Concerning Mary’s conception, we are told that despite their
wealth and prominence in the community and their constant display of
righteousness and piety, Mary’s parents fail to produce an Israelite child, but
that in the absence of her husband and after a deep-hearted lament, Anna is
visited by a messenger of the Lord with the news that her prayers have been
heard and that “You will conceive and give birth, and your offspring will be
spoken of in the whole world” (συλληψει και γεννησεις
και
λαληθησεται το σπερμα σου εν ολη τη οικουμενη;
Prot. Jas. 4:1).
The two verbs “to conceive” (συλλαμβανω) and “to give
birth” (γανναω)
merit further consideration. Both verbs are in the future tense and allow the
possibility for Joachim to be a participant in Anna’s conception.
The logic is simply that Anna will conceive when she and
her husband Joachim are together in the future. The details surrounding this
event, however, seem to suggest otherwise and support the idea of a miraculous conception.
Immediately after Anna is given the news that she is with child, the narrator
informs us that two messengers approach her informing her that Joachim is
coming with his flocks because an angel of the Lord came down to him with the
news that the Lord had heard his prayer. Joachim is told specifically by the
messenger the following: “Behold, your wife Anna has conceived/is pregnant” (ιδου η γυνη σου ‘Αννα εν γαστρι ειληφεν/ληψεται; Prot. Jas.
4:3). The manuscripts differ whether Joachim is told that Anna will conceive
ληψεται (future tense) or that she is pregnant
or has conceived ειληθεν (perfect tense).
H.R. Smid argues that those who side with the possibility of a future tense
meaning do so based on the description of Joachim’s actions when he finally
returns home: And Joachim “rested” (αναπαυω; Prot. Jas. 4:10) the first day home. The
sexual connotation of the word “rested” has convinced some that Joachim indeed
is a physical participant in his wife’s pregnancy, but Joseph’s “resting” takes
place after Anna has already announced that she is pregnant at Prot. Jas.
4:8 (the perfect tense ειληφαει is again used here). The textual
evidence appears to favour the perfect form, since the earlier Greek
manuscripts attest to this reading. The idea that Anna was already pregnant by
miraculous means is also supported by the author’s emphasis on Mary’s purity,
and by association, her parent’s purity.
Examining the order in which the events unfold further supports
the idea that Anna’s pregnancy was also the product of a miraculous conception.
In this sequence of events, Joachim is given the news that his wife is pregnant
before he returns to her from the wilderness (Prot. Jas. 4:3–4). His
reaction upon hearing this announcement is revealing, offering narrative evidence
of his non-participation in Anna’s conception. Even before Joachim returns to
Anna, he gathers his shepherds and instructs them to prepare the gift offering
for the proper sacrifices as a reaction to the news of his already pregnant
wife. If Joachim did not believe that his wife was already with child, his
actions would be considered premature. Celebrations do not occur until there is
confirmation that there is something to celebrate. But Joachim’s initial
response to the news is not in vain as his first meeting with his wife confirms
that she is indeed already pregnant. After Joachim returns with his flocks,
Anna is described as running to him with this news: “Now I know that the Lord
God has greatly blessed me. For behold, the widow is no longer a widow, and
behold, she who was childless has conceived” (Νυν οιδα οτι κυριος ο θεος ευλογησεν
μη
σφοδρα ιδου γαρ η χηρα ουκετι χηρα,
και
η
ατεκνος ιδου εν γαστρι ειληφα;
Prot. Jas. 4:9). The gifts once rejected by the childless Joachim now become
the accepted and celebrated offerings of a fruitful father to all the people of
Israel.
Interestingly, upon relaying the angelic message of being pregnant
to Joachim, Anna announces that, “the Lord God has greatly blessed me” (κυριος ο θεος ευλογησεν
με
σφοδρα;
Prot. Jas. 4:9). If the miraculous pregnancy indeed involved Joachim,
Anna’s response should have involved a blessing that was given to both her and
Joachim. But as the text stands, Anna alone has been given the blessing of the
Lord to conceive a child “who will be talked about all over the world” (Prot.
Jas. 4:1). Joachim functions only as an observer in the events concerning
the birth of Mary. Unlike Elkannah who is explicitly said to have “known his
wife Hannah (1 Sam 1:19)” when the Lord remembered her and blessed her with a
child, there is no mention of Joachim “knowing his wife Anna” when she is given
news that her prayers have been answered. The angelic messenger only visits
Joachim after Anna is given the news that she is already pregnant. Although
Joachim may share in Anna’s blessing, he is not himself directly responsible
for Anna’s pregnancy.
Also significant is the Protevangelium of James’ use of συλλαμβανω
meaning, “to conceive,” which is also used in
the birth story of Isaac (Gen 21:2–3), Samuel (1 Sam 1:20), and Luke’s version
of Mary’s conception. The term used to render the meaning of “giving birth” in
Gen 21:2–3, 1 Sam 1:20, Isa 7:14, Matt 1:23, and Luke 1:31, however, is the word
τικτω,
but the Protevangelium of James instead uses the word γενναω
for both Anna’s and Mary’s announcements. γενναω
is often the term used in genealogies to
describe a family line and usually renders the meaning, “begat.” This word is
also most commonly used for describing a family line through the father, and
very rarely denotes lineage through a mother, as illustrated even in the
genealogies offered by Matthew (1:1–17).
In the Septuagint, γενναω is used
276 times and in 263 cases it renders a “begat” connotation. Of the 276 times the term is used,
there are 239 cases in which it is employed to describe a family line through
the father. Significantly, then, when the angel delivers the news to Anna of
her conception, he uses the word γενναω instead of
τικτω.
If Joachim is not physically responsible for
his wife’s pregnancy, then Mary’s family line must come from her mother. If
this is the case, the use of γενναω to
describe Anna’s conception only reinforces the idea that her conception and birth
of Mary was miraculous and done so without Joachim’s help, thus confirming the
idea that Mary’s subsequent extreme sexual purity was first initiated by the
sexual purity maintained by her mother Anna during her conception and continued
in her decision to wait before breastfeeding Mary. The reference to γενναω
may also suggest why the detail of Mary being
of Davidic descent is repeatedly referenced throughout the narrative, making
clear that the child Jesus is born of a virginal woman directly of the Davidic
line. In this way, Mary’s genealogical purity is as important as her ritual,
menstrual and sexual purity for determining her selection by God as the mother
of Christ. (Lily C. Vuong,
Gender and Purity in the Protoevangelium of James [Wissenschaftliche
Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 2. Reihe 358, Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2013], 166-70)
For a contrary position, see Beverly R. Gaventa who argues for
reading the conception of Mary as one that developed out of a sexual union
between Anna and Joachim (Mary: Glimpses of the Mother of Jesus [Minneapolis:
Fortress, 1999], 112). Gaventa does not base her argument on the conflicting
manuscripts that testify to different tenses for the word “conceive”; that is,
whether Anna will conceive in the future tense or has conceived in the perfect
tense. She argues that since the perfect tense can connote both an event that
has just passed (Anna has conceived) and a present action (Anna conceived), determining
the proper meaning cannot be dependent upon tense. Gaventa continues to argue
that it is more likely that Anna and Joachim engaged in marital relations and
that the birth of Mary occurred in a normal and usual fashion based on the
interpretation that Anna and Joachim endured a long period of childlessness and
shame from their own people. I argue, however, that though it is likely Anna
and Joachim had sexual relations in the past, Mary’s birth was not the result
of this union, but rather the will of God. The narrative seems to emphasize
that the marital relations in which Anna and Joachim engaged in the past could
not and did not result in the birth of their child. Instead, the miraculous birth
that would be bestowed on the couple was based on their righteousness, ritual
purity, and piety. This idea is supported in the chronology of the news;
namely, Anna is reported to have been pregnant before she has any physical
contact with her husband. It is also reinforced again with Joachim’s constant
references to having been forgiven for all his sins and Anna’s complete need to
embody everything that affects Mary in terms of purity. In addition, the
textual evidence seems to support the perfect form, since the earlier Greek
manuscripts also attest to this reading. (Ibid., 166-67 n. 70)