Straight Dope on Medicine: There's Something about Mary

Author

Scott Ganser
June 12, 2023

Mary is the mother of Jesus.

Mary is not the mother of God.

God does not have a mother.

Jesus is God.

How does this work?

Jesus is man and God, but first he was God.

He put on humanity. He did not have it in the beginning.

Theotokos (Greek: “God-Bearer”) is the most elevated designation that can be assigned to her.

The Council of Ephesus in 431 affirmed this designation.

John 1:14 The Word (Jesus) became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, the glory as the only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.

Jesus pre-existed his birth. The pre-incarnate Jesus.

The first mention of her is found in Matt. 1:16, which says, “Mary, of whom was born Jesus.”

Who were Mary’s parents?

Answer: We don’t know.

But we can make it up.[i]

Mary’s parents are St. Joachim and St. Anne. What we know about them comes from tradition and from apocryphal writings (writings that are in the style of sacred Scripture but are not believed to have been divinely inspired). The Protoevangelium of James (written around A.D. 150) describes them as a wealthy couple who were infertile for many years, leading Joachim to fast for 40 days and nights in hopes of having a child. Mary’s birth was announced by an angel, leading to much rejoicing on the part of Joachim and Anne. The story also explains that Mary was consecrated to the Lord and went to live in the temple at the age of 3.

The Gospel of Mary also makes this assertion.

Why is this unbelievable?

Mary and Joseph were poor. Didn’t even have a decent place to stay in when Jesus was born.

Hebrew: מִרְיָ֛ם —transliteration: Miriam

Greek: Μαρίας

This story also is not consistent with Mary’s geneology given in Luke 3:[ii]

God → ADAM → Seth → Enos / Enosh → Cainan → Mahalalel / Mahalaleel → Jared → Enoch → Methuselah → Lamech → NOAH → Shem → Arphaxad / Arpachshad → Shelah → Eber / Heber (father of the Hebrews) → Peleg → Reu → Serug → Nahor → Terah → Abraham → Isaac → Jacob → Judah → Perez → Hezron → Ram → Amminadab → Nahshon → Salmon → Boaz → Obed → Jesse → KING DAVID and Queen Bathsheba → Prince Nathan → Mattathah → Menan / Menna → Melea → Eliakim → Jonan → Joseph → Judah → Simeon → Levi → Matthat → Jorim → Eliezer → Jose (Joshua, Jesus) → Er → Elmodam → Cosam → Addi → Melchi → Neri → Shealtiel → Zerubbabel → Rhesa → Joannas / Joanna → Judah → Joseph → Semei → Mattathiah / Mattathias → Maath → Naggai → Esli → Nahum → Amos → Mattathiah / Mattathias → Joseph → Janna → Melchi → Levi → Matthat → Heli → MARY, mother of Jesus → The 2nd Adam, JESUS THE CHRIST, the God-Man (wholly God and wholly human)

Heli (Eli) was her father.[iii]

The argument for Heli is complicated, and we have to learn some Greek and a Law. There are two ways in Greek of describing someone as the son of someone else. The first is to say (in Greek, obviously), “Joe the son of Bill.” The other is to say “Joe of Bill.” This latter form, ”Joseph of Heli,” is used in Luke 3:23-28:

Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph of Heli of Matthat of Levi of Melchi ... of David of Jesse of Obed of Boaz ...

The difficulty is that “of” can also mean “the [any other close relative] of.” So some ancient and not-so-ancient scholars concluded that since the two lineages differ, “Joseph of Heli” in Luke 3:23 means “Joseph the son-in-law of Heli,” and that therefore this is Mary’s lineage.

Mary was born and raised in the wicked city of Nazareth (see Luke 1:26). From that wicked place, God took the womb of this peasant woman who lived there and used it to present Himself to the world in the person of His Son.[iv]

Mary and Joseph might have been among the anawim (עֲנָוִ֣ים).

There are eleven occurrences in the Bible.

Psalm 149:4
HEB: בְּעַמּ֑וֹ יְפָאֵ֥ר עֲ֝נָוִ֗ים בִּישׁוּעָֽה׃
NAS: He will beautify the afflicted ones with salvation.

The anawim of the Old Testament were the poor of every sort: the vulnerable, the marginalized, and socio-economically oppressed, those of lowly status without earthly power. In fact, they depended totally on God for whatever they owned. The Hebrew word anawim (inwetan) means those who are bowed down.[v]

They were also known as the “faithful remnant.”[vi]

After Jesus is born, Joseph and Mary take him to the temple in Jerusalem to consecrate him to the Lord. And according to Levitical law, Mary and Joseph make an offering of two turtledoves (Lk 2:22–24).

Mary and Joseph were poor.

Leviticus 12:8 (NASB)

8 "But if she cannot afford a lamb, then she shall take two turtledoves or two young pigeons, the one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering; and the priest shall make atonement for her, and she will be clean."

The Annunciation

The first time Mary appears in the Bible is when the angel Gabriel announces to the Virgin Mary that she would conceive a son by the power of the Holy Spirit to be called Jesus (Luke 1:26–38).[vii]

The last mention of her (Acts of the Apostles 1:14) includes her in the company of those who devoted themselves to prayer after the ascension of Jesus into heaven.

Other Fiction

Christians aren’t the only ones who can just make it up out of whole cloth. Jews can do it too.

We have the fantasy story of Toledot Yeshu , an ancient Jewish book (probably 6th century), presents a very different version of this story.[viii]

The earliest texts survive in Aramaic fragments found in the Cairo Genizah.[ix]

The unknown Jewish writers claim that Miriam was married to a man named John, but met a Roman soldier named Tiberius Pantera (sometimes spelled Panthera or Pandera). She fell in love and betrayed John with the Roman warrior. When John discovered the lovers, she was already pregnant and John decided to divorce her.

Tiberius took the name Josephus and created a family with Miriam and their little son Joshua (Jesus). The boy was famous for completing all sorts of miracles, which he had learned from the old masters. Some of his abilities were said to be: walking on water, changing water into wine, and many more. But the scandalous story of Miriam and the two men may explain why some felt it was better if she was called ''the virgin''.

The earliest recensions of Toledot Yeshu lack his birth narrative. These narratives focus on how Jesus acquired his miraculous powers (according to one version, he stole the name of God from the temple); how he fooled the masses with magic and false miracles; how the rabbis came to excommunicate him; how the Romans convicted him; how he died a charlatan’s death (hanging not even on a tree, but on a cabbage stalk); and suffered a criminal’s burial. As Gager notes, the texts are particularly preoccupied with finding a justification for Jesus’ death, an unsurprising concern in light of Christian accusations that Jews had killed the messiah.

History isn’t pretty.

Gross Error

Mary is not God. She is wholly human. She is not to be prayed to or worshipped.

Doing so is idolatry.

Luke 2 ESV

The Boy Jesus in the Temple

41 Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. 42 And when he was twelve years old, they went up according to custom. 43 And when the feast was ended, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents did not know it, 44 but supposing him to be in the group they went a day's journey, but then they began to search for him among their relatives and acquaintances, 45 and when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem, searching for him. 46 After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. 47 And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. 48 And when his parents saw him, they were astonished. And his mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress.” 49 And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?

God knows all things. Mary and Joseph searched for three days to find Jesus. Clearly, Mary is not omniscient, which disqualifies her for divinity.

Mary’s other Children

Mary had four other sons, Joseph, James, Jude, and Simon (Matt. 12:46; 13:55; Mark 6:3; John 2:12; 7:3, 5, 10; Acts 1:14; 1 Cor. 9:5; Gal. 1:19).[x]

Here is where Roman Catholics and Protestants disagree.[xi]

When Catholics call Mary the "Blessed Virgin," they mean she remained a virgin throughout her life. When Protestants refer to Mary as "virgin," they mean she was a virgin only until Jesus’ birth. They believe that she and Joseph later had children whom Scripture refers to as "the brethren of the Lord."

I don’t see why it is so important for Roman Catholics that Mary remain an eternal virgin?

The whole idea was the Jesus birth was miraculous and exclusively a work of God. After Jesus was born, Mary was free to be a regular wife.

And sisters too…

Matthew 13:56, "His sisters, are they not all with us?"’

It also might be that having children would render her unholy. This contorted logic might arise because sex is frowned upon (It’s a sin!) in uptight Christian circles. Even when it is within marriage.

Again, it doesn’t wash.

Genesis 1:28 ESV

28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Immaculate Conception

This is the idea that God cleaned up Mary so that she did not have original sin. This is not Biblically supported. It would then stand to reason that Jesus did not have original sin.

Formally proclaimed a matter of Roman Catholic belief by Pope Pius IX in 1854.[xii]

Not true.

“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23).

All means all.

Why would anyone want to worship Mary?

She is associated with Jesus. She is in the Bible.

Luke 1:30 And the angel said unto her, “Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favor with God.”

Elizabeth says, Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! (Lk 1:42)

John Calvin who famously wrote in his Institutes: ‘The human heart is a perpetual idol factory.’

There seems to be some drive to make more of Mary than what she is. Let’s call it expansionism. We know some good things about Mary, so let’s extend them.

She might also be more “approachable” than Jesus.

This is the “Jesus is too intimidating” approach to theology.

At least some Catholics are trying to remedy this errant practice.[xiii]

Tasic argument goes like this. God has both a masculine and a feminine side. In the incarnation, the divine masculine side is revealed in Jesus Christ, in his preaching and mighty deeds and his love even unto death. Being male, however, Jesus could not fully express through his human life the divine feminine side. Thus divine feminine characteristics, such as mothering and nurturing and being intuitive and sensitive, become clear in Mary, his mother. She functions as the maternal face of God turned toward the world. The honor that people give to her allows the feminine to enter into their religious consciousness. Since the source of this femininity is in God, a balance is introduced into what would otherwise be an overly masculinized view of the divine.

She sums it up by saying: The positive parts of this theory are more than outweighed by the damaging effects it has on the doctrine of God, the true reality of Mary, and the effort of women and men today to form a community of the discipleship of equals. 

The most important part of it is that it just isn’t true.

Catholics do not worship Mary[xiv]

Perhaps the most common objection and misunderstanding when considering the Catholic faith is the charge that Catholics worship Mary. The Catholic Church condemns worship of anyone but God and God alone: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is a foundational truth and has always been the teaching of the Catholic Church since Jesus established it.

 

I am glad that Catholic Answers clarified that Mary is not to be worshipped, but it is incorrect that Catholics have never done it. Unless they don’t include prayer as worship.[xv]

Don’t pray to Mary.

The Augsburg Confession ratifies this:

 

Co-redemptrix

This would also be a reason why someone would idolize Mary.

Catholics call her Mater Ecclesiae, Mother of the Church.[xvi]

Mary as everyone’s spiritual mother and as co-redemptrix—i.e., the partner with Jesus in the redemption of human beings. Her role in redemption was extended to her intercession in heaven and to the application of Christ’s merits to individual persons. The doctrine that after death Mary’s body was assumed into heaven was proclaimed by Pope Pius XII in 1950; the feast commemorating her dormition, or falling asleep, first originated in the Byzantine Empire.

Not true.

“There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 2:5). Here Paul rebukes any idea of Mary as an intercessor.

She understood herself to be the handmaiden of the Lord (Luke 1:46–55).

At the height of her ecstasy, she exclaimed, “My soul doth magnify the Lord, my spirit doth rejoice in God my Savior.”

Protestant Thought

The Protestant reformers didn’t have a beef with Mary per se. Some of the leading Protestant reformers like Martin Luther, John Calvin, and Ulrich Zwingli all believed Mary was important. But they thought it was theologically wrong to treat Mary as God’s mediator or to call on her to intervene for God. They objected to the way Mary sometimes took the place of Christ in popular devotions and perceived her elevation as a form of idolatry, or “mariolatry” as some put it. Incidentally, there were Roman Catholics at the time who thought similarly.

But what really rankled the reformers was how Mary was exploited to sell indulgences and the way worshippers were promised entry into heaven through her. In short, the reformers perceived Mary as exploited and her role as inflated.[xvii]

The Last Glimpse of Mary - The last glimpse we get of Mary is when she is gathered with the believers in the upper room (see Acts 1:13-14). At this time, she is mentioned not first on the list, but last on the list of names given.