Volume 43- No. 50
December 12, 2013
By Frederick Gomez
She is, without question, the most famous teenager in world history. Whether one subscribes to Biblical Scriptures or not, regardless if one is atheist or believer, most citizens on planet Earth, have heard of Mary of Nazareth and the alleged supernatural claims connecting her to the Christian Messiah (derived from the Hebrew word, Mashiach or Moshiach, meaning “Anointed One”). Mary’s life is one of such fantastic claims and events that they, collectively, stagger the human imagination to the point of contention. As one source exclaims, “Without any special instructions from God, this illiterate teenage girl raised a son who changed the world.” (Mary of Nazareth, A Mother’s Life, A&E Video, 1995) Professor Paul L. Maier, Ph.D. from Western Michigan University, puts it all into a more isolated and deeplyhuman perspective of a frightened 13-year-old girl who struggled, through confusion and fear, to make the most difficult decisions imaginable. As Dr. Maier phrases it, “I think Mary’s role in rearing Jesus must have been the most unique experience that any person on this planet, man or woman, has ever endured or experienced.”
Living in today’s contemporary world wherein we have become somewhat desensitized to the harsh vagaries of life, perhaps it is truly impossible to fully grasp and comprehend the alleged supernatural events which the young teenage Mary faced in an ultra-conservative Jewish world, more than two thousand years ago.
By becoming, inexplicably, pregnant out of wedlock, an act punishable by stoning to death, the terrorized teenage girl suddenly plunged her entire family into a horrifying scandal. For any mother-to-be, the stakes were dangerously high, for in the midst of this sexual maelstrom, not only was Mary’s life now at risk, but also the life of her precious, The Paper - 760.747.7119
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unborn, sacred child.
What really happened those many centuries ago? Is the virgin birth just a fanciful tale among the many Biblical accounts, many of which seem to stretch the limits of credibility? Did it really happen?
Many
secular scholars deem it another fabrication without credence. One could invoke the late, brilliant astronomer, Carl Sagan’s chant, “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.” In the final analysis, there seems to be no verifiable proof that such an event, as previ-
ously described, actually occurred. Equally true, there is no actual proof that it did not.
Come with me now, as we travel back into time to explore lesser known facts about history’s most famous teenager and, in so doing, to hopefully uncover new insights and revelations often missing in previous biog-
Mary of Nazareth Continued on Page 2