February 2011: Israeli archaeologists presented a newly uncovered 1,500-year-old church in the Judean hills, including an unusually well-preserved mosaic floor with images of lions, foxes, fish and peacocks. Though an initial survey suggested the building was a synagogue, the excavation revealed stones carved with crosses, identifying it as a church. The building had been built atop another structure around 500 years older, dating to Roman times, when scholars believe the settlement was inhabited by Jews.

Hewn into the rock underneath that structure is a network of tunnels that archaeologists believe were used by Jewish rebels fighting Roman armies in the second century A.D. Stone steps lead down from the floor of church to a small burial cave, which scholars suggest might have been venerated as the burial place of the prophet Zecharia.

Archaeologists began digging at the site, known as Hirbet Madras, in December 2010. The Antiquities Authority discovered several months earlier that antiquities thieves had begun plundering the ruins, which sit on an uninhabited hill not far from an Israeli farming community.

The small basilica with an exquisitely decorated floor was active between the fifth and seventh centuries A.D., stated the dig’s leader, Amir Ganor of the Israel Antiquities Authority. He stated the floor was “one of the most beautiful mosaics to be uncovered in Israel in recent years.” “It is unique in its craftsmanship and level of preservation.”

The church located southwest of Jerusalem, excavated over the last two months, will be visible only for another week before archaeologists cover it again with soil for its own protection. Ganor said the church would remain covered until funding was obtained to open it as a tourist site.

Israel boasts an exceptionally high concentration of archaeological sites, including Crusader, Islamic, Byzantine, Roman, ancient Jewish and prehistoric ruins.

Mary, Aramaic, Hebrew: Maryām, Miriam; Arabic Maryam, was known as a Jewish woman of Nazareth in Galilee. Israel’s Tourism Ministry has launched tours for Christian pilgrims who would like to know more about the life of Mary, mother of Jesus.

Tour operators are able to plan special pilgrimages for tourists who wish to trace Mary’s footsteps in the Holy Land, visiting the spots where she is supposed to have lived and traveled.

Inside view of the Tomb of the Virgin Mary and Altar

The itinerary includes Mary’s birthplace near Nazareth, located in northern Israel, her Tomb near Jerusalem, Mary’s Spring, and more. In addition, the Israeli government has coordinated its efforts with the Palestinian Authority so as to facilitate trips to Bethlehem and other Christian holy sites in Judea and Samaria.

For Christians, “the Holy Land is the physical connection with the life of Jesus,” Friar Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Roman Catholic Church custodian of the Holy Land explained that one could not talk about the life of Jesus without also talking about his mother, however.

A full-color booklet outlining the new itinerary in English will also be translated into Spanish, French, Italian, Polish and Portuguese. The English name “Mary” comes from the Greek Μαρία, which is a shortened form of Μαριάμ. The New Testament name was based on her original Hebrew name Miryam.

Early writings name her parents as Joachim and Anne. However, in the canonical New Testament the gospel of Luke suggests that Mary’s father to be Heli the son of Matthat. According to the apocryphal Gospel of James Mary was the daughter of Joachim and Anne. She resided at Nazareth in Galilee, presumably with her parents and during her betrothal–the first stage of a Jewish marriage.

Mary is involved in the only event in Jesus’ adolescent life that is recorded in the New Testament. At the age of twelve Jesus, having become separated from his parents on their return journey from the Passover celebration in Jerusalem, was found among the teachers in the temple.

After Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist and his temptations by the devil in the desert, Mary was present when, at her intercession, Jesus worked his first public miracle during the marriage in Cana by turning water into wine. Subsequently there are events when Mary is present along with James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas, called Jesus’ brothers, and unnamed “sisters”.

Outside view of the Tomb of the Virgin Mary

There is also an incident in which Jesus is sometimes interpreted as rejecting his family. “And his mother and his brothers arrived, and standing outside, they sent in a message asking for him. And looking at those who sat in a circle around him, Jesus said, ‘These are my mother and my brothers. Whoever does the will of God is my brother, and sister, and mother.’”

According to some traditions, Mary died surrounded by the apostles (in either Jerusalem or Ephesus) between three days and 24 years after Jesus death. The House of Mary near Ephesus in Turkey is traditionally considered the place where Mary lived until her assumption. The Gospel of John states that Mary went to live with the Disciple whom Jesus loved, identified as John the Evangelist. Irenaeus and Eusebius of Caesarea wrote in their histories that John later went to Ephesus, which may provide the basis for the early belief that Mary also lived in Ephesus with John.

Christian devotion to Mary goes back to the 2nd century and predates the emergence of a specific Marian liturgical system in the 5th century, following the First Council of Ephesus in 431. The Council itself was held at a church in Ephesus which had been dedicated to Mary about a hundred years before. In Egypt the veneration of Mary had started in the 3rd century and the term Theotokos was used by Origen, the Alexandrian Father of the Church.

Christian Marian perspectves include a great deal of diversity. While some Christians such as Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox have well established Marian traditions, Protestants at large pay scant attention to Mariological themes. Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Anglican, and some Lutherans venerate Mary. This veneration especially takes the form of prayer for intercession with her son, Jesus.

The apocryphal Protoevangelium of James, which is not part of new testament scripture, has been the source of many Orthodox beliefs on Mary. The account of Mary’s life presented includes her consecration as a virgin at the temple at age three. The High Priest Zachariah blessed Mary and informed her that God had magnified her name among many generations.

Zachariah placed Mary on the third step of the altar, whereby God gave her grace. While in the temple, Mary was miraculously fed by an angel, until she was twelve years old. At that point an angel told Zachariah to betroth Mary to a widower in Israel, who would be indicated. This story provides the theme of many hymns for the Feast of Presentation of Mary, and icons of the feast depict the story.

The Orthodox believe that Mary was instrumental in the growth of Christianity during the life of Jesus, and after his Crucifixion, and Orthodox Theologian Sergei Bulgakov wrote: “The Virgin Mary is the center, invisible, but real, of the Apostolic Church”

Theologians from the Orthodox tradition have made prominent contributions to the development of Marian thought and devotion. John Damascene (c 650─c 750) was one of the greatest Orthodox theologians. Among other Marian writings, he proclaimed the essential nature of Mary’s heavenly Assumption or Dormition and her mediative role.

Protestants typically hold that Mary was the mother of Jesus, but was an ordinary woman devoted to God. Therefore, there is virtually no Marian veneration, Marian feasts, Marian pilgrimages, Marian art, Marian music or Marian spirituality in today’s Protestant communities.

Islamic views on Mary: Islam regards Mary as the virgin mother of Jesus who they believe was one of the prophets. In the Qur’an, Mary has one of the biggest chapters. She is treated in the Sura Maryam and Al-i imran. Mary, the mother of Jesus, is mentioned as Maryam, more in the Qur’an than in the entire New Testament. She enjoys a singularly distinguished and honored position among women in the Qur’an.

A chapter in the Qur’an is titled “Maryam” (Mary), which is the only chapter in the Qur’an named after a woman, in which the story of Mary (Maryam) and Jesus(Isa) is recounted according to the Islamic view of Jesus. She is mentioned in the Qur’an with the honorific title of “our lady” (syyidatuna) as the daughter of Imran and Hannah.

She is the only woman directly named in the Qur’an; declared (uniquely along with Jesus) to be a Sign of God to mankind Qur’an 23:50, as one who “guarded her chastity” Qur’an 66:12, an obedient one Qur’an 66:12; chosen of her mother and dedicated to God whilst still in the womb Qur’an 3:36; uniquely (amongst women) Accepted into service by God Qur’an 3:37; cared for by (one of the prophets as per Islam) Zakariya (Zacharias) Qur’an 3:37; that in her childhood she resided in the great Hebrew Temple in Jerusalem and uniquely had access to Al-Mihrab (understood to be the Holy of Holies), and was provided with heavenly ‘provisions’ by God Qur’an 3:37.

Mary is also called a Chosen One Qur’an 3:42; a Purified One Qua’an 3:42; a Truthful one Qur’an 5:75; her child conceived through “a Word from God” Qur’an 3:45; and “exalted above all women of The Worlds/Universes (the material and heavenly worlds)” Qur’an 3:42.

The Qur’an relates detailed narrative accounts of Maryam (Mary) in two places Sura 3 Qur’an 3:35 and Sura 19 Qur’an 19:16. These state beliefs in both the Immaculate Conception of Mary and the Virgin birth of Jesus. The account given in Sura 19 Qur’an 19:1 of the Qur’an is nearly identical with that in the Gospel according to Luke, and both of these (Luke, Sura 19) begin with an account of the visitation of an angel upon Zakariya (Zecharias) and Good News of the birth of Yahya (John), followed by the account of the annunciation. It mentions how Mary was informed by an angel that she would become the mother of Jesus through the actions of God alone.

In the Islamic tradition, Mary and Jesus were the only children who could not be touched by Satan at the moment of their birth, for God imposed a veil between them and Satan. According to author Shabbir Akhtar, the Islamic perspective on Mary’s Immaculate Conception is compatible with the Catholic doctrine of the same topic. The Qur’an says that Jesus was the result of a virgin birth. The most detailed account of the annunciation and birth of Jesus is provided in Sura 3 and 19 of The Qur’an wherein it is written that God sent an angel to announce that she could shortly expect to bear a son, despite being a virgin.

Other views; To date, scholars continue to debate the accounts of the birth of Jesus from several perspectives, including textual analysis, historical records and post-apostolic witnesses.

The Virgin Mary was worshipped as a Mother goddess in the heretical Christian sect Collyridianism, which was found throughout Arabia sometime during the 300s AD. Collyrdianism was made up mostly of women and even had women priests. They were known to make bread offerings to the Virgin Mary, along with other practices. The group was condemned as heretical by the Roman Catholic Church and was preached against by Epiphanius of Salamis, who wrote about the group in his writings titled Panarion.

From the early stages of Christianity, belief in the virginity of Mary and the virgin conception of Jesus, as stated in the gospels, holy and supernatural, was used by detractors, both political and religious, as a topic for discussions, debates and writings, specifically aimed to challenge the divinity of Jesus and thus Christians and Christianity alike. In the 2nd century, as part of the earliest anti-Christian polemics, Celsus suggested that Jesus was the illegitimate son of a Roman soldier named Panthera. The views of Celsus drew responses from Origen, the Church Father in Alexandria, Egypt.

In December 2010, Catherine Lawless of the University of Limerick stated that by analyzing 15th-century Florentine manuscripts, she had concluded that Ismeria was the maternal grandmother of Mary.

by Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks
Rabbi Dr. Sacks is Chief Rabbi of England since 1991, a member of the House of Lords since 2009. He has authored many books on Judaic thought, appears regularly in the British media and has kindly allowed us to post his essay on the Sabbath Torah reading each week.

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There are many types of hero in Judaism, but few as majestic as the man who first heard the call of G-d, and began the journey we still continue.

One of the most striking features about Judaism in comparison with, say, Christianity or Islam, is that it is impossible to answer the question: Who is the central character of the drama of faith? In both of the other Abrahamic monotheisms the answer is obvious. In Judaism, it is anything but. Is it Abraham, the founder of the covenantal family? Is it Jacob, who gave his name Israel to our people and its land? Moses, the liberator and lawgiver? David, the greatest of Israel’s kings? Solomon, the builder of the Temple and the author of its literature of wisdom? Isaiah, the poet laureate of hope? And among women there is a similar richness and diversity.

It is as if the birth of monotheism – the uncompromising unity of the creative, revelatory and redemptive forces at work in the universe – created space for the full diversity of the human condition to emerge.
So Abraham, whose life draws to its close in this week’s parasha, is an individual rather than an archetype. Neither Isaac nor Jacob nor anyone else for that matter is quite like him. And what strikes us is the sheer serenity of the end of his life. In a series of vignettes, we see him, wise and forward looking, taking care of the future, tying up the loose ends of a life of deferred promises.

First, he makes the first acquisition of a plot in the land he has been assured will one day belong to his descendants. Then, leaving nothing to chance, he arranges a wife for Isaac, the son he knows will be heir to the covenant. Astonishingly, he remains full of vigour and takes a new wife, by whom he has six children. Then, to avoid any possible contest over succession or inheritance, he gives all six gifts and then sends them away before he dies. Finally we read of his demise, the most serene description of death in the Torah:

Then Abraham breathed his last and died at a good old age, an old man and full of years; and he was gathered to his people. [25: 8]

One is almost tempted to forget how much heartache he has suffered in his life: the wrenching separation from “his father’s house,” the conflicts and aggravations of his nephew Lot, the two occasions on which he has to leave the land because of famine, both of which cause him to fear for his life; the long drawn-out wait for a son, the conflict between Sarah and Hagar, and the double trial of having to send Ishmael away and seemingly almost to lose Isaac also.

Somehow we sense in Abraham the beauty and power of a faith that places its trust in G-d so totally that there is neither apprehension nor fear. Abraham is not without emotion. We sense it in his anguish at the displacement of Ishmael and his protest against the apparent injustice of the destruction of Sodom. But he places himself in G-d’s hands. He does what is incumbent on him to do, and he trusts G-d to do what He says He will do. There is something sublime about his faith.

Yet the Torah – even in this week’s parasha, after the supreme trial of the binding of Isaac – gives us a glimpse of the continuing challenge to his faith. Sarah has died. Abraham has nowhere to bury her. Time after time, G-d has promised him the land: as soon as he arrives in Canaan G-d says:

The LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” [12: 7]

Then again in the next chapter after he has separated from Lot:

Go, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you.” [13: 17]

And two chapters later:

He also said to him, “I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it.” [15: 7]

And so on, seven times in all. Yet now he owns not one square inch in which to bury his wife. This sets the scene for one of the most complex encounters in Bereishit, in which Abraham negotiates for the right to buy a field and a cave.

It is impossible in a brief space to do justice to the undertones of this fascinating exchange. Here is how it opens:

Then Abraham rose up from before his dead, and spoke to the Hittites, saying, “I am an alien and a stranger among you. Sell me some property for a burial site here so I can bury my dead.”
The Hittites replied to Abraham, “Hear us, my lord. You are a prince of G-d among us. Bury your dead in the choicest of our tombs. None of us will refuse you his tomb for burying your dead.”

Abraham signals his relative powerlessness. He may be wealthy. He has large flocks and herds. Yet he lacks the legal right to own land. He is “an alien and a stranger.” The Hittites, with exquisite diplomacy, reply with apparent generosity but deflect his request. By all means, they say, bury your dead, but for that, you do not need to own land. We will allow you to bury her, but the land will remain ours. Even then they do not commit themselves. They use a double negative: “None of us will refuse . . .” It is the beginning of an elaborate minuet. Abraham, with a politeness to equal theirs, refuses to be sidetracked:

Then Abraham rose and bowed down before the people of the land, the Hittites. He said to them, “If you are willing to let me bury my dead, then listen to me and intercede with Ephron son of Zohar on my behalf so he will sell me the cave of Machpelah, which belongs to him and is at the end of his field. Ask him to sell it to me for the full price as a burial site among you.”

He takes their vague commitment and gives it sharp definition. If you agree that I may bury my dead, then you must agree that I should be able to buy the land in which to do so. And if you say, no one will refuse me, then surely you can have no objection to persuading the man who owns the field I wish to buy.

Ephron the Hittite was sitting among his people and he replied to Abraham in the hearing of all the Hittites who had come to the gate of his city. “No, my lord,” he said. “Listen to me; I give you the field, and I give you the cave that is in it. I give it to you in the presence of my people. Bury your dead.”

Again, an elaborate show of generosity that is nothing of the kind. Three times Ephron says, “I give it to you,” yet he does not mean it and Abraham knows he does not mean it.

Again Abraham bowed down before the people of the land and he said to Ephron in their hearing, “Listen to me, if you will. I will pay the price of the field. Accept it from me so I can bury my dead there.” Ephron answered Abraham, “Listen to me, my lord; the land is worth four hundred shekels of silver, but what is that between me and you? Bury your dead.”

Far from giving the field away, Ephron is insisting on a vastly inflated price, while seeming to dismiss it as a mere trifle: “What is that between me and you?” Abraham immediately pays the price, and the field is finally his.

What we see in this brief but beautifully nuanced passage is the sheer vulnerability of Abraham. For all that the local townsmen seem to pay him deference, he is entirely at their mercy, he has to use all his negotiating skill, and in the end he must pay a large sum for a small piece of land. It all seems an impossibly long way from the vision G-d has painted for him of the entire country one day becoming a home for his descendants. Yet Abraham is content. The next chapter begins with the words, “Abraham was now old and well advanced in years, and the Lord had blessed him in all things” [24: 1].

That is the faith of an Abraham. The man promised as many children as the stars of the sky has one child to continue the covenant. The man promised the land “from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates” [15: 18] has acquired one field and a tomb. But that is enough. The journey has begun. Abraham knows “It is not for you to complete the task.” He can die content.

One phrase shines through the negotiation with the Hittites. They acknowledge Abraham, the alien and stranger, as “a prince of G-d in our midst.” The contrast with Lot could not be greater. Recall that Lot had abandoned his distinctiveness. He had made his home in Sodom. His daughters had married local men. He “sat in the gate” of the town [19: 1], implying that he had become one of the elders or judges. Yet when he resisted the people who were intent on abusing his visitors, they said: “This fellow came here as an alien, and now he wants to play the judge!” [19: 9].

Lot, who assimilated, was scorned. Abraham, who fought and prayed for his neighbours, but maintained his distance and difference, was respected. So it was then. So it is now. Non-Jews respect Jews who respect Judaism. Non-Jews disrespect Jews who disrespect Judaism.

So, at the end of his life, we see Abraham, dignified, satisfied, serene. There are many types of hero in Judaism, but few as majestic as the man who first heard the call of G-d, and began the journey we still continue.