v.— G G G
and the very existence of such a council is now consid- ered doubtful. Maruthas, however, took part in the Council of Antioch against the Jlessalians (q. v.), in 383 or 390. He wrote a number of works in Syriac, de- scribed by Assemani {id infr.^. Among them the fol- lowing deserve special notice : A liturgic work, foimd in Syriac in the missal of the Maronites (1594, p. 172), and in Latin in Renaudot {Liturgiarum Orient, collectio, ii, 261) ; an exposition of the Gospels, from which it ap- pears that he incUned towards the doctrine of transub- stantiation ; a history of the Persian martyrs under king Shapur (Sapores)— this history forms the first part of Assemani's A eta Martyrum Orientalium, qui in Perside passi sunt, et Occidentalium, translated mider the title Etliche Acten heiliger Mdrtyrer d. Morgenlundes (Inns- bruck, 1836). See Assemani, Biblioth. Orient. Clemen- tina-Vaticana, i, 174-179; Uerzog, Real-E7icyklop. ix, 131 ; Meander, Hist, of the Christian Religion and Church, ii, 110,700. (J.N. P.)
Ma'ry {Mapia or Mapiufi, from the Heb. b'^"10, Miriam), the name of several females mentioned in the New Test.
1. The wife of Joseph, and a lineal descendant of Da- vid (Matt, i) ; '• the Mother of Jesus" (Acts i, 14), and " Mary, his Blother" (Blatt. ii, 11) ; in later times gener- ally called the "Virgin Maky," but never so designated in Scripture. Little is known of this highly-favored in- dividual, in whom was fulfilled the first prophecy made to man, that the '• seed of the woinan should bruise the serpent's head" (Gen. iii, 15). As her history was of no consequence to Christianity, it is not given at large. Her genealogy is recorded by Luke (ch. iii), in order to prove the truth of the predictions which had foretold tlie descent of the ]\Iessiah from Adam through Abra- ham and David, with the design evidently of sliowing tliat Christ was of that royal house and lineage (comp. Davidson's Sacred Ilermeneutics, p. 589 sq.). Eusebius, the early ecclesiastical historian, although unusually lengthy upon " the name Jesus," and the genealogies in IMatthew's and Luke's Gospels, throws no new light upon Mary's birth and parentage. The very simplicity of the evangelical record has no doubt been one cause of the abundance of the legendary matter of which she forms the central figure. Imagination had to be called in to supply a craving which authentic narrative did not satisfy. We shall give the account from both these sources somewhat in detail, using for this purpose much of the matter found in Smith's and Kitto's Dictiona- ries.
1. Scriptural Statements. — 1. We are wholly ignorant of the circumstances and occupation of Marj-'s parents. If, as is most probable, the genealogy given by Luke is that of Mary (Greswell,etc.),her father's name was Heli, which is another form of the name given to her legend- ary father, Jehoiakim or Joachim. But if Jacob and Heli were the two sons of Matthan or Matthat, and if Jo- seph, being the son of the younger brother, married his cousin, the daughter of the elder brother (Hervey, Gen- ealogies of our Lord Jesus Christ), her father was Jacob. See Genealogy of our Lord. She was, like Joseph, of the tribe of Judah, and of the Imeage of David (Psa. cxxxii, 11 ; Luke i, 32; Eom. i, 3). What was her re- lationship to the so-called " sister" named Mary (John xix, 25) is uncertain (see No. 3 below), but she was con- nected by marriage {miyYSpijc, Luke i, 36) with Elisa- beth, who was of the tribe of Levi and of the lineage of Aaron.
2. In the autumn of the year wliich is known as B.C. 7, Mary was living at Nazareth, probably at her parents' house, not having yet been taken by Joseph to his home. She was at this time betrothed to Joseph, and was there- fore regarded by the Jewish law and custom as his wife, though he had not yet a husband's rights over her. See Marriage. At this time the angel Gabriel came to her with a message from God, and announced to her that she was to be the mother of the long-expected
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Messiah. He probably bore the form of an ordinary man, like the angels who manifested themselves to Gid- eon and to Manoah (Judg. vi, xiii). This would appear both from the expression tlaeX^iov, '• he came in," and also from the fact of her being troubled, not at his pres- ence, but at the meaning of his words. Yet one cannot but believe that there was a glory in his featiu-es which at once convinced INIary of the true nature of her vis- itor, entering as he did unannounced, apparently into her secret chamber — most probably at the time of her devotions. The scene as well as the salutation is verj^ similar to that recounted in the book of Daniel, " Then there came again and touched me one like the appear- ance of a man, and he strengthened me, and said, O man greatly beloved, fear not : peace be mito thee, be strong, yea, be strong!" (Dan. x, 18, 19). The exact meaning of KsxapiTiofiivr] is " thou that hast had be- stowed upon thee a free gift of grace." The A.V. ren- dering of " highly favored" is therefore very exact, and much nearer to the original than the "ff7-atia]}le7ia" of the Vulgate, on which a huge and wholly unsubstantial edifice has been built by Romanist devotional writers. The next part of the salutation, "The Lord is with thee," would probably have been better translated, "The Lord be with thee." It is the same salutation as that with which the angel accosted Gideon (Judg. vi, 12). " Bless- ed art thou among women," is nearly the same expres- sion as that used by Ozias to Judith (Jud. xiii, 18). Ga- briel proceeds to instruct Mary that by the operation of the Holy Ghost the everlasting Son of the Father should be born of her; that in him the prophecies relative to David's throne and kingdom should be accomplished; and that his name was to be called Jesus. He further informs her, perhaps as a sign by which she might con- vince herself that his prediction with regard to herself would come true, that her relative Elisabeth was within three months of being delivered of a child.