Michael English – Mary, Did You Know

American singer Michael English began his career in 1972 as a member of his family band, The Singing Samaritans, at around 10 years old.  After he graduated High School, he joined:

• The Singing Americans (1970 to 1982, 1984 to 1985)
• The Goodmans (1982 to 1984)
• The Gospel Couriers (approx. 6 months in 1984)
• The Gaither Vocal Band (1985 – 1994, 2009–2013)

In addition to his complicated discography, he released several solo albums, including:

• Michael English (1991)
• Hope (1993)
• Healing (1995)
• Freedom (1996)
• Gospel (1998)
• Heaven to Earth (2000)
• A Michael English Christmas (2003)
• Greatest Hits: In Christ Alone (2006)
• The Prodigal Comes Home (2008)
• Some People Change (2013)
• Worship (2015)
• Love is the Golden Rule (2017)

English also receive nine Dove awards, including New Artist of the Year (1992), Praise and Worship Album of the Year (1993), and Inspirational Song of the Year (1994).

Mary, Did You Know was written by Mark Lowry, who was also part of Gaither Vocal Band at the time of this song’s release.  The musical score was written by Buddy Greene.

Lyrics can be found at https://genius.com/Michael-english-mary-did-you-know-lyrics.

Note to new users: This is a different kind of review site!  Read About the Berean Test and Evaluation Criteria prior to reading this review.

1. What message does the song communicate?

Michael English asks a series of rhetorical questions to Mary, inquiring how much foreknowledge she had regarding her unborn Son’s acts.  They are rhetorical in the sense that we can examine the Scriptures to see how much information Mary was given to adequately answer these questions (see section 2).  These inquiries humanize the familiar Christmas story, that Mary was probably unaware of many things Jesus would do, especially His sacrifice for our lawbreaking.  They invite us to contemplate her mindset when Christ was born.

The only meaningful repetition is the song’s title.  It appears three times in each Verse and twice in the Bridge, often used as a lead-in to introduce a new idea.  The type of repetition that I criticize are successive lines,  copy + paste sections, and alternating versions of both that appear more than three times.  This usage is poetic, especially since its third iteration in each Verse is a slight variant and not included in each Verse’s close.

Score: 10/10

2. How much of the lyrics line up with Scripture?

To fairly evaluate this section, I will not rate this based on Mary’s knowledge (or lack thereof) of the great and wonderful things Jesus would do; However, I’ve commented on Mary’s likely or unlikely awareness of such things as Jesus’ calming the storm or healing the deaf.

For this section, the question I asked myself is, “Can English justify these questions posed to Mary based on Scripture”?  In other words, is there a flaw in English’s questions that would disqualify it as legitimate?  I conclude that all his questions are Biblically supported.

[Verse 1]

Lines 1 and 2: This is the first of many rhetorical questions English poses to Mary.  Scripture does not support that Mary knew Jesus would walk on the Sea of Galilee (Matthew 14:22–34, Mark 6:45–53, and John 6:15–21); However, there is something else she knows that might tip her off to this event, along with other miracles of Jesus (see Verse 2, lines 7 and 8).

Line 3: Repeats line 1.

Lines 4-8: Based on Mary’s song in Luke 1:46-55, it tells of a brief, though unspecific, history where God rescued His people Israel from their enemies.  I ascertain that Mary knew that her son would liberate her people; However, she probably was unaware that her Son’s path to salvation would involve bearing sins.

Roman Catholics will disagree with line 6 as it suggests that Mary required forgiveness for her sins.  Chiefly debated in interpreting Luke 1:47.  Catholics would say Mary required saving from Roman oppression.  Protestants interpret this as a subtle admission of rescue from sin.  I happen to side with the Roman Catholics on this passage of Scripture; However, there are two other passages that I think make a case for why Mary was a sinner: Romans 3:23 and Mark 10:18.

I’ll start with the most obvious one first.  Romans 3:23 teaches that all are without sin and fall short of God’s glory.  This begs the question: what about Jesus?  Isn’t there an exception for Him, based on 2 Corinthians 5:21?  I submit that there are no exceptions to this statement, chiefly, because the word “God” at the end of this passage references Jesus.  He is not the exception to the rule.  He is the standard by which the rest of us miss the mark.  There’s no exception made for Jesus, so I don’t see why Jesus would be different.

The second is the words of Jesus in Mark 10:18, where He states, “No one is good except God alone”.  This is not a denial of Jesus’ deity as some may suggest.  Instead, Jesus affirms that only God is perfect.  This implies that Mary, who is not God, is imperfect.  To put this in syllogistic form:

Premise 1: Only God is good.
Premise 2: Mary is not God.
Conclusion: Therefore, Mary is not good.

Based on these two passages of Scripture, I agree with English that Jesus came to make Mary new, even if she was unaware of the context of Christ’s rescue operation.

[Verse 2]

Line 1: Repeats Verse 1, line 1.

Line 2: Scripture does not say that Mary was informed that Jesus would heal physical blindness (Matthew 9:27-31, Matthew 20:29-34, Mark 8:22-26, Mark 10:46-52, Luke 18:35-43, and John 9:1-7), much less spiritual blindness (Luke 24:31, John 3:3, John 9:39, Acts 26:12-18, 2 Corinthians 3:12-18, 2 Corinthians 4:6, and Ephesians 1:18).

Line 3: Repeats Verse 1, line 1.

Line 4: According to Scripture, Mary probably was not aware that Christ would rebuke the storm (Matthew 8:23–27, Mark 4:35-41, and Luke 8:22–25).

Line 5: Essentially repeats Verse 1, line 5.

Line 6: I’ve been singing this line incorrectly my whole life!  I thought it was “tried”; However, the correct word is “trod”, meaning “to walk in a specified way”.  In other words, Jesus walked in a specified way as the angels did.  That is, He did the Father’s will (Matthew 26:39, Mark 14:36, Luke 22:42, John 4:34, John 5:30, John 6:38, and Philippians 2:7-8).  Again, I see no Scripture that suggests Mary was aware of this.

Lines 7 and 8: Yes, Mary knew this one!  She got the information from her visitor: the angel Gabriel (Luke 1:26-38).

[Bridge]

Lines 1 and 2: Repeats Verse 1, line 1, combined with two calls to Casper the friendly ghost.

[Chorus]

Lines 1-5: Casper reference aside, based on the context of Bridge, English still asks if Mary knew these things.  I addressed the blind in Verse 2, line 2.  Scripture doesn’t say if Mary knew Jesus would:

• Give hearing to the deaf mute (Mark 7:31-35),
• Raise the dead (Matthew 9:18-26, Mark 5:21-43, Luke 7:11–17, Luke 8:40-56, and John 11:38-44 ), or
• Healed the paralyzed (Matthew 9:1-8; Mark 2:1-12, Luke 5:17-26, and John 5:1-9).

Line 6: Mary offers praise to God for using her to carry and raise His Son (Luke 1:46-49).

[Verse 3]

Line 1: Essentially repeats Verse 1, line 1.

Line 2: Based on my commentary and subsequent Scripture in Verse 2, lines 7 and 8, Mary was probably aware that Christ was sovereign over creation (Genesis 1:1, Deuteronomy 4:39, Deuteronomy 10:14, Joshua 2:11, Nehemiah 9:6, Psalm 29:10, Psalm 45:6, Psalm 50:7-15, Psalm 93:1-2, Psalm 115:3, Psalm 135:6, Isaiah 43:13, Isaiah 45:9-10, Isaiah 46:10, Lamentations 5:19, Daniel 4:35, Romans 9:19-21, Ephesians 1:11, Hebrews 1:8, James 4:15, Revelation 4:11, and Revelation 20:11) or suspected Him as such.

Line 3: Repeats Verse 1, line 1.

Line 4: I’ve seen this both written as “nation” and “nations” in the lyrics.  It’s not a major issue as both are true in terms of the legitimacy of English’s question.

Gabriel told her that Jesus would take David’s throne forever (Luke 1:32-33), so at the least, Mary knew that much.  If I’m correct about line 2, then she probably knew or suspected that Christ would also rule other nations (Revelation 12:5 and Revelation 19:15).

Line 5: Repeats Verse 1, line 5.

Line 6: See the first paragraph of commentary on Verse 1, lines 4-8.

Lines 7 and 8: See Verse 2, lines 7 and 8.  The term “I AM” comes from Exodus 3:14 and John 8:58.  The latter verse is where Jesus claims to be the I AM in the former verse.

Line 9: Filler to end the song; not subject to Scriptural analysis.

Score: 10/10

3. How would an outsider interpret the song?

Aside from its prominence at Christmastime, even unbelievers who have never read the Bible are familiar that a Virgin Mary gave birth to Jesus, who is the founder of Christianity.  The lyrics are in plain English, with a few Christianese phrases such as “Lord of all creation” and the “great I AM”, which I do not suspect will confuse them.

Those who do not yet follow Jesus should easily arrive at the same conclusions as I stated in section 1.

Score: 10/10

4. What does this song glorify?

It glorifies Jesus as the One who would do great things.

Score: 10/10

Closing Comments

Michael English’s Mary, Did You Know is a worthy Christmas song.  It compels us to see Mary as a human being, who knew a few things about the things her Son Jesus would do, treasuring the things she saw and heard in her heart (Luke 2:19 and Luke 2:51).  It glorifies Jesus as the One who would perform miracles and sacrifice Himself for us.  Unbelievers will have little to no problem interpreting this song similarly.

While this is a great intellectual exercise to Mary’s mental condition post-birth, it is not appropriate for corporate worship.  Yet, I will not object to singing this during Christmas Eve service, or equivalent events.

Final Score: 10/10

Artist Info

Track: Mary, Did You Know (listen to the song)

Artist: Michael English

Album: Michael English

Genre: Christmas, Contemporary Christian Music (CCM)

Release Year: 1991

Duration: 3:39

Agree?  Disagree?  Don’t be shy or have a cow!  Calmly and politely state your case in a comment, below.

Updates:

11/10/2021 – Updated commentary on Verse 3, line 4, to remove agnosticism towards its writing as nation/nations and added a few Revelation passages.  Thanks to Jonathan for his contribution!

03/30/2021 – The original review also incorrectly stated that English co-wrote this song.  Thanks to Ben for discovering my mistake!

01/19/2021 – The original review incorrectly stated that English was with the Singing Samaritans from 1980 to 1982.