The story of Mary's conception is not recorded in the any of the New Testament canonical books. Authors of noncanonical books such as the Protoevangelium of James attempted to provide the details that were lacking in the Gospels by writing their own narratives, which would have likely included elements from the oral tradition. This is especially likely with the Protoevangelium of James, because this book was written around A.D. 150, only eighty years after the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem.

The memories of the events that occurred in the Gospel, as well as the stories that were not recorded in the Gospels but reflect the lives of those most intimately connected with Christ, would have still been fresh in the memory of the society as well as in the mind of the author of the Protoevangelium.

The Question of Authorship

Most scholars believe that the Protoevangelium was compiled by a single author, who attached the name of the apostle James to it to give it an air of authority. The Protoevangelium offers more details about the life of Mary and birth of Christ than any other text, although the bulk of these details are not viewed as straight historical facts.

Some scholars have suggested that the genre of the Protoevangelium of James is closest to a Midrash, which is literature from the Jewish rabbinical tradition based on the original sacred texts. According to scholar Addison Wright, the authors of Midrash sought to make the Biblical stories “understandable, useful and relevant” to later generations by means of creative, extended reflections upon the Biblical texts.

The Protoevangelium is valuable because it offers useful insights into the life and theological significance of the Virgin Mary. It is also very moving and even humorous and tragic in turns, as the characters are shown in their full human complexities.

The Holy of Holies

In the Protoevangelium, Mary is brought to the temple when she is only three years old, and she remains in the temple until adolescence. Upon her arrival, she is brought by Zachariah, the high priest, into the Holy of Holies, the innermost part of the temple where the Ark of the Covenant was once housed. This place was considered so holy that even the high priest would only enter once a year, on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. According to tradition, the Holy of Holies was not illuminated by the sun or by artificial light, but shone with the Glory of God. This text helped form an association in the minds of early Christians between Mary and the temple. Like the physical temple, God dwelt within Mary. Unlike the temple building, God took on her own flesh and was, in a sense, even physically present within her womb.

Joachim and Anna

According to the Protoevangelium, Mary's parents, Joachim and Anna, were a wealthy and generous couple who had struggled with infertility for many years. The Protoevangelium is also very intentional about stating that Joachim was from the Royal line of David, which would mean that Mary, and ultimately her son, Jesus, would also be descendants of David.

When Mary's father Joachim goes to the temple to make an offering, his offering is rejected by the priest Rubin because Joachim and his wife had not yet been able to produce a child. Joachim was aggrieved by this, but when he studied the Old Testament Scriptures he discovered that it was true that all of the great people in the Scriptures had, in fact, produced offspring. Instead of returning home to his wife, Joachim decided to go out into the wilderness and fast and pray for forty days.

It is significant that Joachim was away for forty days because of the significance of the number forty in the Bible. The number forty in the Old and New Testaments is intended to signify many years, but it is not necessarily related to the literal numerical value. Noah was in the ark for forty days and nights (Genesis 7), the Israelites wandered for forty years in the wilderness (Exodus 16:35), Moses was on the mount for forty days and nights (Exodus 24:18), and Jesus fasted for forty days (Matthew 4:2).

When Joachim disappeared for forty days, Anna did not immediately guess that her husband had gone to the wilderness to pray. Instead, she feared the worst, imagining that she was both infertile and a widow.

Anna prayed and moped at home, while one of her servants made matters worse by pointing out to her that her infertility was a curse. Anna went into her garden and looked up at a tree and saw that there were newly hatched baby birds in the nest. She felt that everyone in the world was able to have babies except her.

She made this plea to God, “O God of our fathers, bless me and hear my prayer as thou did bless the womb of Sarah …” This prayer connects her own plight to the ancient story of Abraham and Sarah's struggle with infertility. Like Abraham and Sarah, Joachim and Anna were ultimately blessed with a miracle, but they had to struggle for it first.

An Angel Appears

While Joachim was in the desert and Anna was praying at home, angels appeared to both of them to tell them that they would have a child. According to the angels, this child would be “a gift of the Lord.” Anna responded to this message with great joy, and made a promise that she would dedicate her child to the Lord's service for the rest of her life. Joachim immediately made an offering of lambs, kids, and calves. He then rushed to the gates of Jerusalem to embrace his wife. Anna does conceive and bear a child, who is born exactly nine months, minus one day, after her parent's embrace.

According to a medieval text that is partially based on the Protoevangelium of James and called The Golden Legend (see Chapter 9), just after Anna gave birth she asked her midwife about the sex of her child. When the midwife replied that Anna had given birth to a little girl, Anna said, “On this day is my spirit exalted.”

This passage is especially interesting because a similar tale is also told in the Koran, although in the account in the Koran, Anna is initially distressed and disappointed to discover that she has given birth to a girl, because she had hoped for a boy.