On the Birth of Jesus
During the conception of Jesus, the angel responds to Mary’s questions pertaining to her conception and to delivering her child with a single response: ‘the power of the Lord shall overshadow you’ (Protevangelium 11.3). Yet, in describing the conception of Jesus, the meaning of the words remains opaque. On the other hand, in the birth of Jesus, the precise meaning of the words ‘the power of the Lord shall overshadow you’ is fully revealed in the description of Mary who gives birth to Jesus in a cave.
And they arrived at the place of the cave. And behold, a luminous cloud overshadowed the cave. And the midwife said, ‘My soul is magnified today, because my eyes have seen amazing things, salvation is born to Israel’. And immediately the cloud disappeared from the cave and a great light shone in the cave so that their eyes could not bear it. And a moment later that light decreased until the infant appeared and went and took the breast of his mother Mary (Protevangelium 19.2).
The midwife provides an analysis of what she saw. Her ‘soul is magnified’ for she witnessed the birth of the Messiah who would bring salvation to Israel. ‘I have a new thing to tell you: a virgin has brought forth, a thing which her condition does not allow’ (Protevangelium 19.3). The midwife understood what had happened because of the law of holiness for she saw that the infant immediately took the breast of Mary. There was no blood defilement in the birth of the child. In a normal situation, as in the birth of Mary (Protevangelium 5.2), it is because of the law of holiness, that Anna would be niddah at the birth of Mary and she could not nurse her until she was purified.
The understanding of how ‘the power of God shall overshadow you’ is clearly described. The reference parallels related phenomena found in many texts in the Old Testament. The most significant is likely the theophany on Mount Sinai when God reveals himself to Moses and Israel as a burning fire cloaked in a dark luminous cloud (Exodus 19:16–25). Similar references are found in many stories of the Ark of the Covenant, in the theophany of Isaiah (6:1–5), and in the visions of the ‘glory of God’ in Ezekiel 1, 10:1–17, in the departure of Yahweh from Jerusalem in Ezekiel 10:18–22 and 11:22–23; and in the return of Yahweh to Jerusalem in Ezekiel 43:1–7. The latter case specifically relates to the prophetic enactment involving Mary discussed in Protevangelium 7.4.
Other ancient incidents also exist with a slightly variant form with respect to the cloud guiding the Israelites in the day and the pillar of fire guiding the Israelites at night during the exodus from Egypt. The earliest example of such a phenomenon is when Moses first encounters God in the burning bush (Exodus 3:1–5). In this instance, the Voice of God speaks to Moses out of the burning bush.
The Burning Bush (Exodus 3.1-5). Artist, Katie V. Closs, 2024.
What has happened to Mary in the birth of Jesus provides answers to the two questions that Mary had asked the angel of annunciation (Protevangelium 11.2). They are directly related to the law of holiness. We see that the ‘power of God overshadows Mary’ in the same way that God reveals himself in other classic examples in the Old Testament.
The Protevangelium shows that Mary remained a virgin through the conception of Jesus, and she remained a virgin after giving birth to Jesus. This mystery is understood through the law of holiness to which Mary remained faithful and it occurred through the power of God.
Once Mary had given birth to Jesus, her title as the Lady of the Heavenly Holy of Holies was dropped. She is then given a new title of expectation in the prophetic literature as ‘Our Lady of Jerusalem’ or ‘Our Lady of Zion’, for her son is the Messiah, the king of Jerusalem, and the redeemer of Israel. Her new title is found in prophetic references in the Old Testament that express this future hope.
Our Lady of Jerusalem / Our Lady of Zion
Artists, Michael and Katie Closs, 2024.
