The Virtuous un-Virgin not yet married Mary

In a College religion class (taught by a Jewish Professor at a Catholic College) as an assignment I was supposed to read a spoof gospel, one written in the middle ages by the Jewish community that was then being oppressed. It was shown as one of the few examples of sort of answer to antisemitism.... if antisemitism had only been "yo mama" jokes. Of course antisemitism often had to do with pogroms and so writing anything like that was very dangerous. Anyway, I didn't end up reading it but the professor did a re-cap in class.
I was rolling. It was that funny. Of course the fact that I was laughing sort of proved that I hadn't done the reading. But whatever.
Jesus was a trickster in that version of the story. If they made a movie out of that gospel it would star Stephen Chow, and if you tweaked it a little bit and made Jesus win, at the end, and also made him more likeable, I think you could possibly have a new brand of Christianity, although that wasn't the intention of the authors.

The reason why I even bring that gospel up is because it said Jesus was actually the son of a Roman soldier.
I think this has to do with other Jesus's in the Talmud and a quick search on the internet showed that these versions of the story were actually used to froth up antisemitism and start pogroms. I don't know if there is any truth to this story or not, but it does seem like if Roman converts to Christianity 100 years after his death believed that Jesus was half Roman.. well that would be an easier conversion right? Since by Jewish law Jewishness comes from the mother, Jesus would be what seems to be impossible, a Roman Jew. But by that time there wasn't any Temple or Israel anymore and no more thoughts of creating a free state. Just Christians who were Jewish and Greeks trying to find a way to get onto the winning side somehow.


Back to Mary.

Let's say the real Mary (or any woman) was impregnated, and just for the story's sake let's say it is a foreign soldier. In that time period Roman. In our Time period, more likely American, since we are the modern Rome, but whatever, a stronger occupying force.

Here are some possibilities.

1) Mary was raped.
2) Mary was tricked, falling in love with a man who left her behind in a one night stand or maybe a week or whatever.
3) Mary fell in love and the soldier also fell in love with Mary but somehow it didn't work out.


Let's start with One.

One

 But I don't want to talk about this one too long except to say that obviously back in the day, even if a woman was raped, somehow the victim was blamed. This does happen to a degree nowadays but not as severely in the West or in more modernized countries. Some places in the world still have laws that side with the attackers and call for the death of the woman. Back in the day, most places seemed to be like this. It makes no sense to us, but I guess if you are a leader of a village you always side with the stronger party instead of with a victim. 5 men rape a girl. The 5 men have power and can fight wars for you or even kill you. The girl has no power and is not a threat to you. Of course this is morally wrong but that's probably the logic behind such laws with a weak police force.
It seems like a lot of stories in the 1980's would have the a female character be raped and then she is avenged and that seems to wipe out the rape, but of course it doesn't remove the memory at all. There is also the question of power. Nobody can imagine Athena being raped. But then Jesus actually dies and a ton of the Saints die horrible tortured deaths. I'm just saying that a version of Mary where she was raped instead of "divinely impregnated" is a valuable story. A woman can be a victim and still make something of herself afterwards, become a goddess or Saint, leader, innovator, what have you and have candles and incense lit to her, and have a son who is equally worthy of worship.
Also, Joseph, the man, can still be a father and still marry a woman whom he loves. Not only is it okay, it is the right thing to do. Back then, it might have been an issue he struggled with. But in the end, can he just abandon (even quietly) his betrothed just because she was raped and is pregnant?
 

Two

One is harder to talk about but in a way that story tends to be easier for a lot of men to swallow, because the woman is not at fault. In a way her virtue remains more "intact" because she is raped. But let's now say it was consensual. Mary was swept off her feet by a handsome Roman soldier who promises to take her home to Rome or wherever, and get married have kids. In this version Mary is at "fault" and even more so because she is mixing with an enemy race and being a traitor to her homeland and people and all these things that go along with that and people still talk like this today in some places. But the truth is it's not about race and countries, she just fell for another human being who wasn't true to her. Is that so much of a "fault"? That being swept off your feet thing is what keeps the species going. It's not against the creator that is supposed to have created the species. It might be a mistake. But then what? Can't Joseph still marry her and raise the child as his own son. Can't they still move on as a couple and start a family and be great people. Yes. And they deserve to be worshipped in death because Virtue is something more than calculating who is sleeping with whom.

Three

So this is sort of like Two except there is no mistake. Mary wasn't tricked. That was true love, like on Titanic with Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. It's just something happened. The boat sunk. The soldier died in battle. Maybe even, he had to go away and didn't know she was pregnant and life went on. He met someone else. Whatever. But there was no trickery. So it turns out Mary is pregnant and for whatever reason her soldier is not coming back. Joseph wants to just divorce her quietly instead of making a thing out of it. Which is nice of him. But then he decides that he loves Mary, even if she is pregnant with someone else's baby. Or at least he loves her enough not to have her be a single parent mother. Maybe he doesn't even know her that well. Maybe he knows her enough to know he would get along with her and he would just raise the child as his own. And it turns out that son ends up being a great leader and his younger brother (Joseph's son) ends up being a big time leader in the first son's Church (even though he is later edited out of the story.) Isn't this Mary more likely? Doesn't she relate more to many women? And she can still be worthy of praise and still have the potential to become a Saint, goddess, businesswoman, CEO, even a Scientist or what have you. It will be harder, but it is still possible. Why hold this Mary back? Wouldn't this story help a lot of struggling young women and girls in time of need as someone to pray to? Wouldn't it help a lot of young men make a decision that would in the long run, not only be better for society, but possibly better for themselves as well? Why cast off a woman for a reason like that. She's pregnant with some other dudes kid.
But isn't she a person? Isn't she still potentially a goddess?



And go the other way. Just because a woman is a Virgin. What does that mean? THAT doesn't make her a virtuous or good person. Of course it is important that she is healthy if you want to have children with her. And it matters that she doesn't have an STI if you want to have sex with her. But as far as a human emotional relationship, something like that should factor in as small instead of being THE MAIN THING.


I'm not against the Virgin Mary Story. That is an important Fairy Tale. And I do believe in Fairy Tales. They have there place. One important place for them is that through Faith stories One two or three can be transformed into the Virgin Mary story not ending with a funeral but ending with the goddess/Saint Mary being worshipped. You always still have the potential for greatness no matter who you are.

What I'm saying, is versions one two and three are probably pretty important in today's world. And there's is no reason why you have to stick with one story. There are four gospels and several versions of creation in Genesis. Then obviously there is the Scientific reality of what we know, (and a lot of what we don't know) about the universe after creation. Space time and time not even existing at some point and crazy things that were so hard to imagine even 50 years ago. I don't even really know the Science story because my math isn't good enough. But that's the story I believe in. But that doesn't mean there is no place for the Fairy Tale less scientific versions as well.  There is a lot of benefit of praying and believing in Marys one two and three as well as the Virgin. The point is that all of them, the four versions talked about here, the more ancient Pagan Goddesses she was based on, all of them are Holy. Some of them might not have been too nice. But through modern sensibilities of right and wrong you can create the version that is moral and holy and who can help you.