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by Paul Sumner
A Medieval Jewish tradition says she was a village whore whose son was the product of a liaison with a Roman soldier. This legend about Ben Stada and Pandira some Orthodox still teach as fact in their yeshivot. (1) In Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox circles she is venerated as the Mother of God, Queen of Heaven, and Intercessor between her divine Son and sinning Christians. Shrines commemorating her modern visitations dot the world, drawing pilgrims to come adore “Our Lady.” (2) In academic biblical scholarship she is often portrayed as a simple Palestinian peasant girl who lived on the borders of Judaism and Gentile paganism and was later beatified by the Church. Feminist scholars praise her for enduring and eventually triumphing over an oppressive Jewish male religious culture.
In contrast, the New Testament portrays Miryam quite differently. There, she's a young Jewish woman who knows large portions of Hebrew Scripture by heart, worships the ancestral God, and entrusts herself to her Lord's faithfulness to his ancient promises to Abraham. Coupled with her faith, she lives obediently to the Law of Moses. The Miryam of the New Testament silences the hubris of anti-Yeshua tradition, the idolatry of mother-son myths, and the contempt of anti-Semitic scholars. She is worthy of praise and admiration — not because she is divine but because of her exemplary faith in the God of Abraham, and because she was chosen to raise the boy whom the NT affirms to be the Anointed One. [Top] Miryam's true character shines most brightly in the first two chapters of the Gospel of Luke.In her, Luke depicts a hasidic (pious) girl who lives among and raises her son among hasidic tzaddikim — that is, loyal righteous Jews. (See Israel's Tzaddikim Raised Yeshua.) She is a vibrant spiritual Deborah with courageous faith, who (we can fairly assume) lovingly taught her child the Scriptures and sang him the Songs of Zion. She cannot be divorced from her Jewish environment. That is where the New Testament wants her to be seen. She is part of her people. I wish to restore Miryam’s reputation as a daughter of Sarah, and by doing so honor the God of Israel for molding such a person. Why call her “hasidic”? The following interpretations will explain why. [Top] Most everyone is familiar with the Christmas Story. But Luke’s gospel narrative suggests that his purpose was to tell a very Hebraic story that any pious Jew steeped in Scripture would recognize and relish. Here are the highlights of the narrative:
[Top ] Miryam’s first response is signifcant. She seeks fellowship and encouragement from Elisheva, but also from the biblical Hannah. Both were devout women who had their own miraculous pregnancies and God-chosen sons. One was a living relative; the other a heroine in Scripture.
Elisheva — My God keeps promises Zecharyah was an elderly priest and elderly Elisheva was one “of the daughters of Aaron” (Luke 1:5). They served in the spiritual center of national faith: Jerusalem. They were tzaddikim; that is, “righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless” (v. 6). But they had no child, and their cultural milieu viewed fruitlessness as a curse from God. But they prayed. And God answered, beyond all imagination. Not only would He “take away [Elisheva’s] reproach among men” (v. 25), their gift-son would wear the mantle of Elijah, the great reformer-prophet, and step forth to prepare Israel for the Messiah’s arrival. Whether Miryam knew the whole story about Zecharyah and Elisheva is not said, but it is implied. Why else would Miryam go first to her relative’s home for commiseration? Their two sons would be the triggers of a spiritual earthquake within Israel. They needed to talk and pray together. [Top]
Hannah — God’s Grace (1 Samuel 1–2) Hannah was a devout woman who lived a thousand years before Miryam. Like the ancient mothers Sarah and Rebekah, she too was barren and had repeatedly asked God for a child. Eventually, miraculously she became pregnant with Samuel by her husband Elkanah. When Samuel (Heb. Shmuel, “heard by God”) was born, Hannah offered thanks then gave him back to God for service. In reading her hymn of thanks, notice how Hannah interpreted God’s answer to her request for a son. She didn’t engage in self-indulgent mother pride. Samuel was a gift for a purpose beyond herself. He was part of the great Plan. In time he became the great prophet-judge who anointed David of Bethlehem as king. The LORD will judge the ends of the earth; Hannah’s name in Hebrew means “favor or grace.” She knew she was graced. Yet there was no self in her praise; only confidence in God's first messianic foundations. [Top] Compare the first words of Hannah and Miryam’s hymns of thanks. Hannah: “My heart exults in the LORD…because I rejoice in Your salvation” (1 Sam 2:1)These lines have five similar terms: (1) heart or soul, (2) exalt or exult, (3) the Lord/God, (4) rejoice, and (5) a noun form of the word “save” (Heb. yasha): salvation, Savior. Miryam adapts Hannah’s praise to her own use, but the essence is the same. This suggests that Miryam had been meditating on Hannah’s story and had memorized the ancient mother’s song before arriving at Elisheva’s door. (See a full table of comparisons in The Mothers of Israel Sing: Miryam and Hannah in Praise of God.) Miryam recognizes her weighty privilege (“All generations will count me blessed”; v. 48). But like Hannah, she sees her blessing as only another in the chain of “mighty deeds” God had worked in order to give “help to Israel His servant” (vv. 51, 54). She doesn’t turn the light on herself or envision a new religion forming around her. She’s focused on the Plan. Miryam’s an Israelite with gratitude. [Top] Two-Thousand-Year Flame of Hope Miryam's song of thanksgiving (Luke 1:46–55) contains numerous phrases from, allusions to, and echoes of Hebrew psalms and the Prophets. [See the table of Biblical Sources of Miryam’s Hymn, PDF.] Many of these texts rehearse Israel’s national gifts and praise God for faithfulness. Her recitation (in v. 50) of Psalm 103:17 is thematic: The Lord’s mercy is upon generation after generation toward those who fear Him.She recalls how God ...has given help to Israel his servant,In these two passages, the Greek word translated “mercy” (eleos) represents the Hebrew original hesed.
Hesed It isn’t God’s mercy that Miryam rejoices in, but his steady love for her, for her people, and for the ancestors. That’s the core of her understanding of what’s happening to her. [Top]
Abraham Her Father Yet her sense of timeless continuity, of being one with him and her people throughout the ages — as though Israel were an eternal, living entity that embraced her — is very strong. She's living in a two-millennia-long Moment of Expectation toward the Living God. “In remembrance of his mercy” (Luke 1:54) could be translated “in remembrance of His covenant love” — as he had promised to Abraham in the founding covenant (Genesis 12 and 15). Note the link in Miryam’s thought: “The Mighty One has done great things for me. . . . His hesed is upon generation upon generation toward those who fear him” (Luke 1:49–50). The “great things” she personally experienced were merely extensions of God’s hesed in her own generation. Two thousand years before, God showed them to Father Abraham; he was showing new ones to her. [Top]
Miryam’s husband was a righteous man. Obeying the prescription in the Torah (Lev 12:1–4), on the eighth day after her baby was born, the two of them had him circumcised and named “Yeshua” (as the messenger of God commanded, Luke 1:31). Thirty-three days later, they took him up to the Jerusalem “to present him to the Lord,” also according to Torah (Exod 13:2, 12; Luke 2:22). They returned her firstborn to God: her gift given back to the Giver. In the Temple, the baby was joyfully acknowledged by two mature Spirit-of-God-filled people, Shimon and Hannah (Luke 2:25–38). Their validation of the baby must have given Miryam great happiness. But the future didn’t hold all incense and sweet music for her. [Top]
Joy and Shadow It isn’t clear what this sword would be. Perhaps it would be the years of public cynicism and mockery about being a virgin mother. Perhaps a cutting revelation of her own heart sins. Perhaps seeing her beloved son grow up and become hated — as “a Sign to be opposed,” Shimon said (v. 34) — then seeing him die on a Roman cross. Perhaps all this and more. In Jerusalem, after Miryam and Joseph “had performed everything according to the Law of the Lord” (v. 39), they took their son back to Nazareth in Galilee to raise him. There, for thirty years, he “became strong in spirit, increasing in wisdom; and the grace of God was upon him” (v. 40). [Top]
In the Bible, the word hesed is also used as an adjectival noun: hasid — a loyal, devoted, committed, and loving person. To be hasidic is to be loyal in love and obedient to the will of God: as it’s spelled out in the covenant. God guards his oath. And he’s the one who determines who is truly hasidic. His word is the template by which any person is defined as hasidic. For this reason I call Miryam Yeshua’s “hasidic mother.” She lived by God’s covenant-hesed, even expecting acts of hesed in her day. She also lived a life loyal to his word. I believe she embodied for her son that core quality of God’s Name: “abounding in unchanging love and faithfulness . . . keeping unchanging love for thousands” (Exod 34:6–7). The famous “excellent wife” in Proverbs 31 is another model for Miryam and for all women in Israel. For “She opens her mouth in wisdom, and torat hesed is on her tongue” (v. 26). Most English versions render the bold phrase as “teaching of kindness” or “kindly teaching.” But it could rightly be translated “teaching [about God’s] covenant loyalty” or “the Law of Steadfast Love.” This is exactly what Miryam taught her son. It was in this Jewish woman’s home that “Yeshua kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor [like his mother] with God and men” (Luke 2:52; 1:28). Was that coincidental? Did God nourish the faith of this young woman for years, then only randomly select her to create a home atmosphere in which his Son would drink in scriptural instruction, songs of faith, hasidic love and tzedakah?
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1) The story of Ben Stada is found "in uncensored editions of the [Babylonian] Talmud" [Sanhedrin 67a]. R. Travers Herford has extensive discussion of this subject in his Christianity in Talmud and Midrash (orig. 1903; reprint Ktav, nd), pages 35-41, 55-56, 79-83, 344-60. The Jewish editors of the Soncino edition of Sanhedrin argue against Herford's connection that Ben Stada is Yeshua of Nazareth (at 67a). Instead, they say Ben Stada was "simply...a false prophet executed during the second century at Lydda" (folio 67a, new edition, 1987).
Jakob Jocz gives these rabbinic texts on the subject: Babylonian Talmud: Sanhedrin 67a, 103a, 106a, 107b; Mishnah, Yebamot 4:13; BT, Shabbat 104b; Jerusalem Talmud (JT): Ta'anit 65a; Sanhedrin 25c,d; Tosephta: Sanhedrin 9:7, 10:11; and others. J. Jocz, The Jewish People and Jesus Christ (The Relationship Between Church and Synagogue) (1949, 1982), pages 59-60.
But this story about Ben Stada antedates the Babylonian Talmud (ca. AD/CE 500) by some two centuries. The church historian, theologian and Bible scholar Origen [c. AD 185–254] referred to this story in his AD 248 work Contra Celsum ["Against Celsus" the Platonist]:
2) Roman and Orthodox Christianity attribute to Mary the title “Queen of Heaven.” Paradoxically, the expression is used in the book of Jeremiah and refers to Ishtar, the Babylonian mother goddess who was worshiped by some Jews (Jer 7:18; 44:17, 18, 19, 25; cf. Rev 18:7). Historians note that the Cult of Ishtar persisted into the Christian era. The early church in Syria incorporated features of the cult in its veneration of the Virgin; features which eventually were adopted by the church in Rome and the break-away branches that retained Roman traditions.
In Roman and Orthodox traditions, Mary is also deemed the mediatrix (feminine mediator) between humans (especially Catholic faithful) and her Son. Pope John Paul II (1920-2005) wrote: "In union with Christ and in submission to him, she collaborated in obtaining the grace of salvation for all humanity" [L'Osservatore Romano (English ed., The Roman Observer newspaper, April 16, 1997), page 7. This doctrine arose in the wake of the theological abstracting and distancing of the Son of God. The more divine Jesus became (in the thinking of Christians), the more they needed a human mediator. (See the frank admissions of the Catholic historian Friedrich Heer in his God’s First Love: Christians and Jews over Two Thousand Years [trans. G. Skelton; New York: Weybright & Talley, 1970], 411-17.) Read comments by Heer in his "Deification of Christ and Veneration of Mary." On Mary as Mediator, see the biblical evidence against this doctrine in Hebrew Mediators and the Mediator Messiah.
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N.T. Studies | Hebrew Bible Studies | Monotheism
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