Early portrayals of Mary and their function in Christianity's
spread One of the few Protestant women to write a study of the
mother of Jesus, Beverly Roberts Gaventa takes a fresh approach
to the beloved biblical figure about whom we have such slender
evidence. Rather than attempt to reconstruct Mary's life or
assess her theological significance, Gaventa employs literary
analysis to explore Mary's varying characterizations in four
early Christian narratives—Matthew, Luke-Acts, John, and the
Protevangelium of James. Gaventa contends that each document
offers offers a distinct portrait and that John's Mary is no
more interchangeable with Luke's than a painting of the Virgin
of Guadalupe is with an icon of the Queen of Heaven. According
to Gaventa, Matthew portrays Mary as the mother whose maternity
threatens the status quo; Luke assigns three roles to Mary but
uses her persona of pondering mother to enliven the story; the
Johannine Mary serves to heighten awareness of Jesus' humanity;
and the Mary of the Protev