The Birth of the Mother: A Reading of Luke 2:1-20 in Conversation with Some Recent Feminist Theory on Pregnancy and Birth

Abstract

In conversation with feminist interpretations of pregnancy and birth this article offers a re-reading of Luke 2:1-20. The article sets out to read this passage with an eye to the representation and narrative function of the mother - especially the body of the mother - both before and after birth. The focus is on the transformation of the mother, Mary of Nazareth. The article considers ways in which the narrative represents three births: the birth of the child, a birth to or for the shepherds and the birth of the mother. These births suggest a logic of gestation, which finds its paradigm in the connective “keeping” (2:19, 51) activity of Mary. In Luke 2:1-20 the birth of the child is also the birth of the mother as a keeping woman.