---

II. Reading Mary in Matthew

A. Of Her Was Born. . .

Consider this a "reading lesson." We’re going to learn how to read from the New Testament writers themselves. We want to start by simply understanding the "literal" or literary sense of these texts - what the words on the page tell us about Mary.

Mary’s first appearance in the New Testament comes in its very first chapter - at the end of the long genealogy that begins the New Testament.

She is introduced as: "Mary. Of her was born Jesus who is called the Messiah" (see Matthew 1:16).

We have to read these words in context. These are the final words of a list of descendants Matthew has drawn up to demonstrate that Jesus is "Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham" (see Matthew 1:1).

To understand the literal meaning of this text about Mary, then, we have to know some background about the Christ, and about David and Abraham.

Abraham was the founding father of God’s chosen people, Israel. God made a covenant with him, promising that through his descendants "all the nations of the earth shall find blessing" (see Genesis 22:18).

God promised Abraham that kings would stem from his line (see Genesis 17:6) and later swore an oath to Israel’s King David - that his kingdom would have no end, that David’s son would be His son and would reign forever, not only over Israel but over all the nations (see2 Samuel 7:12-13; Psalm 89:27-28; Psalm 132:4-5; 11-12).

But David’s kingdom crumbled and the people were dispersed into exile (see Matthew 1:11;2 Kings 24:14).

From that time forward, Israel’s prophets taught them to hope for a "Christ" (or "Messiah" in Hebrew). He was expected to be the son of God promised to David, who would liberate Israel’s scattered tribes and reunite them in a new and everlasting kingdom that would be a light to the nations (see Isaiah 9:5-6; 49:6; 55:3; Ezekiel 34:23-25,30; 37:25).

Read in context, then, the few words that Matthew gives us about Mary are no trifling matter.

In this short sentence, Matthew has effectively positioned Mary at the center of Israel’s history - the history of God’s chosen people. Of her was born the Christ through whom God would fulfill His covenant promises to Abraham and David.

As mother of the royal Messiah of Israel, Mary is also necessarily at the center of human history. For the fruit of her womb will be the source of the world’s salvation. Through Christ, born of Mary, God will bestow His divine blessings upon all nations and peoples.

B. . . .Through the Holy Spirit

Matthew continues this theme in the verses that follow, as he describes how Mary was "found with child through the Holy Spirit" (see Matthew 1:18-25).

He tells us that Mary’s conception by the Spirit fulfills a promise God made through the prophet Isaiah - that a virgin would bear a son who would be called Emmanuel, which means, "God is with us" (see Matthew 1:18,22-23; Isaiah 7:14).

This was an obscure prophecy. Nobody that we know of at the time of Jesus believed it had anything to do with the coming Messiah. Some rabbis said the prophecy had been fulfilled in Isaiah’s lifetime - when King Hezekiah was born.

Hezekiah was indeed a mighty reformer who "pleased the Lord, just as his forefather David had done." In addition, Scripture tells us, "the Lord was with him" (see 2 Kings 18:1-7; 2 Chronicles 29-32).

But Matthew seems to be telling us that Hezekiah was at best only a partial and imperfect fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy. Its perfect fulfillment awaited the Spirit’s conception of Jesus in Mary’s womb.

Mary is "she who is to give birth," as Malachi foretold in a prophecy Matthew will later quote (see Micah 5:1-2; Matthew 2:6). Through Mary, mother of the long-awaited Messiah, "God is with us."

Again, to understand the literal meaning of this passage, we have to understand the deep Old Testament context that Matthew assumes.

Matthew expects that his readers will hear in these words the promise that echoes throughout salvation history - the promise of the divine presence, that God will one day come to dwell with His people (see Isaiah 43:5; Zechariah 8:23; 2 Corinthians 6:16-18).

This was one of the great messianic hopes stirred by the prophets. Ezekiel, for one, prophesied a new King David and an "everlasting covenant" by which God would promise: "My dwelling shall be with them; I will be their God, and they shall be My people" (see Ezekiel 37:24-28; Revelation 21:3).

And we hear echoes of Isaiah’s Emmanuel prophecy throughout Matthew’s Gospel. Jesus repeatedly describes how He will be "with us" for all time, especially in the Eucharist (see Matthew 18:20, 25:40,45; 26:26-28). His last words resound with the promise: "I am with you always, until the end of the age" (see Matthew 28:20).

Matthew’s reference to Mary as the Virgin prophesied by Emmanuel once more places her at the center of God’s saving plan - for Israel and for the world.

The literal meaning of this text is that Mary is the divine "sign" that long ago God promised to give - the sign of His faithfulness to His eternal covenant with David, the sign that He has come to fulfill His purposes for all creation.

Continue to Section 3