The Protevangelium in the Gospel of Mark
To solve the quandary of the messianic secret, it may be shown that Mark had access to the Protevangelium and that it is the source of the messianic messages of the unclean spirits in his gospel. It is exciting that it can be done because it is through the Voice of God and the angelic annunciation scene involving Mary that provide a prophetic statement regarding Mary’s future son Jesus. The difficulty incurred by the messianic secret vanishes because at this moment in history the son of Mary did not exist. There is simply no Jesus at this point for he has not been conceived.
Mark used the messianic secret in his narrative structure, and he was able to include the messianic messages of the unclean spirits because they had been made before Jesus existed on earth. The book analyzes that situation in detail.
It is necessary, however, that the messianic messages in the Protevangelium be available in some form – although not in a written text – because of the messianic secret. This places Mary into a historical reality. The result is that the details in the Protevangelium can be chronologically linked with the standard biblical chronology of the New Testament. The birth of Jesus in the Protevangelium occurs during the reign of Herod the Great and the visit of the wise men. These same details also occur in the much later Gospel of Matthew, where it is one of the keys to the biblical chronology of the New Testament.
According to this linkage, Mary was born around 18 BCE, which is approximately the same time as Herod dedicated his rebuilding of the Second Temple. Jesus himself would be born at around 5 BCE. All the resultant dates in the Protevangelium are completely within the age of the Old Testament and the story of Mary begins in that age.
The Protevangelium, being the testimony of Mary, could not be written before the death of Jesus because of the messianic secret. This suggests that it was first published around 35–50 CE while Mary was still alive, but after the death of Jesus, and early enough for Mark to have access to it. It is known that the earliest testimony of the life of Mary was published in Greek, and the most authentic version of the manuscript is the Syriac translation which until very recently had been the most ancient copy of the manuscript. Other indications also suggest that the original version of it was written in the Syriac area.
One consequence is that the Protevangelium can be investigated by using only reference material from the Old Testament. It may surprise many that one can do this without a single reference to the New Testament. Moreover, relying on the Old Testament also reveals modern day details in the story of Mary that are unknown in other commentaries on the Protevangelium.
