Around the middle of the second century, the narrative we know as the Protoevangelium,
or Book of James, about Mary’s origins and life up to the birth of
Jesus, was composed probably in Palestine or Syria for a community of Christians
clearly aware of their Jewish religious roots. Written in the style of many
stories in the Jewish midrashim, this work is, in a way, an extended commentary
in story form on the events and characters of the infancy narratives in Matthew
and Luke; it tells us of Mary’s devout parents, Joachim and Anna, of the
wonderful circumstances of her conception and childhood, of her espousal to
Joseph, an elderly and pious widower and of her miraculous childbirth. Although
it was never accepted into the Christian biblical canon and was regarded with
suspicion as apocryphal by Church authorities through most of its history, the Protoevangelium
was widely read; it was translated into most of the languages of early
Christian communities by the year 1000 and left a clear mark on Chrisitan
preaching and liturgy in both East and West, as well as on the Christian imagination.
Its point is to remind the reader that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was from the
beginning of her life a completely holy person; with her life centered on Israel’s
temple, she remained blameless in the eyes of the Law. From such beginnings the
Word of God took flesh. (Brian E. Daly, “Woman of Many Names: Mary in Orthodox
and Catholic Theology,” in Biblical Interpretation and Doctrine in Early
Christianity: Collected Essays [Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2025], 88-89)
