The Life of Mary and Birth of Jesus:
The Ancient Infancy Gospel of James


by Ronald F. Hock Edited by Ray Riegert
Berkeley, CA: Ulysses Press, 1997

Reviewed by Patrice Fagnant-MacArthur

Ronald F. Hock, a professor of religion at the University of Southern California, provides a scholarly and interesting overview of The Infancy Gospel of James, also known as the Protoevangelium because the events contained within its pages mostly occur before the events recorded in the canonical gospels. The Infancy Gospel was attributed to James, the brother of Jesus, but was actually written long after James' death, in the second century A.D. "In a compelling narrative it explains how an angel informs her parents that they will bear a special child. It tells of Mary's upbringing in the temple and her marriage to Joseph. The story follows the couple's trials as they face the difficulties resulting from Mary's virginal conception, then provides a unique account of Jesus' birth in which he is born not in a stable but a cave."

Even though The Infancy Gospel of James was rejected by Jerome, who first translated the Bible into Latin from the original Hebrew and Greek, and later included in a papal list of proscribed works, the devotional art that it inspired continued to adorn churches and lived on in popular legend.

The ultimate purpose of this narrative was to defend Mary's purity which had come under attack in the years after the gospels of Matthew and Luke were written. It was written in a style popular at the time called an encomium which was used to praise a subject, in this case Mary. An encomium "includes an introduction, details of the person's family background, childhood and adult life, a list of deeds illustrating their virtues, a comparison with someone of equal or greater virtue, and a conclusion, usually in the form of a prayer." This particular narrative attempts to answer the question of why Mary was chosen to be the mother of God. While chastity did not seem to be an issue to the writers of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, it was extremely important in the 2nd century Roman Empire when the author of the infancy narrative was writing.

New Testament references to Mary are fewer than two dozen. It is from this infancy narrative, then, that most of our "knowledge" about Mary has been derived. It is here that we are introduced to the long-sterile Anne and Joachim, the immaculate conception, and the idea that Mary was presented to the temple at the age of three. While its historical accuracy is questionable, there is no denying the influence of this gospel in popular tradition and devotion.


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