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To: TomSmedley
"I'd rather "nail" my wife any day of the week, and thrice on Sunday, than embrace the notion that I can get closer to God by shunning her!"
_______________________________

Amen brother!

I don't see the good in creating all these myths about a very special woman. The earliest written documents attesting to the veneration/worship of Mary is the "Protevangelium of James" which appeared sometime between 175AD-200AD. At the earliest it was written 145 yrs after the Crucifixion. It was almost immediately recognized as a fraud.

The first mention of it is by Origen who said the text "like that of a Gospel of Peter" was of dubious recent appearance. Origen also commented that while the thought of Mary's perpetual virginity "might seem pious, it was not unlikely that the obvious interpretation of Scripture (that Mary bore children for Joseph) was true and acceptable.
251 posted on 12/05/2006 5:06:34 PM PST by wmfights (Romans 8:37-39)
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To: wmfights

Arguing on the basis of opinions of a condemned heretic like Origen will not win you many point in this forum. (And if you don't accept the judgement of the Fifth Ecumenical Council, which condemned him, you might take a look at his highly speculative Scriptural commentaries, and see whether you think his ideas about the pre-existence of the soul are 'Biblical' before you consider him a trustworthy judge or source.)

The Church, East and West, has feasts based on the account of Mary's early life given in the Proto-Evangelium (major feasts in the East), titles St. James, the First Bishop of Jerusalem, "Brother of the Lord", based on its account. Your assertion, based on the judgement of Origen is hardly convincing.


282 posted on 12/05/2006 8:08:18 PM PST by The_Reader_David (And when they behead your own people in the wars which are to come, then you will know. . .)
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