The Real Mary<\/em> with a very clever twist. The standard theory, which I espouse, is that Mary immediately realized that being pregnant before consummation with Joseph was a No-No that could jeopardize her life, her son\u2019s life, and Joseph\u2019s honor. So, the standard view is that Mary\u2019s faith was courageous. Marko has another idea:
\nNow don\u2019t jump all over him; I do want to spend some time with Jeannie and Marko next November when SBL is in San Diego.
\nBut here\u2019s his theory: 13 year olds, because of their developmental stage, don\u2019t process potential implications. Instead, she was innocent and didn\u2019t ponder the implications. Instead, when God told her the news, being an innocent 13-year-old, she was excited and saw all the great things coming her way. What if what God needed was the enthusiasm of an innocent person rather than the deliberated decision of someone aware of what was going on?
\nI think his push-back is worth considering. Here\u2019s what I wrote to him:
\nWhat if the Industrial Revolution has really changed maturation so that adolescence has been prolonged beyond anything in the ancient world?
\nWhat if living in the Galilee, in the first century, among the poor required assumption of responsiblities at a much younger age?
\nAnd what if such an early arrival for responsibility shifted brain development \u2014 or, more likely \u2014 what if brain development was much sooner because of the burden of growing up much sooner?
\nAnd what if first century folks didn\u2019t even really know what adolescence was?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Marko has posted on The Real Mary with a very clever twist. The standard theory, which I espouse, is that Mary immediately realized that being pregnant before consummation with Joseph was a No-No that could jeopardize her life, her son\u2019s life, and Joseph\u2019s honor. So, the standard view is that Mary\u2019s faith was courageous. Marko […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1708],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mary"],"yoast_head":"\n
Mary at 13<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Marko has posted on The Real Mary with a very clever twist. The standard theory, which I espouse, is that Mary immediately realized that being pregnant\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2006\/12\/22\/mary-at-13\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mary at 13\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Marko has posted on The Real Mary with a very clever twist. The standard theory, which I espouse, is that Mary immediately realized that being pregnant\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2006\/12\/22\/mary-at-13\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2006-12-22T07:20:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2006\/12\/22\/mary-at-13\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2006\/12\/22\/mary-at-13\/\",\"name\":\"Mary at 13\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2006-12-22T07:20:50+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2006-12-22T07:20:50+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\"},\"description\":\"Marko has posted on The Real Mary with a very clever twist. The standard theory, which I espouse, is that Mary immediately realized that being pregnant\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2006\/12\/22\/mary-at-13\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2006\/12\/22\/mary-at-13\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2006\/12\/22\/mary-at-13\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Mary at 13\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\",\"name\":\"Jesus Creed\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\",\"name\":\"Scot McKnight\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. McKnight, author of more than fifty books, is the Professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary in Lombard, IL.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/author\/scotmcknight\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Mary at 13","description":"Marko has posted on The Real Mary with a very clever twist. The standard theory, which I espouse, is that Mary immediately realized that being pregnant","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2006\/12\/22\/mary-at-13\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Mary at 13","og_description":"Marko has posted on The Real Mary with a very clever twist. The standard theory, which I espouse, is that Mary immediately realized that being pregnant","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2006\/12\/22\/mary-at-13\/","og_site_name":"Jesus Creed","article_published_time":"2006-12-22T07:20:50+00:00","author":"Scot McKnight","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Scot McKnight","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2006\/12\/22\/mary-at-13\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2006\/12\/22\/mary-at-13\/","name":"Mary at 13","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website"},"datePublished":"2006-12-22T07:20:50+00:00","dateModified":"2006-12-22T07:20:50+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252"},"description":"Marko has posted on The Real Mary with a very clever twist. The standard theory, which I espouse, is that Mary immediately realized that being pregnant","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2006\/12\/22\/mary-at-13\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2006\/12\/22\/mary-at-13\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2006\/12\/22\/mary-at-13\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Mary at 13"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/","name":"Jesus Creed","description":"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252","name":"Scot McKnight","description":"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. McKnight, author of more than fifty books, is the Professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary in Lombard, IL.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/author\/scotmcknight\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/197"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2061\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}