The Protoevangelium of James

The Birth of Mary

Here is the paradox at the heart of the Protoevangelium: the Catholic Church condemned this text as apocryphal while simultaneously basing some of its most important Marian doctrines on it. The perpetual virginity of Mary — that she remained a virgin after giving birth to Jesus — rests almost entirely on this text, which includes the famous scene of a midwife physically examining Mary after the de