Assessing the Virgin: Gender and Purity in the Protevangelium of James

Abstract

<p>My dissertation brings literary approaches to the study of purity in one of the most influential "apocryphal" texts about Mary the mother of Jesus. Specifically, I explore the place and function of ritual, menstrual, and sexual purity in the portrayal and characterization of Mary in the Protevangelium of James. In the narrative, Mary's exceptional ritual and sexual purity serves to set her apart as a woman unique and holy, but I argue that her ability to menstruate allows for reconnection with, and accessibility to, other women. Indeed, literary exploration into Mary's menstrual purity reveals the author's view that motherhood is to be praised alongside ascetic virginity. In addition, I also re-examine questions about the date and provenance of the text through its focus on purity, proposing that its narrative and ritual concerns are most fitting with a late second to early third century date and a West Syrian cultural context. By tracing the various ways purity is described and presented in the text, this study sheds light on early Jewish and Christian ideas about purity, representations of women in the ancient world, the early history of Mariology, and the place of non-canonical writings in the history of biblical interpretation.</p>