The virgin Mary’s obscurity in modern evangelicalism outside of Christ belies the significant role she played in early Christian debates, doctrine, and creeds. Though absent from the 325 A.D. version of the Nicene creed, Mary appears in the Constantinople version as well as the earlier Apostle’s Creed. Though she did not formally receive the title “theotokos” until the Council of Ephesus, Athanasius and other church fathers of the 4th century already wrote of Mary as theotokos, pointing to her maternity as a bastion against the false doctrine of the Gnostics, Arians and Manicheans, and holding her out as an example for Christians.
The two primary Marian themes of the creeds, conciliar texts and authors are Mary’s representational role for humanity in birthing Christ into the world, thus safeguarding his human nature ,and her example of holiness and faith. Though some of the writings of the church fathers about Mary may sound excessive to an evangelical ear as they describe her in terms like all holy and ever-virgin, this paper will explore how Luke portrays Mary as an exemplar in both a representative and replicable sense. First, a figural reading of Luke 1–2 will emphasize her representative function by characterizing Mary as a recapitulation of OT figures. Not only is the Lukan Mary representative, she is also replicable: though the church fathers see in Mary an example primarily for committed virgins, this paper will contend that Luke presents Mary as an exemplar for all Christians through a reading of Luke 1–2 in light of Luke 8:19–21 and 11:27–28, culminating at Pentecost in which all those who, like Mary, faithfully respond to God’s word, now bear God in the world. Mary is the first, but not the final theotokos.