A Look at the Netflix Film: “Mary”

May the Cult Be With You

With the research and consultation of dozens of biblical scholars, “Mary” tells a story of the Mother of God on Earth that the producers claim makes her “more approachable and relatable to us living today.” This is according to the press release statements on the movie.

Joel Osteen alone is reputed to have given $100 million to the project. I was able to find significant funding from an Opus Dei acolyte to the project as well.

A Story Straight From the Bible, Sorta’.

This movie centers around Mary’s lineage, childhood education, and the pre-recognition by many she encountered that she was destined to deliver the Messiah. It’s packed with “who knew?” revelations about the greatest cult figure within the blood cult of Jesus, the Catholic Church.

Let’s reference the things in this film that are not in the canonical Bible and never were:

The use of KJV is shorthand to denote text in the canonical Bible.

• The KJV does not provide any details about Mary’s lineage or the circumstances of her birth and upbringing.

• The entirety of her parents’ struggle to have a child is not in the KJV. Nor is there mention of her parents.

• The KJV does not discuss the young Mary going off to what in the film looks like a Jewish version of a Catholic Convent School in Jerusalem.

• There is no discussion of anyone’s awareness prior to the Annunciation in the KJV that Mary is going to be the Mother of God or in any way special in the coming of the Messiah.

• It does not cover any encounters of her being tempted by Lucifer other than at the Annunciation where she is informed by the Angel Gabriel about her becoming the vessel of God’s Son on Earth.

• There is no reference to Joseph being labeled a cuckhold by fellow villagers.

• Finally, where did Mary and Joseph become such proficient equestrians?

Where did these little-known stories of Mary come from?

If you can’t find these events and stories in the Bible, where did they come from? The writers? Or perhaps for the fever dreams of Joel Osteen? Nope, the producers needed something that would serve as a legitimitizing reference that they could point to. Consequently, the film borrows heavily from a text known as the Protoevangelium of James (or the Story of James (the brother of Jesus)). These texts were excluded at the Councils of Hippo (393 CE) and Carthage (397 CE). These councils were held to determine what canon Scripture was to be included in the Bible. Scholars today (and even Church officials at these councils) considered this work pseudepigraphical (falsely attributed) as written by James, the “brother” of Jesus, dating to the mid-2nd century, well after James’s death. At the time, the councils also found embellishments and details that were problematic or exaggerated.

While no longer part of the canon, the Protoevangelium of James clearly has had significant influence on Catholic tradition by promoting the Immaculate Conception and the perpetual virginity of Mary. The Catholic and Orthodox Churches do not regard the text as divinely inspired or authoritative. However, that appears to present only a minor hurdle in presenting it as both containing divinely inspired and authoritative events to enhance the image of Mary and her importance, especially for Catholics.

What Matters Is This:

One would think that given all the credence given to the Bible as the unerring word of God, the indisputable reference to truth that there would be no need to essentially pull stuff out works not in that perfect source.

But interpretation is by necessity intrinsic to religions. Yuval Harrari in his book “Nexus” points out is that despite vain attempts to invest all authority in ‘an infallible superhuman technology’ (the Bible), what instead happened was the rise of a new and extremely powerful human institution—the church.” This means that a primary function of the Church is to interpret what anything in the Bible means.

This is why members of the flock will always be to dumb to interpret the Bible on their own. You must have an expert (here we go again) divinely inspired and authoritative guide from the Church to explain what it means to you.

This film also begs the question as to why today there is so much continuing deification of Mary among Catholics and Charismatic Christians derived from sources outside the Bible to legitimatize the insights. It’s essentially arguments woven from whole cloth, or holy cloth. The only rationale I can come up with is of course is to provide pretext to empowering more of the Death Cult of Jesus.

Stay tuned for the Passion of the Christ sequel that’s bound to come as Trump’s theocracy takes hold.