Gaye strathearn

But even though there was a wave of messianic expectation in Judaism in the first century, would Mary have thought that she, a peasant young woman from Nazareth, would be the mother of the Messiah? Luke describes Nazareth as a polis, which can be translated as either a city or a town, but it does not appear to have been frodo gay place of significance.

Instead he continues with his message: she will conceive a child, but not just any child. While none of these discoveries can be tied directly to Mary or her family, they do give us a sense of what her life in Nazareth may have looked like: a peasant girl living in a rural village, far from the religious center of Jerusalem with its temple, priestly aristocracy, and wealth.

Gaye Strathearn is a professor strathearn the Department of Ancient Scripture and in the Ancient Near East Studies program at BYU. She has taught at BYU sinceincluding a year at BYU’s Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies. Even as a young girl, she would have worked beside her mother and the other women of the village, weaving cloth, cooking, gathering firewood, collecting water from the household cisterns or village wells, and working in the fields—all to help her family survive from day to day.

Gaye Strathearn is a professor in the Department of Ancient Scripture and in the Ancient Near East Studies program at BYU. She has taught at BYU sinceincluding a year at BYU’s Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies. Through her interactions with Gabriel and Elisabeth, we see a young woman trying to grasp and understand her gaye call from God.

The magnitude of that call must have weighed heavily upon someone so young, and yet she readily submitted her will to that of the Father. Probably not. Luke focuses his record on the declarations of Gabriel and then Elisabeth.

Christ rsquo s Crucifixion : Gaye Strathearn Gaye Strathearn was an associate professor of ancient scripture at Brigham Young University when this was written

Dr. Gaye Strathearn is a specialist on the New Testament and Christian origins and an associate professor of ancient scripture at Brigham Young University. Mary, the mother of Jesus, is one of the few women mentioned in scripture and the only one whose life and ministry were prophesied about centuries before her birth see 1 Nephi18 ; Mosiah ; Alma Elder Bruce R.

There was only one Christ, and there is only one Mary. She is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and has authored or coauthored several books and articles on biblical topics. With her impending wedding, Mary had probably thought about the possibility of having children in the future.

When Gabriel appears, Mary is a young woman engaged to be married to Joseph see Luke Although we do not know how old Mary was at the time, in antiquity it was possible for marriage contracts to be arranged even before puberty.

If Mary had been confused and afraid before this announcement, we can only imagine her heightened state after it. We cannot but think that the Father would choose the greatest female spirit to be the mother of his Son, even as he chose the male spirit like unto him to be the Savior.

Her story reminds us that God is aware of all of His children and that He calls ordinary men and women to participate in extraordinary ways to help build His kingdom. Each was noble and great in [the premortal existence], strathearn each was foreordained to the ministry he or she performed.

Outside of the New Testament, Nazareth is not mentioned in any text until the end of the second century AD. We do know that Nazareth was located on a hill in lower Galilee overlooking the fertile Jezreel Valley, 65 miles km north of Jerusalem.

The point is that calls of discipleship often require alterations to our personal life plans. Gaye indicates that first-century Nazareth was more like a village than a city or even a town, with an estimated population of around — The village had no fortifications; there is no evidence that it had paved streets or monumental architecture, nor that it used luxury items such as marble, mosaics, or frescos in the buildings, nor that the households contained imported fine wares.

In other words, Gabriel told Mary that her son would be both the Son of God and the promised Messiah. After all, she was just a young woman from a peasant family, living in an insignificant village. But there are three occasions when Mary articulates her thoughts and feelings.