“The official biography of Mary, the mother of Jesus, was a matter of violent argument within the early Christian movement, culminating with the Council of Ephesus in 431, which established the idea of the immaculate conception and Mary's lifelong virginity. In the centuries that followed, she has become a symbol of the beautiful virgin bride, grieving mother, heavenly queen, compassionate intercessor, leader of armies, mistress of the world. The real Mary was none of these things. Her biography is an elaborate myth invented by the early Church to further the interests of its male hierarchy and disguise the pagan origins of the mother of Jesus.”

“Claims of Mary’s authenticity would never stand up in a court of law because, apart from what is written in the Bible, there is little evidence of the existence of either Mary or Jesus Christ. Historians such as Josephus, Tacitus, Suetonius and Pliny the Younger, who are near-contemporaries of Mary and Jesus, are largely silent on the subject.”

— Michael Jordan (2001), The Historical Mary (xv)