Hello there, my young theologians.

My name is Ms. Marks and I'm going to be your religious education teacher today.

Today we're going to be learning all about Mary, the mother of Jesus.

And she has a very important role in the Christian story.

She's understood in different ways by different groups of Christians.

So when you're ready, let's go.

So by the end of today's lesson, you'll be able to explain the importance of Mary, the mother of Jesus, across different denominations and give different perspectives on her ability to be seen as a role model in feminism.

So let's start with our keywords.

almah, a Hebrew word meaning young woman or virgin, depending on translations.

Feminism, the idea that women should be equal to men.

Immaculate conception, The belief that Mary was born without the stain of original sin.

by the grace of God.

Theotokos, the mother of God, Messiah, anointed one, chosen by God to bring a new age of peace.

So our lesson today on Mary, mother of Jesus, will have three sections.

Mary, as Isaiah's prophesied almah, Mary understood across different denominations and different perspectives on Mary and feminism.

So let's start with our first section, Mary as Isaiah's prophesied.

This is the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, France, which suffered a great fire in 2019.

You might have seen pictures of it before.

An estimated 15 million people visit this cathedral every year.

But what does Notre Dame mean and why is the cathedral called that? Have a think and see if you know what the words mean, Notre Dame and why the cathedral's called that.

You can pause the video and talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

So Notre Dame means our lady, and this is actually referring to Mary, the mother of Jesus.

So we can see the significance that she has in the fact that this cathedral's named after her and is such an important place in Paris, in France, and we're being theologians today.

And when we use the discipline of theology in religious education, we can look at different types of texts and interpretations of them, which can then lead to different meanings being derived from them.

If a text was written in one language but it's now read in another, then choices are made during the translation about what the words mean.

Looking at that original language that a text was written in and how it's been translated differently can help us to better understand the meanings that people have taken from them.

So the choices that people have made as they're translating can help us understand more what were they getting out of it, what did they think it meant, what do we think it means now? So here I've got a Bible bookcase because the Bible isn't just one book written by like one person at one time.

It's many books that were written over a long period of time by different authors.

So we can see it as a bookshelf with all the books lined up here.

And we can see it's arranged by Old Testament and New Testament here.

The Gospels are the first four books of the New Testament, and they tell the story of the life and actions of Jesus of Nazareth.

So they're very important for us understanding more about Mary and her role as the mother of Jesus.

And we are looking particularly today at the stories that Matthew wrote down, and we can see him there right at the beginning of the New Testament.

So these books were written in New Testament Greek.

So it's a form of Greek, a bit like what we have today where people speak Greek, but a little bit different 'cause it was obviously 2000 years ago.

And so when I read the Bible now, I might read it in English, it's a translation of that original New Testament Greek.

I'm not reading it as Matthew wrote it.

So Matthew and Luke, who two of those gospel writers, they knew the Jewish scriptures well because they were Jewish.

And in the book of Isaiah in the Old Testament, which is part of the Jewish scriptures, a prophecy had been made about the birth of a Messiah.

And this is in Isaiah, which you can see in the Old Testament part of the Bible.

So you can see that those books would've been important to the gospel writers, important to Jesus, important to Mary as Jewish people because they knew those scriptures.

And so Isaiah was something they knew and they knew there was this prophecy in Isaiah about a Messiah being born.

Now, Christians believe that Jesus was that Messiah.

So Jesus is fulfilling this prophecy that was made by Isaiah and Matthew links the birth of Jesus to that prophecy about the birth of a Messiah, lots of those things that Christians celebrate are Christmas, and a part of the nativity stories that we have come from the way Matthew and Luke and other gospel writers wrote about them.

And he was very keen to show us that Jesus was that messiah that was prophesied in Isaiah.

Most Christians believe that Mary, who was the mother of Jesus was a virgin at the time of his birth, means that she hadn't had sex in order to get pregnant.

It was a miraculous virgin birth.

Matthew and Luke both state this in their stories of the birth of Jesus.

And Matthew particularly, he links this explicitly to that prophecy from Isaiah.

And I'm going to show you how here with two bits of text.

So the text from Isaiah, if I'm reading it in a Bible today, said, "Behold the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel," which is a term that means God with us.

So this is what Isaiah wrote.

If I pick up a bible today, the New International Version, that's what I would probably read.

Matthew, in his version of events about Jesus being born says, "All of this took place to fulfil what the Lord had said through the prophet Isaiah, 'The virgin will conceive and give birth to his son and they will call him Immanuel, which means God with us.

So here Matthew is directly linking to that prophecy from Isaiah because he knew those scriptures well.

So he's linking it to that and saying that this is who Jesus is.

And he also uses the term virgin as we've got in the version of Isaiah here, a virgin, meaning she didn't have sex and this birth was miraculous.

So let's do a quick check before we move on.

The book of Matthew was written before the book of Isaiah, is that true or false? Pause the video and have a think and we'll see what you've done in a minute.

That is false.

The book of Matthew was not written before the book of Isaiah, let's see why.

The book of Isaiah is in the Old Testament, which formed part of the Jewish scriptures that Matthew would've known.

And the book of Matthew was written about 800 years later than that.

But he knew these scriptures and he writes it later and says that Jesus is fulfilling what Isaiah had said.

So the term almah has been translated in different ways and it's one of our key terms for today because it's the term that Isaiah uses when he's writing his book 'cause he didn't write it in New Testament Greek like Matthew did.

Isaiah originally uses the Hebrew term almah, and this can mean a virgin or a young person.

So Isaiah 800 years before Matthew is writing this in Hebrew and Matthew is writing in Greek and we are reading in English.

And the term that Isaiah uses is almah is from Hebrew.

And it can mean a virgin or sometimes it just means like a young person, doesn't mean to mean that they're actually a virgin.

But before Jesus' birth, about 200 years before Jesus was born, the writings of Isaiah and lots of the books of the Old Testament were translated into Greek, a kind of a big project to translate 'em into Greek so people could understand 'em in their own language as that was spoken around in the Roman Empire.

This translation, the translator chose to use a Greek term parthenos.

So rather than almah, 'cause that's the Hebrew, they're translating it into Greek and they use the term parthenos.

Now that word only means one thing, virgin.

It doesn't have this slight ambiguity.

It could be virgin, could be young person.

It literally means a virgin in Greek.

And this translation from about 200 years before Jesus was very widely known and that was what Matthew would've known and read and understood.

And so when he quotes Isaiah, he uses the term parthenos because that's what he's read in his version that he's got in front of him, the Greek version, parthenos, I'm gonna use parthenos.

He may not have known that Isaiah used a word originally in Hebrew that could have been two different things.

And we see this all the time when you try to translate between different languages, choices have to be made about which words are used.

Some languages have more words for things or less words for things than each other.

And so therefore we have to decide which word we're gonna use.

So it's very hard not to put our own understanding in when we're doing a translation.

That's why in some religions people would much rather learn the language the book was written in in the first place so that they can understand the original intention of it.

So let's look at how some different Christians might understand this term, almah, and the implications of this.

Danielle is a Roman Catholic and Fergus is a liberal Protestant.

And here they explain what they think about the term almah being used in Isaiah's prophecy.

So Danielle says, "The Hebrew term almah could mean virgin.

And God guided those translators to choose the Greek word that means virgin." So for Danielle, she would be saying, "Yep she was a virgin.

And Matthew's saying she's and Isaiah originally meant that she would be a virgin.

And God guided those translators as they did that process." Fergus says, "The term almah is often translated as young person without reference to virginity in the Old Testament." So other translations of other bits of the Old Testament don't use the word virgin sometimes when they're talking about somebody who's called an almah.

So he says, "This shows that the mother of the Messiah wasn't necessarily a virgin." He's saying maybe Isaiah wasn't saying she had to be a virgin, she could just be a young woman.

Let's do another check, is this true or false? All Christians believe that Mary was a virgin at the time of Jesus' birth.

Is this true or false? Pause the video and have a think and we'll see what you've done in a moment.

That is false.

But why? Well, yes, the majority of Christians believe this but not all.

For example, some liberal Protestant Christians think the term almah could have meant a young person and that she was a young person rather than a virgin.

Let's do a practise task to see what we've learned.

So use the image below, it's our Bible bookshelf here as a prompt to explain the link between Isaiah and Matthew in the prophecy that Mary, the mother of Jesus, would be a virgin.

So I'm asking you to think about the prophecy that Isaiah made, how Matthew read this, and what words were chosen to be used and how this links to Mary, the mother of Jesus.

And you must include the following words, Hebrew, Greek, almah, and virgin.

So have a go at that and I'll see what you've done in a moment.

Pause the video and off you go.

Well done, that's some really good thinking you're doing there.

So I asked you to use the image as a prompt to explain the link between Isaiah and Matthew in the prophecy that Mary, the mother of Jesus, would be a virgin.

Your answer may look something like this.

Isaiah wrote in Hebrew that an almah would give birth to a son who would save people and this word could mean young person as well as virgin.

This was translated into Greek before the time of Matthew and the word virgin was used for the term.

Matthew links this prophecy to the birth of Jesus from a virgin, Mary.

Well done.

So onto our second section of this lesson then.

Mary understood across different denominations.

So one of the names that Mary, mother of Jesus, is sometimes given is theotokos.

And this comes from Greek and it has two sections, theo and tokos.

The stem theo means God in Greek.

And so someone who's a theist believes in God.

We are theologians today 'cause we're studying ideas about God and tokos comes from childbirth or to give birth.

So we can see from this, this is connected to God and birth, theotokos.

and many Christians use this term to describe Mary, the mother of Jesus.

By calling Mary theotokos, They're not saying that she was a goddess who gave birth to a son.

So she's not a God that gave birth to a son, but they're saying that she as a human woman gave birth miraculously to Jesus who was fully human and fully God.

And remember most Christians believe she was a virgin at that time.

So there are some really important events that happen in the life of Mary that are retold in the Bible.

So in the Bible we have the stories of the Gospels which tell us many things about Mary, the mother of Jesus.

The gospel of Luke tells us that Mary was visited by Angel Gabriel and she was told that she was full of grace and would have a special child.

And at this point Mary asks some questions about her planned marriage to Joseph and she's reassured that she'll still be a virgin when she gives birth and that this will be a miracle.

Mary agrees to this and this is known as the annunciation and it's a date that's celebrated by many Christians today in their sort of calendar year.

Mary does indeed give birth to a child who is Jesus.

When he was an adult, Mary was present at Jesus' first miracle when he turned water into wine at a wedding.

Mary had directed him to help when the wine ran out.

This shows to some Christians the special role that Mary has in her relationship with Jesus by asking for help for others.

Mary was also present along with other women and followers at Jesus' death by crucifixion.

As he was dying, Jesus spoke to Mary and ensured that she'd be looked after by his follower John after his death.

After Jesus was raised from the dead and returned to heaven, Mary is also present at the Pentecost, which is seen by many to be the birth of the church.

This shows her importance in the story of Jesus and the start of Christianity.

Between different Christian denominations, there is a diversity of beliefs about Mary.

Two of these are the immaculate conception of Mary and the belief that Mary can intercede or pray for Christians on earth today.

The immaculate conception refers to Mary being born without original sin.

And this is a belief taught in the Roman Catholic tradition.

When Angel Gabriel first greets Mary to announce she'll have a child, Jesus, the angel said, "Mary, full of grace," this is before Jesus is born and the Roman Catholic Church teaches therefore that she was already without sin when the angel greets her because the angel says, "Mary, full of grace." A second belief is that Mary can intercede or pray to God on behalf of other Christians.

This is a belief that is within the Roman Catholic and Orthodox traditions.

It's believed because at that wedding of Cana, Jesus' first miracle Mary asked Jesus to help and he performs that first miracle.

So these beliefs about Mary may influence different practises in Christianity today.

If she is in heaven with Jesus and even on earth she was able to ask Jesus something on behalf of others, then how much more may she be able to do that in heaven? So one example is the rosary, which is a set of prayer beads that you can see on the board.

And these are used by many Roman Catholic Christians to pray to Jesus and God.

So the prayer is to God, but part of the rosary states, "Hail Mary full of grace, the Lord is with thee.

Blessed art thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.

Jesus, Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners." So praying this doesn't mean that Mary has the powers that God has, but that she has a a special position in being able to ask God for help on behalf of other Christians.

Icons are often used in orthodox traditions and we have one here on the board.

These are sacred paintings which can help Christians to connect more deeply with the religion when they pray.

Icons of Mary are often used in this way when praying to her to ask for God's help.

So let's do a quick check, is this true or false? The immaculate conception is the belief that Jesus was born through a miraculous virgin birth.

Is that true or false? Pause the video and have a think and we'll see what you've done in a moment.

That's false.

It is a tricky one and often people would think that was true.

But let's unpack why it is false.

The immaculate conception refers to the belief in Roman Catholic teachings that Mary was born without original sin.

So sometimes people think this means Jesus being born from the virgin, but actually it's to do with Mary being born without original sin.

So this is something that's believed in the Roman Catholic Church.

Other denominations of Christianity do not teach that Mary is interceding or praying on the behalf of others.

One example of this is the Baptist denomination.

Here Charlie explains his reason.

So Charlie says, "I believe I have a direct relationship with Jesus and pray to him rather than through Mary.

Mary's important to me as the woman who gave birth to Jesus.

However, my relationship with Jesus and his teachings are the focus of my worship and religion." So for Charlie, he doesn't feel that need to go through Mary, that sometimes people have in other denominations or that that would help him.

For him he wants to just go direct to God and Jesus through his own prayers.

Time for another check.

Which statement is the most accurate about practises related to Mary, the mother of Jesus? Many Baptist Christians pray to Mary asking for God's help.

All Christians pray to Mary asking for God's help or many Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christians pray to Mary asking for God's help.

Pause the video and have a think and we'll see what you've got in a moment.

That's right, it was, C, it's the Roman Catholic and Orthodox traditions we spoke about who may pray to Mary asking for God's help.

So time for a practise task to see what we've learned then.

So here we've got some ways that Mary is understood across different denominations and you are going to match the different understandings of Mary with the correct reasons.

So pause the video and have a go and we'll see what you've got in a moment.

Well done, some really good thinking there.

So I asked you to look at the four different ways that Mary's understood across different Christian denominations and think of the different reasons we have here and which ones match with why someone might have that belief about her.

And your answer should look something like this.

One, Mary is known by the title theotokos.

B, this means mother of God and refers to her being a human who was the mother of Jesus.

Two, Mary was present at important events in Jesus' life.

Could go with D, for example, his birth, his first miracle, and his death.

Three, some Christians believe in the immaculate conception of Mary.

A, this is believed by many Roman Catholic Christians and means that Mary was born without original sin.

And four, some Christians pray to Mary when asking God for help, with C, this is practised by many Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christians as Mary is in heaven with God.

So well done for your work there.

So onto our third section of the lesson then, different perspectives on Mary and feminism.

For some Christians, their beliefs about Mary means she's a role model for feminism.

Feminism is the idea that women should be equal to men.

So let's look at some reasons why she might be a role model for feminism.

She has a prominent place in beliefs and practises where people are remembering her role and what she did and what she can do now for them.

She shows agency by giving her consent to Angel Gabriel.

When the angel comes and speaks to her and says she's going to give birth, she asks some questions and she sort of challenges it and wants to check what's going to happen to do with her betrothal to Joseph and she consents and allows it to happen.

So this shows that she's not just a kind of meek person who goes along with what she's told.

She's showing agency and control over the situation for herself.

She shows that you can be nurturing and strong, which kind of challenges stereotypes that you have to be one or the other if you're a particular gender.

And she shows that you can be many of these different things if you're a woman.

And she also championed for the poor and oppressed in her prayers to God.

So in other parts of the Bible we have her praying for people and asking God to protect the poor and oppressed and the meek and the vulnerable.

And many of those people in the world are going to be women.

And so she's really championing and for them and talking about raising them up which could lead to equality.

Which one of these do you think could be the most important? If someone was a feminist and a Christian who was looking to the story of Mary, which one of these could really be the most important for them seeing her as a role model for feminism? Pause the video and have a think.

You could talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Well let's hear from Danielle, a Roman Catholic and Tia a Methodist as they explain their views.

So Danielle says, "Honouring Mary in my tradition means we're also recognising the important contributions of women and their stories to our religion.

Women are too often victims and forgotten in history, but Mary will not be." So, feminists often bring to light stories about women in the past that have been forgotten or written out of history.

And Danielle here is saying that that figure of Mary means that her role and the contributions of women in Christianity are never going to be forgotten because of her.

And Tia says, "The Bible is clear that Mary gave consent to be used by God for this purpose.

Feminists believe women should have control and agency over their lives as victors in their story." So Tia here is emphasising that Mary actually spoke back to Gabriel and asked some questions before she consented for this to happen, which for her shows that she is kind of taking some control over her own story.

Let's do a quick check.

Some Christians view Mary as a role model for feminism, the idea that women should be equal to men.

Is that true or false? Pause the video and have a think and we'll see what you've done in a moment.

Well done, that's true and we just heard from Danielle and Tia with some ideas for that, didn't we? Other people suggest that beliefs about Mary having encouraged a patriarchal society.

So she isn't a role model for feminism.

Now by patriarchal society we mean one where men generally hold the power and authority.

And in those patriarchal societies, often ideas and stories are used to prop up the idea of men being in power and having authority.

And feminists would argue used to sort of keep women in their place no longer in parallel authority.

So why could someone argue that some of these beliefs about Mary mean that she is not a role model for feminism? Let's have a think.

The beliefs that really focus on Mary as a young, obedient girl.

So yes, she gives her consent to what happens, but there are many beliefs around her being willing and doing what God's will is for her.

And maybe that's focusing too much on young girls having to be obedient and do what they're told.

Others could argue that there seems to be a real focus on female rather than male virginity.

So if someone's a virgin, they haven't had sex.

And feminists often argue that in a patriarchal society there's kind of an obsession with girls being virgins more than boys.

So it's seen as unfair and propping up the idea that men have more power and authority.

Is that one of the things that comes out of some of these beliefs to do with Mary? Some may argue that these beliefs lead to impossible expectations for women.

If Mary is held up as the perfect example and she's both a virgin and a mother, then that's impossible for any other person to do without a miraculous birth in the same way that she had.

And feminists often argue that in a patriarchal society, there are impossible expectations for women that we can't meet with what we're expected to be by the men that generally have power or authority.

Also, Mary is known in her relation to a man rather than in her own right.

Also, often feminists point out that we know about women because of their relation to a man rather than who they are in their own right.

And this is the case with Mary.

We know about her because she's the mother of God, not because of who she is in her own right.

So if someone is a feminist who thinks that beliefs about Mary are actually propping up a patriarchal society rather than being a role model for feminism, which of these do you think they would say is the most important? Which one would they choose? You can pause the video and have a think.

Talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Off you go.

Well now we're going to hear from Dianne and Fergus.

Diane is an atheist humanist and Fergus is a liberal Christian and they're going to explain their views.

Diane says, "As an atheist, I don't believe Mary was a virgin.

In patriarchal societies there's a greater scrutiny placed on women and virginity than men.

And this is why beliefs about Mary do not always support feminism." 'Cause Diane is an atheist, meaning she won't believe there's a God that caused the miraculous birth to happen.

And Fergus says, "If Mary is the ideal woman as a virgin and a mother that it's impossible for anyone to follow today.

She's important, but there are many other examples of women in leadership in the Bible that can support feminism." So time for a quick check, which two of these statements could support the view that beliefs about Mary have encouraged a patriarchal society? A, the focus on Mary's virginity has contributed to a focus on female virginity rather than male virginity in patriarchal societies.

B, in patriarchal societies there are often impossible expectations put on women, for example, to be both a virgin and a mother.

Or C, Mary's story has a prominent place in the Bible and Christian traditions showing the importance of women in the religion and thus, helping the aims of feminism.

Which two of these could support the view that beliefs about Mary have encouraged a patriarchal society? So pause the video and we'll see what you've done in a moment.

Well done that was A and B.

C may be true that she has a prominent place in the Bible, but that wouldn't be a reason someone could give for why it supports a patriarchal society.

So onto another practise task then to see what we've learned today.

Can beliefs about Mary, the mother of Jesus mean that she is a role model for feminism? So you are going to give a view on this and one reason to support it and it might not be your view, just a view that somebody could have.

And we've met several people in the lessons so far who've had different views on this.

And you might like to use the sentence stems. Beliefs about Mary means she can be a role model for feminism because, or beliefs about Mary means she cannot be a role model for feminism because, or you could write, it's unclear if beliefs about Mary means she can be a role model for feminism because, so pause the video and have a go and we'll see what you've written in a moment.

Well done, some really good thinking there.

Can beliefs about Mary, the mother of Jesus, means she could be a role model for feminism? I asked you and I asked you to give a view and a reason to support it.

And your answer may look like one of the following, beliefs about Mary means she could be a role model for feminism because she has a prominent role in the life of Jesus, emphasising the contributions of women to the religion of Christianity.

Or beliefs about Mary means she cannot be a role model for feminism because the emphasis on her virginity and obedience have supported a patriarchal society where women are not equal to men.

Well done and I wonder what you think about Mary and beliefs about her and whether she could be a role model for feminism or not.

So let's summarise everything we've learned about Mary, mother of Jesus.

Mary, the mother of Jesus is an important figure in Jesus' life and in the development of Christian traditions.

The Roman Catholic Church teaches the immaculate conception that Mary was born without the stain of original sin.

Matthew links Jesus' birth to a prophecy of Isaiah that the Messiah will be born to an almah, often translated to a virgin.

Mary was present at important moments in Jesus' life and some Christians that they can pray to her to ask for God's help.

And there are different perspectives on how far beliefs about Mary can be used to support feminism and its ideals.

So that's some fantastic work today that we've done.

I look forward to seeing you again soon, bye-bye.