URANTIA WIKI

Mary (mother of Jesus)

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From Urantia Wiki, the encyclopedia of The Urantia Book

Mary is the mother of Jesus in The Urantia Book, which calls her “the earth mother of Jesus” 122:1.2. She was the daughter of Joachim and Hannah 122:3.3, the wife of Joseph, and the mother of eight more children after Jesus 126:2.2. The book describes her as “an average woman of her day and generation, possessing a fairly normal temperament” 122:1.2, and it presents her as a fully human figure with strengths, doubts and mistakes. It reports that she and Joseph “lived and died without ever learning that their son Jesus really was the Universe Creator incarnate in mortal flesh” 124:4.4.

Ancestry and selection

According to the book, Mary descended from “a long line of unique ancestors embracing many of the most remarkable women in the racial history of Urantia,” among them Tamar, Ruth, Bathsheba and Eve 122:1.2. It adds that “Racially considered, it is hardly proper to regard Mary as a Jewess”: Jewish in culture and belief, she was by heredity a blend of many strains 122:1.2. She had more Davidic ancestry than Joseph 122:4.3, and her forebears had been prominent in the recent Maccabean movement 122:5.10.

The book says that Gabriel sent a Family Commission of Twelve to study Jewish family life, then chose Joseph and Mary from three couples it nominated 122:0.2-3. Michael planned to appear as an average man, so Gabriel chose a couple with “the most ideal combination of widespread racial connections and superior average of personality endowments” 122:1.3.

Courtship and the annunciation

Their courtship began when Joseph, as a young man, was building an addition to her father’s house, and Mary brought him a cup of water during the noon meal 122:5.8. After nearly two years they were married at her home near Nazareth 122:5.9, in March 8 B.C. 122:7.1.

Gabriel appeared to Mary about the middle of November 8 B.C., while she was at work in her Nazareth home 122:2.6. The book sets the scene “One evening about sundown, before Joseph had returned home,” beside a low stone table. Gabriel told her she would bear a son, to be named Joshua, who would “inaugurate the kingdom of heaven on earth and among men” 122:3.1. The book specifies that this announcement came the day after Jesus was conceived and was “the only event of supernatural occurrence” in her pregnancy 122:3.4.

Luke’s annunciation is the clear parallel Lk 1:26-38, but the two accounts differ. In Luke the angel promises that the child will receive “the throne of his father David” Lk 1:32-33. The book says that “In all these visitations nothing was said about the house of David,” nor about a deliverer of the Jews 122:4.2. It also rejects the virgin birth: the prophecy of a “maiden” was later rendered “virgin” 122:4.4 Is 7:14; Mt 1:22-23.

Mary kept the visit to herself for weeks before telling Joseph 122:3.2. She then spent three weeks with her kinswoman Elizabeth, who was expecting John the Baptist and who strengthened Mary’s faith in the vision 122:2.6 Lk 1:39-56. Her family knew nothing of Gabriel’s visit, but she did confide to her sister Salome that her son would be a great teacher 122:3.3.

Bethlehem and Egypt

Joseph could have registered for the census alone, but Mary, “being an adventurous and aggressive person, insisted on accompanying him.” She did not want the baby born while he was away, and she hoped to visit Elizabeth 122:7.2. When Joseph tried to forbid it, she packed double rations 122:7.3. Heavily pregnant, she rode their one donkey while Joseph walked 122:7.4, and on the road she held to “the idea of a Jewish Messiah, a deliverer of the Hebrew nation” 122:7.5. She gave birth at noon on 21 August 7 B.C. in a converted room beneath the Bethlehem inn, helped by women who were traveling too 122:8.1 Lk 2:6-7.

Mary shared Zacharias and Elizabeth’s conviction that Jesus would sit on David’s throne, and this was one reason the family stayed on in Bethlehem for more than a year 122:8.4. On the way home from the temple presentation she was “much disturbed by the farewell salutation of Anna” 122:9.28 Lk 2:33. During the two years in Alexandria, she “maintained one long and constant vigil” over the child, and the book says “no mother was ever more devoted to her child” 123:0.2.

Raising a family in Nazareth

Back in Nazareth, Mary looked after Jesus’ early training. Galilean custom left a boy with his mother until he was five, and on 21 August 2 B.C. she “formally turned him over to Joseph” 123:2.13. She went on teaching him to care for the garden and gave him sand boxes on the roof for maps and writing practice 123:2.14. The book calls her “a loving mother but a fairly strict disciplinarian” 123:3.9. She spoke little Greek; Joseph was fluent 123:3.1. As a small boy, Jesus fed grain into the family mill while his mother turned the grinder 122:6.2.

When the twelve-year-old Jesus stayed behind in the temple, Mary was the one who scolded him in front of everyone: “My child, why have you treated us like this?” 125:6.5 Lk 2:48. Afterward she read his words on Olivet as a sign of Messianic mission and worked “to mold his thoughts into patriotic and nationalistic channels,” enlisting her brother, Jesus’ favorite uncle, to help 125:6.13.

Joseph’s death in A.D. 8 came as a shock to her; she reached Sepphoris after he had already died 126:2.1. Ruth, her last child, was born the following April 126:3.2. In the hard years that followed, she was alarmed by her eldest son’s solitary prayers and strange ideas, and at times thought him “beside himself” 126:3.13. She pressed him to join the nationalist cause. When she called his refusal insubordination, he answered, “My mother, how could you?” and she withdrew the charge 127:2.3. After the death of her son Amos, she “at last and in the fullest sense recognized Jesus as the real head of the family” 127:3.13, and in time she accepted his liberal teaching on child training and the Sabbath 127:4.2 127:4.9. When Rebecca, daughter of a wealthy merchant, fell in love with Jesus, Mary tried to dissuade her 127:5.1-2.

In A.D. 24, with her sons married, Mary moved with her daughter Ruth to a house in Capernaum that Jesus had provided, “where they lived for the rest of Mary’s life” 134:1.6.

During the public ministry

At the wedding in Cana, Mary asked her son to provide wine because she believed his hour had come. Rebuked, she wept and pleaded, and then, sensing a change, told the servants, “Whatever my son says, that do” 137:4.8-9. The book follows John’s outline Jn 2:3-5 but adds her motive: she hoped he would “exhibit his Messianic power” 137:4.10.

In May A.D. 29, after Pharisees had urged her to believe that Jesus was out of his mind, she came with some of her children to take him home 154:6.1-2. He sent back word, “I have no mother; I have no brothers. Behold my mother and behold my brethren!”, and when Mary heard it she collapsed in Jude’s arms 154:6.5-6 Mt 12:48-50; Mk 3:33-35; Lk 8:21. The book adds that Jesus had meant to see them afterward but had to flee before he could 154:6.10-12.

The cross and after

On the day of the crucifixion, Jesus sent John Zebedee to bring his mother to him 186:0.2. She reached Golgotha with John, Ruth and Jude just as he was raised on the cross 187:2.7. At noon Jesus said to her, “Woman, behold your son!” and to John, “My son, behold your mother!” He then asked them to leave 187:4.7 Jn 19:26-27. Like John, the book places her near the cross with her sister Mary the wife of Clopas and Mary Magdalene 187:3.2 Jn 19:25.

About a week after the resurrection, John took her to his home in Bethsaida 190:1.10. She was among the one hundred and twenty disciples gathered in Jerusalem after the ascension 193:6.1, as Acts also records Acts 1:14, and soon after Pentecost she went back to the home of Salome, Zebedee’s wife, at Bethsaida 193:6.1.

The book links later devotion to Mary with the ancient “mother cult” of Eve. That cult, it says, survived “down to the times of Christ, becoming later incorporated in the early Christian religion under the guise of the glorification and worship of Mary the earth mother of Jesus” 80:7.7.

Personality and appearance

The book contrasts Mary’s temperament with Joseph’s. “She was usually cheerful, was very rarely downcast, and possessed an ever-sunny disposition,” and she expressed her feelings freely. She was never seen sorrowful until Joseph died 122:5.2. Joseph was a thinker; “she was a planner, expert in adaptation and practical in immediate execution” 122:5.5. She was “an expert weaver,” a good housekeeper and a superior homemaker 122:5.7. In religion she leaned toward the liberal, Hellenistic reading of the law, against Joseph’s Babylonian outlook 122:5.11. From her, the book says, Jesus derived his gift for teaching, his “tremendous capacity for righteous indignation” 122:5.3, and “a broader viewpoint of religious life” 122:5.4.

Physically, the book says only that she was “a brown-eyed well-nigh blond type” 122:5.5.

Her faith wavered all her life. “Mary alternated between believing and doubting,” swayed by her children and relatives, but she was always steadied in the end “by the memory of Gabriel’s appearance” 122:5.6. Her parents, brothers and sisters remained “very skeptical about the divine mission of Jesus” 122:3.3, and few of her people believed in him until after he had left the world 122:5.10.

Index of references

Mary, the mother of Jesus, married Joseph in March, 8 B.C. Three months after the wedding, Gabriel appeared to Elizabeth in June, when Joseph and Mary were absent in Bethlehem. 122:2.2 122:5.8-9

When Jesus left Nazareth, Mary and Ruth moved to Capernaum to live in the home given by Jesus, where they remained for the rest of Mary's life. 134:1.6

Mary's family, always skeptical of Jesus, doubted his divine mission despite her belief in his destined greatness. 122:3.3 122:5.10

Mary, mother of Jesus, became the object of a modern mother cult, descending from the ancient traditions of the worship of the “great mother” Eve in Crete. 80:7.7

Gabriel chose Joseph and Mary to be the parents of the bestowal child, appearing to Mary to impart the glad tidings of her selection. 122:0.3 122:1.3

Mary insisted on accompanying Joseph to Bethlehem, driven by her adventurous spirit and fear of being left alone before the child's birth. 122:7.2

In most matters of difference, Mary had been right; could it be possible that his mother was right? 126:3.11

Relation with Jesus

  • Mary found Jesus teaching in the temple, fulfilling his Father's business. 125:6.4-8
  • Throughout his fifth calendar year of life in 2 B.C., Jesus was constantly curious and inquisitive, with Joseph and Mary never failing to fully discuss and assist with his questions and inquiries. 123:2.3
  • Jesus allowed Mary to entertain whatever ideas she chose, even as he grew increasingly aware of the difference in viewpoints between Joseph and Mary regarding his mission. 124:4.5 127:1.7-8 129:3.4 134:1.2
  • Mary collapsed in Zebedee's garden after Jesus declared, «I have no mother.» 154:6
  • Jesus sent John Zebedee to bring his mother Mary to see him before he died. (186:0.1,3)
  • Mary, mother of Jesus, returned to Bethsaida and lived with Salome Zebedee after the meeting of the Master's disciples in Jerusalem. 190:1.10 193:6.1

Family

  • Mary took her children to her brother's farm near Sarid to protect Jesus from a dangerous disease outbreak. 123:1.7 123:6.1 128:7.8
  • Mary, pregnant with a child of destiny, visited her distant cousin Elizabeth for three weeks, strengthening her faith in the vision of Gabriel. (122:2.1,6)
  • Mary, daughter of Joachim and Hannah, confided in her sister Salome about her son Jesus' destined greatness and sought refuge with her brother near Sarid to protect her children from disease. 122:3.3 123:1.7 123:6.1 127:2.4 128:7.8 187:3.2 188:1.7

Personal characteristics

  • Mary and Joseph were ordinary people of their time, raising the Son of God in a typical way for their culture. 119:7.7
  • Mary, a well-educated and practical blonde with brown eyes, complemented Joseph's thoughtful and dark-eyed nature. 122:5.5
  • Mary, mother of Jesus, died in the year following the crucifixion. 187:2.7
  • Mary, educated far above average, was a practical planner and expert in adaptation, while Joseph was a thinker, both coming from families well educated for their time. 122:5.5
  • Mary's ever-sunny disposition stood in stark contrast to her husband's demeanor, remaining cheerful even in the face of hardship. 122:5.2
  • Mary was an expert weaver and exceptional homemaker, ensuring her children were well educated in the learning of their time. 122:5.7
  • Mary, mother of Jesus, had a remarkable lineage filled with unique ancestors, but the genealogies constructed after Michael's bestowal are not genuine. (122:1.2,3) 122:4.4
  • Mary's serious illness with the birth of Jude forced Jesus to take on adult responsibilities at a young age. 124:3.4

Attitudes

  • Mary, the ambitious mother, turned to Jesus for help in their home crises at Nazareth, but Jesus emphasized waiting on the will of the Father in heaven. 137:4.8
  • Mary avoided Jesus when he arrived in Capernaum, choosing instead to visit her son Joseph in Nazareth. 145:0.1
  • Mary basked in the sunshine of maternal delusion before realizing her son was meant for a higher calling. 126:0.2
  • Mary's concern regarding Rebecca and Jesus was fueled by the realization that her son, a splendid and respected man in Nazareth, was being pursued by the wealthy merchant's daughter despite his destiny as a great religious leader. 127:5.1-2
  • Mary's family was convinced Jesus would become the temporal Messiah, leading to conflicting viewpoints between her and Joseph about his mission. 122:5.10 122:8.4 123:0.5 123:6.8 124:4.5 125:6.13 126:3.9
  • Mary and his family struggled to comprehend Jesus as he challenged their preconceived notions and expectations, leaving them perplexed and uncertain about his true purpose. 127:1.4 134:1.5 137:7.1
  • Mary, a loving mother, was a fairly strict disciplinarian who helped Jesus adjust his strong feelings to family cooperation. 123:3.9
  • Memory of Gabriel’s appearance steadied Mary’s faith in Jesus, enabling her to cling to her belief despite doubts from family and friends. 122:5.6 137:3.3-7 154:6.1
  • Mary faithfully discharged her parental responsibilities with great devotion and vigilance during Jesus' early years. 123:0.2 124:3.2 124:4.4
  • Mary embraced the Hellenistic interpretation of Judaism, while Joseph adhered to the Babylonian viewpoint. 122:5.11
  • Mary experienced increasing disappointment, humiliation, and despair as Jesus's ministry caused a widening gulf between him and his family. 138:0.1
  • Mary became overprotective after Jesus fell in a sandstorm, leading to great anxiety but ultimately fostering a lively competition for his company among his family members during monthly visits. 123:4.6 123:6.2
  • Mary was initially shocked at Jesus' Passover views but eventually came to understand and accept his perspective. 127:6.7
  • Mary, torn between love and fear; harassed by doubts, was deeply hurt when Jesus declared, “I have no mother; I have no brothers,” highlighting her struggle to understand his divine mission. 126:1.5 126:3.13 128:3.9 128:7.7 154:6
  • While journeying through Samaria, Jesus and his brother discussed traditions at Bethel and Jacob's well, preparing James for what he would witness at Jerusalem. 127:3.3

Present at

  • The birth of Jesus occurred at noon on August 21, 7 B.C., with Mary delivering a male child with the help of fellow women travelers. 122:8
  • Gabriel's announcement to Mary marked the beginning of her extraordinary journey as the mother of Jesus, the child of divine destiny. 122:2.6 122:3
  • Mary followed her son Jesus to Golgotha during his crucifixion, leaving with John and Jude after he entrusted her care to them. 186:0.3 187:2.7 187:4.7
  • Jesus’ 4th morontia appearance brought peace and fellowship to Mary and her loved ones. 190:2.6
  • Jesus' first Passover at Jerusalem was an event rich with meaning and significance in his young life, leading to deep spiritual reflections and a sense of destiny as the Son of his heavenly Father. 125
  • At the upper room at Pentecost, Mary, the mother of Jesus, gathered with one hundred and twenty leading disciples to hear the farewell message of the Master and witness his ascension. 193:6.1 194:3.15
  • Mary's ambitious appeal for help with the wine at the wedding at Cana inadvertently led to the first public display of Jesus' Messianic power. 137:4

> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary,_mother_of_Jesus

    Bible parallels

    Passages that the paragraphs cited above parallel, quote or reinterpret, from Duane Faw’s Paramony cross-references. Hover a reference to read it.

    See also

    • Jesus:family
    Jesus
    Categories: People and personalities · Paper 122 · Paper 137 · Paper 145 · Paper 154 · Paper 188 · Paper 192