Posted on 04/05/2007 11:10:10 AM PDT by MarkBsnr
Fundamentalists are sometimes horrified when the Virgin Mary is referred to as the Mother of God. However, their reaction often rests upon a misapprehension of what this particular title of Mary signifies, and what the Protestant Reformers had to say regarding this doctrine.
A woman is a man’s mother either if she carried him in her womb or if she was the woman contributing half of his genetic matter or both. Mary was the mother of Jesus in both of these senses; because she not only carried Jesus in her womb but also supplied all of the genetic matter for his human body, since it was through her—not Joseph—that Jesus "was descended from David according to the flesh" (Rom. 1:3).
Since Mary is Jesus’ mother, it must be concluded that she is also the Mother of God: If Mary is the mother of Jesus, and if Jesus is God, then Mary is the Mother of God. There is no way out of this logical syllogism, the valid form of which has been recognized by classical logicians since before the time of Christ.
Although Mary is the Mother of God, she is not his mother in the sense that she is older than God or the source of her Son’s divinity, for she is neither. Rather, we say that she is the Mother of God in the sense that she carried in her womb a divine person—Jesus Christ, God "in the flesh" (2 John 7, cf. John 1:14)—and in the sense that she contributed the genetic matter to the human form God took in Jesus Christ.
To avoid this conclusion, Fundamentalists often assert that Mary did not carry God in her womb, but only carried Christ’s human nature. This assertion reinvents a heresy from the fifth century known as Nestorianism,
(Excerpt) Read more at catholic.com ...
“You are sadly mistaken and misguided if you think that Jesus hates Mary and Joseph (or His heavenly Father). It is highly likely that you have taken that text out of context.”
lol!
the cherry picking of verses is killing me.
I suppose when Christ commanded us to love one another He must have been excluding His parents, and we should exclude ours.
Certainly. I just quoted large sections of John.
It’s really good to utilize the whole Bible. All of it, not just the bits that Martin Luther left.
Jesus never claimed that Mary wasn’t His mother.
And the verses you referred to indicate that following Christ sometimes requires one to break with the past. No excuses - remember that He said this in answer to the man who didn’t want to follow Him who was admonished for his excuse-making.
Christianity is very much about the family. This is just crazy talk.
Yet we have the Scriptures that say that Jesus Christ on Earth is at once fully God and fully human.
Shame, that. :)
I have a better way to phrase it. He put all Christian women at the exact same level, and that clearly includes Mary.
Would you please cite instances where Jesus experienced life as God while He was still on earth?
He is explicitly shown to have obedience to her. He listened to her at the wedding feast at Cana. He gave her to us at his Crucifixion - as our mother.
I think that he treated her on a different level than, say, the adulteress, or Mary of Magdala, or the Samaritan woman.
I suspect that I, a mere human, am more confused than Jesus.
But this clearly refers to Mary of Magdala, not the Virgin Mary. And the NAB says that:
“Stop holding on to me: see Matthew 28:9, where the women take hold of his feet. I have not yet ascended: for John and many of the New Testament writers, the ascension in the theological sense of going to the Father to be glorified took place with the resurrection as one action. This scene in John dramatizes such an understanding, for by Easter night Jesus is glorified and can give the Spirit. Therefore his ascension takes place immediately after he has talked to Mary. In such a view, the ascension after forty days described in Acts 1:1-11 would be simply a termination of earthly appearances or, perhaps better, an introduction to the conferral of the Spirit upon the early church, modeled on Elisha’s being able to have a (double) share in the spirit of Elijah if he saw him being taken up (same verb as ascending) into heaven (2 Kings 2:9-12). To my Father and your Father, to my God and your God: this echoes Ruth 1:16: “Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.” The Father of Jesus will now become the Father of the disciples because, once ascended, Jesus can give them the Spirit that comes from the Father and they can be reborn as God’s children (John 3:5). That is why he calls them my brothers.”
So again we have the dual nature of Jesus illustrated.
On the other hand who did He appear to first after His crucifiction?
John 20:
17: Jesus said to her, "Do not hold me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God."
By golly, it was Mary Magdalene.
And by golly, you appear to be correct.
And this proves that the Virgin Mary holds no greater role than any single other woman how?
As for the NAB footnotes; is it Scripture?
And by golly, it also appears that she was given a greater role than that by Jesus on the Cross.
Oh, just the notes from a bunch of dudes that have mulled it over for a couple of thousand years. Nothing too important, I don’t imagine.
“Well, technically I am a heretic according to the RCC. Would you put me to death as recommended by Aquinas? :-) or :-( “
Not just according to the RCC.
Most mainline christian churches share the same beliefs regarding the Holy Trinity and the human/divine natures of Christ.
These beliefs were passed down through the centuries.
I don’t know much about Aquinas, and as you know the Catholic Church is opposed to putting people to death.
“Would you please cite instances where Jesus experienced life as God while He was still on earth?”
Excellent examples already posted on the thread...read through it.
Jesus spelled it out for us and told us He was God.
Either He was who He said He was, or He was crazy.
But one example that stands out in my head because another poster discussed it with me would be the transiguration.
An excellent example Jesus experiencing both his divinity and humanity.
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