I. Name

Mary, the mother of Jesus, is mentioned by name only in the four Gospels and once in the Acts of the Apostles. The name, which occurs as Maria or Mariam in the Greek NT, and as Mariamme in Josephus, Ant. Iud. 3, 54, corresponds with the Heb. name Miriam (cf. Exod. 15.20; Num. 26.59). Because of Mary’s symbolic role in the ascetic, dogmatic (especially christological) and ecclesiological reflection of the Church, mariology was developed in patristic times, which in its turn pr…