The Annunciation of the Birth of Jesus in the Protevangelium of James

Abstract

This chapter studies the annunciation of the birth of Jesus in the Protevangelium of James from the perspective of production and reception of texts in the early church. Both aspects, text production and text reception, throw light on how early Christians contextualized their beliefs, transmitted tradition and retold stories. In spite of obvious differences between the annunciation of the birth of Jesus in the canonical gospels and this version, there can be little doubt that PJ ll:2-3 is a re-telling of the annunciation of the birth of Jesus in Luke and Matthew. The chapter pays attention to aspects of re-telling stories, the production of texts and also the reception of texts in the early church by studying PJ ll:2-3. It also focuses on: re-telling as a means of text production and reception, PJ an infancy gospel? and 'Canonical' and 'apocryphal': the New Testament and PJ 11:2-3. Keywords: annunciation; apocryphal; birth of Jesus; canonical gospels; New Testament; Protevangelium of James