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Mary Statue Rebuilt in Ancient Syrian Christian Town
Arutz Sheva ^ | 13/6/15

Posted on 06/13/2015 3:56:17 PM PDT by Eleutheria5

The historic Christian Syrian town of Maalula celebrated Saturday as a new statue of Mary, worshiped in Christianity as the mother of Jesus, was erected in its center, replacing the figure destroyed in rebel attacks in 2013.

Dozens of families gathered alongside government officials and religious dignitaries in the main square, which was adorned with government flags and a giant portrait of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Located north of Damascus, Maalula is one of the world's oldest Christian settlements, and its inhabitants still speak Aramaic, a language spoken by Jews in Israel at the time Jesus was said to have lived.

In April 2014, government troops backed by pro-regime militia recaptured the town from rebel groups, including Al Qaeda's Syrian affiliate Nusra Front.

The fighting damaged the ancient Mar Sarkis monastery and forced the town's 5,000 people to flee their homes and abandon their modest storefronts.

On Saturday, Syrian officials unveiled the new statue of Mary, draped in a white robe topped with a blue shawl, her hands lifted in prayer.

"I made the statue as a message of peace for the ancient and unparalleled town of Maalula," said sculptor Buhaij al-Khoury.

The fiberglass figure stood at just over three meters (10 feet) tall and was placed on the base of the original statue.

.....

(Excerpt) Read more at israelnationalnews.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Syria; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: aramaic; astarte; christian; christianity; isis; maalula; mary; motherofosiris; protestanterrors; queenofheaven; statue; syria; theology; waronterror
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To: Elsie

Yeah! Das’ what I’m talkin’ about!


221 posted on 06/15/2015 12:00:04 PM PDT by Mrs. Don-o ("How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice. "You must be" said the Cat,"or you wouldn't have come here.")
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To: Elsie
I don't think Hagar really had a choice, since if she p***ed off Sarah in any way she could just be abandoned in the desert. The text in Genesis says "Sarai took her maid, Hagar the Egyptian, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife. He had intercourse with her, and she became pregnant." A verse or two later it says "Abram told Sarai: “Your maid is in your power."

There's nothing there like a free woman's clear consent, as in Mary's "Be it done unto me according to thy word." (Luke 1:38) She identified herself as God's "handmaid," but she was not slavish like Hagar.

Besides, it doesn't fit into the typology employed in the New Testament. Paul says: (Galatians 4:24-25)
"Now this is an allegory. These women (Sarai and Hagar) represent two covenants. One was from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; this is Hagar. Hagar represents Sinai, a mountain in Arabia; it corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery along with her children."

That doesn't foreshadow Mary at all, who corresponds to Sarai the free.

222 posted on 06/15/2015 12:14:35 PM PDT by Mrs. Don-o ("How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice. "You must be" said the Cat,"or you wouldn't have come here.")
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To: Mrs. Don-o
There's nothing there like a free woman's clear consent, as in Mary's "Be it done unto me according to thy word."

There is NO consent from Mary as you claim of the Scripture you posted.


Luke 1:26-38    New International Version (NIV)

 

26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”

29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”

35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called[a] the Son of God. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. 37 For no word from God will ever fail.”

38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her. 



(will is TELLING; NOT 'asking')

(This isn't consent by ANYONE's definition.)

223 posted on 06/15/2015 3:03:56 PM PDT by Elsie ( Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Mrs. Don-o
"Now this is an allegory.

Notice there are two women; in the FLESH; called an allegory.

Rome somehow misses the allegory when Jesus states: "This is my body..."

224 posted on 06/15/2015 3:05:32 PM PDT by Elsie ( Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Elsie; Mrs. Don-o

Oy. Not all men understand women.


225 posted on 06/15/2015 3:06:41 PM PDT by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
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To: Elsie
"Notice there are two women; in the FLESH; called an allegory... Rome somehow misses the allegory when Jesus states: "This is my body..."

Now this is interesting, because you've just made my (and "Rome's") (and the "Bible's") point.

Sarai and Hagar are real. They are really and substantially present. In fact, all those historic people from Genesis, starting with Abraham, then Sarai and Hagar and their children, Isaac and Ishmael, their their wives and offspring, Jacob and his 12 sons, etc. etc. --- are all as real as real can be.

What this illustrates is that genuine flesh-and-blood people can also serve as signs, metaphors, allegories, while still being exactly what they are, men and women of flesh and blood.

In the same way, when Jesus says "This is My Body," it IS His Body. It is Flesh. It is in fact, and necessarily, His whole living Self: body, blood, soul and divinity --- living, as I said, because He said "I AM the Living Bread."

What we realize from this astonishing thing, is that REAL bread and wine become His REAL Body and Blood.

Saying that Sarai and Hagar had "allegorical" significance, in no way denies the reality that they are actual, literal, substantive people. In the same way, saying that the consecrated bread and wine are "symbols" does not deny that they are now the actual, literal, substantive Christ.

You yourself have laid out the doctrine of the Real Presence.

Nicely, too.

Though, like Caiaphas, you don't seem to understand what you just said. (John 11:50-52)

226 posted on 06/15/2015 4:54:55 PM PDT by Mrs. Don-o ("How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice. "You must be" said the Cat,"or you wouldn't have come here.")
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To: Elsie; trisham
"Be it done unto me" is not consent?

Of course it it's consent.

Just as "Be it NOT done unto me" would have been refusal.

227 posted on 06/15/2015 4:57:39 PM PDT by Mrs. Don-o (O Mary, He whom the whole Universe cannot contain, enclosed Himself in your womb and was made man.)
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To: trisham

And vice versa...


228 posted on 06/16/2015 3:22:45 AM PDT by Elsie ( Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Mrs. Don-o
In the same way, when Jesus says "This is My Body," it IS His Body.

It sure is easy to make that claim.

A REVERSE allegory!

Sorry; thinking folks will NOT buy what Rome is selling.

229 posted on 06/16/2015 3:24:14 AM PDT by Elsie ( Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Mrs. Don-o
"I made the statue as a message of peace ...
230 posted on 06/16/2015 3:24:41 AM PDT by Elsie ( Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Mrs. Don-o
Just as "Be it NOT done unto me" would have been refusal.

Nah; it would have been DENIAL; since the woman was TOLD what WAS going to happen to her.

231 posted on 06/16/2015 3:25:55 AM PDT by Elsie ( Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Mrs. Don-o

Young lady; you ARE grounded for the next week.

Sure, Mom.


232 posted on 06/16/2015 3:27:02 AM PDT by Elsie ( Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Mrs. Don-o
Maybe some people just need a good literature course on how figurative language works: "I am the Way" says something about the "I" -- "This is My Body" says something about the "This (Bread)". Of course, sometimes for some people, "figurative" actually means "meaningless when all else fails . . . ;-)
233 posted on 06/16/2015 6:18:41 AM PDT by maryz
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To: Elsie
Yeah but, yeah but,...

:oP

That's really different, though. A kid being grounded has done something wrong, and is definitely going to get her true comeuppance whether she wants it or not.

Unlike a lady you want to be the Mother of your Child. That lady needs to give consent --- at least to the blessed deed that initiates the new life.

God, Who is all-good, did not establish the Incarnation of His beloved Son by a forced imposition upon a Hagar-like concubine. How anyone could think He would do such a base deed, I cannot comprehend. What a truly ugly thing to imagine: an insult, both to God and to Mary.

It's the kind of thing you would expect of Allah: a god of rape, not of Love.

Tagline.

234 posted on 06/16/2015 7:35:33 AM PDT by Mrs. Don-o ("As a bridegroom rejoices in his bride, so shall your God rejoice in you." - Isaiah 62:5)
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To: Elsie
>>In the same way, when Jesus says "This is My Body," it IS His Body.>>.." It sure is easy to make that claim."

It's Jesus Who said so, not me.

I cannot even imagine this scenario:

Jesus: "This is My body."

Disciple #1 " Amen."

Jesus: "This is My body."

Disciple #2 " Amen."

Jesus: "This is My body."

L.C. : "Sorry; thinking folks will NOT buy whatever it is you're selling..."


235 posted on 06/16/2015 7:45:56 AM PDT by Mrs. Don-o ("Unless you eat My Flesh and drink My Blood, you shall not have life within you." - John 6)
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To: maryz
Good point, maryz. Even basic reading comprehension would go a long way...
236 posted on 06/16/2015 7:55:44 AM PDT by Mrs. Don-o (I then said, in a very shaky voice, "Well, if it's a symbol, to hell with it." - Flannery O'Connor)
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To: Elsie

By a rapist? Must’a been Allah.


237 posted on 06/16/2015 7:57:53 AM PDT by Mrs. Don-o (""As a bridegroom rejoices in his bride, so shall your God rejoice in you." - Isaiah 62:5)
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To: Elsie
"I made the statue as a message of peace ..."

Excellent.


238 posted on 06/16/2015 8:08:59 AM PDT by Mrs. Don-o (""As a bridegroom rejoices in his bride, so shall your God rejoice in you." - Isaiah 62:5)
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To: Mrs. Don-o
It's Jesus Who said so, not me.

You brood of vipers.

239 posted on 06/16/2015 10:23:22 AM PDT by Elsie ( Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Mrs. Don-o
You folks have NOT been doing the Rosary ENOUGH!

Didn't you GET THE MESSAGE from the 3 Portugese kids???

240 posted on 06/16/2015 10:24:21 AM PDT by Elsie ( Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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