Apocrypha
Protoevangelium of James
Infancy of Mary
25 chapters · read and listen
Reading note
The childhood of Mary, the choosing of Joseph and the birth in a cave. It is the source of nearly all later Marian devotion — including the names Anne and Joachim.
Chapters
Dossier
The story of Mary's mother: a barren woman named Anna, a husband humiliated for having no child, a girl promised to the temple — and the birth of Jesus told by someone interested in Mary rather than Joseph.
Where this text comes from
Written in Greek, probably in the second half of the 2nd century AD. It survives in more than a hundred Greek manuscripts, besides Syriac, Coptic, Armenian and Slavonic versions — one of the most copied Christian texts of all time, though the Latin West rejected it early.
Why it is not in the Bible
Outside the canon in every tradition. In the West, the decree known as the Gelasian listed it among books to be avoided. Even so, nearly everything popular devotion knows about Mary's childhood comes from here.
What you will find
- The names Anna and Joachim, Mary's parents, appear for the first time in this text — they are in no canonical gospel.
- The birth scene: the whole world stops for an instant, birds freeze in the air, sheep hang motionless.
- The test of virginity performed by Salome, and the hand that withers when she doubts.
- The brothers of Jesus appear as children of an earlier marriage of Joseph, the solution the Eastern tradition adopted.
Frequently asked questions
- Were Mary's parents called Anna and Joachim?
- Those names come from this text, the Protevangelium of James, not from the Bible. No canonical gospel names Mary's parents.
- Does the Catholic Church accept the Protevangelium of James?
- Not as a book — it is apocryphal and was rejected in the West. But several traditions and feasts connected with Mary and her parents originate in it.