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Mary, the mother of Jesus

What does Scripture say about Mary, and how much of Catholic teaching about her is in it?

The passage it turns on

Now in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man whose name was Joseph, of David’s house. The virgin’s name was Mary. Having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, you highly favored one! The Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women!” But when she saw him, she was greatly troubled at the saying, and considered what kind of salutation this might be. The angel said to her, “Don’t be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb, and give birth to a son, and will call his name ‘Jesus.’ He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father, David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. There will be no end to his Kingdom.” Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, seeing I am a virgin?” The angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore also the holy one who is born from you will be called the Son of God. Behold, Elizabeth, your relative, also has conceived a son in her old age; and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing spoken by God is impossible.” Mary said, “Behold, the servant of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word.” The angel departed from her.

Luke 1:26-38In context. Gabriel sent to Mary in Nazareth: ‘Rejoice, you highly favoured one’, the promise of a son who will be the Son of the Most High, her question, and her answer, ‘let it be done to me according to your word’.

Gabriel greets Mary with a title, not a name: kecharitomene, “you who have been graced”, a perfect participle, a state already complete. The Church reads it as the fullness of grace fitting for the one who would bear God, which is what the Immaculate Conception means.

The angel explains his own greeting a verse later: “you have found favor with God”. The same word for grace is used of all believers in Ephesians 1:6. Mary’s greatness in the scene is her answer: a servant who believes the word, which is why she calls God “my Savior” in the next chapter.

Press a reading to put the lamp behind the words that side leans on. The passage does not change.

What each side holds

Catholics confess four dogmas about Mary: Mother of God (431), ever virgin, conceived without original sin (1854) and taken body and soul into heaven (1950), and they ask her prayers. Protestants reject the last two as not in Scripture, differ among themselves over the first two, and most see Marian devotion as crowding Christ. Both call her blessed among women.

The points people make

Mother of God

When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. She called out with a loud voice, and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! Why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the voice of your greeting came into my ears, the baby leaped in my womb for joy! Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of the things which have been spoken to her from the Lord!” Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord. My spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior, for he has looked at the humble state of his servant. For behold, from now on, all generations will call me blessed.

Luke 1:41-48In context. Mary visiting Elizabeth: Elizabeth calls her ‘the mother of my Lord’, and Mary’s song begins, rejoicing in God ‘my Savior’, who has looked on his servant’s low state.
One more passage: Romans 9:4-5

who are Israelites; whose is the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service, and the promises; of whom are the fathers, and from whom is Christ as concerning the flesh, who is over all, God, blessed forever. Amen.

Romans 9:4-5In context. Paul, grieving that most of Israel has not believed, lists what God gave them, ending with Christ, who came from them “as concerning the flesh” and is “over all, God”.

Scripture states it. Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, calls Mary “the mother of my Lord”, and two verses later uses “the Lord” for God; Paul says Christ is “over all, God”. So Scripture states that the one Mary bore is God the Son. “Mother of God” is not its phrase, and means mother of God the Son in his human birth, never of the Father or of God’s being (what the title does and does not mean).

The Catholic reading

The Council of Ephesus (431) called her Theotokos, God-bearer, to protect the truth that the child she bore is one person, truly God.

“If anyone does not confess that Emmanuel is God in truth, and therefore that the holy virgin is the mother of God”

Council of Ephesus, the first anathema, 431

The Protestant reading

Lutherans confess the title as a statement about Christ. Calvin accepted what it guards but refused the title as feeding superstition, and many Protestants confess the doctrine and seldom use the words.

“Therefore she is truly the mother of God, and nevertheless remained a virgin.”

Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration VIII.24, 1577

Ever virgin

Now the birth of Jesus Christ was like this: After his mother, Mary, was engaged to Joseph, before they came together, she was found pregnant by the Holy Spirit. Joseph, her husband, being a righteous man, and not willing to make her a public example, intended to put her away secretly. But when he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, don’t be afraid to take to yourself Mary, your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. She shall give birth to a son. You shall call his name Jesus, for it is he who shall save his people from their sins.” Now all this has happened, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall give birth to a son. They shall call his name Immanuel”; which is, being interpreted, “God with us.” Joseph arose from his sleep, and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took his wife to himself; and didn’t know her sexually until she had given birth to her firstborn son. He named him Jesus.

Matthew 1:18-25In context. Matthew’s account of Jesus’ birth: Joseph learns Mary is with child by the Holy Spirit, names the child Jesus, and ‘didn’t know her sexually until she had given birth’.
2 more passages: Matthew 13:54-56; John 19:25-27

Coming into his own country, he taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished, and said, “Where did this man get this wisdom, and these mighty works? Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother called Mary, and his brothers, James, Joses, Simon, and Judas? Aren’t all of his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all of these things?”

Matthew 13:54-56In context. In his home town the people ask where Jesus got his wisdom, and name his mother Mary, his brothers and his sisters.

But there were standing by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. Therefore when Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing there, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” From that hour, the disciple took her to his own home.

John 19:25-27In context. At the cross Jesus gives his mother to the disciple he loved, ‘Behold, your mother!’, and the disciple takes her into his home.

Scripture’s words point the other way. Scripture never says Mary stayed a virgin after Jesus was born. Joseph “didn’t know her sexually until she had given birth”, and in his home town the crowd names “his mother” and “his brothers” in one breath, with his sisters. In their usual sense the words describe a marriage and a family. The other reading needs “until” to say nothing of afterwards and “brothers” to mean kin; it is ancient, the Reformers held it, and it leans on Jesus giving his mother to a disciple at the cross.

The Catholic reading

Matthew’s “until” says nothing about afterwards (as in 2 Samuel 6:23). The “brothers” are kin: a James is elsewhere the son of another Mary (Mark 15:40), and Aramaic had no word for cousin.

“That Mary was married after she brought forth, we do not believe, because we do not read it.”

Jerome, Against Helvidius 21, about 383

The Protestant reading

Read in their usual sense, the words mean Mary and Joseph had children, and Paul meets “James, the Lord’s brother”. Lifelong virginity is possible, but not what Scripture says.

“no just and well-grounded inference can be drawn from these words of the Evangelist, as to what took place after the birth of Christ.”

Calvin, Harmony of the Gospels, on Matthew 1:25, 1555

Conceived without sin

But now apart from the law, a righteousness of God has been revealed, being testified by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all those who believe. For there is no distinction, for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus;

Romans 3:21-24In context. Paul to the Romans: all have sinned and fall short of God’s glory, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption in Christ.
One more passage: Hebrews 4:14-16

Having then a great high priest, who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold tightly to our confession. For we don’t have a high priest who can’t be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but one who has been in all points tempted like we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore draw near with boldness to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy, and may find grace for help in time of need.

Hebrews 4:14-16In context. The letter to the Hebrews: Jesus is the great high priest who was tempted as we are, so come boldly to the throne of grace.

Scripture is silent on it. Scripture says all have sinned and names no exception, and Mary calls God her Savior. It states Christ’s sinlessness (“yet without sin”) and states none for Mary. The doctrine is drawn by inference from Gabriel’s “you highly favored one”; Scripture is silent on it.

The Catholic reading

God prepared a fitting dwelling for his Son, as the ark was overlaid with gold. The grace came from Christ’s cross applied in advance; Mary needed a Saviour and was saved by prevention rather than rescue.

“in the first instance of her conception [...] was preserved free from all stain of original sin”

Pius IX, Ineffabilis Deus, 1854

The Protestant reading

No verse teaches her sinlessness, and some fathers (Chrysostom, Origen) thought she sinned. A doctrine defined eighteen centuries on, beside an explicit text, is to Protestants the clearest case of tradition outrunning Scripture.

“There is not even a hint of evidence for this belief in the Bible.”

Leonardo De Chirico, Ligonier, 2025

Taken into heaven

A great sign was seen in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was with child. She cried out in pain, laboring to give birth. Another sign was seen in heaven. Behold, a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven crowns. His tail drew one third of the stars of the sky, and threw them to the earth. The dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her child. She gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. Her child was caught up to God, and to his throne. The woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that there they may nourish her one thousand two hundred sixty days.

Revelation 12:1-6In context. John’s vision: a woman clothed with the sun, crowned with twelve stars, gives birth to a son who will rule the nations, and a dragon waits to devour him. Readers see Israel, the Church, Mary, or more than one at once.

Scripture is silent on it. Scripture is silent on the end of Mary’s life. The woman of Revelation 12 is not named: she is read as Mary, as Israel or as the Church, and Catholic readers often see more than one of them at once.

The Catholic reading

Enoch and Elijah were taken up; the woman of Revelation 12 wears a crown in heaven; and no city ever claimed Mary’s bones, though relics of every apostle were prized. East and West kept the feast from the sixth century.

“It represents at the same time Our Lady and the Church. First of all the ‘woman’ of the Book of Revelation is Mary herself.”

Benedict XVI, at the Spanish Steps, 2011

The Protestant reading

There is no record of it in Scripture or the first four centuries; the earliest accounts are apocryphal. Revelation 12’s woman gives birth in pain and flees into the wilderness. It binds consciences without a text.

“No one knows her end”

Epiphanius, Panarion 78, as quoted on Catholic Answers, fourth century

Praying to Mary

His mother and his brothers came, and standing outside, they sent to him, calling him. A multitude was sitting around him, and they told him, “Behold, your mother, your brothers, and your sisters are outside looking for you.” He answered them, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” Looking around at those who sat around him, he said, “Behold, my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother.”

Mark 3:31-35In context. Jesus teaching in a house when his mother and brothers arrive and send for him: ‘whoever does the will of God is my brother, my sister, and mother’.

Scripture is silent on it. Jesus honoured his mother and twice turned attention from her to doing God’s will. Scripture is silent on praying to Mary.

The Catholic reading

Asking Mary to pray for us is asking a friend in heaven to pray; the Hail Mary is Scripture (Luke 1:28, 42) plus “pray for us”. At Cana she said, “Do whatever he tells you”.

“differs essentially from the adoration which is given to the incarnate Word and equally to the Father and the Holy Spirit”

Catechism of the Catholic Church 971, on devotion to Mary

The Protestant reading

Jesus answered a woman who blessed his mother by turning the blessing to those who keep God’s word, and called his disciples his mother and brothers. Titles such as Co-Redemptrix, and prayers that ask Mary for mercy rather than her prayers, go past asking a friend to pray.

“Religious worship is to be given to God, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; and to him alone; not to angels, saints, or any other creature”

Westminster Confession 21.2, 1646

Watch

One talk from each side, chosen for making its own case well. Each loads from YouTube only when you press play.

The Counsel of Trent. 14 min. Trent Horn answers the usual objections to Mary’s perpetual virginity, including the “brothers” of Jesus. Open on YouTube
Gavin Ortlund. 24 min. Gavin Ortlund weighs the Immaculate Conception against Scripture and the early church. Open on YouTube

Sources on this page

Every quotation above, with the page it comes from and the day it was read. Primary documents first where a side has one.