What are your thoughts about the Protevangelium of James?
I just learned of it last Sunday on the History Channel's Banned from The Bible program. Fascinating info about Mary's life!
She's obviously not of the Holy Trinity, and no one I know is claiming she is or even close, but she's also not your average human either, apparently. Not in life or in "death".
“The Gospel of James, also known as the Infancy Gospel of James or the Protevangelium of James, is an apocryphal Gospel probably written about AD 145, which expands backward in time the infancy stories contained in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, and presents a narrative concerning the birth and upbringing of Mary herself. It is the oldest source to assert the virginity of Mary not only prior to but during (and after) the birth of Jesus.[1] The ancient manuscripts that preserve the book have different titles, including “The Birth of Mary”, “The Story of the Birth of Saint Mary, Mother of God,” and “The Birth of Mary; The Revelation of James.”[2]”
From Wikipedia. I posted the quote in case it changes as can happen on Wikipedia. But that quote above seems accurate.
It’s not Scripture. However that along with other “apocryphal” works can and do show the historicity of many Marian devotions and traditions (some of which later came to be recognized as Tradition).
Those are my thoughts on it, and this: we Catholics are to follow Church teaching on these and all dogmatic matters and thus, as such, while the Protoevangelum of James contains some truths it’s not to be taken as entirely the inerrant Word of God (as Scripture is). So it may contain some errors.
I have seen those shows on the History channel at least advertised. I never watched them because the title “Banned from the Bible” is too provocative for my taste. It’s almost implying some type of gnostic conspiracy to “supres the truth” about Christianity. The fact of the matter is the so called “apocryphal” works were never “banned” from the Bible (as if they were in the canon originally). They weren’t in the canon originally; they were never in the canon. But that’s just a pet peeve of mine.
It's bogus. It's where the worship of Mary began. It was written by someone claimnig to be the brother of Christ, James. It has been proven not to have been written by the brother of Christ.
I just learned of it last Sunday on the History Channel's Banned from The Bible program. Fascinating info about Mary's life!
See above.
She's obviously not of the Holy Trinity, and no one I know is claiming she is or even close, but she's also not your average human either, apparently. Not in life or in "death".
Based on what??
You must not have read much catholic writing on Mary!
I just learned of it last Sunday on the History Channel's Banned from The Bible program. Fascinating info about Mary's life!
MY thoughts are that ROME screwed up by NOT including it in the BIBLE when they had a chance!