Mary at the Age of 3
When Mary is three years old, she is brought to the Temple of the Lord and welcomed by the priests (Protevangelium 7). She will live there, with other selected young girls from Israel, for approximately 9 years.
Mary at the age of 3. Artists, Katie and Michael Closs, 2025.
Dramatic events occur when Mary is brought to the temple. An unknown priest (probably the high priest) welcomes her and blesses her. He says ‘The Lord has magnified your name for all generations. Through you, in the last days, the Lord will manifest his redemption to the children of Israel’ (Protevangelium 7.3). In this prophecy, the priest proclaims that it is through Mary that the Messiah will be born and that this happens ‘in the last days’. This shows that the messianic age is approaching. Mary is now directly implicated as being the mother of the future Messiah.
In addition, the prophecy also includes a situational enactment drawing on the book of Ezekiel in which the Lord God sends his grace upon Mary. Mary herself sees the glory of God; an incident that takes place at a time before the glory of God returns to the New Temple described by Ezekiel (Protevangelium 7.4). It is after this moment that the priests begin to describe Mary in a different way as someone who is like a dove that dwelt in the temple and ‘received food from the hand of an angel’ [that is, under the special protection of God] (Protevangelium 8.1) and also as someone ‘brought up in the holy of holies’ and who ‘received food from the hand of an angel’ (Protevangelium 13.2, 15.3). The importance of Mary’s distinctive relationship with God is further emphasized by the Voice of God (Protevangelium 11.1) and by the angel of the annunciation to Mary (Protevangelium 11.2) which all occur before the conception of Jesus.
Thus says the Lord God: “See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight – indeed, he is coming,” says the Lord of hosts. … Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years. (Malachi 3:1, 4).
