As to her early condition, the gospel simply tells us that she was a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. It has been supposed—and very reasonably—that Joseph and Mary, and their immediate relations, were now the only representatives of the house of David. Mary, too, may have been the representative of the eldest, and Joseph of the youngest branch of the surviving family, and as such it is by no means unlikely that Mary may have possessed some small inheritance at Bethlehem. We know how strictly it was the aim of the Mosaic law to prevent the alienation of property from the tribe and family to which it originally belonged,. and nothing would be more accordant with the customs of the nation than for Joseph—supposing him to be the heir of David's throne—to have espoused Mary the inheritress of his patrimony. During the period of her espousal she would, according to the custom of the Jews, reside with her parents, and have no communication with her intended husband except through a third person, and the effect of her espousal would be to add a higher degree of sacredness to her virginity, since the punishment inflicted by the law of Moses for a violation of chastity on the part of a betrothed damsel was the death by stoning of both the guilty persons, while the consequence of the same offence in the case of a damsel not betrothed was only the imposition of a trifling fine upon the man, and the marriage of the woman. Various opinions have been held as to the purpose of divine wisdom in causing the Saviour to be born of a betrothed rather than a dis engaged virgin. It seems eminently seemly and decorous, that the mother of the Messiah should have some one to vouch for her virginity, and to act as her protector, and the foster-father of her and that he should be one who, as heir of the throne of David, would give to his adopted son the legal rights to the same dignity, while, of all per sons, he was the most interested in resisting the claims of a pretender. Origen, following Ignatius, thinks it was in order to baffle the cunning of the devil and keep him in ignorance of the fact of the Lord's advent. The simpler and more natural reason appears the better one.
The announcement of her coming greatness was made to her by the same angelic messenger, Gabriel, the MAN OF GOD, who had declared that seventy weeks of years were to elapse before the ad vent of the Messiah (Dan. ix. 24). That time being fulfilled, he comes again to announce the fact to her Who was to be the immediate instrument of its ac complishment. Nothing can be conceived mole full of grace and dignity ; nothing more expressive of sublime elevation and lowly surrender to the di vine will, than the conduct of Mary in her interview with the angel. One can hardly doubt that he appeared to her under the form of a man, as in the case of earlier angelic appearances, and yet one cannot but believe that there was a glory in his features which at once convinced Mary of the true nature of her visitor, entering as he did unan nounced, most probably into her secret chamber— most probably at the time of her devotions. He addresses her as xexaperarpavrh,' a word which the doctors of the Church of Rome have translated ' full of grace,' and on which they have built the theory that she had all the seven gifts of the Spirit, and all the theological and moral virtues, and such a fulness of the graces of the Holy Ghost as none ever had the like (Lightfoot). The word does not occur in classical Greek, but the analogy of similar words leads us to the meaning of `highly favoured,' and such is, no doubt, its meaning in Eph. i. 6, the only other place where it occurs in the N. T. At the first salutation of the angel, Mary was troubled, wondering what its purport might be, for as yet he had only told her that she was blessed among women. But when he reassures her, and reveals to her in express terms the divine intention that she should conceive, and become a mother, and hear a son who should sit on the throne of his father David, her trouble changes, not into unbelief, as was the case with Zacharias (Luke i. IS, zo), but into a devout inquiry as to the manner in which so great a miracle was to be wrought in her. How shall these things be, seeing I know not a man ? It clearly follows from this reply that she already understood the angel to mean that she should, as she then was, and previously to the consummation of her marriage with Joseph, conceive and bear a son ; otherwise there was no marvel in the an nouncement. This is the more remarkable, since the angel said that her son was to sit on the throne of his father David, and Joseph, her betrothed husband, was himself the heir of David's throne. What was more natural than that, after the con summation of her marriage with him, all that the angel promised her should be fulfilled ? But she clearly understood it otherwise. She clearly under stood the angel to mean that she, virgin as she was, should conceive, and thus become the mother of the son of David. Joseph appears to be forgotten, and yet that her son should be the son of David was no wonder : the wonder was that she should be come a mother without knowing man. We may surety infer from this that she knew herself to be a daughter of David. The angel then tells her that the Holy Ghost should come upon her, and the power of the Highest should overshadow her ; wherefore also that holy thing which should be born of her should be called the Son of God. To which she replies with exquisite dignity and meek ness, Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it unto me according to thy word.
To quicken Mary's faith, and show her that with God nothing is impossible, the angel had told her that her cousin Elisabeth, who had lived to old age in barrenness, had conceived, and was now in the sixth month of her pregnancy, and Mary hastens to visit her. Very opposite views are entertained in reference to the time, object, and circumstances of this visit. It has generally been held that the time of Mary's conception was, when bowing with reve rential submission to the will of God, she said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it unto me according to thy word.' Lightfoot, however, while acknowledging that this is the received opinion, thinks that her journey to the hill country was espe cially intended to allow her conception to take place there. She went to the hill country to a city of Judah. This city is pronounced by Lightfoot—than whom none has paid more attention to the choro graphy of Scripture—to be Hebron. For unto the sons of Aaron Joshua gave the city of Arba, which is Hebron in the hill country of Judah (Josh. xxi. II). It was a sacred city, and the scene of some of the greatest events of the early history of God's people. There was given the promise of Isaac and the covenant of circumcision. There Abraham had his first land and David his first crown. There lay interred Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekkah, Jacob and Leah. What could be more fitting than that the Messiah should be conceived in the city of those patriarchs to whom the promise of the Mes siah was given ? that this Shiloh of the tribe of Judah and of David should be conceived in a city of Judah and of David ? On the other hand, it is argued that Mary, as a betrothed virgin, could not travel, and that her being reported to be with child (Matt. i. IS) must have occurred before her journey to the hill country. This, by giving occasion to Joseph to take her to his own house, would also enable her to travel, with or without him, into It is remarkable that when she arrives Elisabeth salutes her as the mother of her Lord, an expression which would accord better with the sup position that she had already conceived, while the glorious hymn of praise into which she bursts on hearing the salutation of Elisabeth might very well spring from such an outpouring of the Holy Ghost as we may believe to have attended the moment of her conception. Much, too, has been written as to the manner of this miraculous act. All that is proper to be said about it has been said by Bishop Pearson with his usual judgment and comprehen siveness. One thing may be referred to here—the importance of guarding against the notion that the Holy Ghost is the father of Jesus Christ. On this he says : ' Because the Holy Ghost did not beget Christ by any communication of his essence, there fore he is not the father of him, though Christ was conceived by him. .. . The Word was conceived
in the womb of a woman, not after the manner of men, but by the singular, powerful, invisible, im mediate operation of the Holy Ghost, whereby a virgin was beyond the law of nature enabled to con ceive, and that which was conceived in her was originally and completely sanctified.' We now turn our thoughts to her betrothed husband. When the fact of Mary's being with child was made known to him, he drew the infer ence which was natural under the circumstances, and felt it to be right to break the compact between them. We should probably look in vain for the precise law of the Mosaic code under which he might have acted had he wished to make her a public example, or that under which he intended to act in putting her away privily. Num. v. and Deut. xxii. and xxiv. have been referred to. But the punishment of death by stoning seems only to have been prescribed when the guilty parties were found in the very act, and it is probable that this law was not strictly executed in our Saviour's days (John viii.) But the anxieties of this just man were soon ended by the same divine messenger who had appeared to Mary. Joseph, thou son of David,' said the angel, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.' St. Matthew adds, Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet : Behold a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Emmanuel, which, being interpreted, is, God with us.' [VIRGIN.] The next event in the life of Mary was her visit to Bethlehem on the occasion of a census of the empire commanded by Augustus. Her going there with Joseph at a time when travelling would natu rally be inconvenient, is an additional proof that she, as well as he, was of the house and lineage of David. The journey was one of about seventy-five miles, and had been travelled over eight or nine months before by Mary, on her way to the hill country of Judea, ten or fifteen miles beyond it. And how often was the same country traversed by Mary's divine son, in his many journeys to and from Jerusalem ! Bethlehem stands on the narrow ridge of a long grey hill running east and west, and its position suggests the difficulty that a crowd of travellers would have in finding shelter within it. Already, in the zd century, a neighbouring cave was fixed upon as the stable where Joseph abode, and where accordingly Christ was born and laid in the manger. The hill sides are covered with vineyards, and a range of convents occupies the height, and incloses within it the cave of the nativity ; hut there are grassy slopes adjoining, where the shepherds may have kept watch over their flocks, seen the vision of the angelic hosts, and heard the divine song of Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace and good will towards men.' Full of wonder and hope, they sought the lowly sojourn of the Virgin, and there saw with their own eyes what the Lord had made known to them. But while they publish abroad and spread the wondrous tale, Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. Her first duty in con nection with her son was his circumcision—his first experience of the sharp pains of human life, her first occasion of sympathy with his sorrows. As usual, it was performed on the eighth day, pro bably by his reputed father Joseph, and he then received the name of Jesus, which was given to him by the angel. On the fortieth day after his birth, she took him to Jerusalem, for the double purpose of presenting him to the Lord, and making the offering prescribed by the law of Moses for her own purification. It is remarkable that the Greek text says their, not (as the A. V.) her purification ; especially remarkable, as the Levitical law says nothing about the purification of the child. Pos sibly common usage may have applied the word KaOapur/hos to the presentation of the child as well as the purification of the mother, so as to include both rites under one term. A touching evidence of the low estate' of Mary is given by the refer ence to the offering enjoined in cases similar to hers by the law of Moses—a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons. If we refer to the law in question, we shall find that this offering was only prescribed where the woman was too poor to bring a lamb. But though tokens of poverty attended her on this occasion, she was met by notes of wel come and hymns of grateful joy, by the worthiest and most venerable of Jerusaletn. Simeon, we know, was a just and devout man, one who waited for the consolation of Israel, and had revelations from the Holy Ghost. But tradition also says, that he was the great Rabbi Simeon, the son of Hillel, and father of Gamaliel, in whose days, according to the Rabbis, the birth of Jesus of Nazareth took place (Rosenmiiller, quoted by Wordsworth). And Anna, who had spent her long life in daily attend ance at the worship of the temple, was evidently the centre of a devout circle, whose minds had been led by the study of Scripture to an expec tation of redemption. Mary wondered when Simeon took her child into his arms, and received him as the promised salvation of the Lord, the light of the Gentiles, and the glory of Israel ; but it was the wonder of joy at the unexpected confirmation of the promise already given to her by the angel. Other words were added, showing the spiritual character and the momentous importance of the kingdom of her son, and closing a prophetic allu sion to the opposition he should encounter, with the touchingly suggestive declaration, • Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also.' But that hour was yet distant, and new honours awaited the son of Mary. She had returned to Bethlehem, and probably she and Joseph intended to make it their abode. Such an intention might spring from her ancestral connection with the place, and the unevolved but distinct assurances of the coming kingdom of her son. It is certain that their eventual return to Nazareth may be said to have been accidental, being occasioned by the reports they heard of Archelaus on their return from Egypt. But while they continued at Bethlehem, a party of Persian magi appeared at Jerusalem. They had come on a strange errand, to seek and to worship him that was born King of the Jews. [MAGI.] The alarmed attention with which their inquiry was met by the Jewish Sanhedrim and by Herod, shows how alive they were to the expectation of a real or pretended Jewish deliverer, nor was there a doubt as to the place where he ought to be found according to prophecy. To Bethlehem, then, they went, under engagement to return and report the result of their inquiries. The miraculous star fore told by Balsam, and which they had seen in the east, shone brightly in the heavens over the dwell ing of Joseph and Mary. What the star was we need not inquire. The argument for its being a conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in the constella tion Pisces, is strikingly put by Dean Alford, while Wordsworth rejects this view, holding with Igna tius, Chrysostom, and St. Augustine, that it was a new star created at the nativity. But whatever was its nature, the magi, when they saw it, rejoiced with exceeding great joy, and testified their adora tion of the infant to whom it directed them by gifts of great value and deep significance. We soon find Mary and her child, guided by Joseph, wend ing their way over the green hills of Judah, towards that Egypt, now a Roman province, from which God's people had been called so many centuries before. It was now much frequented by Jews, was not more than sixty miles from Bethlehem, and was separated from Herod's jurisdiction by the river Sihor. It seems a natural inference, from the pre caution taken by Herod (Matt. ii. 16), that our Lord was about two years old at this time, and it was but a few months later that the death of Herod enabled him to return into Palestine. Now, how. ever, though apparently intending to remain in Judea, they returned to Nazareth, and settled there.