Born of the Virgin
By far the most pivotal affirmation about Mary
in the Protoevangelium is that she is the Virgin of the Lord, and that her
purity is unmatched. It is this affirmation, more than any other made of her in
the text, that truly places her in a category all her own. As the narrative
progresses it will become clear that for the author Mary’s virginity is the
central marker of her purity. The author stresses Mary’s purity and virginity
not for their own sake, but in order to make the Christological claim that Jesus’s
body was born of human flesh that was wholly unique in its level of purity.
One figure who serves as a comparandum
for the Virgin is her mother Anna, who is portrayed as an undeniably righteous
and pious individual. Because she rears Mary for the first three years of her
life, she herself clearly exists in a state of ritual purity. After Mary is born, however, Anna must refrain from nursing her until she is able to purify herself in accordance
with Levitical law (e.g., Lev 12:2-5). Mary is therefore separated from her
mother in order to protect her from the impure state in which her mother exists,
even if temporarily (Prot. Jas. 5:9). Yet after Jesus is born, the author notes
that he is able to nurse immediately (Prot. Jas. 19:16), implying that Mary’s
purity is such that not even childbirth can diminish it. This sets up a sort of
trajectory in which the purity of the child is expected to surpass that of the
parents. So, just as Mary’s own purity is at a higher level than her mother’s,
the reader can thus conclude that Jesus’s own purity will exceed even that of
Mary. (Eric M. Vanden Eykel, “Protoevangelium Iacobi,” in The Reception of
Jesus in the First Three Centuries, ed. Jens Schröter, 3 vols. [London: T&T Clark,
2020], 2:97)
