after the Nativity, is perplexing. For the other legends concerning her
history and character, which have been cherished by a very large portion
of Christendom, we are wholly indebted to what are known as the
Apocryphal Gospels. These consist of writings which were extant, in some
cases, before the present New Testament books were selected as being
alone authentic, but were not deemed of sufficient worth to be included
in the canon. There is _The Gospel of the Birth of Mary_. In the very
early ages this book was supposed to be the work of Saint Matthew. Many
ancient Christians believed it to be authentic and genuine, and Jerome,
who lived in the fourth century, quotes it entire. Another book, of the
same description, known as the _Protevangelion_ of Saint James, is
mentioned by writers equally ancient. Then there is the _Gospel of the
Infancy_. This, we are told, was accepted by the Gnostic Christians as
early as the second century; but it is full of manifest absurdities,
outrageous even to the most compliant credulity. A fair sample of its
stories--not including the miraculous, which are exceedingly puerile--is
the one which relates that at the circumcision of Jesus an old Hebrew
woman took the part that was severed "and preserved it in an
alabaster-box of old oil of spikenard. And she had a son who was a
druggist, to whom she said, 'Take heed thou sell not this alabaster-box
of spikenard-ointment, although thou shouldst be offered three hundred
pence for it.' Now this is that alabaster-box which Mary the sinner
procured, and poured forth the ointment out of it upon the head and the
feet of our Lord Jesus Christ, and wiped it off with the hairs of her
head."
The _Gospel of Mary_ has been made the basis of much serious belief in
regard to the Blessed Virgin, and especially have Christian artists
drawn from its pages suggestions for their subjects. We will summarize
the account it gives of the Mother of Jesus. "The blessed and ever
glorious Virgin Mary, sprung from the royal race and family of David,
was born in the city of Nazareth, and educated at Jerusalem, in the
temple of the Lord. Her father's name was Joachim, and her mother's
Anna. The family of her father was of Galilee and the city of Nazareth.
The family of her mother was of Bethlehem. Their lives were plain and
right in the sight of the Lord." Nevertheless, for twenty years they
suffered what, in the eyes of the Jews, was one of the greatest of
misfortunes: they were childless. Joachim is taunted with this fact by
Issachar, the high priest. The good man, being much confounded with the
shame of such reproach, retired to the shepherds who were with the
cattle in their pastures; for he was not inclined to return home, lest
his neighbors, who were present and heard all this from the high-priest,
should publicly reproach him in the same manner. Thereupon an angel
appears to him and informs him that his wife Anna shall bring forth a
daughter, and that they shall call her Mary. "She shall, according to
your vow, be devoted to the Lord from her infancy, and be filled with
the Holy Ghost from her mother's womb; she shall neither eat nor drink
anything that is unclean, nor shall her conversation be without among
the common people, but in the temple of the Lord; that so she may not
fall under any slander or suspicion of anything that is bad." The angel
also appears to Anna, giving her the like information. "So Anna
conceived, and brought forth a daughter, and, according to the angel's
command, the parents did call her name Mary."
"And when three years were expired, and the time of her weaning
complete, they brought the Virgin to the temple of the Lord with
offerings. And there were about the temple, according to the fifteen
Psalms of degrees, fifteen stairs to ascend. For the temple being built
on a mountain, the altar of burnt-offering, which was without, could not
be come near but by stairs; the parents of the blessed Virgin and infant
Mary put her upon one of these stairs; but while they were putting off
their clothes, in which they had travelled, and according to custom
putting on some that were more neat and clean, in the mean time the
Virgin of the Lord in such a manner went up all the stairs one after
another, without the help of any to lead or lift her, that anyone would
have judged from hence that she was of perfect age. Thus the Lord did,
in the infancy of his Virgin, work this extraordinary work, and evidence
by this miracle how great she was like to be hereafter. But the parents
having offered up their sacrifice, according to the custom of the law,
and perfected their vow, left the Virgin, with other virgins in the
apartments of the temple, who were to be brought up there, and they
returned home."
Mary, we are told, was ministered unto by angels until her fourteenth
year, and preserved from all suspicion of evil, so that "all good
persons, who were acquainted with her, admired her life and
conversation. At that time the high-priest made a public order, that all
the virgins who had public settlements in the temple, and were come to
this age, should return home; and as they were now of a proper maturity,
should, according to the custom of their country, endeavor to be
married." This, Mary refuses to do, she having vowed her virginity to
the Lord. Then the high priest convenes a meeting of the chief persons
of Jerusalem to seek counsel from Heaven in this matter. A voice from
the mercy-seat directs that all the men of the family of David who were
marriageable and not married should bring their staves to the altar,
"and out of whatsoever person's staff after it was brought, a flower
should bud forth, and on the top of it the Spirit of the Lord should sit
in the appearance of a dove, he should be the man to whom the Virgin
should be given and be betrothed."
Among the rest there was a man named Joseph, of the house and family of
David, and a person very far advanced in years, who drew back his staff,
when everyone besides presented his. Joseph, however, was clearly
pointed out, in the manner described, as being the chosen man.
"Accordingly, the usual ceremonies of betrothing being over, he returned
to his own city of Bethlehem, to set his house in order, and make the
needful provisions for the marriage. But the Virgin Mary, with seven
other virgins of the same age, who had been weaned at the same time, and
who had been appointed to attend her by the priest, returned to her
parents' house in Galilee." Then follows an account of the Annunciation,
similar to that given by Saint Luke, but somewhat elaborated. "Then
Mary, stretching forth her hands, and lifting her eyes to heaven, said,
'Behold the handmaid of the Lord. Let it be unto me according to thy
word.'"
[Illustration 2: _CHRIST AND THE DAUGHTER OF JAIRUS After the
painting by Albert Keller.
The ready faith of the Gospel women is illustrated by many
narratives of miracles wrought in their behalf. The faith of
Martha and Mary was rewarded by the restoration to life of their
brother Lazarus. There was the woman whom physicians could not
cure, yet her faith led her to touch the hem of the Master's
garment, and she was made whole. To the widow of Nain, as she
accompanied the dead body of her son to its sepulchre, was given
that son restored to life. The despised Syrophenician woman
proved her humility and her faith, and her daughter was made
whole. Christ's commiseration was manifested notably to woman,
though not exclusively, as we see in the case of the raising of
the daughter of Jairus in answer to the father's faith._]
In the _Protevangelion_ all this is recited, but at greater length. It
is there said of Mary that, while she lived in the temple, "all the
house of Israel loved her." It is related also of her that she was
chosen by the priests to weave the purple veil for the temple. In this
writing, Mary is described as having received the announcement of the
angel as she went to the spring to draw water. There is also a curious
passage in which Joseph is represented as telling the experiences which
came to him as he went to seek a midwife in the village of Bethlehem.
"As I was going," he says, "I looked up into the air, and I saw the
clouds astonished, and the fowls of the air stopping in the midst of
their flight. And I looked down toward the earth, and saw a table
spread, and working people sitting around it, but their hands were upon
the table, and they did not move to eat. They who had meat in their
mouths did not eat. They who lifted their hands up to their heads did
not draw them back; and they who lifted them up to their mouths did not
put anything in; but all their faces were fixed upwards. And I beheld
the sheep dispersed, and yet the sheep stood still. And the shepherd
lifted up his hand to smite them, and his hand continued up. And I
looked unto a river, and saw the kids with their mouths close to the
water, and touching it, but they did not drink."
Notwithstanding all that is said in these ancient writings in the
attempt to do her honor, we must conclude that the glory of the halo
which beautifies the head of the real Mary is derived by reflection from
the moral splendor of her Son. Of what intrinsic greatness of soul she
was possessed it is difficult for us to surmise from the slight
attention given to her in the Gospels. Yet she rightly holds her
position as woman idealized. We need such a poetic creation as Mary; and
her place at the head of all the daughters of earth is the more secure
and effective because her figure in authentic history is but a shadowy
outline. The ideal woman whom all mankind loves and reverences as
Virgin, Mother, and Saint, is objectified by concentrating in Mary of
Nazareth all possible feminine grace, beauty, and purity.
Let us turn now to another Mary who, in the Gospel history, achieved a
fame hardly less renowned than that of her great namesake: Mary of
Magdala, out of whom Christ cast seven devils. Magdala was a town on the
lake of Galilee, as notorious for its profligacy as it was famous for
its wealth, derived from the manufacture of dyes. Mary's affliction was
doubtless as much of a moral as of a mental nature; it may refer to the
abandonment of immoral excess into which she was driven by her
passionate nature. The Jews at the time of Christ were wont to ascribe
every form of evil, physical and also spiritual, to the agency of
demons, who were supposed to have the power of taking possession of
human beings as a habitation. The tradition of the Church has always
identified Mary Magdalene with the woman who, in Simon's house, anointed
Christ's feet with ointment, after washing them with her tears. Still,
it must be confessed that there is no certain foundation for this
belief. On this point, Archdeacon Farrar says: "The Talmudists have much
to say respecting her--her wealth, her extreme beauty, her braided
locks, her shameless profligacy, her husband Pappus, and her paramour
Pandera; but all that we really know of the Magdalene from Scripture is
that enthusiasm of devotion and gratitude which attached her, heart and
soul, to her Saviour's service. In the chapter of Saint Luke which
follows the account of her anointing the Lord's feet in the Pharisee's
house she is mentioned first among the women who accompanied Jesus in
his wanderings, and ministered to him of their substance; and it may be
that in the narrative of the incident at Simon's house her name was
suppressed, out of that delicate consideration which, in other passages,
makes the Evangelist suppress the original condition of Matthew."
Mary Magdalene's great part in the Gospel history was at the
Resurrection. To her ardent love and intense imagination, enabling her
to visualize Him who, though dead, she could not relinquish,
rationalists ascribe the inception of the doctrine of the Resurrection.
According to this theory, as Mary of Nazareth brought Jesus into the
world, so through Mary of Magdala His risen Spirit was born into the
Church. But this is not the faith of Christendom; nor can the testimony
of the Gospels be reasonably disposed of in this manner. To the
Magdalene was given the supreme honor of receiving the first greeting of
her risen Lord; and her testimony is the chief cornerstone of the most
comforting doctrine of Christianity.
The gospel narrative gives a prominent place to woman,--as a believer in
Christ, as His devoted follower and constant ministrant, and also as a
faithful and unswerving witness to His wondrous works. The ready faith
of the Gospel women is illustrated by many narratives of miracles
wrought in their behalf. The faith of Martha and Mary was rewarded by
the restoration to life of their brother Lazarus. There was the woman
whom physicians could not cure, yet her faith led her to touch the hem
of the Master's garment and she was made whole. To the widow of Nain, as
she accompanied the dead body of her son to its sepulchre, was given
that son restored to life. The despised Syrophenician woman proved her
humility and her faith, and her daughter was made whole. Christ's
commiseration was manifested notably to woman, though not exclusively,
as we see in the case of the raising of the daughter of Jairus in answer
to the father's faith. In the life of Christ, the supernal event in the
world's history, woman's influence and activity were not less than
man's; but, unlike his, her part was marked by unalloyed purity,
magnanimity, and faithfulness.
II
THE WOMEN OF THE APOSTOLIC AGE
THE leaven of Christianity worked speedily and powerfully in raising
woman to a position of greater honor in the estimation of the adherents
of the new religion. In regard to mental and spiritual relations, it put
her at once upon an equal footing with men, which was an entirely new
development in human thought. We have seen how, even in Judaism,--the
purest religion and the highest moral system known to the world previous
to the coming of Christ,--woman held an inferior position and was
debarred from many of its privileges, though not from its moral
responsibilities. According to the Levitical code, when a man made an
offering of any person of his family to the Lord, the value of a male
was estimated at fifty shekels, while that of the female was put at
thirty shekels; and, as in all cases where an arbitrary comparison is
instituted between men and women, this computation was independent of
the possession or lack of personal excellences. The mere undeveloped
manhood in an otherwise worthless individual gave him, in Jewish
estimation, a two-fifths superiority over the noblest woman. The very
stupidity of this is an indication that sex can hardly have been
designed by the Creator as a basis on which to found the right to the
majority either of the duties or the privileges of human life. Under the
new dispensation Paul says: "There can be neither Jew nor Greek; there
can be neither bond nor free; there can be no male and female: for ye
are all one man in Christ Jesus." That the Apostle forbade women from
taking part in the public ministrations in the congregation is still
regarded, by the majority of people, as being harmonious with the
natural fitness of things; and in those times at least, when the
education of women was so terribly neglected, it was a measure
absolutely necessary to the preservation of decency.
Of the new life opened to women in Christianity, Renan truly says: "The
women were naturally drawn toward a community in which the weak were
surrounded by so many guarantees." Their position in the society was
then humble and precarious; the widow in particular, despite several
protective laws, was the most often abandoned to misery, and the least
respected. Many of the doctors advocated the not giving of any religious
education to women. The Talmud placed in the same category with the
pests of the world the gossiping and inquisitive widow, who passed her
life in chattering with her neighbors, and the virgin who wasted her
time in praying. The new religion created for these disinherited
unfortunates an honorable and sure asylum. Some women held most
important places in the Church, and their houses served as places of
meeting. As for those women who had no houses, they were formed into a
species of order, or feminine presbyterial body, which also comprised
virgins, who played so capital a role in the collection of alms.
Institutions which are regarded as the later fruit of
Christianity--congregations of women, nuns, and sisters of charity--were
its first creations, the basis of its official strength, the most
perfect expression of its spirit.
The Christian Church is described, as it existed in the earliest germ,
in the fourteenth verse of the first chapter of Acts: "These (the eleven
Apostles) all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with
the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren." The
women referred to were those faithful ones who followed Jesus from
Galilee and ministered to him of their substance; those who went early
to the tomb on Easter morning, to perform the last offices of affection,
and found the sepulchre empty: Mary Magdalene, Salome the mother of John
and James, Joanna, and "the other Mary." But these are no more mentioned
by name in the New Testament; nor is even the mother of Jesus again
referred to, except in that impersonal manner in which Saint Paul speaks
of Christ as "born of a woman." A large and prominent place was held by
women in the life of Jesus, but those same women are not accorded a
corresponding importance in the history of the founding of the Church.
It is a new set of names that we encounter in Apostolic history;
converts from heathendom, and those who labored with the Apostle to the
Gentiles. The records allow the women of the Gospels to fall into
obscurity; but they will never pass out of human memory as a galaxy
which surrounded the Bright and Morning Star.
As yet the Church had not developed an organization, except that the
Twelve--the place of Judas having been filled--were recognized as
leaders by virtue of their having been chosen by Christ. The rest, women
equally with men, were simply believers. Even the Apostles had no plan,
no foresight of future development. Officers were created only as
conditions arose which required them. At first the Church was simply a
communistic family, bound together in holy love by a common enthusiasm.
The ordinary conventions of society were for the time suspended; men and
women lived together in the free communion of a great family. Their time
was almost wholly spent in prayer and the work of conversion; the
ordinary avocations of life were almost entirely discontinued. The
community was supported out of a common stock, which was daily
replenished by the proceeds of the sale of the possessions of converts.
No one called his own anything that he had; they held all in common.
Their number was too great for a common table, but they met in large
parties at each other's houses, none suffering disparagement on account
of condition or sex. Each evening meal was a commemoration of the Last
Supper of Christ with his disciples. This briefly enduring prototype of
a perfect human society contained in itself the prophecy of all that
Christianity would do for woman through all the slow development of the
ages. In the community of the Jerusalem Christians she was neither a
slave nor a subordinate. The burden of the daily provision, which still
falls so heavily on the vast majority of women, was here rendered
extremely light, for all helped each and each helped all. Equal
fellowship also in the great spiritual possession caused all the marks
of woman's inferiority to vanish, and the sexes freely mingled in a pure
and noble companionship.
But this perfect type of society was not destined long to endure. It
appeared only for a brief season, barely sufficient to intimate what
human life might be, if governed by the Spirit of Jesus; and then a
woman was accessory to a deed which showed that the ideal was as yet far
too high for a practical and prudent world. Sapphira and Ananias had
sold their possession and had laid a part of the price at the Apostles'
feet, under the pretence that they were devoting their all. "Tell me,"
said Saint Peter, "did ye sell the land for so much?" "Yes," answered
Sapphira, faithful to the conspiracy she had entered into with her
husband, "that was the amount." "Ye have agreed together to lie unto
God," said the Apostle. "The feet of them who have buried thy husband
are at the door; they shall carry thee out also." And she immediately
"gave up the ghost." And the young men carried her out and buried her by
her husband. The description of the burying seems to indicate that it
was done as quietly as possible, probably so as not to attract the
attention of the people. But great fear of the power of the Apostles
seized those who heard the rumor of these happenings. It is not a
pleasant story, and it jars on a conscience in which the memory of the
Gospel teaching is fresh and vivid. Yet the Church was not so strong in
itself but that it needed to resort to drastic measures in order to
protect itself from covetous hypocrisy within, more to be feared than
violent persecution from without. As to the pathological cause of the
death of Sapphira and her husband, no explanation is given. In the
market place of a town in Wiltshire, England, there is a remarkable
stone monument, which was erected by the corporation to commemorate a
"judgment" which took place on the spot many years ago. According to the
lengthy inscription engraved upon the column, three women had agreed to
purchase a certain quantity of flour, each contributing her share of the
price. A dispute arose, owing to one having declared that she had paid
her part, though the amount could not be accounted for. Being accused of
trying to cheat, she exclaimed that she wished she might fall dead if
she were not telling the truth. She immediately fell to the ground and
expired, whereupon the money was found upon her person. Those who caused
the inscription to be written for the warning of future marketers
believed it to be a "judgment." Doubtless it was the effect of
excitement upon a pathological condition of the heart. The comparison
between this case and that of Sapphira and Ananias is weakened only by
the strange fact that husband and wife should, on the same day, meet
death in this remarkable manner. It is perhaps worthy of notice that
Herodias and Sapphira are the only women mentioned by name in the New
Testament against whom anything discreditable is charged.
As the number of believers increased in Jerusalem, trouble was
encountered in regard to the daily provision. The communistic plan of
living was by no means rigidly insisted upon, as is shown by the fact
that Peter admits that Ananias was not obliged to make an offering of
the whole or even of a part of the price of his possession. Converts
were added too rapidly, and their organization was too loose for the
perfecting of any economical system. We see, however, the congregation
making careful provision for the indigent by a daily distribution.
There were in Jerusalem many Hellenistic Jews; that is, those who were
reared in foreign countries or were born of parents so reared. The
Palestinian Jew affected a distinct superiority over these. This seems
to have been allowed to result in a slight showing of ill will between
the native and foreign-born Jews who accepted Christ. The latter found
cause to complain that their widows were neglected in the daily
distribution; this seems to indicate that the widows were supported out
of the revenues of the Church, a fact which quickly resulted in their
being considered in the service of the Church. We find the widows early
mentioned in a sort of corporate capacity. In the account of the raising
of Dorcas, who was probably herself of this condition of life, it is
said that Peter called "the saints and the widows." From this narrative
we are led to infer that the manufacture of garments for the poor was
recognized as the contribution of these women to the corporate activity
of the Church. It was the inception of a distinctly female order in the
Christian ministry.