Meet Mary through the Earliest Gospel of Her Life. The Gospel of Mary is a humbly-told story of her life from conception to the birth of her son, Jesus Christ. This ancient text comes alive for the first time in a fresh version from Frederica Mathewes-Green. First put into written form as early as 150 A.D., The Gospel of Mary was at once cherished in the Christian East and rejected by the papacy because it did not depict Joseph as ever-virgin. This annotated version will introduce new readers to an important part of Christian history. The Annunciation Hymn of Rejoicing, written by the Syrian poet Romanos about 520 A.D., greets Mary with joy and wonder at Christ's conception. This hymn, offered every year in the Eastern Orthodox Church, uses complex patterns of rhythm, internal rhyme, and paradoxical juxtaposition. Mathewes-Green's new version conveys some of the original work's genius, while inviting readers to join generations of Christians in celebrating God's work in Mary. Together in one remarkable volume, The Lost Gospel of Mary explores both texts in a way that opens up the life of Mary, and her role in the church, in new and sometimes startling ways.