12. 50. Early in the morning of the Lord's day, Mary Magdalene, a disciple of the Lord, fearing the Jews [156] who were seized with anger, did not perform at the Lord's tomb (what women usually do over the loved ones of the dead). 51. Taking her friends with her, she went to the tomb where she had been laid. 52. And they were afraid that the Jews would see them, and they said: "If we could not weep and groan on the day when he was crucified, now at his tomb we will do it. 53. Who, then, will roll away for us the stone that covers the entrance to the tomb, so that when we enter, we may sit down by Him and do what is due? [157] 54. For the stone was great, and we are afraid that someone will see us. And if we can't, let us put at the entrance what we brought in memory of Him, weeping and beating our breasts all the way to our house."

13. 55. And they went, and saw the tomb open, and when they came up, they bent down there, and saw there a certain young man sitting in the middle of the tomb, beautiful and clothed in shining garments, who said to them, 56. Who are you looking for? Is it not the One Who was crucified? He arose and departed. But if you don't believe it, bend down and look at the place where He lay, He's not there. For he arose and departed, whence he was sent. 57. Then the women, seized with terror, fled.

14. 58. And it was the last day of the feast of unleavened bread, and many departed, returning to their homes, since the feast was ending. 59. But we, the twelve [158] disciples of the Lord, wept and grieved, and each one, depressed by what had been accomplished, went to his house. 60. But I, Simon Peter, and Andrew my brother, took their nets and went to the sea. And Levi the son of Alphaeus [159] was with us, whom the Lord... [160]

The Protoevangelium of James

On the Protoevangelium of James

In the second century, when the main revered gospels had already been created, peculiar works appeared that adjoined the gospels and filled in the gaps in the stories about the life of the founder of Christianity and the people associated with him. The expansion of the number of believers, the influx of Greeks, Syrians, Italians, and Egyptians into Christian communities led to the fact that all these people brought their traditions to Christianity. Sincerely refusing to worship their old gods, they nevertheless retained their tastes, their former perception of the world, transferring the usual literary and fairy-tale philosophical images to the deity whom they began to worship.

The influence of the Oriental fairy tale was intertwined in the perception of Christians of the second century with the influence of mass literature. This was the time of the spread of Works describing the most incredible miracles performed by gods or sorcerers, transformations, sorcery. The history of real historical figures was unrecognizably transformed in such works. The most characteristic example is the novel about Alexander the Great, in which Alexander appears as the son of the sorcerer Nectanebus; at the same time, Alexander is the embodiment of his father. The popularity of this novel was such that it was later translated into Latin, Syriac, and Armenian; in the thirteenth century it came to Russia. In the second century, Flegon compiled a collection of "Amazing Stories", where various fantastic creatures and ghosts act. Such literature about miracles and super-valor (aretalogy) is characterized by a combination of outright fantasy, traditional fairy-tale motifs with elements of mysticism and vulgarized philosophy. Lucian, parodying all these fantastic stories in the True Story, describes the "Isles of the Blessed", where he allegedly ended up with his companions during his journey. It is characteristic that the common passages of such stories parodied by Lucian can also be found among Christians: on the islands, the land is full of flowers and covered with shady garden trees, grapes bear fruit twelve times a year... There live incorporeal shadows, which represent the "idea of man" (II.12-13). Christians who read such stories also introduced into the teachings created by the early followers of the Messiah Jesus the ideas they were accustomed to.

The miracles performed by Jesus in the early gospels are healing the sick, feeding the hungry, that is, helping suffering people (in accordance with the ethical requirements of the first Christians). In the Acts of the Apostles, Peter says of Jesus:

“... He went about doing good and healing all who were possessed by the devil, because God was with him" (10:38). In the Coptic Gospel of Thomas, instructing the disciples in their missionary work, Jesus says to his disciples:

"Those who are sick among them, heal" (15). But this no longer seemed enough: in the minds of the mass of believers, Jesus the god was supposed to perform miracles no less impressive than the gods and heroes of pagan legends, mercilessly punish his enemies.

The need to believe in miracles (not only in the miracle of Jesus' resurrection, but also in the possibility of everyday miracles) was combined with the desire to learn the slightest details, everyday details of the life of Jesus, his mother and revered preachers. The early gospels, both New Testament and apocryphal, focused more on Jesus' preaching than on his biographies. In particular, in the New Testament works there are no detailed stories about the childhood of Jesus, about his mother. Specific events are given in these scriptures as a reason for statements and teachings. Only the "passion" of Jesus, his death, his appearance to the disciples (and in the Judeo-Christian apocrypha, his baptism) are described in detail, for this was of primary doctrinal importance.

All these socio-psychological prerequisites led to the appearance of narratives in which the images of the canonical gospels were subjected, in the words of S. S. Averintsev, to "unrestrained coloring and gross vulgarization" 1. However, it was not only the connection with "grassroots literature" that determined the popularity of apocryphal biographies, they also reflected the beliefs of Christians and their ethical ideas, for which the early sacred books provided insufficient support. From the second half of the second century onwards, Christianity created a wide variety of works that supplemented the Gospel stories proper. At the origins of all this literature are two apocrypha of the second century, one of which told about the birth and life of Mary (up to the birth of Jesus), the other about the childhood of Jesus. Both of these gospels are sometimes united in scientific literature by the common name "gospels of childhood".

The mother of Jesus did not occupy any important place in the teachings of the early Christians. The Ebionites, in accordance with their idea of the prophet Jesus, considered his mother to be an ordinary woman, the wife of the carpenter Joseph2. The Gnostics used the image of Mary for their religious and philosophical constructions. Thus, the episode with the Annunciation was interpreted in one of the Gnostic versions as the appearance of Mary in the form of the Archangel Gabriel, Christ the Logos himself, who entered her. The author of the Gospel of Philip mentions Mary, but also in a specific context, emphasizing the symbolism of her name: "For Mary is his mother, his sister, and his companion." Here Philip expresses the Gnostic idea of overcoming earthly multiplicity (separation). The Gnostics were not interested in the biography of Mary - the mother of Jesus, her real life.

In the New Testament Revelation of John, a woman appears in visions giving birth to a child in agony, but this image may not be at all connected with the mother of Jesus: there is nothing earthly, human in him. This woman, "clothed with the sun," is pursued by a dragon who wants to fight "with the rest of her seed, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ" (12:1-17), the children of this woman are all Christian believers. Perhaps her image is an echo of the Mother - the holy spirit of Aramaic Christian texts (or a symbol of true faith); the description of it, as well as the description of the harlot sitting on the seven-headed beast (the symbol of Rome), is an allegory that needs to be interpreted, to comprehend its hidden meaning; This image has nothing to do with a real woman.