Homily on the Virgin Mary

Standard abbreviation: Hom. Vir.

Other titles: Sermon on Mary

Clavis numbers: ECCA 625

Category: Infancy Gospels

Compiled by: Tony Burke, York University

Citing this resource (using Chicago Manual of Style): Burke, Tony. “Homily on the Virgin Mary.” e-Clavis: Christian Apocrypha. Accessed DAY MONTH YEAR. https://www.nasscal.com/e-clavis-christian-apocrypha/homily-on-the-virgin-mary/.

Created October 2024.

1. SUMMARY

This unidentified, fragmentary homily is extant in three manuscripts with overlapping contents. It is said to have been delivered on the feast day of Mary—likely 21 Tobe. The extant materials begin in the middle of a communication between Joseph and the angel of the annunciation. The author then interjects with comments, including a comparison of Mary with Gideon’s fleece and with a well-watered land; the author also reports that Joseph gave up all of his possessions to be worthy to take Mary into his home. Mary is then likened to a field of trees in the Levant which has never been sown, fertilized, or harvested, nor its trees cut down; the field grows by the dew of the sky. A precious stone (agate) illuminates the forest and it joins with a precious pearl from the surrounding sea. The stone is related numerologically to Jesus (the stone’s value is 1110, the 10 is Jesus, and Jesus is truth).

The author comes back to the story of the birth of Jesus, pulled mostly from the Gospel of Luke but with elements from the Protevangelium of James (Mary gives birth in a cave, attended by the midwife Salome). In this telling, the cave is said to be near the tomb of Rachel (as in History of Joseph the Carpenter), there is no checking of Mary’s virginity, and Salome is said to be a follower of Mary and Jesus until his death and ascension. The angel announces Jesus’ birth to the shepherds. Then the author speaks of the nature of Jesus and states that his birth has fulfilled Isaiah 1:3 (“An ox knows its owner, and an ass, its master’s manger”), a fulfillment quotation featured also in the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew.

Next comes the episode of the Magi from Matthew and the sequel, from Prot. Jas., of Herod seeking the young John the Baptist (believing him to be the one for whom the Magi came). Zechariah tells the soldiers that Elizabeth has escaped with their son; the soldiers slay Zechariah and hide his body. Then Herod has all of the children of Bethlehem brought before him to be killed in his presence. Their bodies are hidden with Zechariah’s. The author continues from the Slaughter of the Innocents into an exposition on the fulfilment quotation from Jeremiah 31:15 (“A voice was heard in Rama…”). But now Jesus has opened the gates of paradise and brought the souls of the children there along with the first victim of murder: Abel.

The author then recounts the legend of the phoenix. On the day that fire came down from heaven and consumed the sacrifice of Abel, the fire consumed a bird and reduced it to ashes. But three days later a small worm came out of the ashes and grew to full size as a bird again. Every 500 years the bird arrives and goes to the temple and places itself on the altar of sacrifice, where it is consumed again. This bird is the type of the resurrection of Christ. The bird also appeared during the time of Moses in the Egyptian temple of On and burned itself on the pinnacle of the temple when Jesus was circumcised in Jerusalem. No-one has seen the bird since. Here the published part of the final fragment breaks off.

Named Historical Figures and Characters: Abel, Abraham (patriarch), Adam (patriarch), Augustus (emperor), Balaam, Cain, David (king), Eleazar (high priest), Herod (the Great), John (the Baptist), Joseph (of Nazareth), Levi (patriarch), Magi, Mary (Virgin), Moses (patriarch), Pharaoh (of Exodus), Rachel (matriarch), Salome (midwife), Sarah (matriarch), Simeon (high priest), Zechariah (priest).

Geographical Locations: Bethlehem, Egypt, Israel, Jerusalem, Lebanon, On, paradise, temple (Jerusalem).

2. RESOURCES

3. BIBLIOGRAPHY

3.1 Manuscripts and Editions

3.1.1 Coptic (Sahidic; CC 0889; PAThs entry)

Manuscript A:

MONB.BS, pp. 349–360

Manuscript B:

MONB.NT, pp. 33–42 (10/11th cent.)

Manuscript C (PAThs entry):

pp. 39/40, 41/42 (misnumbered as 44/45): Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, K9666–9667 ~ ONB

Broek, Roelof van den. The Myth of the Phoenix according to Classical and Early Christian Traditions. EPRO 24. Leiden: Brill, 1972 (edition and translation of the portion on the Phoenix from the Utrecht, Manchester, and Vienna manuscripts, pp. 44–47).

Broek, Roelof van den. Catalog of the Coptic Manuscripts in the Utrecht University Library. Utrecht University Library, 2017 (transcription of Utrecht portions of B, pp. 37–50).

Lantschoot, Arnold van. “A propos du Physiologus.” Pages 339–63 in Coptic Studies in Honor of Walter Ewing Crum. Bulletin of the Byzantine Institute 2. Boston: The Byzantine Institute, 1950 (edition and translation of a portion of the Manchester manuscript, pp. 353–57; MS C, pp. 356–57).

Robinson, Forbes. Coptic Apocryphal Gospels. Translations Together with the Texts of Some of Them. TS 4.2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1896 (translation of portions of the Manchester fragment, pp. 196–97, 235–36).

Story, Cullen I. K. “A Coptic Christmas Story, and More.” Princeton University Library Chronicle 55 (1993–1194): 43–62 (translation of the Princeton manuscript, 55–62; images, pp. 45–48).

Wessely, Carl. Griechische und koptische Texte theologischen Inhalts V. Studien zur Palaeographie und Papyruskunde 18. Leipzig: Haessel, 1917 (transcription of C, pp. 30–33).

3.2 Modern Translations

3.2.1 English

3.3 General Works

Suciu, Alin. “Putting Together the Puzzle of a Christmas Story: A Coptic Document in Princeton and Its Related Fragments.” Alin Suciu. 20 December 2011. https://alinsuciu.com/2011/12/10/putting-together-the-puzzle-of-a-christmas-story-a-coptic-document-in-princeton-and-its-related-fragments/.

Temple, W. M. “The Weeping Rachel.” Medi aevum 28 (1959): 81–86.