People of the Bible

Mary (mother of Jesus)

Around Jesus · First century · Appears in The four Gospels and Acts · Also known as the Virgin Mary, Mary of Nazareth

Mary is the young woman of Nazareth chosen by God to be the mother of Jesus, who answered the angel's astonishing news with humble surrender: Behold the handmaid of the Lord. She bore and raised the Savior, stood by him at the cross, and was among the believers praying together after his ascension.

And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.Luke 1:38 (KJV)

The announcement at Nazareth

Mary was a young woman of Nazareth in Galilee, betrothed to Joseph, a carpenter of the house of David, when the angel Gabriel came to her with news that would change the world. He greeted her as highly favored, and told her she had found favor with God and would conceive and bear a son, and call his name Jesus, and that he would be great, the Son of the Highest, and would reign on the throne of David forever. Mary was troubled and asked how this could be, since she was a virgin.

The angel answered that the Holy Ghost would come upon her and the power of the Highest would overshadow her, and that with God nothing would be impossible. To this overwhelming, life-altering, and socially dangerous news, Mary responded not with bargaining or fear but with faith and surrender: Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. In that yes, the whole story of the incarnation turned, as a humble young woman offered herself wholly to the purpose of God.

The Magnificat and the birth of Jesus

Mary hurried to visit her older cousin Elisabeth, who was miraculously with child in her old age, and when Elisabeth's baby leaped in her womb and she blessed Mary as the mother of her Lord, Mary broke into a song of praise, the Magnificat. My soul doth magnify the Lord, she sang, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour, praising the God who scatters the proud, puts down the mighty, exalts the lowly, and fills the hungry with good things. It is the song of a heart steeped in Scripture and rejoicing that God had remembered his mercy to his people.

When the time came, Mary traveled with Joseph to Bethlehem for the census, and there she gave birth to Jesus and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. Shepherds came with an angelic message, and later wise men with gifts, and through all the wonder surrounding her child, Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart. She and Joseph presented him in the temple, fled to Egypt to escape Herod's slaughter, and returned to raise him in Nazareth, where he grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man.

A mother through the ministry years

The Gospels show Mary at key moments of Jesus' life. When he was twelve, she and Joseph found him after three days in the temple among the teachers, and she treasured his words though she did not fully understand them. At the wedding in Cana, when the wine ran out, she brought the need to her son and told the servants the words that sum up her whole posture toward him: Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it. It was at her prompting that he performed the first of his signs.

Following her son into his public ministry was not easy. She heard him redefine his family as all who do the will of God, and the aged Simeon had warned her at his birth that a sword would pierce through her own soul. She watched him loved and opposed, acclaimed and hated, and she followed him even as the shadow of the cross drew nearer, a mother who had pondered strange promises for over thirty years and now saw them moving toward a sorrow she could not have imagined.

At the cross and in the upper room

When almost all had fled, Mary stood by the cross of her son as he died, sharing in the deepest grief a mother can know. And from the cross, in the midst of his own agony, Jesus thought of her, and gave her into the care of the beloved disciple, saying, Woman, behold thy son, and to the disciple, Behold thy mother, and from that hour the disciple took her to his own home. The sword Simeon foretold had pierced her through, and she stood faithful to the end.

But her story does not end at the tomb. After the resurrection and ascension, Mary was among the disciples gathered in the upper room in Jerusalem, continuing with one accord in prayer as they waited for the promised Holy Spirit. She was there at the birth of the church, no longer only the mother of Jesus but one of his followers, numbered among those who had believed and now proclaimed him. It is the last we see of her in Scripture, praying with the family of faith her son had gathered.

The prophecy of the sword

When Mary and Joseph brought the infant Jesus to the temple, the aged Simeon took him in his arms and blessed God, for he had been promised he would not die until he had seen the Lord's Christ. But Simeon also turned to Mary with a piercing word, saying this child was set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel, and that a sword would pierce through her own soul also. From the very beginning Mary was told that her son's glory would be joined to her own deep sorrow.

That sorrow came soon. When wise men from the east came seeking the newborn king, the jealous King Herod sought to kill the child, and an angel warned Joseph to flee with the mother and the child to Egypt by night. Mary carried her son into exile to save his life, and only after Herod's death did they return to settle again in Nazareth. From the manger to the cross her path was marked by both wonder and a sword, and she walked it in faith, pondering all these things in her heart.

Her character and where she points to Christ

Mary is the model of humble faith and obedient trust. Faced with news that would upend her life and expose her to shame, she did not bargain or refuse but yielded herself to God's will. Her song reveals a heart soaked in the Scriptures and rejoicing in a God who lifts up the lowly. Through wonder and sorrow alike, she is shown pondering and treasuring God's work, and standing faithfully by her son to the foot of the cross when others fled. She holds a unique place in the story of salvation, for through her the eternal Son of God took human flesh and entered the world.

Yet Mary's whole life points away from herself to her son. Her last recorded words in Scripture are about him: Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it. She magnified not herself but the Lord her Saviour, numbering herself among those who needed saving. She gave the world its Savior and then, like every believer, pointed to him and called all who would listen to do whatever he says. In her the humblest faith held the highest honor, that the Word might be made flesh and dwell among us, and her example still teaches the church to answer God with her own words, Be it unto me according to thy word.

A note on the sources: everything above is drawn from the biblical text itself. Where a detail comes from later tradition rather than Scripture, it is named as tradition. Dates for the earliest figures are traditional and approximate, and Scripture does not always give them. The aim is to tell each life honestly, and to let it do what the whole Bible does, point to Jesus Christ the Lord.

Related: John the Baptist · Joseph (son of Jacob) · All the people of the Bible