and to John, becoming the model of every Christian mission. The Magnificat is her prayerful response, a synthesis of the spirituality of the poor of Israel.

In the infancy narrative, Luke underlines Mary’s meditative faith: “she kept all these things in her heart” (Lk 2:19, 51). The Fathers saw in this expression the apostolic source for the events of the human origins of Jesus. Simeon’s prophecy points to the drama of the Son’s mission: “a sword will pierce your soul” (Lk 2:35). In Acts 1:14, Mary is present in the Upper Room with the apostles awaiting Pentecost: the Annunciation and Pentecost share the same language of the Spirit who “comes upon” and of the “power of the Most High”, showing that Mary and the Church are traversed by the same pneumatic dynamism.

John: Cana and the cross

John recalls Mary only twice, but at pivotal moments: the wedding at Cana (Jn 2:1-12) and Calvary (Jn 19:25-27). These two episodes form a great inclusio: in both Mary is called “woman” by her Son, and the “hour” of Jesus, not yet come at Cana, arrives on the Cross.

At Cana, Mary intercedes: “They have no more wine.” The answer of Jesus (“What have I to do with you, woman? My hour has not yet come”) is not a refusal, but a postponement of the sign. Mary says to the servants: “Do whatever he tells you” (Jn 2:5), words that constitute the program of the whole Christian life. The first sign of Jesus awakens the incipient faith of the disciples. As the episode ends, Mary, the brethren, and the disciples form a single group around Jesus: the messianic community united in faith.

On the Cross (Jn 19:25-27), Jesus says to His mother: “Woman, behold your son”, and to the disciple: “Behold your Mother.” This scene uses the “revelation scheme” typical of prophetic language: an envoy of God “sees” a person and “says” something solemn about his mission. By calling Mary “woman”, Jesus evokes the prophecies about Jerusalem-mother of the scattered children (Is 60:4). In the new covenant sealed at Easter, Mary personifies the new Jerusalem-mother: she is constituted spiritual mother of all the disciples of Jesus, figured in the beloved disciple. Here is the biblical foundation of the title Mary Mother of the Church.

Revelation 12: the woman clothed with the sun

The “great vision” of Revelation (Rev 12) shows a Woman “clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head”, in the pains of childbirth, pursued by the dragon. Contemporary exegesis sees in the “Woman” principally the Church, the People of God of both Testaments: she brings forth the Messiah in the sorrows of history and is persecuted by Satan. But the “Mariological extension” is legitimate: Mary, who on the Cross was present at the moment when Jesus “was passing from this world to the Father” (Jn 19:25-27), corresponds to the Woman in the anguish of childbirth. Mary, “full of grace” (Lk 1:28), is also the “woman giving birth at Bethlehem” who brings forth the Messiah. In the Woman crowned with stars, faith sees both the pilgrim Church and her who, in the Assumption, has already attained the eschatological destiny of the whole People of God.

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Magisterium of the Church

Ipsa conteret caput tuum (Gen 3:15): haec prophetia “Proto-evangelium” vocatur et in Maria adimpletur iuxta traditionem patristicam.

Cf. Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Const. Lumen Gentium, no. 55

📚 Literal translation: She herself shall crush your head (Gen 3:15): this prophecy is called the “Proto-evangelium” and is fulfilled in Mary according to the patristic tradition.