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Veneration of Mary in Luke 11:27-28
August 15, 2013 | Annalex

Posted on 08/15/2013 7:03:11 PM PDT by annalex

Once a woman in the crowd surrounding Christ and His disciples cries out to Him:

Blessed is the womb that bore thee, and the paps that gave thee suck. (Luke 11:27)

What is it? We have, clearly, an act of venerating Mary. Note that the Blessed Virgin is venerated properly: not on her own but as the mother of Christ. Yet the reason for venerating is indeed concerning: it is her physiological and physiologically unique relationship with Jesus that is emphasized. That is not yet paganism with its crude theories of gods giving birth to other gods, but it is lacking proper focus and Jesus corrects it:

Yea rather, blessed are they who hear the word of God, and keep it. (Luke 11:28)

The Virgin with the Child on her knees and a prophet pointing at the star. Catacomb of Priscilla, late 2nd c. Source
Note that there is no condemnation here, not even asking the woman to stop; the "yea rather" (μενουνγε) is not a negation. It is used other times in the New Testament without a hint of negation. In Philippians 3:8 "αλλα μενουνγε και ηγουμαι παντα ζημιαν ειναι", "Furthermore I count all things to be but loss" (Textus Receptus 1550/1894, Byzantine/Majority Text 2000 has here "αλλα μεν ουν και ηγουμαι…" which is the same word morphology spelled separately and colliding affirmative "γε" with the following "και"). Romans 9:20 "μενουνγε ω ανθρωπε συ τις ει ο ανταποκρινομενος τω θεω" and Romans 10:18 "μενουνγε εις πασαν την γην εξηλθεν ο φθογγος αυτων" use the word reinforcing the subsequent statement. Some translations obscure this linguistic fact: in King James for example, the same word is rendered correctly, "yea rather" in Luke 11:28, wholly incongruously, "nay but" in Romans 9:20, but in Romans 10:18 the translation is again correct, "Yes verily". NRSV has both correct and elegant translations for all three. (See The Holy Mother and the "ΜΕΝΟΥΝΓΕ")

Having gotten past this linguistic hurdle, we can understand clearly what this passage, Luke 11:27-28, does: it establishes veneration of saints based not on their blood relation to Christ but on their obedience to God. It is in that sense that we venerate Our Lady: given that Christ is the Word of God personified, she heard and kept both Him in person as her Child and His teaching, figuratively. In Mary the essence of sainthood is seen in the flesh as well as in the mind. We could say that by the late second century at the latest, when we find evidence of the veneration of both the prophets and the Mother of God in the catacombs, the two reasons to venerate a saint: his martyrdom as in the case of Polycarp, or his obedience to the Word, as in Mary, -- unite into a single practice.


TOPICS: Catholic; History; Orthodox Christian
KEYWORDS: catholic; mary
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To: roamer_1

Jesus is God, Mary is not.


1,301 posted on 09/12/2013 11:53:13 PM PDT by RobbyS (quotes)
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To: roamer_1

Same thing, I mean, person, roamer. :)

And, no, I do not get into all this different name stuff for Jesus.

Not important.


1,302 posted on 09/12/2013 11:54:12 PM PDT by jodyel
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To: jodyel

You can know that Jesus save and still disobey him. And this will be true until the day you die.


1,303 posted on 09/12/2013 11:54:59 PM PDT by RobbyS (quotes)
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To: RobbyS

“You can know that Jesus save and still disobey him. And this will be true until the day you die.”

And that in no way negates your salvation. All of us will sin in this fallen state. We will not be prefect and sinless until we are with Him in eternity.

Guess you didn’t think my request to post my original comment was valid, huh? Common courtesy but then why would you be courteous.


1,304 posted on 09/13/2013 1:01:53 AM PDT by jodyel
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To: Elsie

“Secondly, she could have lawfully declined at the Annunciation as any woman may.

Sorry; but there was nothing to ‘decline’.

GOD said THIS is what’s going to happen; and it did.”

Yes, I don’t recall Gabriel asking Mary if she wanted to do this...it was told to Mary that this would happen.


1,305 posted on 09/13/2013 1:03:40 AM PDT by jodyel
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To: jodyel
So, ONCE AND FOR ALL, church means people (believers in Jesus) not buildings, not denominations, not religious institutions and God needs no buildings or denominations or institutions to reach anyone. Denominations and institutions exist to give people somewhere to worship and practice faith as they feel comfortable whether error permeates that denomination or institution or not.

This is where God is. We don't go to a building to meet with God.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

2 Corinthians 4:6-7 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.

1,306 posted on 09/13/2013 1:11:54 AM PDT by metmom ( For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore & do not submit again to a yoke of slavery)
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To: jodyel
John 12:32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”

It's all about Jesus. When HE is lifted up, He will draw all men to Himself.

1,307 posted on 09/13/2013 1:14:51 AM PDT by metmom ( For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore & do not submit again to a yoke of slavery)
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To: St_Thomas_Aquinas

OMG, Thomas, I do not even know where to begin!

Wow, just wow!

And I am growing to like you, but this is sheer nonsense.

http://www.thebereancall.org/content/who-woman-clothed-sun

http://www.biblegateway.com/resources/all-women-bible/Woman-Clothed-Sun


1,308 posted on 09/13/2013 1:17:53 AM PDT by jodyel
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To: Elsie

Oh, Elsie, I do wish I had your sense of humor@


1,309 posted on 09/13/2013 1:19:21 AM PDT by jodyel
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To: RobbyS; Elsie; jodyel
You have another candidate?

Matthew 11:11 Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

1,310 posted on 09/13/2013 1:20:38 AM PDT by metmom ( For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore & do not submit again to a yoke of slavery)
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To: metmom; jodyel
Don't you guys sleep? It's 4 in the AFTERNOON here in Leyte, but it's the middle of the night back there!

I always enjoy reading posts 12 hours time different! People's minds work different when the sun goes down, and the later it gets, hmmmm!!!


1,311 posted on 09/13/2013 1:21:11 AM PDT by WVKayaker ("So we're bombing Syria because Syria is bombing Syria? And I'm the idiot?" - Sarah Palin)
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To: RobbyS

“Her great work was BEING the mother of my Lord. You think that a mean accomplishment?”

She only did what millions of woman before and after her have done. This was God’s accomplishment and Mary was only the vessel thru which He accomplished it.

Sheesh!


1,312 posted on 09/13/2013 1:24:02 AM PDT by jodyel
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To: jodyel
Catholic logic is anything but simple.

Catholic logic is anything but correct.

*GOD* doesn't have a mother. He is eternal, without beginning or end.

JESUS had a mother. Hence the Holy Spirit calling Mary *mother of Jesus*.

In Scripture, the Holy Spirit calls her *mother of Jesus*.

John 2:1 On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.

John 2:3 When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.”

Acts 1:14 All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.

I will conform my beliefs to Scripture, thankyouverymuch.

1,313 posted on 09/13/2013 1:27:44 AM PDT by metmom ( For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore & do not submit again to a yoke of slavery)
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To: MarkBsnr

How many times I gotta tell you people that THE CHURCH is the body of believers in Jesus Christ!

I am the church and anyone else who is born-again and filled with the Holy Spirit is the church.

The church is made up of believers worldwide in every denomination no matter what building they worship in.

The only thing about the RCC that remotely resembles the church are the born-again believers who happen to worship there, and I would bet there are not many.


1,314 posted on 09/13/2013 1:30:49 AM PDT by jodyel
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To: RobbyS; jodyel
Mary is the model for all Christians, which is why she ought “to be made much of.”

Jesus is the model of our faith.

Hebrews 12:1-2 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

1,315 posted on 09/13/2013 1:33:59 AM PDT by metmom ( For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore & do not submit again to a yoke of slavery)
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To: daniel1212

“See post 145”

How did you do that, daniel?

Link to post 145, I mean.


1,316 posted on 09/13/2013 1:35:51 AM PDT by jodyel
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To: Elsie

“But Everyone knows that MAry is dead and in her grave, awaiting the last trump as are ALL those who have died in Christ.”

It is like talking to a brick wall, Elsie. They just do not get it nor do they want to.


1,317 posted on 09/13/2013 1:37:34 AM PDT by jodyel
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To: Elsie

You are just DA BOMB, Elsie!


1,318 posted on 09/13/2013 1:38:25 AM PDT by jodyel
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To: johngrace

“Hi Elsie- You are a Mormon?”

What leads you to ask that, johngrace?


1,319 posted on 09/13/2013 1:39:24 AM PDT by jodyel
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To: St_Thomas_Aquinas; jodyel
But there is much more that can --and needs-- to be said about God, man and man's salvation.

No, there isn't. Catholicism has WAAAYYYYY over complicated salvation.

Believe and be saved.

John 1:10-13 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

John 3:14-18 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

John 5:24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

John 6:40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

John 11:25-26 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

1,320 posted on 09/13/2013 1:39:43 AM PDT by metmom ( For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore & do not submit again to a yoke of slavery)
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