Mary: A Flesh and Blood Biography

Mary: A Flesh and Blood Biography of the Virgin Mother

by Lesley Hazleton
NY: Bloomsbury, 2004

Reviewed by Patrice Fagnant-MacArthur

Lesley Hazleton lived and worked in Jerusalem for 13 years, first as a psychologist and then as a political and cultural journalist. In Mary: A Flesh and Blood Biography of the Virgin Mother, she seeks to apply her knowledge of the societies, cultures, religions and politics of the Middle East in order "to repair the world of Mary, and weave it anew into whole cloth. To give her back to herself, starting with her real name. To restore her strength and her intelligence and see her as the multifaceted human being she was before she became an icon."

This biography is divided into three sections: Her World, Her Womb, and Her Women.

Her World focuses on the town of Nazareth, at that time a tiny village of 200-300 people, which is located 70 miles from Jerusalem. At that time, those 70 miles may as well have been 70, 000. Jerusalem was a whole other world. It was a harsh life, where as many as half the children died before age 5 and one out of every three women died in childbirth. It was a place where one grew old quickly and as a result gave birth young. Maryam, as she would have been called in her native tongue, would have been illiterate, but not ignorant. Stories from Scripture served as entertainment and history all rolled into one and were shared through a vibrant oral tradition even in the remote towns of Galilee. Maryam would have been well-versed in them.

Her Womb is the most controversial portion of this narrative. It tells of a fictionalized account of Maryam as a midwife's helper with her grandmother as the midwife. She speculates that Maryam was a "wise woman" or what we would refer to as a medicine woman. Based on Jesus' ability to heal and his technique, Hazleton believes it likely Maryam broke the line of female transmission and taught her son. This was an era in which there was "no dividing line between faith and healing. . . Healing, when done in the divine name, was seen as a sign of the grace of God. But there was an inevitable flip side to this: sickness could then be seen as the lack of divine grace. If good faith heals, then bad faith can make you ill." Hazleton goes on to say that Maryam as a healer would have known differently, "that both health and sickness were natural and that there was no divine reward or punishment involved." This was a position that Jesus expressed as well.

Hazleton goes on to argue that contraception and abortion were widespread two thousand years ago through the use of natural herbs. Fertility was respected, but in dire circumstances, abortive drugs were used. The author maintains that Maryam would have known she had such a choice and therefore willingly assented to her pregnancy. As far as the issue of virginity goes, at that time it was an economic reality dealing with inheritance as opposed to a physical one. Any unmarried woman would have been considered a virgin. As the villagers noticed Maryam's growing abdomen, they would have blessed her for every pregnancy offered the hope of new life. They also would have set out to find her a husband to care for her and adopt her child, although it was understood that the child would receive no inheritance. Hazleton argues that every child was conceived through the power of God and thus every child was considered a son or daughter of God. The Holy Spirit coming upon Mary was a union of the Spirit, not of the flesh. Hazleton suggests that Mary may have been raped, a very common occurrence at the time, or that Jesus may have actually been the biological child of Joseph. Both the gospel of Matthew and Luke trace Jesus' ancestry through Joseph, a fact that is irrelevant if Joseph offered no biological connection. St. Paul, who wrote earlier than the other gospel writers, states that "'God's son Jesus Christ our Lord, made of the seed of David according to the flesh.' The seed of David, that is, being the sperm of Joseph. . . Jesus 'was sprung both of the sperm of David and from the Holy Spirit.' That makes him a perfect example of dual paternity, with human royalty on one side, divine inheritance on the other."

The last section is Her Women, which begins with a vivid portrait of Mary at the Crucifixion and of the horrors of a crucified death. Hazleton emphasizes that Christianity actually began with women. The women at the cross were the last to see him buried and the first to see him resurrected. "The male disciples had all fled. The women placed Jesus in the tomb, kept watch, returned on the third day, and announced the resurrection. They, and only they, know what had happened." Hazleton once again speculates about Maryam's life after the resurrection. She places her living in a community of women, continuing to pass on her healing knowledge to the next generation.

Mary: A Flesh and Blood Biography of the Virgin Mother is thought-provoking and certainly raises many points for discussion. It provides an interesting portrait of life in 1st century Palestine and allows the reader a good feel for what a simple peasant girl's life may have been like. One must respect Hazleton's goal of seeking to reclaim a human Mary. As for the details of Mary's life, however, it is all conjecture, a compelling story with little fact to support it. Unfortunately, the details of Mary's life have forever been lost to us. As for her role in salvation history, this is one case where we must rely on faith rather than fact.


© Spiritual Woman Press, 2005. All rights reserved.