Poet and Artisan: Chosen Parents of Jesus

I have spent years hand-copying the Bible in chronological order and finally reached the New Testament a few weeks ago. While copying the Magnificat, Mary’s response song to her pregnancy, I noticed some things, asked some questions, and discovered an incredible possibility:

Did God choose, as the mother of His only Son Jesus, a woman who was educated? Even… literate?

For context, it is easy to take literacy for granted now, but at the time, only about 15% of the population is estimated as literate in that region. And overwhelmingly, most of those select literate few were men.

But while I was copying, I realized that I recognized some of the Hebrew poetry techniques I’d seen in other parts of the Old Testament in the Magnificat.

“My soul exalts the Lord,
And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.
For He has had regard for the humble state of His bond-servant;
For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed.
For the Mighty One has done great things for me;
And holy is His name.
And His mercy is to generation after generation
Toward those who fear Him.
He has done mighty deeds with His arm;
He has scattered those who were proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down rulers from their thrones,
And has exalted those who were humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
And sent the rich away empty-handed.
He has given help to His servant Israel,
In remembrance of His mercy,
Just as He spoke to our fathers,
To Abraham and his descendants forever.”

There is a specific rhythm, repetition, and parallelism, as well as references to Old Testament passages. When I looked into it, I found multiple scholarly articles explaining that there are additional, advanced poetic techniques. For instance, in 1984, a scholar named Randall Buth argues that the beginning tense shift is intentional and artful. And there may even be references to other Jewish literature outside of the Bible as well.

From here, I learned that much of the art around Mary for millenia has actually specifically portrayed her reading, and her mother, St. Anne, is traditionally shown teaching her to read.

Mary is often shown reading when the angel comes to her.

St. Anne is shown teaching Mary to read.

Turns out, church tradition holds that Mary was a “Temple Virgin,” a young woman raised at the temple rather than at home. The traditional account is that her parents gave her to the temple when she was about three, and made frequent visits to her there until they had both passed away when she was a teenager. The Temple Virgins helped with things around the temple, like stitching and washing, but it also seems from the Apocryphal writings and Maccabean texts that they held specific liturgical functions as well. And, most surprising of all, according to tradition, it’s thought that the Temple Virgins were actually literate.

This is all conjecture. I do not personally hold church tradition in the same place as Scripture. But it’s a pretty amazing thought: God might have chosen an educated, empowered mother for His only Son.

This is especially important because it seems in the gospels like Jesus was literate. He is shown reading from a scroll, and possibly even writing something in the sand (though this word could also mean drawing). And certainly, He knew the Scriptures well. And this was surprising to people, because he was trained after his father as a carpenter, but it’s even more than that:

Jesus grew up, at least some large chunk of his childhood, likely until age 9, in Egypt. Yet by age 12, He knows the Scriptures well enough to stump scholars at the Temple?

His parents in Egypt could not rely on bringing him to Temple for his education. He would have been raised and taught at home. And who is he more likely to have learned from: his laborer father, or his mother, who wrote this nuanced poem/song that reflects an in-depth understanding of the Hebrew Scriptures?

Regardless of these details around literacy, which are impossible to know for sure, I realized for the first time on this reading of the Magnificat how God had picked people we might consider today “artists” to raise Jesus.

He picked a craftsman, who shaped things out of stone or wood, who brought things to life from his imagination, and the songwriter who crafted a deft, nuanced hymn that scholars are still analyzing thousands of years later.

The poet and the artisan.

Jesus was raised, even across cultures, to understand the Scriptures in a beautiful, confounding way.

His parables, His application of the Law, and His insight into His people might just reflect the importance of His parentage. Jesus was not just a great teacher; He had the creativity and insight of an artist. And I think God deliberately set Him up to receive that from Mary and Joseph.