The story of Jesus’ birth from the Virgin Mary took shape in an age of Roman history marked by long-term investments in pronatalist ideologies, spurring a deeper interest across political, medical, and philosophical circles in the hidden nature of the womb. Early Christians, especially so-called “Gnostics” in Egypt, participated in this type of rumination, focusing attention on the cosmic and anthropological mysteries arising from the contradictions of Mary’s virginal womb. Before long, the figure of Mary and her womb became embroiled in emergent Christian practices—from initiatory births, to ascetic exhortations, to invocations of spiritual and cosmic forces to manage daily existence—as Christians found ways to participate in the singularity of Jesus’ birth. This trajectory of the Virgin’s ritual authority reveals its earliest foundation not merely among efforts to refute “heresies” or reinvent goddess traditions, as usually assumed; rather, the history of Mary’s veneration reflects converging streams among the diverse traditions of early Christianity, including especially contributions from so-called “Gnostics” in late antique Egypt.

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