Yet another trajectory proposed by E. Bruce Brooks:
E. Bruce Brooks, "Gospel Trajectories," page 1: Mary is rejected by Jesus in Mark (Mk 3:33f, “Who are my mother and brothers?”). In Matthew, Mary is favored by God to be Jesus’ mother (Mt 1:20f, the angel to Joseph: “Do not fear to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit”). In Luke Mary reacts fully and eloquently to the news that she is to be so favored (Lk 1:46f, the Magnificat). Luke adds a childhood narrative of Jesus in the Temple, where Mary speaks to Jesus (Lk 2:41-51). In John, for reasons above noted, there is no birth scene, but Mary is part of Jesus’ ministry. She persuades him to perform his first miracle at Cana (Jn 2:3f, Mary to the servants: “Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it”), and at the end is touchingly commended by him, from the very cross, to the care of a disciple (Jn 19:26f, “Jesus... saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son. Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother”).
Several of our gospel texts are simply too limited in scope even to be expected to speak much, if at all, about Mary the mother of Jesus; these would include the Sophia of Jesus Christ, the Dialogue of the Savior, the Gospel of Judas, the Gospel of Mary, the Apocryphon of John, the Apocryphon of James, the Gospel of the Savior, and the Book of Thomas the Contender. The Gospel of Marcion, as usual, is a special case, and I will not treat it here and now. The Gospel of the Ebionites, the Gospel of Peter, and the Traditions of Matthias are too fragmentary for a lack of mention of Mary to mean anything for us.
The gospel texts which remain fit my table reasonably well, with one or two exceptions.
First, of course, the canonical sequence broken down by Brooks (Mark, Matthew, Luke, John) lines up nicely with it.
Second, the Epistle of the Apostles has this to say about Mary:
Epistle of the Apostles 3-5a:
3 This know we, that our Lord and Redeemer Jesus Christ is God the Son of God, who was sent of God the Lord of the whole world, the maker and creator of it, who is named by all names, and high above all powers, Lord of lords, King of kings, Ruler of rulers, the heavenly one who sits above the cherubim and seraphim at the right hand of the throne of the Father, who by his word made the heavens, and formed the earth and that which is in it, and set bounds to the sea that it should not pass, the deeps also and fountains, that they should spring forth and flow over the earth: the day and the night, the sun and the moon, did he establish, and the stars in the heaven, who did separate the light from the darkness, who called forth hell, and in the twinkling of an eye ordained the rain of the winter, the snow, the hail, and the ice, and the days in their several seasons, who makes the earth to quake and establishes it again, who created man in his own image, after his likeness, and by the fathers of old and the prophets is it declared, of whom the apostles preached, and whom the disciples did touch. In God, the Lord, the Son of God, do we believe, that he is the word become flesh, that of Mary the holy virgin he took a body, begotten of the Holy Ghost, not of the lust of the flesh, but by the will of God: that he was wrapped in swaddling clothes in Bethlehem and made manifest, and grew up and came to ripe age, when also we beheld it.
4 This did our Lord Jesus Christ, who was sent by Joseph and Mary his mother to be taught. When he who taught him said unto him: Say Alpha, then answered he and said: Tell me first what is Beta. This thing which then came to pass is to true and of verity.
5a Thereafter was there a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and they bade him with his mother and his brothers, and he changed water into wine.
In what is mostly a dialogue gospel format with very briefly narrated summaries of stories, this contribution is not insignificant.
Third, the Gospel of Philip I have
already discussed as an explicable exception to the sequence; even so, however, it harps a bit on Mary the mother of Jesus:
Philip 18, 36:
18 Some said, "Mary conceived by the Holy Spirit." They are in error. They do not know what they are saying. When did a woman ever conceive by a woman? Mary is the virgin whom no power defiled. She is a great anathema to the Hebrews, who are the apostles and the apostolic men. This virgin whom no power defiled [...] the powers defile themselves. And the Lord would not have said "My Father who is in Heaven" (= Matthew 16.17), unless he had had another father, but he would have said simply "My father."
36 There were three who always walked with the Lord: Mary, his mother, and her sister, and Magdalene, the one who was called his companion. His sister and his mother and his companion were each a Mary.
Fourth, let us consider the two infancy gospels on the list; their scope does not allow us to expect mentions of Mary during Jesus' adult ministry, but already the Infancy Gospel of Thomas takes a story found in Luke and injects Marian material found elsewhere in the canonical infancy narratives, presumably to make certain that the pericope of Jesus visiting the Temple at age twelve does not reflect poorly on her:
Infancy gospel of Thomas 19.3-5: 3 And his mother Mary came near and said unto him: Child, why have you so done unto us? Behold, we have sought you sorrowing. And Jesus said unto them: Why do you seek me? Do you not know that I must be in my Father's house? 4 But the scribes and Pharisees said: Are you the mother of this child? And she said: I am. And they said unto her: Blessed are you among women because God has blessed the fruit of your womb. For such glory and such excellence and wisdom we have neither seen nor heard at any time. 5 And Jesus arose and followed his mother and was subject unto his parents; but his mother kept in mind all that came to pass. And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and grace. Unto him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
The infancy gospel of James goes further still, narrating not only Jesus' birth but also Mary's, sowing the bare seeds of the later doctrine of the immaculate conception.
Fifth, we come to what is possibly a big exception, the Gospel of Thomas, which, despite its late position on my list, narrates nothing very splendid about Jesus' mother:
Thomas 99, 101, 105:
99 The disciples said to him, "Your brothers and your mother are standing outside." He said to them, "Those here who do what my Father wants are my brothers and my mother. They are the ones who will enter my Father's kingdom."
....
101 "Whoever does not hate [father] and mother as I do cannot be my [disciple], and whoever does [not] love [father and] mother as I do cannot be my [disciple]. For my mother [...], but my true [mother] gave me life."
....
105 Jesus said, "Whoever knows the father and the mother will be called the child of a whore."
As I said, I think that my table dates this gospel too late in some ways; I have some ideas about why, and ought to get to them at some point soonish.
Overall, however, if one bears in mind both the limitations of the infancy gospels and the fact that this Marian criterion ought to apply almost strictly to narrative gospels overall, it stands up pretty well so far as my table is concerned. The narrative gospels line up nicely, with the possible exception of the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, since, while it seems more conscious of saving Mary's reputation than Luke in this one climactic childhood story, I cannot necessarily say that it is more eager in that area than the Gospel of John is; however, as mentioned, the infancy gospel format is probably limiting in this respect.
The trajectory is of quite limited use, and it probably cannot sufficiently account for any trend which, like modern evangelicals, would seek to
demote Mary from her highest previously attained position, but at least it does not
contradict the relative chronology suggested by my table in any substantial way.
